O God, who by the passion of thy blessed Son didst make an instrument of shameful death to be unto us the means of life and peace: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee. So I will bless thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on thy name. My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat, and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips, when I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night; for thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy.

–Psalm 63:3-7

Soon after becoming a Christian, Staten Island native George Zaloom’s international real-estate business fell apart. The only thing he had left was his automotive business, Zaloom’s Auto Repair. After an innocent question posed by the father of a friend, Zaloom embraced the mundane work of oil changes and tire rotations with one phrase: “Yes, I’m the mechanic.”

In this short film from City film director Nathan Clarke, Zaloom describes the joy of work””a joy that matches that found at home and at church: “If you can’t find joy eight hours a day, there’s something wrong.”

Watch it all.

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power, be our support;
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance;
Eternal Pity, have mercy upon us;

that with all our heart and mind and soul and strength we may seek thy face and be brought by thine infinite mercy to thy holy presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Saint Alcuin

2. To do well on Twitter (and in social media in general), you need a plan.

Tony Morgan taught me that. He wrote that he would focus on leadership and strategy, and he did. On my blog, I focus on church, culture, and leadership””and my tweets reflect the blog focus.

You need a plan that includes what you will focus on, how often you will tweet, etc.

If you are a pastor, you can’t just say, “I will focus on my church.” You need more than that. What is your church’s passion? Focus on that. Then tweet about it.

3. Social media needs personality….

Read it all.

Heavenly Father, we remember before you those who suffer want and anxiety from lack of work. Guide the people of this land so to use our public and private wealth that all may find suitable and fulfilling employment, and receive just payment for their labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

–Book of Common Prayer

From the Catholic Employment Network:

God, our Father, I turn to you seeking your divine help and guidance as I look for suitable employment. I need your wisdom to guide my footsteps along the right path, and to lead me to find the proper things to say and do in this quest. I wish to use the gifts and talents you have given me, but I need the opportunity to do so with gainful employment. Do not abandon me, dear Father, in this search, but rather grant me this favor I seek so that I may return to you with praise and thanksgiving for your gracious assistance. Grant this through Christ, our Lord. Amen

O Lord our God, give us more love, more denial of self, more likeness to thee. Teach us that it is better to give than to receive, better to forget ourselves than to put ourselves forward, better to serve than to be waited on; and unto thee, the God of love, be praise and glory for ever.

An Anglican priest and his family narrowly escaped harm…[yesterday] morning after a mob armed with rocks and petrol bombs were kept out his church building by steel window bars.

The Revd Ehab Ayoub, his family, a lay minister and a guard were trapped in St Saviour’s Church, Suez, for hours while pro-Mursi supporters were attacking the building.

Speaking from the Diocese of Egypt head office, Bishop’s Chaplain the Revd Drew Schmotzer told ACNS, “They [the attackers] tried to get through the windows, but our steel bars prevented it (thanks be to God).

Read it all.

O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually!

–Psalm 105:1-4

We give thee hearty thanks, O heavenly Father, for the rest of the past night, and for the gift of a new day, with its opportunities of pleasing thee. Grant that we may so pass its hours in the perfect freedom of thy service, that at eventide we may again give thanks unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Daybreak Office of the Eastern Church

The other day I got into the office early to find a young colleague noisily munching his way through a bowl of Fruit ‘n Fibre at his desk. Just behind him his dry cleaning was hanging on the coat stand, and on the back of his chair was a damp towel.

“Doesn’t he have a home?” I thought.

But of course he does. The thing is that, like many office workers, he doesn’t distinguish between being at home and being in the office….

Read it all.

O Living God, in whom is the fountain of life: So teach us to know thee through Jesus Christ that we may share the power of that eternal life which is in him, and that all our lives may be brought into obedience to thy holy will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Eric Fenn

“We just moved here from Kentucky,” Arnold said. “I was there for three years as part of the Network for Congregational Development and Pastoral Leadership. It’s designed to bring newly ordained clergy from all over the country to serve historically under served churches in Appalachia and the bluegrass regions of Kentucky.

The areas are fairly remote and often have trouble recruiting clergy especially for what is usually a very small salary.”

After three years of service it was time to start looking for a new home.

The couple each took a map of the United States and color-coded it with their ideas of where to live: red, yellow and green. When they compared the two, there was plenty of green to choose from, and that included Emporia ”“ something that caught Williams’ eye.

Read it all.

Watch it all.

