Sunday

Prayer:   Holy Holy Holy God.  Lord of Power and Strength.  Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.  This day,  may we come before You with hearts full of love to Worship You.   For those who preach and teach this day in Your name,  may You prepare them for this time of worship.  For those who sing and make music this day in Your name,  may You prepare them for this time of worship.  Holy Holy Holy Lord,  may we go forth after Worship this day  with Your love for all peoples in our minds and in our hearts.    Amen.

Saturday -

Prayer:   Loving God,  we are made in Your image.  We are made in Your glory.  Help us to remember Your love and Your glory when we can’t do that things we used to do. Help us to lean on Your strength and Your love so that we do not become hard of heart.   We rejoice that in You we live and move and have our being.  Amen.

 

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #10:  How did God create man?

 

Answer:  God created man male and female,  after His own image,  in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

 

Genesis  1: 26 – 28

Colossians 3: 10

Ephesians 4: 24

 

Prayer:  Spirit of Holiness,  we rest,  remain,  and abide in Your love.  We are created in Your image and it is good.  May we embrace all that You would ask us to do this day in joy and praise.  Amen.

Friday - stand firm

Prayer:  Great God,  we bring to You today our old hurts,  our worries,  and our concerns.  We ask that You may open to us a world of possibilities of Your love and refreshed energies so that we can carry on the work that You would have us do in Your Son’s name.  Amen.

   

Read St. Luke  21: 10 – 19

 

Do you remember reading the story of Chicken Little as a child?   Poor ol’  Chicken Little thought the sky was falling and the earth would be destroyed.   In fact,  the sky was not falling and the earth was not destroyed.   But what a lot of energy Chicken Little wasted worrying that the sky was falling.

 

Today,  do we spend too much time worrying our world is coming to an end?  Do we spend too  much time in worrying our Church is coming to an end?   Do we spend too much time worrying about the little things and forget to see the big picture?   Do we spend too much time worrying about worrying about worrying?

 

Jesus instructs the disciples (and us too) that we must not worry about the end.  Stuff will happen.   Bad stuff might happen.  But worrying about what may or may not happen in the future uses up the time we could be spending with God in prayer.      Worrying takes positive energy out of us and leaves us exhausted and tired and cranky.

 

Jesus tells the disciples (and us too) to stand firm in our beliefs.    Today,  think about our beliefs.  What are our basic Christian beliefs?  And how will we stand firm in our basic Christian beliefs?

 

Prayer:  Great and Awesome God,  we open our minds to You so that You can help us see Your world clearly.  Great and Redeeming God,  we open our hearts to You so that You can help us love others as ourselves.  Great and Wonderful God,  we open our actions to You this day so that You can help us define what we believe and what we stand for in this community.   Great God,  we are open to receiving and giving love and joy this day and forever more.  Amen.

Thursday - discerning the will of God

Prayer:  Creator God,  open our understanding of Your Will this day so that whatever we do and whatever we say may glorify You always.  Amen.

Read St Luke 21: 5 – 9

Some of the disciples were commenting at the beauty of the temple and the gifts dedicated to God.   Jesus then says to the disciples that there will be a time when the temple will be destroyed.    The disciples are horrified.  Their very place of worship will be no more?   

Today too,  many Churches are struggling with  closing and no longer being a place of worship.    Yet,  like some of the disciples  is our focus upon the wrong thing?  Instead of focussing upon the building,  we should be focussing upon the worship of God.   Do we need to re-think the word “Church” as a big place to hold many people just on a Sunday?   Indeed we do.  We must learn to discern through prayer if God is asking our Sessions and Congregations to make a change in our current worship building.    

Jesus also comments to the disciples that there will be many leaders who will deceive them into claiming they know when the end of time is coming.  Jesus simply states, “Do not follow them”.    In this past century,  we’ve had many “leaders” state they knew what date the world would end.  But it did not.   As Christians,  we must learn how to discern who is a leader in Christ and who is a leader out for their own means.  

 
Today,  think upon how you discern the will of God.  
 
Prayer:   Loving God,  enable us to discern Your will this day.     Guide us in our thoughts and our actions so that we live and move and breath in Your presence.    We give to You today our aches and pains,  our worries and our cares.   Heal us O Lord.  Provide us with Your healing,  Your strength,  Your wisdom,  and Your love.  Amen.

 

Wednesday - piety

Prayer:  Generous and Loving God,  we release all conflict that holds us back from Your glory this day.    We ask for Your love and guidance in being able to freely communicate all our thoughts and emotions so that we may truly reflect Your Glory.  This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

Read St Luke 21: 1 – 4

 

Piety.   A widow puts two coins into the temple treasury.  Rich people are also putting their gifts into the temple treasury.  Jesus said to his disciples that the widow has put in more than any of the other people.    While she put in two small coins,  she put in all she had to live on.  The Rich people gave their gifts out of their wealth.  They would not miss the money—their lives were not pinched.   

