Friends in Christ Weekly Message
September 7, 2013

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
Deuteronomy 30:19 (NRSV*)

There is a Biblical imperative to choose the way of life. This is true in both the corporate context (which applies to this passage) and the individual context.

We live in a world where nation states and non-state forces frequently take up arms to further some real or imagined objective. They try to impose their will by the use of violence. The cost in terms of lives lost, injuries, people displaced, infrastructure destroyed, environmental degradation and massive resources lost to constructive use is enormous.

Today Pope Francis has called for a day of prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East and throughout the world. Many Christians and people of other faiths have gathered together in houses of worship to lift up prayers for peace, and others have prayed alone or with their families. The way forward in Syria and other areas of conflict may not be clear, but we hope if people look beyond their own ideas to God's guidance they will be moved towards a better way.

I hope you have joined in prayers for peace today. Today is a specially called day of prayer, but every day should be a day when we pray that the leaders of our nation and other nations, as well as those who control non-state forces, listen to God's voice and seek the way of peace - a full Biblical shalom which includes the well-being of all, the conditions which make for peace. And as we pray for leaders, we should also pray for God's strength to remove the seeds of war and violence from our own hearts.

Bill Samuel

* New Revised Standard Version © Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

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