Marianne's FLASH💥DEVOS Podcast

Luke 11:33-36 “Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning.“+Jesus offers practical advice for homemakers even though he had no home of his own. “Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.”When Jesus comes to dwell with us, he chooses to dwell within us.Flash💥Devos is reader-supported with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Job 4:2-6“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?But who can keep from speaking?Think how you have instructed many,how you have strengthened feeble hands.Your words have supported those who stumbled;you have strengthened faltering knees.But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;it strikes you, and you are dismayed.Should not your piety be your confidenceand your blameless ways your hope?+Cultivating our neighborhoods invests in our future.Invite others to flourish in beloved community.Flash💥Devos is reader-supported with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Mark 11:22-24“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”+Faith challenges our expectations. Jesus promised, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”Boldly trust the Spirit’s creativity in shaping our futures.*Allison May Kiphuth is an artist, sternman, and collector of things who lives in a tiny house in Monhegan, Maine. Her dioramas in antique boxes, unboxed diorama scenes, and watercolor and ink studies of natural objects enchant viewers. Discover her current work at linktr.ee/alliemaykiphuth or her website https://www.allisonmaykiphuth.com/Your tips or subscription💥matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Nahum 1:3The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.God’s way is in the whirlwind and the storm,and clouds are the dust of his feet.+When we try to express power through the whirlwind and the dust of our feet, the result looks like Pigpen traipsing through a Peanuts cartoon. Claim your compassion and mercy as an image-bearer of a loving God.Embody the calming force of peace amidst the storms around you.About today’s sculpture “Tetsadi,” from her Life Stories series, Maria commented: According to Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Tetsadi is a Life-Death-Life goddess. The story goes that she carries a large bowl. When turned one way, it’s the womb; turned another way, it’s the breast; turned another way, it’s the grave. According to legend, when someone dies, Tetsadi comes to collect their soul, which she places into her bowl and swirls it around until it gets smaller and smaller and eventually becomes a tiny little dot, like a seed. Then, she flies out into the night and places the little seed into a woman who has just made love so it can come back as a new life. In my little smoke-fired sculpture, Tetsadi is just taking the seed out of the bowl, preparing to accompany it to a new life.*Maria Wickwire creates evocative ceramic sculptures revealing feminine archetypes. “I hope to encourage healing and forgiveness in our sometimes splintering world.” Her studio overlooks Big Lake in northwest Washington. Find Maria and her art at Mariawickwire.comFlash💥Devos is reader-supported with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Luke 20:45-46 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.”+Ouch! Jesus addressed many audiences that included religious leaders. Leveraging appropriate authority, he described what he observed in the marketplaces, synagogues, banquets, and homes of various communities.Would “teachers of the law” hold up to this scrutiny now?Illustration > Marginal drollery from a Cistercian antiphonal, about 1260-1270. Tempera colors.Getty Collection, Los Angeles, CA. Object 83.MH.88.23.Public Domain image.Thanks to people like you, Marianne’s 💥 Substack is a reader-supported project! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Proverbs 6:16-19There are six things the Lord hates,seven that are detestable to him:haughty eyes,a lying tongue,hands that shed innocent blood,a heart that devises wicked schemes,feet that are quick to rush into evil,a false witness who pours out liesand a person who stirs up conflict in the community.+God reveals how to create a holy life with opposites: mercy, compassion, humility, radical honesty, peacefulness, reconciliation, and forgiveness.Choose to live without the things God hates and flourish in eternal community.About the work: Elle writes that “Brighter Days Ahead” is one of the works from UnSilenced II (2021), “the second (almost) annual collaboration among Rebel Art Studio, Voices Against Violence Magic Valley, and the College of Southern Idaho Performing Arts, featuring the work of survivors of intimate partner violence and other forms of abuse.” “Brighter Days Ahead” and their portfolio are available for sale on their website https://www.elleandwink.com/*Elle Billing creates safe spaces for community in rural North Dakota. “I am deeply drawn to surrealism, artistic tension, the multiverse, and alternate timelines,” they write. “In the studio you will find me deconstructing old books, making my own collage paper, and infusing my work with the power of story. Experience their invitation “to co-create the world we want” at https://www.elleandwink.com/Your subscription💥matters! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

1 Corinthians 2:9-11“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,and what no human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?+Sometimes a fresh outlook blends forces, colors, and principalities in such a way as to capture our imaginations.What energies are propelling your life into the future?*Scott Takes’ mural “Next Nature” reflects a philosophy about how human cultural activity creates a new nature that includes technology, created things, and futuristic forms. In an interview, Scott said he felt gratified by the abundant positivity his work generated. “The solar system reflected in the final product is meant to signify the bigger picture of nature,” the interview explained, “while Lucille Ball represents a female pioneer and an iconic force for women using humor and gravitas.” He featured Lucille Ball because her show was a favorite he watched with his mother. Explore Scott’s extensive work at https://undergroundartstudios.com/Mural photographed by Marianne Abel-Lipschutz, 2025Your tips, prayers, and subscriptions💥matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Genesis 1:21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every wingéd bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.+Honor the physical reality in this image—everything we can see, as well as hidden things like birds in trees, insects on tree bark, microorganisms in the earth and water. Listen as wind ripples leaves. Feel the swift current on cold feet.Consider what is good to God.*Meg West lives near Charlottesville, Virginia, delighting others with her plein air oil paintings since 2000. Her landscapes depict scenes throughout the Shenandoah Valley, as well as Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and beyond. “I enjoy the rhythm and momentum that comes with a steady flow of painting,” she wrote. “We went to Sugar Hollow this morning and David hiked to the waterfalls and I stood in the water and painted,” a unique way to celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary. Find Meg on her blog at http://www.megwestoilpainting.net/Flash💥Devos is reader-supported with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

