{"id":2269,"date":"2014-01-02T03:51:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T08:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2014-01-02T03:51:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T08:51:08","slug":"2269","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2014\/01\/02\/2269\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost unspeakable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013-Advent-good_news_hi_res-e1387468556566.jpg\" alt=\"2013 Advent good_news_hi_res\" width=\"180\" height=\"252\" \/>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0099ff\">\u00a0 <strong>Matthew 2:16 -18<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0099ff\"><strong>Prayer for the day:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nSoften my heart O, God, that I might have compassion for those who are forgotten, oppressed, and hurt. Harden my resolve, that I might have the courage not to look away but to hear their stories and learn their names. Move my hands, that I might be a servant of peace.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0099ff\"> Question for reflection:<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nAs a pacifist, New Testament Christian, I often like to gloss over the genocide, civil war, and violence of the Old Testament. Matthew 2 is a reminder that it continued even after Jesus was born and continued after Jesus died and continues today \u20132000 years later. Sometimes, my prayers for peace feel so ineffectual and vague against the tide of violence reported in the local news broadcast and global current events. I wish I could do more. How can I hold in my heart the seeming contradictions of God\u2019s loving mercy and the violent realities of our times?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">~ Gimbiya Kettering,\u00a0 Intercultural Ministries Coordinator<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em>Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year&#8217;s <strong><span style=\"color: #0099ff\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brethrenpress.com\/SearchResults.asp?Search=2013+advent+devotional\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0099ff\">Advent Devotional<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>written by Tim Harvey, pastor of Central Church of the Brethren (Available from\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #0099ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.brethrenpress.com\/\"><span style=\"color: #0099ff\">Brethren Press<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>in print and E-Book formats). Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Tim&#8217;s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on t<\/em><em>his\u00a0<\/em><em>blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 2:16 -18 Prayer for the day: Soften my heart O, God, that I might have compassion for those who are forgotten, oppressed, and hurt. Harden my resolve, that I might have the courage not to look away but to hear their stories and learn their names. Move my hands, that I might be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[54,228,284,493,736,868,882,921,1044],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional","tag-advent","tag-christmas","tag-courage","tag-gimbiya","tag-mercy","tag-pacifism","tag-peace","tag-prayer","tag-servant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}