Alive Now

Bless This Journey

Beth A Richardson — Tue, 02 May 2017 06:45:40 +0000

Thank you, Alive Now friends, for being companions with us through the years. It’s been such an honor to travel on this journey with you.

I am beginning a new job this month as the Director of Prayer and Upper Room Worship Life. Thank you for your prayers for me and for The Upper Room as we discern how we can be of service to the world.

Several notes for you:

Audio Lectio is still located here on our website. Join us each week and pray the gospel reading. Listen and pray.
We recommend Sight Psalms and/or Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books for your daily inspirational email.
Please be sure to sign up for a monthly email from Alive Now and Weavings. We’ll share any publishing developments that might interest you.

Thank you, dear friends, and God’s richest blessings for you!

Beth A. Richardson

P.S. In case you were not able to see the video at the top of this post, please view it on YouTube.

Our Final Threshold

Beth A Richardson — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 07:45:16 +0000

| From the Editor: Today marks the end of the Alive Now daily reflections. We have loved serving you! Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Sunday, April 30. 3rd Sunday of Easter. As we cross this final threshold of prayer together, reflect on what you might take from Alive Now into a new season of prayer and growth. May you be blessed by every door you open.

Share your final thoughts.

Words from the Word: You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
– 1 Peter 1:23, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Art Credit: Coventry Cathedral – Baptistery, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54899 [retrieved March 22, 2017]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/2652744641/.

Emmaus Moments

Beth A Richardson — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 07:45:14 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Saturday, April 29. Read Luke 24:13-35. This story begins with the discouraged disciples on one road and ends with the transformed disciples on another. What have been Emmaus moments on your faith journey?

Share your moments.

Words from the Word: Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
– Luke 24:13-16, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Love Deeply

Beth A Richardson — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 07:45:02 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Friday, April 28. 1 Peter 1:17-23 exhorts believers to love deeply. What thresholds have you crossed in learning how to love deeply, as God loves?

Share your ideas.

Words from the Word: Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.
– 1 Peter 1:22, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Faith Practices

Beth A Richardson — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 07:45:23 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Thursday, April 27. Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 includes vivid images of faith practices, such as paying vows. What faith practices are important to you that could be included in this prayer?

Share your practices.

Words from the Word: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
– Psalm 116:13-14, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Mystery of Easter

Beth A Richardson — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 07:45:34 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Wednesday, April 26. Read “Easter Essentials” (p. 36). What image from the Easter story presented here is the most mysterious? Which helps strengthen your faith?

Share your perspective.

Words from the Word: Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
– Luke 24:22-23, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Call to Repentance

Beth A Richardson — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 07:45:53 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Tuesday, April 25. When you read Acts 2:14a, 36-41, include yourself in Peter’s call to repentance. How do you balance knowledge of your own moral culpability with knowledge of your forgiveness?

Share your reflection.

Words from the Word: Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
– Acts 2:38, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Yom HaShoah

Beth A Richardson — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 07:45:01 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Monday, April 24. Today is Yom HaShoah, a day of remembrance of the Holocaust. Consider how you can speak out against hatred and violence.

Share your ideas.

Words from the Word: But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
– Deuteronomy 4:9, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from Luke 24:13-35

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, Becoming a Compassionate Neighbor to Myself.

Roles You Play

Beth A Richardson — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 07:45:45 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Sunday, April 23. 2nd Sunday of Easter. Read “The Name that Matters” (p. 32). How do the roles you play help you express your belovedness? Which role is easiest to identify in that way? For which role is it harder to see love as an essential element?

Share your thoughts.

Words from the Word: But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
– John 20:31, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Art Credit: Jesus Ascending, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54259 [retrieved March 21, 2017]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuawillis/195548819/.

Unbelievable News

Beth A Richardson — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 07:45:49 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Saturday, April 22. Read John 20:19-31. In this passage, Jesus is crossing thresholds, both physical and emotional. What is your response to this unbelievable news?

Share your response.

