Week #13 – Meditation

Invocation:
My Father of infinite love, enter and fill me and take control of every area of my life. Let my mind be as transparent as a window for letting Your truth shine through me. Let my heart be as the widow’s cruse, ever brimming over with Your compassion for men. Let the threads of my life be interwoven with the tapestry of Your eternal purposes. For Yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 27

Daily Scripture Reading:

Monday Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
Tuesday Colossians 4:4-9
Wednesday Luke 16:19-31
Thursday Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Friday Psalm 119:97-104
Saturday Joshua 1:1-9
Sunday Luke 20:41-47

Selections For Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer:
Ask God this week to help you to keep your mind fixed on His greatness and wonder. Begin in your devotional times and practice such meditation with short affirmations woven into the fabric of your everyday life.

Hymn: “O Thou in Whose Presence”

O Thou in whose presence;
my soul takes delight,
On whom in affliction I call,
My comfort by day and my song in the night,
My hope, my salvation, my all.

Where dost Thou, resort with Thy sheep,
To feed them in pastures of love?
Say, why in the valley of death should I weep,
Or alone in this wilderness rove?

He looks, and ten thousands of angels rejoice,
And myriads wait for His word.
He speaks, and eternity, filled with His voice,
Re-echoes the praise of the Lord.

Dear Shepherd! I hear and will follow Thy call;
I know the sweet sound of Thy voice.
Restore and defend me, for Thou art my all,
And in Thee I will ever rejoice.
-Joseph Swain-

Benediction:
May the strength of God pilot me. May the power of God preserve me. May the wisdom of God instruct me. May the hand of God protect me. May the way of God direct me. May the shield of God defend me. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* Listening means being released from willfulness, arrogance, and self-assertiveness. It calls for respectful presence to the mystery we are meditating, for humble openness to its meaning. Such listening or apprehending is prior to our appraisal of these meanings and our decision to incorporate them into our spiritual development, should God give us the grace for this growth . . . . Listening is only possible to the degree that we let go of the grip of our egotistic will and become inwardly and outwardly silent, alert, receptive, attentive. Then we may be able to think clearly or meditate; it becomes possible to reflect on our lives as a whole or on a text we are reading. What we hear sinks from our minds into our hearts. Ideas are not exploited to serve our purposes but to direct us to deeper wisdom, to a revelation of persons, events, and things as they are in themselves. We become the servants rather than the masters of the word.
-From Pathways of Spiritual Living by
Susan Annette Muto-

* We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask; for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God; as a means of communion with God. It’s purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness and to encourage and reassure us — “comfort” us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word — as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ . . . . As we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted, our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength, and our joy.
-From Knowing God by J. I. Packer-

* The creation of a framework, an atmosphere, a structure, is not prayer, but it is a necessary preliminary to prayer. It is within the atmosphere of inner discipline and simplicity that prayer can begin to grow. The eastern church, in its teaching on prayer, focuses on the constant use of the Name of Jesus. The first recorded teaching about the invocation of the Name of Jesus comes in the mid-fifth century writer Diadochus. He recommended the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me” as a way of cleansing the mind of its sickness, and he recommended this to beginners. The Prayer of Jesus was to be used inwardly and secretly at all times — when dropping off to sleep, when waking, when eating or drinking, while talking. It is seen as a prayer which both binds the mind and unifies the personality. Thus Philotheus of Sinai in. The 10th century says: “By the memory of Jesus Christ gather together your mind that is scattered abroad. Through the Fall this disintegration has happened, but memory of God restores primal wholeness.”
One of the essential aspects of the use of the Name of Jesus then is the “binding of the mind.” This is an expression used by the 19th century eastern spiritual teacher Theophan the Recluse. He advises his disciples to “bind the mind with one thought — or the thought of One only.” It is this process of binding which is the purpose of meditation. What is meant by meditation? In Christian spirituality, the term “meditation” has generally been used to describe a way of disciplined thinking, an ascetic also exercise marked by discipline and sobriety. It involves pursuing one line of thought and renouncing all others. It is therefore a method of reducing the range of activity of the mind, allowing it to center on one point, to focus.
-From True Prayer by Kenneth Leech-

