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Angie Shoraga--

I was directed to Hope by the Holy Spirit. My life was a continous roller coaster, but in the fall of 2004 it went strai...

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Prayer for the Week
August 29, 2010

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen +BCP

 

Daily Bread

September 2, 2010

Psalm 137-139, 1 Corinthians 13(English Standard Version)

Psalm 137

How Shall We Sing the LORD’s Song?

   
    1By the waters of Babylon,
   there we sat down and wept,
   when we remembered Zion.
2On the willows[a] there
   we hung up our lyres.
3For there our captors
   required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
   "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

    4(A) How shall we sing the LORD’s song
   in a foreign land?
5If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   (B) let my right hand forget its skill!
6Let my(C) tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy!

    7Remember, O LORD, against the(D) Edomites
   (E) the day of Jerusalem,
how they said,(F) "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
   down to its foundations!"
8O daughter of Babylon,(G) doomed to be destroyed,
   blessed shall he be who(H) repays you
   with what you have done to us!
9Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
   and(I) dashes them against the rock!

Psalm 138

Give Thanks to the LORD

   

Of David.

   
    1(J) I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
   before(K) the gods I sing your praise;
2I bow down(L) toward your(M) holy temple
   and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
   for you have exalted above all things
   your name and your word.[b]
3On the day I called, you answered me;
   my strength of soul you increased.[c]

    4(N) All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD,
   for they have heard the words of your mouth,
5and they shall sing of(O) the ways of the LORD,
   for great is the glory of the LORD.
6(P) For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly,
   but the haughty he knows from afar.

    7(Q) Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
   you(R) preserve my life;
you(S) stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
   and your(T) right hand delivers me.
8The LORD will(U) fulfill his purpose for me;
   (V) your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
   Do not forsake(W) the work of your hands.

Psalm 139

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

   

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

   
    1O LORD, you have(X) searched me and known me! 2You(Y) know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you(Z) discern my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue,
   behold, O LORD,(AA) you know it altogether.
5You(AB) hem me in, behind and before,
   and(AC) lay your hand upon me.
6(AD) Such knowledge is(AE) too wonderful for me;
   it is high; I cannot attain it.

    7(AF) Where shall I go from your Spirit?
   Or where(AG) shall I flee from your presence?
8(AH) If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
   (AI) If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the morning
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand shall(AJ) lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me.
11If I say,(AK) "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light about me be night,"
12(AL) even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light with you.

    13For you(AM) formed my inward parts;
   you(AN) knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[d](AO) Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
15(AP) My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in(AQ) the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your(AR) book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there was none of them.

    17How precious to me are your(AS) thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
18(AT) If I would count them, they are more than(AU) the sand.
   I awake, and I am still with you.

    19Oh that you would(AV) slay the wicked, O God!
   O(AW) men of blood,(AX) depart from me!
20They(AY) speak against you with malicious intent;
   your enemies(AZ) take your name in vain![e]
21(BA) Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
   And do I not(BB) loathe those who(BC) rise up against you?
22I hate them with complete hatred;
   I count them my enemies.

    23Search me, O God, and know my heart!
   (BD) Try me and know my thoughts![f]
24And see if there be any grievous way in me,
   and(BE) lead me in(BF) the way everlasting![g]

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

   

    1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have(A) prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,(B) so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3(C) If I give away all I have, and(D) if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

    4(E) Love is patient and(F) kind; love(G) does not envy or boast; it(H) is not arrogant 5or rude. It(I) does not insist on its own way; it(J) is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6it(K) does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but(L) rejoices with the truth. 7(M) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,(N) endures all things.

    8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For(O) we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but(P) when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For(Q) now we see in a mirror dimly, but(R) then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as(S) I have been fully known.

    13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Food for the Journey
August 7, 2010

An Open Letter to Anne Rice from Karen Spears Zacharias

Dear Ms. Anne:

You don’t know me, so please excuse the intrusion. I hope you won’t think this too forward but I read about your recent remarks about quitting Christianity:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

I respect your decision.  I can’t even count the number of times I’ve felt the exact same way, but I lacked the gumption to declare it as boldly as you have done. I simply went about muttering, wishing for everything that I belonged to a different clan. A more perfect community.

I thought about all that during this morning’s church service. I don’t attend a very large church, but it’s large enough that I don’t know everyone by name or by story. Take that lady passing out the programs at the door. I don’t know her at all. I don’t know if she’s married or lost the love of her life to a fiery plane crash during World War II. I don’t know what sufferings life has brought her way. For all I know hers could be one of the dozens of names listed weekly in the Prayer for those diagnosed with Cancer.

