Prepare: Jesus’ disciples are familiar with fear. Throughout the gospel of John, we hear that Jesus’ followers are filled with fear, especially of the Jewish authorities. To proclaim Jesus as messiah is to face expulsion from the synagogue and separation from family and friends. Following Jesus comes with fear and
Scripture: Matthew 9:35–38 Devotion “When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.” – Hudson Taylor Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the sickness and hurt in the world? Human trafficking, starvation, spiritual depravity, broken relationships, financial hardships… Do you ever just wish you could fix it? Matthew
There may not be a Christian revival, but Britain’s traditional churches aren’t doomed In the same week that a new archbishop of Canterbury was installed, YouGov admitted that a poll suggesting there was a “quiet revival” of Christianity was a dud. It had been inflated by fraudulent results and should
Overlooking the High Street, Oxford’s University Church of St Mary the Virgin boasts a porch which, for centuries, has welcomed worshipers through its doors. Completed in 1637, this Baroque South Porch symbolically extended the contact between Oxford’s ancient university Church with the city itself, further linking town and gown, the
My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow. As Passiontide kicks in and we look to Holy Week, in yet another time of war, I have been thinking how our culture tells stories about despair. The horror-fantasy TV show Stranger Things, which drew to a close recently after a decade-long stretch of
At Meridian we receive numerous press releases and insider news pieces that we often don’t report just for time and space on the magazine. We are going to publish a weekly update or roundup of some of these news items and will publish it on Thursdays. These will be short
Prayer and God’s Will By Stephen Rankin I recently wrote about the problem of too much subjectivism in prayer. Many of us, myself included, sometimes have strong impressions when we pray. They come with a misleading sense of urgency about their rightness, of their having come from the Lord. Sometimes,
“For what shall we pray?” is a weekly post inviting individuals, groups, and congregations to lift up our world in prayer. This resource is prepared by a variety of leaders in the ELCA and includes prayer prompts, upcoming events and observances, and prayer suggestions from existing denominational worship materials. You