Archbishop Tutu at the COP17 “We Have Faith: Act Now for Climate Justice” Rally on 27 Nov 2011 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Kristen Opalinski/LUCSA)
I posted this prayer from Desmond Tutu’s An African Prayer Book on the Light for the Journey Facebook page . It was so popular that I thought I would post it here too.
Victory is Ours
Goodness is stronger than evil;
Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness;
Life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.
Jane Hessdorfer informed us that John Bell wrote music to create a song from the words I first found this version with music only. The MP3 can be purchased at GIA Publications
The words for the song are:
Goodness is stronger than evil, Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours, Victory is ours
through God who loves us.
Victory is ours, Victory is ours
through God who loves us.
Music by John Bell
GIA (c) 1996 Iona Community
And much to my delight later found this delightful rendition of the song.
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Today is World Malaria Day, a celebration that really resonates with me and I suspect also resonates with the heart of God. I still remember the horror of watching children die of malaria in the refugee camps in Cambodia in the mid 1980s. It happened so quickly. If we waited to get an accurate diagnosis they would be dead before we responded. And in Africa we lived on antimalarials and soon adapted the African physician preoperative practice of routinely treated children as though they had malaria. Complications postoperatively were much higher in infected children.The spectre of this terrible disease hung over all the communities and families we worked with.
In Africa, malaria deaths have been cut by one third within the last decade; outside of Africa, 35 out of the 53 countries, affected by malaria, have reduced cases by 50% in the same time period. In countries where access to malaria control interventions has improved most significantly, overall child mortality rates have fallen by approximately 20%. In spite of this malaria still kills 2,000 children daily worldwide, mainly in Africa and in some countries the situation is very fragile. Today–World Malaria Day–recognizes global efforts to combat malaria.
Eradicating malaria is possible. We just have to want it very much.
I am sorry that this list is a little late for us to get involved in this year, but consider how you can make a difference not just on World Malaria Day but throughout the rest of the year too. Here, from World Vision, are five things you can do to fight malaria:
1. Host a Night of Nets event in your community
Help your community understand and advocate for a simple, yet effective, malaria prevention method that can save millions of children: bed nets. Your event could be a concert, a coffee house, an art show, a sleep-out —any event to unite your community around this urgent global health crisis.
2. Send a message to your members of Congress
Ask Congress to increase our contribution toward the fight against malaria. Government officials respond when they hear from their constituents — constituents like you. Our easy-to-use online tool makes it simple to do!
3. Download World Malaria Day resources to raise awareness
Visit our resource center on endmalaria.org for downloadable posters and other resources that you can use to raise awareness about this threat to children. The more people know about malaria, the more likely we are to defeat it.
4. Pray with your community (PDF)
Download our prayer guide and pray with your small group, family, or by yourself. The prayer guide provides short stories about children impacted by malaria, facts about malaria, and prayer points to guide your intercession.
5. Make a donation to provide bed nets for children and families at risk
In sub-Saharan Africa, the use of insecticide-treated bed nets could potentially prevent 1 million child deaths. Every $6 you give will provide a long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net that will protect the life of two or more children from this deadly disease. Or make a monthly pledge to contribute to the fight against malaria.
good samaritan - african from Jesusmafa.com
This morning I am not feeling well. Since my bout with the flue 3 weeks ago I have been spiking the occasional evening temperature, and like most doctors I am reluctant to see a physician for myself. But today I have decided to bite the bullet and go.
Well that doesn’t sound like a blessing you might say. And your right it doesn’t. But in the midst of this I have been thanking God for the blessings of health and healing. Thank God for the immune system that normally does heal and restore us. Thank God for healing herbs that form the basis for many of our medicines. Thank God even for the symptoms that really are part of God’s healing process – runny noses that dispel the viruses from our bodies, inflamed cuts that draw the germ fighting cells to a diseased area, sloughing skin that protects us from most of the germs that surround us.
Of course healing doesn’t always come in the forms we want it too. After all who of us likes to spend days in bed because we are too weak and tired to get up. But that is all part of the healing process. Once again God never seems to work in the ways I expect.