“Thank you for reading and listening to my Flash💥Devos during September. As my gift to you, I invite you to walk with me around our neighborhood in Antigua, Guatemala. In this article, recently published on FieldFare on Substack, I talk about how I’ve become acquainted with this foreign place in a different time zone with its own climate, geology, languages, people, buildings, history, and cuisine. If we were together, we’d also witness the Divine presence everywhere. I pray that you enjoy wherever you are today as a gift of God; share it with someone new! ❤️‍🔥” Words and images: Marianne Abel-LipschutzIn the Land of Eternal Springby Marianne Abel-LipschutzWe spend most of each year at 5,000 feet above sea level in Antigua, Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage city. Known for 16th-century colonial enterprises that spread across Central America, Antigua prizes its Spanish-Baroque architecture with tile roofs, small buildings connected by plazas, and lush manicured gardens. Mystery embellishes history here, where about 46,000 people live in the Panchoy Valley. Our immersion into this city’s life makes the tropical part of our year distinct from our other home in the rural upper midwest of the United States.Whenever we return from the States, it takes me a few weeks to remember what I like about living in Antigua. Elaborate gates and decrepit-looking walls conceal mansions or parking lots. Sometimes the city appears to be disintegrating, as if an older civilization is being recycled. Walls span centuries with degraded adobe, pitted colonial stone, and disintegrating brick rising up from cobblestone sidewalks, eras and peoples smooshed in a slow erosion. Archaeologists complain that the way Guatemalans salvage materials makes time a shifting kaleidoscope that resists order.Thousands of people transit alongside our neighborhood at the city’s northern entrance every day. Street life criss-crosses between ancient and modern times. Ruins of cathedrals and convents lend a sacred presence to secular venues from restaurants and schools to hotels, rock piles, and empty lots. Tired medieval church bells ring a dull thud for early morning services. A statue of St James the Apostle, the patron saint of Antigua, fills a wall shrine inside the McDonalds restaurant, while Ronald McDonald lounges in the plaza outside.We share an alley and walls with the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, a thriving destination hotel and convention center created from the rubble of the first convent in Latin America, dating to 1538. On clear nights I can hear choral music piped through the hotel’s loudspeakers, conjuring supernatural spirits and howling ghosts. A subliminal spirituality animates my thoughts toward hope and restoration.For now, this place is my other, the entity outside myself that shelters my coming and going. It is not mine; I don’t belong to it nor it to me. We greet one another anew with each visit. Returning to our home base in Antigua reignites my compassion, knowing that people work around the clock to maintain the environment we share. I imagine monks and nuns kneeling on scuffed pews behind crumbling walls, praying for everyone’s wellbeing. One of my Spanish teachers grew up within the ruins of a 16th-century cathedral—her dad was the caretaker. Pigeons and tourists alike tottered through what she thought of as home. Tourists come for the architecture but it’s the people who make this city worthwhile.Antigua is always being reinvented, a living monument to perseverance and survival. Undaunted by recurring floods, earthquakes, and volcanic explosions, Guatemalans have been reconstructing this city with the debris of its previous landmarks since before documentation began. Across every sector, areas are roped off for demolition, almost everything needs maintenance, and city policies mandate restoration wherever possible. It’s all part of the work-around, an orientation of reuse and recycle within Guatemalan culture. Antigua is a city that will never be finished.*****Living in Guatemala is a dance between intimacy and separation. I often feel alienated from the subtropical highland environment that, even after ten years, remains unfamiliar. Having lived most of my life in northern humid continental or subtropical climate zones, I feel sensitive to the disorientation experienced by migrants, refugees, and exiles. All of us try to find places in the world where we can feel whole.Most scenery keeps me at a distance. Postcard-quality mountain vistas, winding roads, dense jungles, and fuming volcanoes decorate many horizons. Highly managed and wild places clash visually. Vegetation prospers so freely that epiphytes subsist on electric cables and single-stalk plants propagate in the volcanic ash on clay roof tiles. Jungle has an omnivorous hunger that consumes itself in ferocious reproductivity. Jungle is tough to enter or escape: encroaching, enveloping, swarming, all-encompassing. I imagine the masked and mythical Mayan ancestors slip

James 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”+Department stores sell “BELIEVE” as a home decoration but reminders aren’t enough. Saying, “I commit to peace” means choices follow; a simple act becomes the next hard thing. Even the disciples fled when Jesus reduced everything to God’s basic plan: “Believe in the one he has sent.” Imagine what we’d miss if the disciples hadn’t come back to accomplish their part of God’s work.Empower others to experience what happens when we believe together.Today’s devotional also appeared this morning in Red Letter Christians’ WakeUps devotional newsletter.Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