Sometimes, it’s a relief to not know people. It keeps a person from the obligation of sharing their sorrows or from the  disappointment of discovering their failings.

That’s the thing about being in relationship with others. I don’t know about you Ms. Anne, but I’ve found that to be true whether you are in relationship with people who belong to the clan of Christianity or if they are the friends you made at the local Farmers’ Market. Hang with people long enough and you’re going to be disgusted by them. They’ll do something that hurts so badly you’ll wonder why in the world you ever considered them a friend to begin with.

You’ll feel as betrayed as Jesus. On some level you’ll know that’s ludicrous — there’s no way you can know the betrayal of the Cross. But you’ll  still feel that you understand his pain the way he understands yours.

That’s how God designed us.

Desmond Tutu says we’re created for goodness. He says that’s why we feel so good when we do good things — because we are designed for it.

I believe that.

I also believe that God created us so that we are able to identify with each other. He created us to feel what others feel. That’s why when a person lacks the ability to be empathetic,  we consider them a sociopath or narcissistic.

We are designed for relationship, created for community. The good and bad of it all.

I was thinking about all that today as the man three rows in front of me raised his hands in worship. You see for the past four weeks he’s been confined to a hospital bed at Oregon’s Health Science Center University Hospital. His poor body has withstood about all the suffering a person can withstand. I don’t know if it it’s the cancer that will take him finally or the treatment he receives for it.

And today I didn’t care about that. What I cared about was that he was on his feet, arms extended, praising the Christ whose blood has cleansed us all from the inside out. The Christ whose mercies are new every morning.

I stood next to a woman whose husband has been deployed so many times to Afghanistan and Iraq that he has missed his daughter’s entire high school career. Now that he’s home from those wars, he no longer has any fight left in him. He’s walked out on them. I hurt for that girl. I know what it’s like to lose a daddy to war — whether you do it through death or through trauma matters not. She’s going to have wrangle some demons for her faith one day. I pray that when that day comes, she’ll come to understand as I have, that God is faithful in ways that people never can be.

I hope she’ll find that he will never leave nor forsake her — no matter what.  He’s not like us that way.

I have a friend in Alabama who found an orphaned dog. She named the dog Sticks because he never leaves her side. He sticks right beside her all the day long.

We serve the God Sticks.

Two rows in front of that young girl sat a woman who has endured a lung transplant. To be honest, when we were praying for her as a community, I figured they’d be wheeling her out of the hospital in a body bag.  That’s how small my faith is sometimes. I’m a skeptic. A cynic. I’m ashamed of it but that’s the truth of it.

God proves me wrong all the time. I’m glad for that. I know people, Believers and Unbelievers, who care more about being right than they do about being redeemed.

Down the pew directly in front of me sat a young woman. Another single mom with another infant child to raise alone. I watched as a white-haired lady walked across the aisle during the singing and took that young mother’s face into her withered hands and spoke words of encouragement and love to her.

I stood there, weeping, because I belong to a flawed but courageous community. They have discovered ways to share in the sufferings and joys of one another, despite the disappointments.

The Polish have a blessing: May your soul be as strong as your people.

My soul is stronger because I’m able to witness the remarkable redeeming power of Christ through the community of Believers and Unbelievers, alike.

The thing about opting out of the clan of Christians, Ms. Anne, is that when we do that, we run the risk of missing the blessing God created us for.

I just wanted to share that with you.

Humbly,

Karen

A Rock for Your Shoe

August 20, 2010                                                    

Thoughts on Exile by John Ortberg

Dallas Willard was speaking of Isaiah, and servant-hood, and the role that ‘exile’ played in the life of Israel, and he said this: “Exile is the normal human condition. Have you noticed that we’re not in the garden anymore?”

It was when Israel went into exile that it had to suffer the loss of the kingdom it thought it was building, and go through the confusion of not knowing what to do, and eventually to realize that there was a much better kingdom available. Much of the richest thoughts about the nature of God and His work came out of the exile. There is a kingdom that will not triumph through battle but through sacrificial love.

And as it was for Israel, so it is for us. In exile we learn to let go of our little kingdoms. Sometimes exile means the loss of a dream, or a disappointment in relationship, or failure in our work, or opposition from someone we trusted. Always it brings confusion. Maybe you’re in exile right now. If not, you don’t need to look for it. It will find you.

And yet…

In exile I learn to let go of my little agenda, my little life, my little demands. I learn what it really is to die to the false self that could never go into the kingdom anyway. And I have the chance to awaken to a deeper and better life; a nobler King.

Exile is the normal human condition. It’s also the beginning of the journey home.

Bumper Sticker

September 2, 2010


WHEN THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE GOD IS ANSWERING.

                                      --Albert Einstein


 

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