So take some time to thank God for the miracle of healing today. Read through this article that talks about the healing mechanisms of the body. Also read this article that talks about the even more amazing ability of the brain to change itself through meditation and if you have time get hold of Norman Doidge’s book The Brain that Changes Itself
Our bodies are miracles – so intricate, so complex, so well thought out by God. When I think about it I am truly amazed.
What is prayer?
As many of you know I am working on a new book on prayer Return to Your Senses: Reimagining How We Pray. I talked about this in a recent post entitled Let God’s Love Soak Into Your Soul. Part of what I am grappling with in the book is the question what is prayer?. For some of us prayer is confined to intercession. For others it focuses on meditation. For some it is always spoken in the mind, for others it must be shouted out loud to be effective. Usually our concepts of prayer revolve around words and responses which I think is part of the challenge we face.
There are probably more books written on prayer than any other Christian topic, yet we still come to Jesus regularly asking: teach us to pray. The problem is that prayer is not about words but about relationship and relationships are constantly growing, changing and requiring new ways of interacting. The speaking of words can become rote and repetitive, even boring at times, the developing of relationship requires flexibility, creativity and constant willingness to change and to grow.
What the disciples saw in Jesus’ prayer life that they craved because it was so different from what they had grown up with, was the deep and personal intimacy with God that was at its heart. I think they also craved a prayer life that did not depend on rituals performed at certain times of the day but rather was based on a whole new way of looking at the world. The disciples longed for a relationship with God that wove through every part of their lives. They wanted to develop the same dynamic, living relationship with God that Jesus had and realized that to acquire it they needed to learn not just new techniques for prayer but a whole new understanding of prayer.
In my previous post I commented on Madame Guyon’s definition of prayer as “an exercise in love”. I am also very drawn to Richard Foster’s concept of prayer as “finding the heart’s true home”. I imagine prayer as any process that draws us back into the garden of God where we walk, and talk and commune with God in a place of abundance and peace and harmony for all. I imagine prayer as a new way of looking and listening and interacting with the world so that we are constantly uncovering the presence of God which shines through every moment and enlivens every creature.
This kind of understanding of prayer is a constant journey of discovery which demands we give God our full attention in each moment. It is not easy. We are so easily distracted by busyness and worry and work. We are so easily waylaid by the needs of the world and our desire to find solutions. We definitely need to come back to Jesus for a new understanding of prayer.
A good place to start is with this quote from Elaine Heath in her helpful book The Mystic Way of Evangelism,: When we come home to the love of God everything changes, beginning with how we pray. Prayer is now at its foundation a contemplative soaking in the infinite love of God. All our intercessions and thanksgivings and wordless cries now issue from the molten core of contemplative prayer. Prayer has become the vital breath, the heartbeat of divine energy without which we cannot live.
So what are your thoughts? What is Prayer
Today’s post in the series on Christian environmental organizations comes from Renewal – students caring for creation. Tom and I had the privilege of speaking at their Renewal Summit last year. It was a great occasion.
God’s creation is groaning.
We are answering God’s call for renewal.
Our Creator took chaos and transformed it into indescribable beauty, form and creative order. What’s more, God breathed life into humankind and commanded us to “tend and keep” His blessed creation.
In the past, humans have neglected this charge, instead participating in environmental harm that degrades ecosystems, as well as human lives. We have made a mess of God’s creation. But with His strength and grace, Christian students across North America are uniting to work for its renewal.
For the students of Renewal, caring for God’s creation isn’t just a burden and a responsibility- it’s a blessing and an invitation to live in right relationship with our Creator. This means taking care of everything that God so lovingly creates and sustains – the earth and each other.
We aim to expand this vision across North American campuses by inspiring, connecting, and equipping Christian students.
- Inspiring. We are communicating awareness around the biblical call to care for creation, current environmental concerns, success stories and testimonies of renewal, and other stirring dispatches to keep the movement vibrant and growing.
- Connecting. We organize regional retreats, campus visits, student conferences and other accessible opportunities for you and others to build community and network around creation care concerns.
- Equipping. We provide hands-on training, personal mentoring, leadership opportunities, project toolkits, and other vital resources to empower emerging Christian leaders.