Merciful God, whose servant Joseph of Arimathaea with reverence and godly fear did prepare the body of our Lord and Savior for burial, and did lay it in his own tomb: Grant, we beseech thee, to us thy faithful people grace and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the days of our life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Now at Lystra there was a man sitting, who could not use his feet; he was a cripple from birth, who had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking; and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and walked.

–Acts 14:8-10

When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me?

–Psalm 56:3-4

There’s a new best-seller out there which claims to give us “the real story” on Jesus.

It’s called Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, and it is one in a long line of books challenging the portrait of Jesus given in the gospels.

The author is giving interviews in the major media, promoting his book, and people are asking questions about it and how to respond.

Read it all.

Who is the publisher? Harvard Universty Press.

The author? Why that you will have to guess at before you go and look.

If the Hamburg raid was so effective, why is it so little remembered? Partly, it was overshadowed by later raids, especially the twin nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945. But much like those later episodes, Gomorrah raised immense moral difficulties. Already during the war, some British thinkers were horrified by the indiscriminate nature of the bombing, and pleaded for more consideration of civilians. In 1944, Anglican Bishop George Bell used the Hamburg attacks as a central point in his mighty denunciation of Allied bombing strategy.

Post-Hiroshima concerns about civilian losses further aroused popular concerns about such raids. Not until 2012 did the British erect an official memorial to RAF Bomber Command.

It was difficult, then, to admit that the attacks might really have had the impact that they did, and that they significantly shortened the war. Had these raids not been eclipsed by the atomic bombs, we would assuredly remember Gomorrah as a grim turning point in military history, and indeed in the history of humanity.

Read it all.

Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, that in thy light we may see light: the light of thy grace today, and the light of thy glory hereafter; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Lancelot Andrewes

O Lord, whose way is perfect: Help us, we pray thee, always to trust in thy goodness; that walking with thee in faith, and following thee in all simplicity, we may possess quiet and contented minds, and cast all our care on thee, because thou carest for us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Christina Rossetti

Facing a nervous crowd, the guard ordered Campbell to walk through the gate. So the famous civil-rights activist ”” the only white leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. invited to the first Southern Christian Leadership Conference meeting ”” got down on the floor and crawled through. Then he retrieved his cane.

Campbell admitted, when telling this parable to Baptist progressives in 1994, that he then gave the cane a “sassy little twirl.” His wife asked: “Why do you do things like that?”

“Because, I’m a Baptist! I come from a long line of hell-raisers,” said Campbell. “I was taught that I wasn’t a robot ”” that I was a human being with a mind, capable of reason, entitled to read any book, including the Bible, and interpret it according to the ability of the mind I was given. That’s why I do things like that.”

Read it all.

Grant, O heavenly Father, that as we have each received any gift of thine entrusted to us, so we may minister the same one to another, as good stewards of thy manifold grace; that thy holy name may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.

Al Qaeda not only remains a threat to the United States, but its capabilities and scope are expanding, a new analysis from a respected think tank has concluded.

“There has been a net expansion in the number and geographic scope of Al Qaeda affiliates and allies over the past decade, indicating that Al Qaeda and its brand are far from defeated,” argues Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corporation and the study’s author.

Why, after a decade of wars ”“ the longest in America’s history ”“ is the terrorist organization that the US military set out to defeat still active and growing? And does it really have an impact on the everyday safety of most Americans?

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Come, Lord, and reign over us this day as our rightful King. Rule in our hearts and fill them with thy love; rule in our minds and bring every thought into captivity to thyself; rule in our lives and make them holy like thine own; for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by thy grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know thee in the power of his endless life; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.

Episcopal Bishop Paul V. Marshall, who has guided the Bethlehem diocese for 17 years, has informed the diocesan Standing Committee that he will resign as bishop at the end of the year.

“A number of circumstances and conversations have made it very difficult for me to continue as bishop of the diocese that I have come to love with all my heart,” Marshall, 65, said Monday in a letter to the committee.

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A task force created by The Episcopal Church to investigate changes within the denomination’s ecclesiastical structure has met and released a new report.

“Structural, administrative, and governance change is only one component of the renewal to which the church is being called. Our deepest hope and prayer for our work is that it will be part of, and will continue to catalyze, the renewal that is taking place in many places around the church,” reads part of the report from the Task Force for Re-Imagining the Episcopal Church (TREC). met last week at the Institute of Technology in Linthicum, Maryland.

Read it all.