* Today we will have a primer talk. What is confusing to you I imagine is that you have not quite understood what takes place when you have a new thought, a sun-thought, in the galaxy which makes your identity, especially such powerful ones as you have been given. You do not take, as it were, a new concept in your hands, place it in the midst of the familiar galaxy and expect a sudden radiance, an immediate change, although I do not forget that instant revelation and realization have come to some of the great ones who have walked this way. No, like all good things this work begins humbly. It is like planting a seed that grows and grows for a time in the dark. Ideas that have been given to you in these communions are in movement and as they grow larger and larger they push out into oblivion the older ideas which were foolish and out of proportion. This is difficult to put into words, but it may help you not to be too introspective.
When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, “I will now be good and move mountains by my act of faith.” No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit does the work, not you: you merely water it. Do you not see the comfort there is in that? I can tell you in primer language that a very gentle, calm, unemotional, selfless, and patient attitude toward your spiritual growth is essential — such as all old gardeners know. They know that patience, hoeing, watering, and a certain order, a quiet rhythm, bring to birth a heavenly beauty.
-From Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
Edited by Mary Strong-

* Living things need an appropriate climate in order to grow and bear fruit. If they are to develop to completion, they require an environment that allows their potential to be realized. The seed will not grow unless there is a soil that can feed it, light to draw it forth, warmth to nurture and moisture that unlocks its vitality. Time is also required for its growth to unfold.
Meditation is the attempt to provide the soul with the proper environment in which to grow and become. In the lives of people like St. Francis or St. Catherine of Genoa one gets a glimpse of what the soul is able to become. Often this is seen as the result of heroic action lying beyond the possibility of ordinary people. The flowering of the human soul, however, is more a matter of the proper psychological and spiritual environment than of particular gifts or disposition or heroism. How seldom we wonder at the growth of the great redwood from a tiny seed dropped at random on the littered floor of the forest. From one seed is grown enough wood to frame several hundred houses. The human soul has seed potential like this if it has the right environment. Remember that only in a few mountain valleys were the conditions right for the Sequoia gigantia, the mighty redwood, to grow.
For both the seed and the soul, these things all take time. In both cases there is need for patience. Most of us know enough not to poke at the seed to see if it is sprouting, or to try to hurry it along with too much water or fertilizer or cultivation. The same respect must be shown for the soul as its growth starts to take place. Growth can seldom be forced in nature. Whether it is producing a tree or a human personality, nature unfolds its growth slowly, silently.
Where meditation is concerned, we need to realize two things. Meditation is simple and natural, like a seed growing and becoming a tree. At the same time it requires the right conditions, conditions not provided by the secular world today. If meditation is to touch reality, we must seek out the right climate.
-From The Other Side of Silence
by Morton T. Kelsey-

* Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake. It is not really a paradox that it is precisely in meditation that most aspirants for religious perfection grow dull and fall asleep. Meditative prayer is a stern discipline, and one which cannot be learned by violence. It requires unending courage and perseverance, and those who are not willing to work at it patiently will finally end in compromise. Here, as elsewhere, compromise is only another name for failure.
To meditate is to think. And yet successful meditation is much more than reasoning or thinking. It is much more than “affections,” much more than a series of prepared “acts” which one goes through.
In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with his mind and lips, but in a certain sense with his whole being. Prayer is then not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart — it is the orientation of our whole body, mind and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration. All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God.
-From Thoughts in Solitude by
Thomas Merton-

Week #12 – Intercession

Invocation:
O Lord, You lover of souls, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, I bring before You in my prayers all those who are lonely in this world. Yours they are, and none can pluck them out of Your hand. In Your mercy let my remembrance reach them and comfort their hearts. For Your love’s sake. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 20

Daily Scripture Readings:

Monday Numbers 14:11-20
Tuesday 1 Samuel 12:12-25
Wednesday Psalm 106:1-48
Thursday Genesis 18:16-33
Friday Hebrews 7:23-25
Saturday Romans 8:28-39
Sunday 1 Timothy 2:1-8

Selections for Meditation:

Personal Meditation

Prayer:
Lift up to God those persons who have asked you to pray for them. Try to visualize your becoming strength in their weakness, courage in their fear, freedom in their guilt and hope in their despair.

