“?‘Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths.
I am the LORD your God.
Lev. 19:3
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Those who kept the sabbath killed Jesus.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matt 5:7-9
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Matt 7:38-42
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matt 7:43-48
Those who follow Jesus…
Every Person is a person
Never forget that every person on earth is a person Jesus died for. No persons are “people,” as the media describes them and as we’ve begun to see them, or rather unsee them. Every person on earth is like the rest of us, more or less—they laugh like us, they cry like us, they worry and wonder and want like us, they fear like us, they hope like us, they lose hope like many of us are losing hope, and they need love like all of us need love. If what your hearing and thinking and doing is not increasing your capacity to love, turn down, tune it out, and stop it, because if you can’t see the humanity in others you have already become blind to your own.
J D Spainhour
Artificial Intelligence
It’s a societal problem. The use of AI when writing shortcuts critical cognitive processes that we also use for making moral decisions, engaging in political debate, reading the Bible and other texts, understanding others’ perspectives, articulating our perspectives, knowing ourselves and our beliefs, and so on. A risk of AI is an illiterate and convictionless society, one in which we no longer process our own thoughts, values, emotions, or beliefs and we are increasingly incapable of processing those of others. We offload that processing to a machine. If that sounds familiar, it should. Before the rise of AI we were already on this track. People were already reading fewer books and engaging in vapid civic engagement on social media. Already people were forming their “beliefs” based on trending topics and YouTube influencers. But AI accelerates this trend. So this issue isn’t just about teachers complaining that students aren’t writing their own papers. This is an issue about the future of civic society. And I think we can all agree that civic society ain’t looking so hot as it is.
O. Alan Noble
Power
If God be not a tyrant, how can any of us? If God refuses to exploit God’s power, how can any of us exploit one another?
Scot McKnight
Religious affiliation
…according to an average of all 2023 Gallup polling, 68% of Americans identify with a Christian religion, including 33% who are Protestant, 22% Catholic, and 13% who identify with another Christian religion or simply as a “Christian.” (Only 7% percent identify with a non-Christian religion, including 2% who are Jewish, 1% Muslim, and 1% Buddhist, among others. Another 22% said they have no religious preference, and 3% did not answer the question.)
Grief
…learning from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross that “grief is the only human emotion that [has to] have [a] community to shoulder it. It cannot be borne alone.”
It takes a great deal of involvement within a community for grief to be expressed freely. It is the presence of the community that validates the expression of grief. This means that a singular expression of grief is an incomplete expression of grief.
Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community by an African scholar, Malidoma Somé
Somé compares the grieving process with a baby crying heavily just before falling asleep, saying, “Grief takes us to the top of the hill and then lets us walk back down slowly, peacefully.” We need some kind of process like that, something that helps us lead the world into the way of peace. Perhaps it will begin with sackcloth and ashes. It will certainly begin with repentance.
https://open.substack.com/pub/toomanywords/p/weeping-with-those-who-weepeven-when?r=1vlmt&utm_medium=ios
“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
Anne Lamott
“You can safely assume that God is recreating you in his image when you love all the ones God loves.”
Scot McKnight
A Closer look
The small flowers above abound in the grass in our area. They are sometimes described as Florida snow. Like a lot of things that are ordinary in our lives, a closer look reveals a loveliness often overlooked.
ARCHIE UPDATE
Look who moved up to a “big boy” bed! Hoping to extubate by the end of the week. Last weight was 3 pounds 7 ounces.
So thankful. Keep up the prayers.
STILL ON THE JOURNEY