With a heart for the poor and a commitment to following Jesus’ call to ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ we seek practical ways to care for the earth so that all God’s creatures, as well as future generations, can have a healthy environment in which to live.
We seek to live this calling out through joining together in prayer, service, and action.
- Prayer. Renewal believes that prayer is central for all of us who seek to reclaim our Biblical calling to care for God’s creation. We invite all Christians to join with us in expressing gratitude to God for the beauty, wonder, and provisions of His creation- and to pray for wisdom and guidance as we work to be better stewards of our imperiled planet.
- Service. God’s first commandment to Adam is to care for all that God has created. In Genesis 2:15 God instructs Adam to abad and shamar – literally translated ‘to serve and to care.’ We are called to be careful servants in God’s garden- His creation.
- Advocacy. The origin of the word “advocate” is quite meaningful for those of us engaged in caring for God’s creation. At its root is “voc” which comes from the Latin word for voice (vox). The Latin “advocare’ means “to call to one’s aid.” As Christians, we are called to the aid of those most in need and to add our voices in the call for justice. Renewal seeks to fulfill our Christian calling- of being doers and seekers of justice- by advocating on behalf of God’s people and God’s creation.
Photo by Benjamin Combs on Unsplash
Lion at Seattle Zoo
Over the years I have written and posted a number of prayers for creation. Here are some of my favourites that I thought you would enjoy
Prayers for Creation
For the beauty of the earth we thank you O God,
For the abundance of the garden we thank you O Christ,
For the flourishing of friendship we thank you O Spirit,
For the abundance of life we give you thanks today,
Thanks to the three in One, the One in three.
—————————————
God may our eyes be opened and our ears unstopped,
That we may see in every sight a cathedral giving glory,
And hear in every sound angels singing alleluia.
May we be awed by the treasure of beauty in a rising moon,
And inspired by the clouded majesty of rainbow colours after rain,
May we look and see the wonder of daffodils lifting bright and shining faces to the sun,
May we look and see each plant, each creature, each handful of dirt,
God breathed, God inspired, God created.
May we behold the beauty and hear you saying it is very good
And walk together into the sanctuary of your creation.
——————————————————-
God may we see today that all creation is precious to you,
From the smallest microbe to the largest whale,
You created all to live and flourish together,
An awe inspiring interdependent ecological community of your love.
God may we listen as all creation sings of your glory,
And the whole earth gives you praise.
May our minds turn to you in morning,
And our hearts be filled with your love at night,
May we sit in your presence and find life.
——————————————
And links to past liturgies:
Reflections – (c) Mark Wilson-Thomas. used with permission
This morning I am continuing my series on Christian organizations concerned about creation with a post of the Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation which is available through the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN). The EEN is a ministry dedicated to the care of God’s creation. EEN seeks to equip, inspire, disciple, and mobilize God’s people in their effort to care for God’s creation.
Founded in 1993, their ministry is grounded in the Bible’s teaching on the responsibility of God’s people to “tend the garden” through a faithful walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Based in the scriptures, EEN publishes and develops material for churches, ministries, families, and individuals to use as they seek to know the Lord more fully, especially his care for all that he has made. They are hosting the Global Day of Prayer for Creation Care & The Poor on April 26, 2012 in Washington DC.
Evangelical Declaration On the Care of Creation
The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof- Psalm 24:1
As followers of Jesus Christ, committed to the full authority of the Scriptures, and aware of the ways we have degraded creation, we believe that biblical faith is essential to the solution of our ecological problems.
Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for the creation.
Because we have sinned, we have failed in our stewardship of creation. Therefore we repent of the way we have polluted, distorted, or destroyed so much of the Creator’s work.
Because in Christ God has healed our alienation from God and extended to us the first fruits of the reconciliation of all things, we commit ourselves to working in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Christ in word and deed, to work for the reconciliation of all people in Christ, and to extend Christ’s healing to suffering creation.