Hymn: “Lord, As to Thy Dear Cross We Flee”

Lord, as to Thy Cross we flee.
And plead to be forgiven,
So let Thy life our pattern be,
And form our souls for heaven.

Help us, through good report and ill,
Our daily cross to bear;
Like Thee, to do our Father’s will,
Our brethren’s grief to share.

Let grace our selfishness expel,
Our earthliness refine,
And in our hearts let kindness dwell,
As free and true as Thine.

If joy shall at Thy bidding fly,
And grief’s dark day come on,
We in our turn would meekly cry,
“Father, Thy will be done.”
-C.M. Windsor-

Benediction:
Grant my Savior, that Your patience in bearing with me and suffering for me may be the model and principle of my patience in suffering for You, and that, entering into Your designs of my salvation, which You would secure for me by the good use I make of afflictions, I may receive all things with humble submission to Your holy will. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* And why should the good of anyone depend on the prayer of another? I can only answer with the return question: “Why should my love be powerless to help another?”
-From An Anthology of George MacDonald
Edited by C.S. Lewis-

* A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side of it is concerned. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day. The struggle we undergo with our brother in intercession may be a hard one, but that struggle has the promise that it will gain its goal.
How does this happen? Intercession means no more than to bring our brother into the presence of God, to see him under the Cross of Jesus as a poor human being and sinner in need of grace. Then everything in him that repels us falls away; we see him in all his destruction and need. His need and his sin become so heavy and oppressive that we feel them as our own, and we can do nothing else but pray: Lord, do Thou, Thou alone, deal with him according to Thy severity and Thy goodness. To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in His mercy.
-From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer-

* What requests did Paul make for his Ephesian friends (Ephesians 1:17-21)? Pause a moment. You are writing a letter to a friend for whom you pray fairly regularly. What will you tell him? “I do pray for you, Jack. I’m asking God to bless you and to lead you. I really pray. I pray He’ll bless you richly.”
What do the words mean? What does bless mean? Is the word an excuse on your part for not being specific? Is it too much trouble to think out a specific request? It is easier, of course, if Jack is sick or if Jack’s girlfriend has just been killed in a car accident. You can get your teeth into prayer under such circumstances. But if nothing dramatic is happening to Jack and if he’s a Christian who’s getting along reasonably well in his Christian walk, how are you supposed to pray? Bless comes in handy. You probably use it at different times to mean such things as, “Do whatever is best for Jack and make things work out for him. Make him a better Christian in some way or another. Make him happy,” and so on.
Are these the things god wants for Jack? What does God want? Remember, God has His own goals for Jack’s life. God will share those goals with you if you are willing to get involved with Him in a partnership of prayer. You may need to begin praying something like this, “Lord, I don’t know how to pray for Jack. I thank you for bringing him to yourself. I know you have been working in his life. What is it he most needs? What are your trying to do in him?” God still has the initiative in Jack’s life. Play it God’s way. That is what partnership in prayer is all about.
-From Daring to Draw Near by John White-

* The thought of our fellowship in the intercession of Jesus reminds us of what He has taught us more than once before, how all these wonderful prayer-promises have as their aim and justification, the glory of God in the manifestation of His kingdom and the salvation of sinners. As long as we only or chiefly pray for ourselves, the promises of the last night must remain a sealed book to us. It is to the fruit bearing branches of the Vine; it is to disciples sent into the world as the Father sent Him, to live for perishing men; it is to His faithful servants and intimate friends who take up the work He leaves behind, who have like their Lord become as the seed-corn, losing its life to multiply it manifold — it is to such that the promises are given. Let us each find out what the work is, and who the souls are entrusted to our special prayers; let us make our intercession for them our life of fellowship with God, and we shall not only find the promises of power in prayer made true to us, but we shall then first begin to realize how our abiding in Christ and His abiding in us make us share in His own joy of blessing and saving men.
-From With Christ in the School of Prayer
by Andrew Murray-

