Please Note

You are viewing the old version of the Forward Movement prayer site, which is no longer updated. It is possible that content may not reflect the latest updates, and may contain errors.

Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movement

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for December 3, 2016

We post a Forward Day by Day Meditation for every day of the year - and we invite you to consider them and talk about them here. If you'd like to comment, you can log in to Disqus with your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account; just click "Login," or the appropriate logo below. Or, you can sign up for a Disqus account; just use the entry form below, or click the "D" logo to start the process. You can find the past week's Meditations in the box at right (or below, for mobile users), or search for previous entries on the Archives page. You can also listen to the Forward Day by Day podcast anywhere you find podcasts!

Please note: you won't be able to use the Comment feature unless you enable Javascript in your browser. In general, your overall experience on the Daily Prayer site will be greatly enhanced if you enable Javascript.

SATURDAY, December 3

Luke 21:6 As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.

When I was a missionary in Paraguay, I was assigned to work with a local young man named Neri. He had barely finished high school, and I was a college graduate. We were poorly matched.

Neri’s lifelong ambition was to become a beekeeper. “When Jesus returns in all his glory, civilizations will collapse,” he explained. “Farming and beekeeping will go on forever.” Neri’s reading of prophecy struck me as misguided. “Too urgent and literal,” I thought. Or maybe not.

When I drive through Cincinnati, I see entire neighborhoods in decline. At the corner of Gilbert Avenue and Taft Road, there used to be a Presbyterian church, and today it is a place where Jesus’ prophecy is being fulfilled literally—except for one tower, the grand Neo-Gothic edifice is completely gone.

Is it possible that in today’s lesson from Luke, Jesus is referring to a curse we inflicted on ourselves? And what should be our response when we see neighborhoods, cities, and nations in the throes of collapse?

PRAY for the Diocese of Karnataka Central (South India)

Ps 20, 21:1-7(8-14) * 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117; Isaiah 4:2-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Luke 21:5-19