John 3:3-5Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”+Birthing transforms parent and child. Choosing to be born again reacquaints us with suffering.Jesus promises love everlasting through it all.Today’s devotional also appeared this morning in Red Letter Christians’ WakeUps devotional newsletter.My friend Lily DeCort is an Ethiopian American painter based in Chicago. Her work, ranging from luminous landscapes to evocative abstracts, reflects the liminality of her experience. Her paintings explore beauty, vulnerability, healing, and the human journey from wonder to loss and hope reborn. Learn more about Lily’s art at https://lilydecort.com/Thanks for subscribing!💥It’s good you’re here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Romans 14:16, 22-23 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line.+We can be quick to judge others.Don’t let what you know is good to be spoken of as evil. [v.16]Your tips, prayers, and (free) subscriptions to Flash💥Devos matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 94:16-19Who will rise up for me against the wicked?Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?Unless the Lord had given me help,I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.When I said, “My foot is slipping,”your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.When anxiety was great within me,your consolation brought me joy.+These couplets witness human vulnerability. When no one comes to “rise up with me” and no one “will take a stand for me,” hope disintegrates.Divine joy extinguishes wickedness.*Marcia Milner-Brage works from direct observation. Marcia faces the blank page “to transfer all my senses, whether I’m looking outward or inward.” She writes, “For me, being in nature is going to church. Through observing the bounty of the earth, I fulfill my calling.” Find her great work on socials and https://www.flickr.com/photos/marciamilner-brage/Your prayers, tips, and subscriptions💥matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 51:10-11God, make a fresh start in me,shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.Don’t throw me out with the trash,or fail to breathe holiness in me.+Imagine God thinking of us as boring chores--trashing some of us, forgetting to breathe in others. Truth is, God does not reject the way our world rejects. Open the book to Genesis whenever you need to remember how God created all things good, and humans — very good. Divine intentions activate resurrection.Invite God to create life with your chaos.*Olly Costello writes, “I hope my work can be a small contributing part of creating our new culture, grounded in honoring the inherent sacredness of all beings and pushing us beyond violent cultures.” Discover their inspiring work on Substack @ollycostello and at their website https://ollycostello.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Romans 12:17-19, 20 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.+Humility and self-discipline flourish together.Tend those places where your influence counts on behalf of others.*Annie Soudain creates local landscapes in watercolors, wax resist on silk, and lino printing in her studio in East Sussex, England. An exhibition catalog said, “Her interest in plants started in her early years spent in Cornwall, on long walks with her mother, most memorably along disused railway tracks where the cuttings were undisturbed and full of flowers and insects.” Annie’s autobiographical book The Marsh, The Sea, and The Sky, and her prints, cards, puzzles, and tea towels are at www.anniesoudain.co.ukFlourishing in authentic relationships with others creates abundance in every setting. Subscribe to Flash💥Devos! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Job 11:13-17“Yet if you devote your heart to himand stretch out your hands to him,if you put away the sin that is in your handand allow no evil to dwell in your tent,then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;you will stand firm and without fear.You will surely forget your trouble,recalling it only as waters gone by.Life will be brighter than noonday,and darkness will become like morning.+Our troubles loom larger than “waters gone by.”Creator activates improbable solutions.My friend and fellow writer *Jill Hinners searches for peace and inspiration on or near Minnesota’s lakes and smaller waterways. Jill writes, “I collect iPhone images to document all the natural beauty in this place I’m so fortunate to call home.”Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

1 Peter 3:3-4 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.+Accessorizing the human spirit proves futile, no matter how lucrative it may be for the multinational beauty and fashion industries. We can’t hide behind makeup, expensive jewelry, or fabulous hair extensions.Dressing up for church or life won’t earn us God’s favor.*Elle Billing creates safe spaces for community in rural North Dakota. “I am deeply drawn to surrealism, artistic tension, the multiverse, and alternate timelines,” they write. “In the studio you will find me deconstructing old books, making my own collage paper, and infusing my work with the power of story.” Experience their invitation “to co-create the world we want” at https://www.elleandwink.com/Your tips + (free) subscription💥matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Romans 1:11-12I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. +Today is the first anniversary of my Flash💥Devos! Thank you for making this dream come true — that we can join our hearts in prayer to address the realities we live and face, together and apart. Here are my intentions for this coming year’s Flash💥Devos. Drop your wishes in a message and we’ll pray over those, too! * Let’s encourage one another. The mutuality of our faith is a wellspring around which we can gather.* Let’s stand together in lament and sorrow, in wonder and joy, in silence and community.Stay fresh in the Spirit and alive to your surroundings. *Marcia Milner-Brage works from direct observation, facing the blank page “to transfer all my senses, whether I’m looking outward or inward.” She writes personal essays and, in visual art, drawing, painting, and collage. “For me, being in nature is going to church. Through observing the bounty of the earth, I fulfill my calling.” Find her great work on socials and https://www.flickr.com/photos/marciamilner-brage/How cool that readers support Flash💥Devos enthusiastically. Thanks a ton! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Tomorrow will be the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of my Flash💥Devos + Podcast. Since I launched Flash💥Devos last September 1st, readers and listeners have devoted over TEN THOUSAND minutes in prayer, coming back again and again to contemplate, to reflect, and to be inspired by Divine Presence.I stand with all of you today--loyal followers and subscribers and casual acquaintances alike--offering a prayer of gratitude for seeking mercy and grace in your lives. Spiritual solutions matter. Thank You for subscribing, following, and praying along with me!A few things caught my attention this year:One huge inspiration:* You showed up! :)Two thrilling stats:* More than half of my subscribers are people I haven’t met yet.* People downloaded my Flash💥Devos podcast nearly 10,000 times!Three ways your participation built community:* We chose quietness.* We prayed across thirty U.S. states and eight countries.* We honored diverse world views and practices.Four surprising things I learned with Flash💥Devos:* People drift in and out to read like curious butterflies without a trace.* I didn’t feel strongly about some devos but others did.* Daily devotional reading habits flow through seasonal and weekly cycles.