Step 1: Speak to God
You who invite all people into your love, kindly guide us with the actions and words that will serve as a repetition of Your invitation. We don’t need to attract numbers to the Church as a marketer would to build a brand. You have a plan and an invitation for everyone, some with membership in the Church, others through the peculiar way you have prepared their redemption. With that freedom in mind how can we ratify your invitation and certainly not hinder it by being ideological, by being divisively political by looking out for our own self-aggrandizement.
Our world is ostensibly very sophisticated but probably not more than the Greek philosophers of St. Paul’s day. Help us to be intimate with You, so that what we share with others in Your Name may accomplish what you wish to accomplish with that audience. May our “discussions” with You inform us of the message you wish to be shared. We understand that our actions speak louder than our words and sometimes that is counter to the message You have left us, Provide us with a guide to act and speak as one close to you, powerless and humble as was our savior.
Listen to God in Scripture
| Hebrew Scripture | New Testament |
| Isaias 56:3-8
All People Obligations and Promises to Share in the Covenant
3 The foreigner joined to the LORD should not say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people”; Nor should the eunuch say, “See, I am a dry tree.” 4For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose what pleases me, and who hold fast to my covenant, 5I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name Better than sons and daughters; an eternal name, which shall not be cut off, will I give them. 6And foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, To love the name of the LORD, to become his servants— All who keep the sabbath without profaning it and hold fast to my covenant, 7*Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8* Oracle of the Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel— Others will I gather to them besides those already gathered.
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The Message
1 Cor 1:18-31 Paradox of the Cross. 18The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.” 20Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21* For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. The Corinthians and Paul. 26Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29so that no human being might boast* before God. 30It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”
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Put together what you told God and what God told you. Converse with God.