* Prayer does not occur in the heart of a man who thinks God will do it all or who supposes he himself can do nothing. Prayer is a willingness to admit we can do something even if not everything and that, although nothing is done without God, God does nothing without us. So often in our theology of prayer we have articulated half-truths. We have emphasized the vertical dimension of prayer and neglected its horizontal character. We have used prayer to make too much of God, too little of ourselves. We have turned away from life in the foolish notion that one could, thereby, discover the God of life. We have judged the value of prayer by the amount of time given to it rather than by its intensity.
-From Dawn Without Darkness
by Anthony Padovano-

* Today I imagined my inner self as a place crowded with pins and needles. How could I receive anyone in my prayer when there is no real place for them to be free and relaxed? When I am still so full of preoccupations, jealousies, angry feelings, anyone who enters will get hurt. I had a very vivid realization that I must create some free space in my innermost self so that I may indeed invite others to enter and be healed. To pray for others means to offer others a hospitable place where I can really listen to their needs and pains. Compassion, therefore, calls for self-scrutiny that can lead to inner gentleness.
If I could have a gentle “interiority” — a heart of flesh and not of stone, a room with some spots on which one might walk barefooted — then God and my fellow humans could meet each other there. Then the center of my heart can become the place where God can hear the prayer for my neighbors and embrace them with his love.
-From The Genesee Diary
by Henri J. Nouwen-

* A final characteristic of the prayer of the heart is that it includes all our concerns. When we enter with our mind into our heart and there stand in the presence of God, then all our mental preoccupations become prayer. The power of the prayer of the heart is precisely that through it all that which is on our mind becomes prayer.
When we say to people, “I will pray for you,” we make a very important commitment. The sad thing is that this remark often remains nothing but a well-meant expression of concern. But when we learn to descend with our mind into our heart, then all those who have become part of our lives are led into the healing presence of God and touched by him in the very center of our being. We are speaking here about a mystery for which words are inadequate. It is the mystery that the heart, which is the center of our being, is transformed by God into his own heart, a heart large enough to embrace the entire universe. Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness, and misery, not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity, but because God’s heart has become one with ours.
Here we catch sight of the meaning of Jesus’ words, “Take my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11:29-30). Jesus invites us to accept his burden, which is the burden of the whole world, a burden that includes human suffering in all times and places. But this divine burden is light, and we can carry it when our heart has been transformed into the gentle and humble heart of our Lord.
-From The Way of the Heart by
Henri J. Nouwen-

Week #11 – Petition

Invocation:
Lord, teach me to pray, with a faith in your goodness that believes for the answers; with a love for your will that cleanses my askings. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 5

Daily Scripture Reading:

Monday 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Tuesday Colossians 1:1-13
Wednesday Matthew 7:7-12
Thursday James 5:13-20
Friday Genesis 18:16-33
Saturday John 14:1-14
Sunday 1 John 5:13-21

Selections for Meditation:

Personal Meditation:

Prayer:
Jesus reminded us to bring our needs to the Father, bread for today, forgiveness for past trespasses, guidance and deliverance for the days that are ahead. Bring those needs, for yourself and others, to Him this week. Remember also to pray for your requests to grow out of a deep desire to be in His will.

Hymn: “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”

My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine;
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my sin away,
O let me from this day,
Be wholly Thine!

May Thy rich grace impart,
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal impart;
As Thou hast died for me,
O may my love for Thee,
Pure, warm and spotless be,
— a living fire!