* I’ve picked up hope from these devos more often than I imagined I’d need.Five awesome comments — and many others — refreshed me:* J. offered: “Beautiful presentation, and also a prompt for me to invite a moment of spiritual contemplation into my life. As my spirituality is less defined and traditional, I approach Christian devotions, Bible verses, hymns, etc., much as I do poetry - I let them filter through my mind and see what deeper or applicable meaning emerges for me.”* S. clicked on a purple heart with this endorsement: “Your one minute flash devos are an encouragement! Our [baby] is up 4x/night still and the sixty seconds is what my brain can give focus to for reflection. Thank you!”* A. cheered: “Wow, Marianne. This is the grounding and orientation I needed today. Thank you! I continue to love how simple, short, and lit these invitations are. I echo back to you, ‘Be strengthened in the truth of your witness.’"* M. confided: “Your sharing of devotions comes at a very good time for me. Although 2024 has been a very good year, I’ve really struggled with the state of our country and the world. I’m seeking more positive news than that which I see on the ‘news.’ Your offering comes as an answer to my prayers!”* E. shared: “I grew up in the Lutheran Church, and while I have deconstructed a lot of the junk from the 90s church culture (...the 90s definitely did a number on me), I still have a deep spiritual practice.”Shout out to these artists, friends, and family who gave me permission to highlight their work alongside the scripture and commentary! Please support their creativity! Jill Hinners, Maureen Seamonds, Marcia Milner-Brage, Lily DeCort, Meg West, Maria Wickwire, Olly Costello, Annie Soudain, Elle Billing, Holly Harris, Christina Farrell, Paula Tomy, Allison May Kiphuth, Colective + Arte, Jack Abel, James Abel, Betsy Baker, and Coralee Barrow.Please stay with me for the coming year on Flash💥Devos + Podcast. Let God multiply our efforts for the good of all, for the good of the future, and for the good of this exceptional present moment. Whether you read, listen, or just stop by, thank you!Dedicated to my mother and my brother Steve, companions on the everlasting journeyIrene M. Abel ~ April 1931 - August 1994Stephen F. Abel ~ December 1958 - August 2017 Readers support Flash💥Devos with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks for your gifts! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Romans 12:3 Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what God does for us, not by what we are and what we do for God.+Right and wrong switch places now. God remains the power greater than all others. God’s grace will always be given.Right-size your relationship to God’s grace.*Allison May Kiphuth is an artist, sternman, and collector of things who lives in a tiny house in Monhegan, Maine. Her dioramas and watercolor and ink studies of natural objects enchant viewers as if we’re walking together and might pick up a feather, a dandelion, or scan the woods at twilight. Discover her current work at linktr.ee/alliemaykiphuth or her website https://www.allisonmaykiphuth.com/Your tips + (free) subscription💥matter! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 73:17-20Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction.In an instant they are destroyed,completely swept away by terrors.When you arise, O Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning.+Wicked people are the “others” we hate. Yet we too act wickedly, and can be hated.Shift a dismal destiny by loving all others.*Maria Wickwire creates ceramic sculptures in northwest Washington. Her works reveal feminine archetypes, she writes, “hoping to encourage healing and forgiveness in our sometimes splintering world.” Find Maria on socials and at Mariawickwire.com About “According to Legend,” she writes, “The nest is a real one, but the eggs are ceramic. I’m not sure how I came up with her title. Maybe she suggests a story that needs to be told.”Thanks for subscribing!💥It’s good you’re here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Luke 6:1-2 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”+Consider the field you walk through with others. Who’s with you? Questions and answers, given freely, can foster new relationships. Who’s watching matters. Conversations can lead to new places both sides agree to explore.If you change who you walk with, try exploring their fields with them.*Elle Billing creates community on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land in rural North Dakota. “I am reconstructing characters’ experiences through mixed media with a focus on vintage texts and contemporary themes,” they write. “In the studio you will find me deconstructing old books, making my own collage paper, and infusing my work with the power of story.” Experience their invitation “to co-create the world we want” at https://www.elleandwink.com/About the Ophelia Series, Elle writes, “The series began when I taught Hamlet to a group of deaf high school students in 2017. Ophelia uses the symbolism of flowers (the so-called feminine) to speak truth to power (the patriarchy). She is a truth teller; however, the frames we have for storytelling don’t have space for that. In Joseph Campbell, women are relegated to madonnas or w****s, sirens or saints. ‘Get thee to a nunnery,’ Hamlet says, as Ophelia is used and cast aside. The in-betweenness her character is forced to occupy doesn’t exist. This is for all the times madness is truth, when it is beautiful, when it’s the appropriate response to the ‘rotten state of Denmark’: our partners, homes, and countries are bent on murderous intent and everyone stays smiling.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 24:1-2The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,the world, and all who live in it;for the Lord founded it on the seasand established it on the waters.+We speak of the earth as a hard place, literally, shaped from molten and exploded rock. Yet many origin stories in folklore and scripture describe our world as having formed from liquid chaos (kinda matches the state of our world now, too). Whether hard or liquid, we have never owned this world.Let’s honor our collective heritage with water.My friend and fellow writer *Jill Hinners searches for peace and inspiration on or near Minnesota’s lakes and smaller waterways. Jill writes, “I collect iPhone images to document all the natural beauty in this place I’m so fortunate to call home.”Flash💥Devos is reader-supported with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. Thanks for being here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Proverbs 19:7The poor are shunned by all their relatives—how much more do their friends avoid them!Though the poor pursue them with pleading,they are nowhere to be found.