Scripture is taken from the Book of Common Prayer, Readings for Ordinary Time Year 2 and may be found here.
Psalm 1
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Acts 19: 11 – 20
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Mark 1: 14 – 20
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
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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 
During long term marriage, my ex called me by another name. He said my given name was too hard to say, although he used it to speak to others with the same name. I need to tell you what he called me because it has dual significance. I am not concerned about identification.
The name he gave me was “Nome”. Two syllables. It was sort of a take off from another name of someone we liked and so it seemed special. Reading George Simon’s book, In Sheep’s Clothing, I am able to identify him as Covert Aggressive. He was stripping me of my personhood until I was nearly physically dead.
The enlightenment came slowly to finally hear that every time he said the name he gave me, he was reinforcing his brainwashing. “No, Me!”
It was as if he had his finger pointing at himself, reminding me that it is all about him, all day, every day, “No, me! It’s all about me (him), you (the writer) don’t matter.” His selfish actions reinforced that he was the only one that mattered in our marriage.
Being given a special name was comfortably familiar because my childhood perpetrator called me by a special name during grooming and afterwords, for years.
This is a very difficult topic to address, but very important. I feel the humiliation, deeply.
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Kathi, I posted a comment on today’s gathering that I should have posted on the previous post. Is it possible to move it to it’s correct context?
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Celeste, we can’t move comments, unfortunately. Feel free to copy and paste it in the correct post. I can then delete this one. Thanks!
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I”m copying your comment over, Celeste! It’s so important for people to see how insidious this is!
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Celeste – Thank you for sharing. Your voice is important!
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The Blessing. I think the next step is it’ll be in some of the church livestreams I’ve been watching. I learned to play it too; it’s pretty easy. My church is back to services but numbers are limited. Assigned seating, carefully placed worship team so no one’s singing too close together, parking lot fellowship, and no shaking hands or hugging. I think we’ll have to have a special form of body language for people who aren’t comfortable with physical touch, whether it’s a temporary or permanent thing. Livestreams are here to stay, though. Be blessed, everyone.
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Loved reading thhis thank you
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