~~~ Hosea 14:2-10 ~~~ Psalm 51 ~~~ Matthew 10:16-23 ~~~
...do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Today is a sad day in our country.
A day following so many consecutive days of violence
that words do not seem sufficient.
Violence shuts down all possibility of peace.
The words God gives to us are words of caring,
understanding, and today sympathy.
Words of sympathy for each person
who lost their life...for their loved ones.
We must allow the words that Jesus would speak
be the words that also come from our lips.
Jesus speaks words of love and peace.
I will love them freely...
When God responded to the sins
of Israel he responds with great love.
The recent circumstances in our country
can only be healed through freely loving others.
If we learn to freely love others then
senseless violence will not be an available option.
If we learn to freely love others violence
cannot be an alternative response.
If we learn to freely love
we will also come to know others.
If we know one another then we create a climate for love.
We are called to reach out to one another.
We are called to love one another.
To love one another as God has loved us.
Are we as a society capable of loving
one another as God has loved us?
I am concerned that we still have far to go
before reaching that level of love.
Our country must not be simplified into them and us.
It is only love that can simplify our society.
I invite you to reach out
to those around you with love.
It is through God's love that the healing
of these last few days can begin.
We must be part of the solution...
The solution must be saturated with love and peace.
God Bless our country
during this time of tension.
~~~Peace~~~