Because we await the time when even the groaning creation will be restored to wholeness, we commit ourselves to work vigorously to protect and heal that creation for the honor and glory of the Creator—whom we know dimly through creation, but meet fully through Scripture and in Christ. We and our children face a growing crisis in the health of the creation in which we are embedded, and through which, by God’s grace, we are sustained. Yet we continue to degrade that creation.
These degradations of creation can be summed up as 1) land degradation; 2) deforestation; 3) species extinction; 4) water degradation; 5) global toxification; 6) the alteration of atmosphere; 7) human and cultural degradation.
Many of these degradations are signs that we are pressing against the finite limits God has set for creation. With continued population growth, these degradations will become more severe. Our responsibility is not only to bear and nurture children, but to nurture their home on earth. We respect the institution of marriage as the way God has given to insure thoughtful procreation of children and their nurture to the glory of God.
We recognize that human poverty is both a cause and a consequence of environmental degradation.
Many concerned people, convinced that environmental problems are more spiritual than technological, are exploring the world’s ideologies and religions in search of non-Christian spiritual resources for the healing of the earth. As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe that the Bible calls us to respond in four ways:
First, God calls us to confess and repent of attitudes which devalue creation, and which twist or ignore biblical revelation to support our misuse of it. Forgetting that “the earth is the Lord’s,” we have often simply used creation and forgotten our responsibility to care for it.
Second, our actions and attitudes toward the earth need to proceed from the center of our faith, and be rooted in the fullness of God’s revelation in Christ and the Scriptures. We resist both ideologies which would presume the Gospel has nothing to do with the care of non-human creation and also ideologies which would reduce the Gospel to nothing more than the care of that creation.
Third, we seek carefully to learn all that the Bible tells us about the Creator, creation, and the human task. In our life and words we declare that full good news for all creation which is still waiting “with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,” (Rom. 8:19).
Fourth, we seek to understand what creation reveals about God’s divinity, sustaining presence, and everlasting power, and what creation teaches us of its God-given order and the principles by which it works.
Thus we call on all those who are committed to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to affirm the following principles of biblical faith, and to seek ways of living out these principles in our personal lives, our churches, and society.
The cosmos, in all its beauty, wildness, and life-giving bounty, is the work of our personal and loving Creator.
Our creating God is prior to and other than creation, yet intimately involved with it, upholding each thing in its freedom, and all things in relationships of intricate complexity. God is transcendent, while lovingly sustaining each creature; and immanent, while wholly other than creation and not to be confused with it.
God the Creator is relational in very nature, revealed as three persons in One. Likewise, the creation which God intended is a symphony of individual creatures in harmonious relationship.
The Creator’s concern is for all creatures. God declares all creation “good” (Gen. 1:31); promises care in a covenant with all creatures (Gen. 9:9-17); delights in creatures which have no human apparent usefulness (Job 39-41); and wills, in Christ, “to reconcile all things to himself” (Col.1:20).
Men, women, and children, have a unique responsibility to the Creator; at the same time we are creatures, shaped by the same processes and embedded in the same systems of physical, chemical, and biological interconnections which sustain other creatures.
Men, women, and children, created in God’s image, also have a unique responsibility for creation. Our actions should both sustain creation’s fruitfulness and preserve creation’s powerful testimony to its Creator.
Our God-given , stewardly talents have often been warped from their intended purpose: that we know, name, keep and delight in God’s creatures; that we nourish civilization in love, creativity and obedience to God; and that we offer creation and civilization back in praise to the Creator. We have ignored our creaturely limits and have used the earth with greed, rather than care.
The earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land…Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away” (Hosea 4:1,3). Thus, one consequence of our misuse of the earth is an unjust denial of God’s created bounty to other human beings, both now and in the future.
God’s purpose in Christ is to heal and bring to wholeness not only persons but the entire created order. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).
In Jesus Christ, believers are forgiven, transformed and brought into God’s kingdom. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation” (II Cor. 5:17). The presence of the kingdom of God is marked not only by renewed fellowship with God, but also by renewed harmony and justice between people, and by renewed harmony and justice between people and the rest of the created world. “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands” (Isa. 55:12).
We believe that in Christ there is hope, not only for men, women and children, but also for the rest of creation which is suffering from the consequences of human sin.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!