+Poverty appears as a predicament we consider from a distance, like an unavoidable natural disaster or genocide abroad. Until it strikes us directly, precarity remains a news item. Yet engaging with people creates opportunities. Together we can shift the world into a more welcoming, safer place.Be the one who responds in Love, especially if it’s uncomfortable and unfamiliar.Through their artistic and community-based practices, *Olly Costello explores themes of interconnectedness, spiritual ecology, emergence, accountability, community building, Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Transformative Justice, and belonging. “I hope my work can be a small contributing part of creating our new culture, grounded in honoring the inherent sacredness of all beings and pushing us beyond violent cultures.” Discover their inspiring work on socials and at https://ollycostello.com/Thanks for subscribing!💥Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Isaiah 65:1“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;I was found by those who did not seek me.To a nation that did not call on my name,I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’+This is how God shows up, is here, everywhere, accessible. Discoverable. No matter what you’ve done or who you think you are. God. Always. Is.Believe that God will always be looking out for you!Readers support Flash💥Devos with prayer, tips, and subscriptions. So grateful for you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

3 John 1:5-8Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible. They’ve made a full report back to the church here, a message about your love. It’s good work you’re doing, helping these travelers on their way, hospitality worthy of God!+Students, medical practitioners, teachers, friends, and church groups head out on missions during the North American summer. Pray with them daily. Spend time listening attentively when they return.Maybe your transformation is bound up with theirs.Flash💥Devos is reader-supported with tips and subscriptions. Thanks for being here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Job 28:20-24, 28Where then does wisdom come from?Where does understanding dwell?It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,concealed even from the birds in the sky.Destruction and Death say,“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”God understands the way to itand God alone knows where it dwells,for God views the ends of the earthand sees everything under the heavens.+If we have wisdom, we respect the Almighty. God advises us, “To shun evil is understanding.”Sounds simple. Means everything.Reset with a spiritual break and feel restored. Subscribe to Flash💥Devos! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Mark 6:48 Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake.+No one but Jesus has walked on water. Walk on hot coals, tightropes, caminos--yes, we can do those. That buoyant flash ending of a waterski twirl when the engine’s cut and you feel like you’re standing on water--yes, we can do that, too. But walking on water? Only Jesus knows the way.What kind of water can Jesus help you walk on? Trust the power of God working within you. *Lily DeCort is an Ethiopian American painter based in Chicago. Her work, ranging from luminous landscapes to evocative abstracts, reflects the liminality of her experience. Her paintings explore beauty, vulnerability, healing, and the human journey from wonder to loss and hope reborn. Learn more about Lily’s art at https://lilydecort.com/Thanks for subscribing!💥Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Luke 8:22-25A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.+These experienced fishermen followed Jesus across the lake. Storms disturbed them. Questions swirled. “Who is Jesus?” And, “Where is your faith?”What might happen if you follow Jesus across the water?*Allison May Kiphuth is an artist, sternman, and collector of things who lives in a tiny house in Monhegan, Maine. Her dioramas in antique boxes, unboxed diorama scenes, and watercolor and ink studies of natural objects enchant viewers as if we’re walking together and might pick up a feather, a dandelion, or scan the woods at twilight. Discover her current work at linktr.ee/alliemaykiphuth or her website https://www.allisonmaykiphuth.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Matthew 5:44-48 “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?”+Loving enemies and persecutors feels difficult. Practice, Jesus encourages. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” “Perfect” means integrity, wholeness.Thanks for subscribing!💥It’s good to be here with you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Here is my Thank-You gift to readers and listeners of my Flash💥 Devos + Podcast for July. This good book by a dear friend offers a fresh perspective on the Beatitudes. I pray that Andrew’s honesty and commitment to change reaches your heart, too. Check it out! ♥Finding Presence in the Midst of Pain Blessed Are the Others: Jesus’ Way in a Violent World by Andrew DeCortReviewed by Marianne Abel-LipschutzAndrew DeCort’s Blessed Are the Others sketches the crucial work of reconciling with God about suffering through the Beatitudes. Jesus proclaimed this “divine justice manifesto” to inspire right relationships of mutual flourishing. DeCort draws widely on his international career as a public theologian, pastor, professor, and scholar in this practical and engaging book.He weaves stories from texts, memoirs, and the writings of James Baldwin, Etty Hillesum, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others whose witness about devastation illustrate Beatitudinal wisdom. “Jesus says there’s no need to suppress the painful reality of being poor humans,” he writes. You can read Blessed Are the Others and weep. Just don’t stop there.You’ll find answers to the pivotal question we all have about the miraculous transformation of grief into goodness. “How does Jesus invite us to flourish in the face of our universal experiences of suffering, conflict, and loss?” Blessed Are the Others explores the Beatitudinal Way as “an endlessly generative, culturally divergent path of humane happiness.” This profound book is easy to hold but hard to believe. DeCort’s disruptive vision of the Beatitudes can make us squirm.He repeats a glorious and unsettling message: the Beatitudes apply to all of us. “These are not random well-wishes as we often seem to assume. Jesus is describing an interconnected path and intentional process of becoming human,” DeCort writes of the austere design of these eight movements or blessings. “Each blessing is accompanied by a promise that speaks to a core fear that we face in choosing to walk this way. The whole path reflects Jesus’s deep sensitivity to the embodied human soul.”The Beatitudes challenge us to cultivate interdependence by “doing our work,” healing the poverty and destitution that scorch our personalities. This is not a simple “Come to Jesus” message. We must bring love to the outsiders within us, DeCort maintains, the parts of ourselves we fear, the internal hatreds and rejections that complicate our inner lives. If not, we will project those wounds, “othering” those around us, “painishing” [sic] them for our suffering. DeCort’s writing on transcending this grief is memorable.