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Courtney attended college to please...

Illustration
Epiphany 5 | Ordinary Time 5 - C
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)
Courtney attended college to please her parents. Then, two-thirds through her sophomore year, she needed to declare a major. She considered that choosing a major was near to deciding what to do with the rest of her life. She talked about it with friends, her faculty advisor, and the chaplain. He suggested she join the university's spring break urban plunge to experience larger needs of the world and to discover what skills or abilities she might have to serve others.

During that week she worked in a soup kitchen and a daycare for low-income parents.
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Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

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For August 3, 2025:

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Object: The object of the lesson is a gesture you will teach the children.

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Call to Worship:

Jesus warned against with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God. Through our worship today let us pledge ourselves to seek our treasure only in God.

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Jesus, sometimes we envy others because of all they possess.
Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, sometimes we desire all that money can buy.
Christ, have mercy.

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For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.... Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
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How do you focus on something unseen? How can we set our minds on that which we can't touch, or taste, or verify scientifically? Most practical people want proof. Abstract propositions are difficult to get our arms around, especially if they are from another time and place.
Thomas A. Renquist
This story begins with gift -- with blessed gift -- with miraculous, blessed giftedness. And I will even tell you now the theme of the story: if you keep your eye on the giftedness of everything, then you yourself can be a gift, you can be a giver, rather than a hoarder.
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" 'It was I who taught Ephraim how to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them' (11:3). They did not know me. Do you?

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