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LITURGY FOR LENT
Leader: God all loving and all caring, We come before you with hesitant steps and uncertain motives All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: We want to sweep out the corners where sin has accumulated And uncover the places where we have strayed from your truth All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: We ask for courage to open our eyes and unstop our ears That we may be aware of all that distracts us from a whole hearted commitment to Christ All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: We want to see ourselves as you do and live our lives as you intended Expose in us the empty and barren places where we have not allowed you to enter All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: Reveal to us our half-hearted struggles Where we have been indifferent to the pain and suffering of others All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: Create in us a clean heart O God and put a right Spirit within us Nurture the faint stirrings of new life where your spirit has taken root and begun to grow All: Our hearts are parched from wandering in a desert of sin Leader: We long for your healing light to transform us, for you alone can make us whole In your mercy shine upon us O God and make our path clear before us
Ps 103 Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17 Matt 4:1-11
Reflect on the gospel and spend some time thinking about those things that vie for your attention and distract you from a whole-hearted commitment to Christ. Think particularly of ways you discriminate against others who are part of God’s international community

· Because of race, class, gender or colour

· Because of culture, disabilities or body type·

Because of intellect or educational differences

Write down your areas of struggle on a piece of paper. If you have a wooden cross available nail or tape your distractions to the cross. Alternatively you may like to place them in a fireplace or a bowl and set them alight. Discuss how you could use this Lenten season to bring reconciliation and healing in these places

Leader: God you are good and upright and you instruct sinners in your ways Show us how to break down the barriers separating us from each other, All: Lead us through the wilderness sin has created to find new life Leader: Forgive us for the times we have abandoned the poor, the disabled and the homeless, Teach us to live by the law of love in unity, peace and concord All: Lead us through the wilderness sin has created to find new life Leader: Forgive us for the ways we exclude people of different race, culture or gender Guide us that we may come to mutual understanding and care, All: Lead us through the wilderness sin has created to find new life Leader: Draw us into your community to embrace those with whom we need to be reconciled Grant that all who seek to heal divisions between peoples may have hope All: Lead us through the wilderness sin has created to find new life Leader: Show us your ways, O Lord

Teach us your paths and guide us towards your truth For you are God our Saviour and our hope is in you
O God of peace and love, You came in Jesus as our peace, And broke down the dividing walls Be with us as we count the cost of our responsibilities To our neighbours near and far (Akuila Yabaki, Fiji)

Amen

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ANAWIM A Hebrew word denoting those without voice: the outcast: the poor seeking God for deliverance.
"Blessed are the anawim for they shall inherit the earth." Psalm 37:11

Honesty, common interests, respect, and Russian chocolate are a good start in friendship.

5 minutes to perspective

When I arrived I recognized him immediately. He leaped to his feet and threw his arms around me, words and gratitude spilling out in a torrent, half to me, half in explanation to the now puzzled Brian, "You are the best people in downtown. You have the best food and kindest people. You always make us feel welcome. You respect us. I love the Wiffleball! I'll never forget you. One day I'll come here and give back alongside you guys." (Expletives deleted)

What's so amazing about us? Nothing, really. We give our best to our friends, with a smile and kind conversation. (It turns to trash talk, however, during the Wiffleball season. The US Gutter Punk Wiffleball League requires that. Page 88 in the Official USGPWL Manual, I think). WE don't see what we do as anything great. Mostly nothing special. That's why we're legends in downtown Portland.

I found it curious that while New Avenues, a multimillion-dollar operation, paid $60, HOME came up with $180. Brian said that's all NAFY could "allot for this purpose." He's a fantastic guy, and amazingly caring. He would have paid it all out of his own pocket if he had the money.

Big organizations have "allotments" and "purposes". I guess they have to. We at HOME have friends, most of whom live outdoors year around. Jeremiah was in a tough spot (a job and pregnant fiancé in Wisconsin with no way to get there). We had two hundred bucks in the bank and a friend with a need.

  We're a speedboat among oil tankers.

It's so fun...

Serenity Prayer
God grant me serenity To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with You Forever and ever in the next.

I'm originally from the garden state (New Jersey). Love hearing people from that area talk. I've been in Oregon for most of my life.

Ethiopian food! http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/24/281123/restaurant/North/ENjoni-Cafe-Portland

People without homes and their friends

Iconoclasts

Foreign people

Family who don't live nearby

Ruth

Dick Cavett

New friends and old friends