Poets & Saints

Scripture   Psalm 73:23–26 (NRSV)    Yet I am always with You;   You hold my right hand.   You guide me with Your counsel,   and afterward You will receive me with honor.   Whom have I in heaven but You?   And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.   My flesh and my heart may fail,   but God...

Scripture   Romans 12:4–5 (NRSV)    For as in one body we have many members,   and not all the members have the same function,   so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,   and individually we are members one of another. Refrain   I do not walk alone, we belong to each other. Quote Desmond Tutu    “My humanity is bound up in...

Scripture   Mark 5:25–34 (NRSV, abridged)    Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.   She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd   and touched His cloak, for she said,   “If I but touch His clothes, I will be made well.”   Immediately her bleeding stopped;   and Jesus,...

Scripture   1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NRSV)    Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,   which you have from God, and that you are not your own?   For you were bought with a price;   therefore glorify God in your body. Refrain   God dwells in this body, I will honor it as holy. Quote Hildegard of Bingen &...

Scripture   Psalm 46:10 (NRSV)    “Be still, and know that I am God!   I am exalted among the nations,   I am exalted in the earth.”   Refrain   Beneath the noise, Your breath is still here. Quote John Main    “In the silence, we do not pretend to find God—   we allow God to find us.   We do not reach for Him...

Scripture   Isaiah 49:15–16 (NRSV)    Can a woman forget her nursing child,   or show no compassion for the child of her womb?   Even these may forget,   yet I will not forget you.   See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;   your walls are continually before me. Refrain   I rest in hands stronger than my ow...

Scripture   Romans 8:26–27 (NRSV)    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;   for we do not know how to pray as we ought,   but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.   And God, who searches the heart,   knows what is the mind of the Spirit,   because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to t...

Scripture   Exodus 3:1–5 (NRSV)    Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,   the priest of Midian;   he led his flock beyond the wilderness,   and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.   There the angel of the Lord appeared to him   in a flame of fire out of a bush;   he looked, and the bush was blazing,...

Scripture   2 Corinthians 3:17–18 (NRSV)    Now the Lord is the Spirit,   and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.   And all of us, with unveiled faces,   seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror,   are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another;   for this comes f...

Scripture   Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NRSV)    Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,   whose trust is the Lord.   They shall be like a tree planted by water,   sending out its roots by the stream.   It shall not fear when heat comes,   and its leaves shall stay green;   in the year of drought it is not anxious,   a...

Scripture   Hebrews 11:1–3 (NRSV)    Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,   the conviction of things not seen.   Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.   By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God,   so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Refrain   Even...

Scripture   Psalm 42:1–3 (NRSV)    As a deer longs for flowing streams,   so my soul longs for You, O God.   My soul thirsts for God,   for the living God.   When shall I come and behold the face of God?   My tears have been my food day and night,   while people say to me continually,   “Where is your God?” R...

Scripture   John 20:24–29 (NRSV)    But Thomas, who was called the Twin, one of the twelve,   was not with them when Jesus came.   So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.”   But he said to them,   “Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands,   and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His si...

Scripture   John 20:19–22 (NRSV)    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,   Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”   After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side.   Then the disciples rejoiced when they...

Scripture   Psalm 23 (NRSV)    The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.   He makes me lie down in green pastures;   He leads me beside still waters;   He restores my soul.   He leads me in right paths   for His name’s sake.   Even though I walk through the darkest valley,   I fear no evil;   for Y...

Scripture   Genesis 16:7–13 (NRSV)    The angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness,   the spring on the way to Shur. And he said,   “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”   She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”   The angel of the Lord said to her, &nbsp...

Scripture   Matthew 5:14–16 (NRSV)    “You are the light of the world.   A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.   No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket,   but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.   In the same way, let your light shine before others,   so that they may see your good...

Scripture   Isaiah 40:28–31 (NRSV)    Have you not known? Have you not heard?   The Lord is the everlasting God,   the Creator of the ends of the earth.   He does not faint or grow weary;   His understanding is unsearchable.   He gives power to the faint,   and strengthens the powerless.   Even youths will fa...

Scripture   Philippians 3:7–14 (NRSV)    Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.   More than that, I regard everything as loss   because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.   For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things,   and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I ma...

Scripture   Genesis 28:10–16 (NRSV)    Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.   He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set.   Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down.   And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth,   the top of it reaching to...

Scripture   Psalm 131 (NRSV)    O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,   my eyes are not raised too high;   I do not occupy myself with things   too great and too marvelous for me.   But I have calmed and quieted my soul,   like a weaned child with its mother;   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.  ...

Scripture   Proverbs 3:5–8 (NRSV)    Trust in the Lord with all your heart,   and do not rely on your own insight.   In all your ways acknowledge Him,   and He will make straight your paths.   Do not be wise in your own eyes;   fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.   It will be a healing for your flesh   an...

Scripture   John 14:16–20, 26–27 (NRSV)    And I will ask the Father,   and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.   This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,   because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.   You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you.   I will not leave yo...

Scripture   Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, 11 (NRSV)    For everything there is a season,   and a time for every matter under heaven:   a time to be born, and a time to die;   a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;   a time to kill, and a time to heal;   a time to break down, and a time to build up;   a time to...

Scripture   Lamentations 3:21–26 (NRSV)    But this I call to mind,   and therefore I have hope:   The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,   His mercies never come to an end;   they are new every morning;   great is Your faithfulness.   “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,   “therefore I will hope in...