Offertory Prayer

May 26, 2013 – Trinity Sunday/First Sunday after Pentecost God of Love and grace, you created us at our birth, but you continue to create us in our living. Even in death, the journey will not be complete. As we share our gifts this morning, we strive to grow into sacrificial giving. It is when we are challenged that we are shaped, re-formed by you, into the disciples you long for us to be. May the gifts we give and the lives we live display to the world an endurance that produces character and character that produces hope. For we pray boldly, knowing hope that comes from the Holy Spirit never disappoints! In Christ, we pray. Amen. (Romans 5:1-5)

GBOD continues to deliver the full text of each month's offertory prayers via email. You may also find the Offertory Prayers online at www.GBOD.org



Written by Ken Sloane, Director of Stewardship for GBOD.



Monday, August 27, 2012

More Defiling than Dirt, a Reflection on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

If you were asked to choose between these two statements, how would you answer?
First, this passage demonstrates that Jesus taught that Jews were wrong to focus on the law. Second, Jesus says that anything goes.

The correct answer is: neither of the above.

Jesus is not maligning the Pharisees for attempting to follow the law. He is saying that they aren't following it. That is, they are neglecting the reason that God gave us the law anyway--to help us to live in community and to worship the Lord.

It's not a Jew/Christian thing. Look, Jesus is quoting the prophet Isaiah to help make his point.

Jesus is saying to those who hold themselves out to be religiously scrupulous, "What you are calling a sin is not all that important. If you want to get in line with what God intends then you need to refrain from things like adultery, greed, envy, slander.

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