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MEDITATION:

Written by Michael Wittmer, a contemporary professor of systemic theology and author. This is an excerpt from his book “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”

How do we serve Christ in a world where globally everyone is our neighbor and locally few are? One response is to think globally and act locally. We should always keep the large, global picture in mind, monitoring trends and evaluating how are actions inadvertently help or hurt others on the other side of the world. But though we follow and seek to influence the global picture, most of our concrete, specific steps for shalom will occur within our local communities. There, in our personal touch with our fellow image-bearers, lies our greatest opportunity to advance shalom. These local networks include the neighborhood in which we reside, the colleagues we work alongside, and the family within our home. While these are all important, our greatest opportunity to promote shalom lies not in our neighborhoods, offices, or even our homes, but in our local churches. Jesus Christ established his church as a beacon, a beachhead for shalom within this dark world of war and division. His supreme passion is for his people to enjoy the fruitful unity that comes from the shalom of God. On the evening before his death, Jesus’ final prayer in the Upper Room was for his followers to “be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Paul applies this passion for peace to ethnic and religious strife, explaining that Christ has overcome centuries of animosity between Jews and Gentiles, reconciling them to each other as he reconciles each to the Father. So now “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. This unity among individual believers—church community—is a recurring emphasis throughout Paul’s writings…Paul urges the believers to use their distinctive gifts to serve the body, humbly honor and care for one another, live peaceably among all people, support and submit to government authorities, love others, allow diversity of opinion about matters of Christian freedom, protecting the weak while not condemning the strong and patiently bear one another’s burdens, seeking to benefit their neighbor rather than themselves…Each person will only flourish and find delight in God to the extent that the entire body experiences shalom. Our spiritual health depends both on receiving help from our brothers and sisters and giving our gifts to serve them…Although we may never fully succeed in restoring shalom to our selfish world, there is at least one place where we should expect to find the flourishing, wholeness, and delight that comes from genuine community. Christ intends his church to be a herald of shalom. When this collection of diverse individuals chooses to sacrificially serve one another in the name of the Prince of Peace, we silently announce to a troubled world that the kingdom of shalom is present in our midst. In this way we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, proving by our conduct that sin does not have the last word, but just as shalom once permeated the original creation, it has come to Christ’s church and will come again to his world.

PRAYER:

Written by Cheryce Rampersad, a contemporary Christian author.

Dear God, allow me to be a replica of Your love. Let Your light shine through. Allow me to have mercy on myself as well as others. Let me follow in Your footsteps. May I forgive just as You forgave the world. Soften my heart so that I can touch the lives of others. Lead me, guide me and walk beside me, as I portray You in all that I do.

MUSIC MEDITATION:

This Little Light of Mine:   Performed by Bruce Springsteen (Live in Dublin).

This popular gospel song is of unknown origin. It is often reported to be written for children in the 1920s by Harry Dixon Loes, but he never claimed credit for the song and the Moody Bible Institute where he worked said he did not write it.