On a recent trip to Egypt, the chefs at our hotel put out a remarkable buffet of culinary delights presented with both excellent taste and exquisite aesthetics.

One of our group members served onto his plate a beautiful spread: a cucumber disc topped with a triangle of cheese, a baby tomato, and a swirl of what looked like a dessert mousse. Sitting back at our table, he took a bite, and his eyes went wide as he grimaced. “What is this?!” he cried. That sweet mousse turned out to be liver pâté—not at all what he was expecting!

It’s the time of the year when many Christians embark on a new Bible reading plan. Reading through the Bible from cover to cover is a wonderful practice that exposes us to its less-familiar passages. We may discover new treasures along the way, tucked between the stories we know.

But we may also encounter passages we’d rather spit out of our mouths, like my friend’s liver pâté. Expecting inspiration, we may instead find hard words, troubling scenes, or confusing episodes. Especially if we hoped for an endorphin-generating Bible study—a “feel-good” devotional to carry us through our day—we can often find ourselves disillusioned.

Read it all.

Cringeworthy passages can derail our yearly Bible reading plans. How do we interpret them? @carmenjoyimes writes: https://t.co/6DCtit1uz8

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) January 22, 2024

Camp Jubilee Needs YOUR Help

We ask for your prayers and your financial contributions towards the purchase of property that we believe the Lord has shown us to be the new home for Camp Jubilee.  We have raised $1.5 M but still need to raise an additional $2.3 million by February 23.  We invite you to prayerfully consider helping us to acquire this land.  It will be a place for our diocese and beyond for generations to come!. Find out more here.

Read it all.

The Latest Edition of the #Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/shzErlFAL4 'We ask for your prayers and your financial contributions towards the purchase of property that we believe the Lord has shown us to be the new home for Camp Jubilee. We have… pic.twitter.com/QyvSbhNuSp

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 24, 2024

Americans’ ratings of nearly all 23 professions measured in Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll are lower than they have been in recent years. Only one profession — labor union leaders — has not declined since 2019, yet a relatively low 25% rate their honesty and ethics as “very high” or “high.”

Nurses remain the most trusted profession, with 78% of U.S. adults currently believing nurses have high honesty and ethical standards. However, that is down seven percentage points from 2019 and 11 points from its peak in 2020.

At the other end of the spectrum, members of Congress, senators, car salespeople and advertising practitioners are viewed as the least ethical, with ratings in the single digits that have worsened or remained flat.

Read it all.

Ethics Ratings of Nearly All Professions Down in U.S.: Nurses remain the most trusted profession.
(Megan Brenan & Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup)
More, via Opinion Today:https://t.co/wHYJF1nkIV pic.twitter.com/ruCnvYuBTR

— Opinion Today (@OpinionToday) January 22, 2024

Courage…is the indispensable requisite of any true ministry…. If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinion, go and do something else. Go make shoes to fit them. Go even and paint pictures you know are bad but will suit their bad taste. But do not keep on all of your life preaching sermons which shall not say what God sent you to declare, but what they hire you to say. Be courageous. Be independent.

—-Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching, the 1877 Yale Lectures (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969), p. 59

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) https://t.co/AnTSEWvU4D pic.twitter.com/AdxmOfIKdu

— HAM: Paintings (Bot) (@harvard_artbot) January 11, 2024

O everlasting God, who didst reveal truth to thy servant Phillips Brooks, and didst so form and mold his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all whom thou dost call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in thy word, and conform their lives to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893

Long the Rector of Trinity Church Boston & briefly Bishop of Massachusetts, he is also remembered for writing "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Memorial in Boston (Photo by Daderot, via Wikimedia) pic.twitter.com/a2D3P9eZyd

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) January 23, 2024

Almighty God, we beseech thee of thy mercy to endue us with the spirit of meekness and patience; so that no evil we may suffer from others may move us to do evil to them, and that we may strive ever to live peaceably with all men; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

–The Rev. James Mountain (1844-1933)

This morning's sky #Shetland pic.twitter.com/90FdJ9RTeH

— Catherine Munro (@CatherineMMunro) January 23, 2024

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

–Hebrews 9:11-14

Happy #ThickTrunkTuesday have a great day wherever your path takes you pic.twitter.com/EDWs142fGH

— Mathew Bourne (@mbhbtb) January 23, 2024