Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
THURSDAY, November 18 (Hilda of Whitby)
Luke 17:20-37. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.
Jesus warns the disciples to prepare for a future encounter with Christ. The verse quoted above is most important: the more we try to get for ourselves, the more we are bound to lose. By unselfish service we attain Christian joy as a by-product. If we actively seek “peace of mind,” “spiritual serenity,” and “a good life,” these things prove elusive. They are by-products of an active life of Christian service which seeks nothing for itself.
Prayer suggestion: Pray for imagination and vision in finding new ways to serve God and those you meet daily. As ideas come during your prayers, write them down. Do not hurry through your devotions. Compile a list of acts of service you propose to do for others. Place it as a bookmark before chapter 23 of Luke’s gospel, then check on it and evaluate it later. (1972)
—Hymnal 1982, #659, 660
PRAY for the Diocese of Kebbi (Province of Kaduna, Nigeria)
Ps 105:1-22 * 105:23-45; Malachi 2:1-16; James 4:13—5:6
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
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This poses the challenging thought as to whether there is a "hereafter" heaven and an associated apocolyptic reckoning at some vague future time or whether we are already in and experiencing the Kingdom of God in this creation and had better make the best of it as we have inherited it and are about to pass it on.
Did Jesus feel that he had to threaten and scare people into thinking and doing justly and rightly towards the rest of this creation with his talk of the end times as picked up and repeated by the writers of the epistles?