“Each blessing is accompanied by a promise that speaks to a core fear that we face in choosing to walk this way. The whole path reflects Jesus’s deep sensitivity to the embodied human soul.”DeCort elaborates on his life-altering encounters with loss, terror, and abandonment during more than a decade in Ethiopia with his wife, their self-exile, and time in North America. After years of resistance, he finally allowed himself “to enter into that haunted house of my own pain.” In counseling, simply composing a therapeutic list of losses shattered his defenses. “As I tried to write that letter to God, electricity surged through my body and up my arms. I felt like I was going to blackout and fall backwards in my chair,” he recalls. “I wept hysterically, hyperventilating with overwhelming distress. It was the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like I was about to die.”Nevertheless, he encourages us to brave the world beyond our fears so we can “enter into the ultimate unionizer of humanity: our grief.” DeCort cautions us: this spiritual work will separate us from the crowd:“This theology leads to a revisionary way of becoming human. It’s poverty-processing, tear-soaked, nonviolent, hungry-and-thirsty, compassionate, God-seeing peace and justice. Humane happiness isn’t winning. It’s learning how to relate to one another as if we’re all actually beloved and the Beatitudinal Way is actually blessed. Jesus’s community found these divergent revisions to be blasphemous betrayals. They called it ‘subverting the nation’ and worthy of death (Luke 23:2).”I loved how DeCort’s study layers the Beatitudes like tree rings that embody the heart of God within us, promising that as we integrate total belonging, we will stand and bear witness while honoring joy in the midst of the crimes of our times. “Creative resistance to violence is one of Jesus’s most groundbreaking teachings,” DeCort asserts.“Jesus proved in the most intimate, ultimate way possible with his own body that humans can do their very worst. And still, God isn’t violent and doesn’t save with violence. God’s salvation is the presence of love, even in pain, free of vengeance.”I highly recommend DeCort’s beautiful book for the ways he coaches us to pursue the difficult work of surrendering to the promises of God. Fifteen pages of resources and questions for reflection at the back offer prompts to e

1 Peter 3:19-22 You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus’ resurrection before God with a clear conscience.+Whether in a shower or a thunderstorm, every encounter with the divine medium of water can clarify your conscience anew.Allow God’s Spirit to flow through you.*Meg West lives near Charlottesville, Virginia. Her plein air oil paintings depict landscapes throughout the Shenandoah Valley. “I enjoy the rhythm and momentum that comes with a steady flow of painting,” she wrote. Meg shot today’s image for a future painting during a five-day “Unleashed Paint Out” with about thirty artists, sponsored by Allure Art Gallery near Deltaville, Virginia. Find Meg on socials and on her blog at http://www.megwestoilpainting.net/Readers support 💥Marianne’s Substack. Please join in as a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Job 3:23-26Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.I have no peace, no quietness;I have no rest, but only turmoil.”+People of the past and future share our despair, times when all else fails. Questions plague our thoughts, spreading festering boils. Silence aches.When your life feels like Job’s, what is your prayer?Thanks for subscribing!💥Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Galatians 5:13 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.+Flourishing communities--and individuals--work together for the common good.Is freedom growing near you?*Holly Harris, currently based in Washington, D.C., works in printmaking and oil painting. She created seven linocut illustrations to accompany each chapter of *Andrew DeCort's book, "Flourishing on the Edge of Faith." Much of Harris’ work illustrates her own grappling with the tensions of relationship: how we relate to self, to the divine, and to one another in a complex, globalized world." Find her at https://holly-harris-comms-portfolio.squarespace.com/“Flourishing on the Edge of Faith: Seven Practices for a New We” by Andrew DeCort, with linocut illustrations by Holly Harris. https://www.bittersweetcollective.com/andrew-decort This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 7:14-17Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made.The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.+Imagine being “pregnant with evil.” Consider who can access our intimate lives. Who or what hides evil inside--with hurtful actions, violent images, and vengeful slogans that tear others apart? And why?Our speech and actions can embed seeds of rage or mercy in everyone we influence. Grace heals.“Maria Wickwire creates ceramic sculptures in northwest Washington. Her works reveal feminine archetypes, she writes, “hoping to encourage healing and forgiveness in our sometimes splintering world.” Find Maria on socials and at Mariawickwire.com About “Cassandra,” Maria writes, “The god Apollo attempted to win Cassandra’s love by granting her the gift of prophecy, but she rejected him. Since a god could not take back a gift once bestowed, Apollo did the next best thing. He cursed Cassandra so no one would believe her prophecies. Oddly, a tiny shard of clay came loose inside her. You can barely hear it tinkling inside when she’s lifted up. To me, it’s that tiny, intuitive voice we all have, but sometimes fail to hear or to believe. However, it’s always right whether we listen or not.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Hosea 2:18On that day I will make a covenantwith all the wild animals and the birds of the skyand the animals that scurry along the groundso they will not harm you.I will remove all weapons of war from the land,all swords and bows,so you can live unafraidin peace and safety.+“On that day” sounds like a future time when God’s promises come true, God’s unbelievable and astonishing purpose to reconcile with everyone and everything. That future could be now.Bring this covenant to life!Subscribe to Flash💥Devos + Podcast or Follow for the latest posts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Joshua 23:14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”+Elders who speak with authority and conviction offer those pearls of great price that can be treasured for generations. Write down dreams for your loved ones, stories of faith and community in hard times. Answer the why questions of your life.Record your truest truths.