by Amy K Bell Finiki

To create a peaceable kingdom in 2017, we need to hold one another accountable. We need to ask the hard questions and we need to keep being persistent. The only way to live peaceably is to begin to understand our discomforts, especially those with other people. We can heal one another through our stories and eventually, no one will think twice when a group of young people of all colors come together to learn from one another.

by Janet E. Blair

The foundation of the ESL ministry of the Morning Star Fellowship in the Korean immigrant community in northern New Jersey is not English language teaching with a lopsided power differential, but mutual teaching and learning, sharing of Biblical insights and cultural experience, and brotherly and sisterly love. This new faith community is living out the peaceable kingdom as the body of Christ now rather than passively awaiting the not yet.

by Jerry Reisig

As we are daily inundated with images of war, we begin to wonder what an image of peace would look like. George Fox, an early Friend (Quaker), spoke of the need to become “patterns and examples” which reflect the God within. Friends have long looked to the Epistle of James for guidance in becoming perfect in their walks, warning of false images and the desires. Friends are called to become images of peace from God within, so that others might come to see the God within themselves.

by Neal D. Presa

Although many subscribers to this journal belong to the various Protestant ecclesial traditions, it behooves us to read, reflect upon, and study Congar’s thoughts. His is another important lens into what it means to be the Church, how our life on this side of heaven is a relationship with and response to God and God’s revelation in Christ through the Spirit, and that the dividing wall of sacred and profane, as Congar puts it, is a permeable one because of the comprehensive nature of the Lord’s love and mercies for all of creation.

by Darla Turlington

Here are quotations from the Bible and from secular writings that pastors and others may find useful in sermons, essays, or other venues.

by Jin Hee Han

In our current issue, our authors underscore that a hope-filled vision of peace dots the pages of the Old and New Testaments and the history of the church. The believing communities have dreamed a dream of accord from early church people and medieval women and men to the immigrants in the modern metropolitan municipalities. With bountiful insights, our authors shield us from decadent despair and challenge us to build a new world actively.

As if it is our daily bread, we hear a common greeting that strikes up the yearning for peace. We hold dear the Hebrew greeting of shalom and the Arabic ’as-salam ‘alaykum that always finds its echo with wa-‘alaykum ’as-salam. We pray these prayers of peace bear their fruit every day, everywhere, and very soon.

by Åke Viberg

“…When we know we cannot know everything and that we will soon die, what do we do?” It’s usually a painful experience to realize that we are limited beings forced to make some tough decisions in order to adapt to this very sobering realization. In the end however, we must face life as it is, and change.

by Nancy Fields

For a while, I struggled to find grace in the words, “They will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother.” However, as I listen to the politics of the day, I am convinced of the wisdom of those words. My challenge has been to put the words of rhetoric, debate, and argument in their rightful places!

by Peter Lau

As we read the psalms, we find the motif of panting or thirsting, which is part of a larger theme of longing for God. This article will first explore the motif of panting and thirsting in five psalms, and then trace the theme of longing through to the New Testament.

by Rebeca Radillo

The theme of this article is “Breathing.” Its purpose is to expand our thinking to allow us to better understand the complexity of the human life by seeking in the biopsychosocial/spiritual/religious model new perspectives related to the intricacy of human life. Its goal is to expand our vision to the point that we realize that nothing in our daily life, even when it is as simplistic and routine as “breathing,” can be taken for granted.

by William J. Sappenfield

Breathing readily illustrates the nature of paradox in our relationship with God. Breathing is the climax of God’s creation of humans in Genesis 2 and it is Jesus’ means of commissioning his disciples in John 20. But God slipped a paradox into creation to give us a reminder of how our relationship with God is maintained.

by Harold Dean Trulear

In a real sense, if we answer the question “How do we preach to them,” we run the risk of developing a formulaic response itself devoid of the Divine Breath. The answer lies not in a formula, but in an encounter with that Breath itself. Our encounter with that Breath as preachers gives freer passageway for the Breath to enter the places in congregants’ souls deprived of spiritual oxygen.