This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
Scripture is taken from the Book of Common Prayer, Readings for Ordinary Time, Year 1 and may be found here.
Psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us — so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.
The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Romans 15: 1 – 13
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”
Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.”
And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 3: 22 – 36
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about — look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
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May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you from the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
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Feel free to join the discussion.
You can share your church struggles and concerns.
Let’s also use it as a time to encourage one another spiritually.
What have you found spiritually encouraging lately?
Do you have any special Bible verses to share, any YouTube songs that you have found uplifting?
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Thanks, Kathi, for blessing us with this post, and for the time and effort that you put in! I, for one, really appreciate it and look forward to it every Sunday morning.
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Daughter of the King – You’re welcome! Wishing you a wonderful day.
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Beautiful music!
I’m going through The Gospel Comes With a House Key with a group of other ladies from my church. Has any of you read it? Thoughts?
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JPU – I haven’t read that one. What are your initial thoughts?
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Heavy in a way. We all, I’m sure, have our ways where we could improve our hospitality. The author is a recovered lesbian who is now married with 2 bio-kids and a few grown kids they adopted from foster care. And she said that what made the biggest difference was “radically ordinary hospitality” rather than just preaching against homosexuality. Very insightful. She doesn’t claim to be perfect at it, and even questioned her decision to let her mom live with them for a season. She doesn’t go into HOW she got out of her lesbian community and came to realizing she CAN marry a man and not scar him for life because of her past. She is a stay-at-home mom and writes of the value of it, but still encourages all women to prepare for a career in case it is needed. She even mentions “patriarchy” as good, when both men and women practice it properly. Though not about what if a man doesn’t.
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She is a lovely person and the couple involved in her conversion are lovely people, but I think that since she became known in certain circles, she got sucked into the anti-LGBTQ movement. She signed the Nashville Statement, and her husband was certainly one of the “unanimous” pastors and elders who approved their denominational position on transgender.
The position paper basically said that scientifically, the issue of gender can be very uncertain and ambiguous, BUT GAWD!! created male and female. Therefore the parents and pastor must get together and decide, to the best of their ability, whether God made their child male or female, and from then on, that is the only righteous way to address that person. She uses that very logic to explain why she signed the Nashville Statement – “male and female”.
Despite hew wonderful a person she is, she still accepts and promotes the authoritarian, patriarchal and abusive teaching of her denomination, and that is why she is so ‘useful’ to them.
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