*Annie Soudain is a retired art teacher with a studio in Hastings in East Sussex, England. Annie creates local landscapes from Fairlight, Pett Level, Rye Harbour, and Romney Marsh in watercolors, wax resist on silk, and linocut prints. Find Annie’s book The Marsh, The Sea, and The Sky, and her prints, cards, puzzles, and tea towels at www.anniesoudain.co.uk This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Luke 10:8-11“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you.’”+With every visit from Jesus, the kingdom comes—surrounding us, breathing within us.Be a good neighbor in the kingdom of God. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Matthew 26:26-29During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples:Take, eat.This is my body.Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them:Drink this, all of you.This is my blood,God’s new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins.+We hear “Take, eat,” too literally. Too much taking, too much eating. Communion rots as junk food for empty faith.Quench your thirst for authentic Love. “Drink this, all of you,” Jesus offers.Marianne’s Substack is reader-supported. Please consider a free or paid subscription. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Isaiah 6:3-5[The winged seraphim] were calling to one another:“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”+Will it ruin you to experience the living God?Feel the heat of transformation.Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

The spiritual life of home and place shifts with the seasons for me. As my Thank-You gift to all of you who have come alongside me during June on Flash💥Devos, I offer my article about the world I encounter on my lawnmower, an unlikely but perfect place to connect with creation. May the ways you tend to the world bring you surprise and insight, too. Around the Yard in 100 Daysby Marianne Abel-LipschutzSpring mowing in Iowa releases the sweet pineapple aroma of chamomile. I discovered this stubborn, single stem plant in our driveway gravel, creeping improbably across compacted zones like it owns this place. Driving from one side of the lawn to mow beyond a building, I trim it so often that it barely tops my toes. Also known as Common Mayweed, this herb defies annual baths of RoundUp, subzero winters, snow plows, and herbicide spills. Green sprouts proliferate even after the grader blade shaves the gravel so flat it pools water like beach sand. Mayweed is a persistent gift that teaches me how to thrive in unlikely places.Chamomile varieties have been cultivated since the Neolithic. Commercial producers harvest a blue oil and components of the flowers and leaves for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and teas. One source claims that people around the world drink more than a million cups of chamomile tea daily. The tiny plant yields bioactive phytochemicals that treat ailments from hay fever and hemorrhoids to insomnia and muscle spasms. Native to northeastern Asia and northwestern US, sources say chamomile was likely brought eastward across America with the Lewis and Clark expedition as they returned to St. Louis in 1806. Rich folklore and traditional healing treatments document its spread westward from Asia.On our farm, mayweed is a wild companion, my souvenir of our history here. We bought this property from the Federal Land Bank in September 1987 and did not meet the former owners until later. Foreclosed in 1983 during the agricultural crisis, this dairy and general farm had been operated by generations of one family for almost one hundred years. Neighbors declined to buy the land, a common protest strategy, leaving the acreage to the care of renters. The property’s ragged edges showed how quickly vegetation reclaims the spaces people leave behind.We moved here in late November after most plants and shrubs had withered. I would have liked to walk around the yard with the former owners to learn what grew where. Even if we had met then, they probably would have directed my attention away from the weeds. We had never lived west of the Mississippi or on a farm, and though many common plants and trees were familiar in this northern climate zone, many were new to us. We’d come from West Virginia where eroded, hillside soils formed from decayed woodlands over rock and clay. Iowa offered a new nature with lush prairie sods and soils created by glacial drift layered over ancient marine sedimentation.Our first year here presented a calendar of outdoor surprises. Perennial onions, hyacinths, and tulips appeared after the snow melted. Rhubarb emerged like an organism coming out of hibernation. Asparagus fingers poked through like Rip Van Winkle calling out to meet the newcomers. Rangy willows waved their yellow catkins at us when we looked out the kitchen window. A solitary cherry tree by the road, exposed to harsh northwest winds for countless winters, finally exhaled some blooms after much effort. Peony fists shook in the wind along the west ditch. I would have enjoyed a crowd of white or lavender lilacs, even a few hollyhocks. It’s just as well that this place had few frills. Roses and fussy ornamentals would have perished from my neglect.I feel at home with seemingly insignificant plants like chamomile that blend in as part of the scheme of things. Pineapple Weed is another popular name for this miniature cousin of the daffodil. It sprouts above the grit with a lime-green stalk topped by a yellow, cone-shaped, button flower stuffed with potential. Thousands of its seeds weigh a fraction of an ounce, an abacus of years counting forward into the future. We notice mayweed in northeast Iowa at the beginning of June when that unmistakable sweetness rises again.The area where mayweed grows best now was the site of the property’s original house. This small, clapboard structure had been used as a garage and metal-working shop after the family moved into the big house across the driveway, built in 1924. By the time we bought the place, the shop was a multi-generational mix of wasp nests, spiders, parts, nails, oil slicks, and metal paraphernalia that outbuildings accumulate as if by magnetism. We salvaged odd tools and dimensional lumber, and bulldozed the rest to expand the driveway for maneuvering large equipment.The demolition exposed that patch of ground to daylight and rain, activating a botanical legacy that hosted the mayweed. The tropical smell enchanted me, an unexpected scent in the driveway when I crushed the flower bud

