Refugees No More 102711

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Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37

Joshua 1:1-11

Romans 2:17-29

Refugees No More 102711

Psalm 107 is the song of those who are refugees no more, because of their Lord. A writer I sometimes read says he always starts his daily writing with a remembrance of his own status as a refugee, except he is not a physical, actual refugee. He’s born and raised American.

There are many actual refugees in every country. Many people and peoples are on the run; aliens, immigrants and refugees. The writer’s refugee status is psychological and emotional, and each of us perhaps, remembers a time when we were alone and isolated, not a part of the in-group, and thought we would be wandering forever.

Psalm 107 is a song of praise for the God who led us home, and who leads us home each day. Today we pray we each follows the Lord, and finds our way home. We also pray for those who are actually, physically refugees. May we help them find a home for themselves and their families.

For all of us, may we find a home in a Community of Christ (a church) where we all can create ‘home’ together.

Pray for such a peace as this!

(brother) Bill

Psalm 107

¹O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

²Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble

³and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

⁴Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town;

⁵hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

⁶Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress;

⁷he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.

³³He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground,

³⁴a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

³⁵He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.

³⁶And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in;

³⁷they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield.

Joshua 1:1-11

1After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, ²“My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. ³Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. ⁴From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. ⁵No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. ⁶Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. ⁷Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. ⁹I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, ¹¹“Pass through the camp, and command the people: ‘Prepare your provisions; for in three days you are to cross over the Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess.’”

Romans 2:17-29

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God ¹⁸and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, ²¹you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? ²²You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ²⁵Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. ²⁹Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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