MEDITATION
"DEVOTION"

GOOD
NEWS

THE whole chebang IN A NUTSHELL

"‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

JESUS the CHRIST

Reflectors and Reflections
(The Power of Authenticity)

Good News - Wholeness (Healing, Restoration, Liberty, Freedom); Sufficiency (Abundance, Contentment, Joy, Community); Beauty (Wisdom, Flourishing, Creativity, Bliss) - There, at The Welcome (AUTHENTIC LOVE).

Patterns are everywhere. When we come upon one the first time, it is novel, new to us; we may not recognize it as a pattern. It's a point of interest or a discovery. We're on a journey.

We are patterns - our habits, our routines, our preferences, our proclivities - all patterns; the pattern of who we are. A newbie coming upon any of us may find our pattern cute or exciting or curious. After that newbie has been around the block a few times, if he or she is paying attention, our pattern becomes obvious. This universe is full of patterns. All of this is revealing. It ought to be.

Evil is a pattern. Goodness is a pattern. Hate is a pattern. Love is a pattern. Not a formula, a pattern, an authenticity that bespeaks its reality. It is what it is. Our universe is full of patterns. Such patterns are discoverable. Yet life is mysterious; it is intriguing, replete with patterns continuously reconfiguring, mutating, morphing, multiplying. All of this is revealing. It ought to be.

Reflectors are everywhere. They shine, and should we look we see what they reflect. In a human world revealed of light and dark and shadows, of liquids and smoke and solids, all around us there are reflections. When we look reflection is what we see. And each of us is on a journey. Inexorably!

Reflectors show us only what they are angled toward. This is eminently revealing, for we are angled too. Ah, and what is seen of each of us is what each of us is angled toward. We are reflectors too . . . (mirrors) . . . continuously reflecting. This is revealing. Well, it ought to be.

Reflections have a pattern. When we come upon one the first time, it is novel, new to us; we may not recognize it as a pattern. It is in that moment but a point of interest or a discovery, with an individual angle of view.

And dynamic. Indeed, each of us on our elected journey is as well a journey, privileged - living, breathing, creation creating, expiring, impacting whatever is.

Along for that ride is the trickster (inauthenticity), alit, evil and dynamic and funny, for the reflections of a broken reflector is endlessly fascinating. Oooh-wee! Still, we own a privilege: the choice of a seat is always ours.

The Good News
Authenticity is Already Revealed
Living Breathing Samples of The New Creation

On solid reflection, a spot of divine wisdom which holds in readiness with all things whatever the dynamics of one's journey: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praise worthy - think about such things.

This ancient wisdom, captioned in the context of a comprehensive transformation package, underscores a radical vision - new creation - brilliantly demonstrated by the Lord Jesus Christ and foreshadowed in his sermon on the mount, which welcomes us into a uniquely engaging lifestyle - the good life. A life made whole. And it is authentic. See how Jesus reveals this.

EXPLORE: Sermon on The Mount (the series)

"Encourage one another. Build one another up."

Awesome

Nicolette Sowder

"Give me the wild children with their bare feet and sparkling eyes. The restless, churning climbers. The wild ones using their outside voices, singing all the way home. Give me the wonder-filled, glorious mess makers dreaming of mountains and mud, aching to run through a field of stars."

Isaiah, the Prophet

"Rise up, shine, because your light has come. The glory of Yahweh has risen upon you. Look, darkness has covered the land. Deep darkness covers the people. But Yahweh will rise upon you. His glory will appear over you, and nations will come to your light."

Bishop Gene Robinson

"It's funny isn't it? That you can preach a judgmental and vengeful and angry God and nobody will mind. But you start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind . . . and you are in trouble."

Desmond Tutu

"You may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.."

Salt of The Soil

SAND is not SALT

Be who YOU are! If you don't like what you are, TRANSFORM

Do what it takes! If you don't like where you're headed, TURN

The BEST you is you. Be you! Don't lose your salt.

Dear God, grant me victory today over all that assails. Help me square up to even the greatest challenges and claim authority over them, unafraid. Amen.

Joshua Dubois
PRAYERS

"It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something."

- John Lewis

EACH DAY an OPPORTUNITY to LEARN

(beyond religiosity, beyond judgment, beyond pretense)

Why would you lose the GOOD LIFE to a thief?

Isn't it Good to Grow as YOU GO?