Psalm 77:2-6When friends said, “Everything will turn out all right,”I didn’t believe a word they said.I remember God—and shake my head.I bow my head—then wring my hands.I’m awake all night—not a wink of sleep;I can’t even say what’s bothering me.I go over the days one by one,I ponder the years gone by.I strum my lute all through the night,wondering how to get my life together.+Seeking relief leads our souls to the Beloved.Treasure the hope you embody as cherished by God.A version of today’s Flash💥Devo also appeared this morning in Red Letter Christians’ WakeUp devotional newsletter. https://redletterchristians.org/*Allison May Kiphuth is an artist, sternman, and collector of things who lives in a tiny house in Monhegan, Maine. Her dioramas in antique boxes, unboxed diorama scenes, and watercolor and ink studies of natural objects enchant viewers as if we’re walking together and might pick up a feather, a dandelion, or scan the woods at twilight. Discover her current work at linktr.ee/alliemaykiphuth or her website https://www.allisonmaykiphuth.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Ephesians 2:17-20, 22He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.+Let the prophecies of generations find fulfillment in you.Peace rules.A version of today’s Flash💥Devo also appeared this morning in Red Letter Christians’ WakeUp devotional email newsletter. *Olly Costello is a white queer illustrator, PIC abolitionist, food growing enthusiast, and community seed saver. “I hope my work can be a small contributing part of creating our new culture, grounded in honoring the inherent sacredness of all beings and pushing us beyond violent cultures,” Olly writes. Discover their inspiring work on socials and at https://ollycostello.com/Your subscription💥means just what you think! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 22:25-26From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.The poor will eat and be satisfied;those who seek the Lord will praise him—may your hearts live forever!+Calling in our community with fear and praise sounds confusing. But when we witness the miraculous intervention of God in our families, cities, and towns, hope thrives.Be a prophetic voice for good in our world.Thanks for reading!💥It’s good to be with you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Luke 1:46-51God took one good look at me, and look what happened—I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!What God has done for me will never be forgotten,the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.His mercy flows in wave after waveon those who are in awe before him.He bared his arm and showed his strength,scattered the bluffing braggarts.+With some people there’s no doubt who’s responsible for their quality of life.Is your character marked by divinity?*Maria Wickwire reveals feminine archetypes in ceramic sculptures, hoping to encourage healing and forgiveness in our sometimes splintering world. Her “Fledgling” series evolved from a series she named after Terry Tempest Williams’ poem, “Once Upon a Time When Women Were Birds.” “When I started making the smaller ones, it seemed logical to call them fledglings,” she commented. “They are very small pieces, but powerful in their own way. Fledgling 30 is one of my favorites.” Find Maria on socials and at Mariawickwire.com“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Romans 5:1-2 We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.+June is spectacular in the Upper Midwest where vast fertile landscapes invite us to relax and breathe freely. What can you offer God in gratitude for the divine gifts your neighborhood enjoys?Live the glory you are.In memory of our good neighbor Coralee Keefauver Barrow ~ 1936-2024Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Ephesians 1:17-19 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know God better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which you’ve been called, the riches of this glorious inheritance in God’s holy people, and this incomparably great power for us who believe.+Humility, awe, and peacefulness embody inheritance, glory, and power.May your heart accept revelation.*Elle Billing creates safe spaces for community on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land in rural North Dakota. “I am deeply drawn to surrealism, artistic tension, the multiverse, and alternate timelines,” they write. “In the studio you will find me deconstructing old books, making my own collage paper, and infusing my work with the power of story.” Experience their invitation “to co-create the world we want” at https://www.elleandwink.com/Your (free) subscription💥matters! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

Psalm 133How wonderful, how beautiful,when brothers and sisters get along!It’s like costly anointing oilflowing down head and beard,Flowing down Aaron’s beard,flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.It’s like the dew on Mount Hermonflowing down the slopes of Zion.Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,ordains eternal life.+Harmony between people invites God’s blessing. How can we “ordain eternal life” within our circles and communities of influence?Choose a joyful way to anoint one another with the promise of eternal life.Colectivo + ARTE "is an artistic group in Sumpango, Guatemala that seeks to promote change in our society through art and sharing the cultural richness of our land." Find their work on socials and around central Guatemala. The Salmo 133:1 mural was commissioned in 2024 by the local ministry, El Puente Sumpango.Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Glad you’re here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

John 1:16-18We all live off his generous abundance,gift after gift after gift.We got the basics from Moses,and then this exuberant giving and receiving,This endless knowing and understanding—all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.No one has ever seen God,not so much as a glimpse.This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,who exists at the very heart of the Father,has made him plain as day.+Can you connect with Jesus in one of these forms? Light. Joy. Bread. Prophet. Friend. Vine.Reach for the very heart of Love.My friend *Lily DeCort is an Ethiopian American painter based in Chicago. Her work, ranging from luminous landscapes to evocative abstracts, reflects the liminality of her experience. Her paintings explore beauty, vulnerability, healing, and the human journey from wonder to loss and hope reborn. Learn more about Lily’s art at https://lilydecort.com/Thanks for subscribing! 💥 Means a lot! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com

1 Samuel 2:8-9 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will perish in darkness, for not by might does one prevail.+The poor, the needy, faithful ones, the wicked: all receive their due.Let God’s synergy animate your community.*Olly Costello writes,“I find direction and purpose in recognizing the power our radical imaginations have in shaping the world we live in.” Their illustrations add to Jane Ball and Mariame Kaba’s powerful new book, Prisons Must Fall, showing the harm prisons cause and exploring alternatives. “I hope my work can be a small contributing part of creating our new culture, grounded in honoring the inherent sacredness of all beings and pushing us beyond violent cultures.” Discover their inspiring work at https://ollycostello.com/Your subscription💥means a lot! Thanks! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marianneabellipschutz.substack.com