“The Bible says little about the temperature of hell nor the furniture of heaven”. This quote from the great German theologian Reinhold Niebuhr fits in with the story of the rich man and Lazarus where we are made aware of the dangers of being mean with our money and uncharitable to others. This is echoed by the scam artists who have been using Italy’s earthquake disaster for profit by selling T-shirts and claiming the proceeds will go to the victims and their families. We, as human beings must adopt a just and moral outlook to life and realise that bad deeds have consequences and bring regret, and yet also know that God is at our side, protecting us and forgiving us when we show remorse and hold steadfast in our beliefs.
• After a ‘Refugees Welcome Here’ march in London, England, let us pray against the exploitation of thousands of refugees in places such as the Middle East and South Sudan who can be ruthlessly stripped of their life’s savings to risk their lives to escape from war and poverty for a better life. The UN estimates there are over 65 million people worldwide who have had to flee their homes, 34,000 every day, nearly half of which are children. Many are missing and are feared to have fallen victim to human traffickers, sexual abuse or modern slavery.
Merciful Lord, defend and protect those innocents, and let peace override greed and power…
• We pray for those affected by the world’s natural disasters of floods, fires and typhoons: in the U.S., Taiwan, China, Greece and North Korea.
‘For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…’ (2 Corinthians 5.1)
• Let us also pray for the 9 people stabbed at a shopping centre in Minnesota, U.S. in a suggested religious attack. For the 29 people in the U.S. who were injured in an explosion in Manhattan, New York and those affected by the explosion in New Jersey. We pray, too, for the cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina, which are reeling from the deaths this week of two black men killed by police, Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, and ask, Loving God, that peace and wisdom may prevail, and hearts may be opened.
• We pray for the dozens of aid workers and truck drivers killed by two air strikes near Aleppo, Syria.
• We pray for the 13 dead after a boat capsized north of Bangkok, Thailand and the 43 migrants who perished off the Egyptian coast, with hundreds still missing.
• Let our thoughts turn to the 20 killed in rebel fighting in Central African Republic and those suffering from warfare throughout the continent.
Gracious God, bring comfort to the victims and help turn the hearts that hate…
Help us Lord, to take pride in helping others, to put our trust in you instead of money and put it to good use. We can then be rich in ourselves and our souls if we are generous to those less well-off whether they be family, friend or neighbour, close by or far away. Let us take inspiration from those people; such as the man from Yorkshire, England who ran 75 marathons in 75 days, at the age of 75, raising £75,000 for a special needs school.
Lord, we give thanks and praise to those who inspire us; bless them all.
Amen.
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