Words from the Word: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
– John 20:19, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Sight Unseen

Beth A Richardson — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 07:45:26 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Friday, April 21. Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. If someone asked you to explain how it can be that you love Jesus even though you have not seen him, what would you say?

Share your words.

Words from the Word: Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
– 1 Peter 1:8-9, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Memorable Thresholds

Beth A Richardson — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 07:45:54 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Thursday, April 20. Read “Unknown Doors” (p. 35). What are some of the most memorable doors or thresholds you have crossed? What helped you venture into the unknown?

Share your memories.

Words from the Word: In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith–being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
– 1 Peter 1:6-7, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Inheritance

Beth A Richardson — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 07:45:04 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Wednesday, April 19. Psalm 16 celebrates a rich inheritance. What have you inherited from your religious tradition? What inspires or challenges you to uphold this tradition or to forge new understandings?

Share your perspective.

Words from the Word: The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
– Psalm 16:5-6, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Threshold of Life

Beth A Richardson — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 07:45:02 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Tuesday, April 18. Read “We Can Count On It!” (p. 29). How is death a threshold into a new life? How can the awareness of death help us value life now and embrace the promise of eternal life?

Share your reflection.

Words from the Word: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
– 1 Peter 1:3-5, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Power of Death

Beth A Richardson — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 07:45:18 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Monday, April 17. In Acts 2:14, 22-32 Peter says Jesus could not be held by death’s power. Where do you see the power of death at work around you? How can Peter’s words give you hope and possibility?

Share your thoughts.

Words from the Word: But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.
– Acts 2:24, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture using audio lectio from John 20:19-31.

Spiritual Tools: Engage in this weeks spiritual practice, The Season of Easter.

Christ Is Risen!

Beth A Richardson — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 07:45:01 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Sunday, April 16. Easter. Christ is risen! Read the Easter Litany. Choose one line to be your jubilant breath prayer through the day.

Share your prayer.

Words from the Word: Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
– John 20:18, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:
Texts for Holy Week

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture for Good Friday and Easter using audio lectio.

Spiritual Tools: Pray the prayer for Easter.

Art Credit: He, Qi. He is Risen, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46117 [retrieved March 21, 2017]. Original source: heqigallery.com.

Blocked Light

Beth A Richardson — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 07:45:00 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Saturday, April 15. Holy Saturday. Read the litany for Holy Saturday. Try to visualize the light blocked and then use the image in a meditation.

Share your reflections.

Lectionary Texts:
Texts for Holy Week

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture for Good Friday and Easter using audio lectio.

Spiritual Tools: Pray the prayer for Holy Saturday.

The Stone Moves

Beth A Richardson — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 07:45:34 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms.
|

Friday, April 14. Good Friday. Read the litany for Good Friday. Make a list of the things the stone might represent for you and for the world.

Share your perspective

Words from the Word: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
– John 20:1, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:
Texts for Holy Week

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture for Good Friday and Easter using audio lectio.

Spiritual Tools: Pray the prayer for Good Friday.

Build Bigger Tables

Beth A Richardson — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 07:45:04 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Thursday, April 13. Maundy Thursday. Read the litany on p. 40. How could you extend the table through a change of heart or a new spiritual practice or ministry?

Share your ideas.

Words from the Word: Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
– Acts 10:34-35, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:
Texts for Holy Week

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture for Good Friday and Easter using audio lectio.

Spiritual Tools: Pray the prayer for Maundy Thursday.

Hidden in God

Beth A Richardson — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 07:45:08 +0000

| From the Editor: These emails will end April 30. We have loved serving you. Consider subscribing to Daily Reflections from Upper Room Books or Sight Psalms. |

Wednesday, April 12. Read Colossians 3:1-4. What does saying that your life is hidden in God mean? What does the resurrection of Christ reveal about human life, as well as about divine power?

Share your reflections.

Words from the Word: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
– Colossians 3:2-3, NRSV

Lectionary Texts:
Texts for Holy Week

Audio Lectio: Pray the scripture for Good Friday and Easter using audio lectio.

Spiritual Tools: This week, pray the prayers for Holy Week.