 

Piety.    This is a word that is long out of fashion in the Church but really should be right up there in our everyday language.   Piety is devotion to God and out of our love for God,  we see the needs of those in the community around us and do something about their needs.  Piety.

 

We often look at our pocketbooks and think we don’t have enough money to help out charities and non-profit organizations.   And we also don’t open our pocketbooks to keep our Churches out of financial failure.  Yet to the rest of the world,  Canadians are an extremely wealthy people.    How has there become such a division of understanding of wealth within this world?     How will we use our piety to make a change?

 

Prayer:  You, O LORD,  are the instrument of peace and our instrument of change.  Give us the grace to be Your peace and love this day so that we, as well as our family and friends, may be able to accept and acknowledge their love for You.  Guide us to make positive changes so that Your Church looks forward to a bright future.  Amen. 

Tuesday - reading the old geezers

Prayer:  Jesus Christ,  Son of God,  help us to open ourselves to Your love and creativity this day.    We give You our thanks and praise that You are with us in everything that we do and in everything that we say.  Amen.

 

Read St Luke 20:  41 – 47

 

Frequently it is good to read the commentaries and sermons of the Church Fathers.   These are the men and women who were immersed in the learning and seeking out of God’s  Holy Word.   Through times of trial and tribulation,  they had to know what they believed and they shared their belief with everyone.

When preaching on this portion of scripture,  Cyril of Alexandria states that  “…those who love instruction and are fond of hearing receive with joy the profitable word of God, and store it up in the treasure-house of their heart as the seed of life. And what is. the result of their so doing? The divine light rises upon them, and they gain a correct and unerring knowledge of the sacred doctrines. And this quickens them to life, as the Son Himself teaches us, where He says to God the Father in heaven, "And this is life eternal, to know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent." (Sermon 137) 

Jesus’ question to the Sadducees and Pharisees is “How is it that they say that the Messiah is David’s son?”  (St Luke 20: 41  The Message  Navpress 2005).   Yet the  Sadducees nor Pharisees did not give an answer to Jesus’ question.  Not because the question was too difficult but because they did not want to learn and see the truth of their hearts.

Are we like the Sadducees and Pharisees too?  Do we not want to answer Jesus’ question because we do not want to learn and see the truth of our hearts?   Or  do we receive with joy the Word of God and store it up in the treasure-house of our hearts as the seed of Life in Jesus Christ?

Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,  help us to receive Your Word this day and store Your Word in the treasure-house of our hearts.    Encourage us to be willing to receive Your Word and to give Your Word freely to those who are in need.  This we ask in Your Name.  Amen.

Monday - Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!

This seems like an odd reading to do on Canada Day but this is following the Scriptures. 

Prayer:  Holy God,   help us to receive and give love freely so that our belief in You may stand firm.  We thank You that we can live out this day in Your love and freely give of Your love to all we meet.   Amen.

 Read  St Luke 20:  27 – 40

The Resurrection and Marriage

You have to give the Sadducees credit for being persistent in their questions to Jesus.  Here they come again.  This time they ask Jesus a question concerning the Resurrection and a woman whose husband dies and, according to the Law,  ends up marrying six other men related to her husband.   This should be a valid question.   Yet the Sadducees do not believe in the Resurrection.   So in this question,  they are not asking a question in order to mature their own faith but are  attempting to make Jesus stumble.

And how does Jesus answer their question?  “Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there.  Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course,  with death.  They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it.  All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.  Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, “God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!”  God isn’t the God of dead men, but of the living.  To Him all are alive.”  (The Message  St Luke 20: 34 – 38  NavPress 2005).

Then total silence.   In this moment of silence,  can’t you hear the Sadducees thinking to themselves, “Drat!  We didn’t make Jesus stumble.  Double Drat!”    

Out of the moment of silence, some of the teachers of the law say to Jesus, “Teacher, that is a great answer!”

The Sadducees draw near to Jesus and try to disprove the Resurrection.  But their plan backfires.    Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.

Today,  think about what the word “resurrection” means to you.

 Prayer:   Holy Lord,  we thank You that You gave us Your Son so that we might have new life.  May the life of Jesus Christ take form within our hearts… filling,  calming, restoring, and bringing love to those who need Your care this day.   May our actions be pleasing to You this day. Holy Lord, Holy Mighty,  Holy Immortal One.  Amen.