Poets & Saints

ScriptureColossians 1:24 (NIV)Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you,and I fill up in my fleshwhat is still lackingin regard to Christ's afflictions,for the sake of his body,which is the church.RefrainMy suffering is held within something larger.QuoteEtty Hillesum, from An Interrupted Life"Living and dying, sorrow and joy...it is all as one in me,and I accept it all as one mighty whole...I wish I could live for a long timeso that one day I may know how to explain it...And that is why I must try to livea good and faithful life to my last breath:so that those who come after medo not have to start all over again,need not face the same difficulties.Isn't that doing something for future generations?" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureGalatians 6:15 (NIV)Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.RefrainGod saves by loving and including.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"God is the ultimate nonviolent one, so we dare not accept any theory of salvation that is based on violence, exclusion, social pressure, or moral coercion. When we do, these are legitimated as a proper way of life. God saves by loving and including, not by excluding or punishing." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureEphesians 3:8–10 (NIV)8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of Godshould be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realmsRefrainI hold what cannot yet be resolved.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"Following Jesus is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world. To allow what God for some reason allows — and uses. And to suffer ever so slightly what God suffers eternally." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureLuke 23:34 (NIV)Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.RefrainLord, show me what I cannot yet see in myself.QuoteAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, from The Gulag Archipelago"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains an unuprooted small corner of evil." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureEphesians 2:4–6 (NIV)But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.RefrainThe image of God cannot be extinguished.QuoteWalter Wink, from Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way"There is no one, and surely no entire people, in whom the image of God has been utterly extinguished. Faith in God means believing that anyone can be transformed, regardless of the past. To write off whole groups of people as intrinsically racist and violent is to accept the very same premise that upholds racist and oppressive regimes." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScripturePhilippians 2:7 (NIV)Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.RefrainChrist came for all of me.QuoteNikos Kazantzakis, from Report to Greco"One day the religion of Christ will take another step forward on earth. It will embrace the whole man, all of him, not just half as it does now in embracing only the soul." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureLuke 12:49 (NIV)"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"RefrainThe fire that refines me is taking me somewhere good.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"I am afraid many of us have failed to honor God's always unfolding future and the process of getting there, which usually includes some form of dying to the old. In practical effect, we end up resisting and opposing the very thing we want. The great irony is that we have often done this in the name of praying to God, as though God would protect us from the very process that refines us!" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.