While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray,
From Thee aside.
-Ray Palmer-

Benediction:
Grant me, O Lord, heavenly wisdom, that I may learn to seek You above all things, and to understand all other things as they are according to the order of Your wisdom. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* True, the New Testament says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” That surely does not mean that anything we desire, we may have. There is a limitation in the passage itself which is usually overlooked. There are many things we naturally desire when we are on a holiday, or are worried with our work, or are walking the streets, or are just daydreaming. But those same desires disappear when we begin to pray. They and prayer just do not seem to go together. The moment we begin to talk to God, we begin to be ashamed to talk about them. And when talking to God becomes talking with God, we forget those desires altogether. As one man said to me once: “I remember something I very much wanted. It seemed the answer to a long-felt and almost intolerable hunger. Every time I thought about it, and that was often, my heart was on fire and my pulse raced. So I tried to pray for it. But I couldn’t. The words choked me. My God-directed thought could not tolerate it.”
Another word of Jesus is often mis-interpreted: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.” That seems at first an unlimited guarantee of an affirmative answer to any desire. But it is not what anybody wills, that is assured of the answer. It is what is willed by a particular person, one who is abiding in Christ. When someone truly abides in Christ, there are many, many things he never wills to ask because he does not want them. And if Christ’s words are abiding in someone — all of Christ’s words — you can be sure they will not ask for a whole category of events. When Christ’s words are in the soul, a wish that the secular heart grasps after is no longer even interesting! When we truly abide in Christ, when our union with Him is complete, then His desires and our are one. Having no will but His, it is right that that will should find expression in our prayers. Here is where the difficulty arises. Most of us are far from such unity with Him. We still will things which God must veto. Therefore, our desires should always be suspect — our preferences should not become petitions. Jesus’ counsel, “Ask and you shall receive,” should always be understood to mean the asking sanctioned in another of the Master’s words, “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.” So petition is now for the unfolding of His will, guidance, and power for its fulfillment.
-From An Autobiography of Prayer by
-Albert E. Day-

* There can be no doubt that petition is a dominant part of prayer. How dominant it ought to be, and what petitions ought to be offered, are questions calling for further examination.
In many discussions of prayer, petition, if not ruled out, is placed on the lower rounds of the ladder. I have many times heard and read that the true end of prayer is to cultivate fellowship with God, seeking not to have anything from his hand but only to be in his presence. As has earlier been suggested, this seems to me to rest on a false antithesis.
Certainly to be in fellowship with God and in right relationship with him is a higher aspiration than to possess anything else we may desire. But does this discredit the prayer of petition? On the contrary, it calls for discrimination in petitioning. All prayer springs from a sense of need. What is required is not to eliminate petition, which would eliminate the expression of desire, but to purge and redirect desire until we pray for the right things.
-From Prayer and the Common Life
by Georgia Harkness-

* For several months, I’d been attempting to absorb the truth of this Scripture: Seek God First. Why do we tend to seek other things first, and want God to be added later?
We seek success . . .
and want God to endorse our goals.
We seek acceptance . . .
and want God to be the cheering section.
We seek income . . .
and want God to be the bonus.
We seek vindication . . .
and want God to take our side.
We seek happiness . . .
and want God’s smile of approval.
We seek health . . .
and want God to dispense an instant cure.

As we mature in our relationship with the Lord, our goals change. But we don’t realize that our pattern often remains the same!

We seek to be useful . . .
and want God to bless our busy activities.
We seek to be helpful to others . . .
and want God to tag along.
We seek to be spiritual . . .
and want God to applaud.

We tend to use God instead of seek Him. We want God to do our bidding more than we want Him.
What percentage of our prayers are for our own comfort? To fulfill our fantasies? Where do we ask for God’s will? Isn’t it usually at the end of the prayer, as a closing benediction, sometimes almost as an afterthought?
I wonder how this all-wise God do ours feels about being brought in at the conclusion and asked to bless the plan? What a waste to rely on our wisdom, when God’s wisdom is available!
-From When the Pieces Don’t Fit
by Glaphre Gilliland-

* Another element in Jesus’ prayers was petition. We have seen already that asking for God’s gifts was certainly not the whole or even the main part of the Master’s prayer life, but we must be careful not to go to the other extreme and imagine that such petitionary prayers found no place at all. It is particularly necessary at the present time to emphasize this, for there is a dangerous tendency today, even among good Christian people, to speak disparagingly of petitionary prayers and to say that asking for definite things from God is prayer of such a rudimentary and childish form that it ought to have no place in the religion of the mature and fully developed believer. This we must quite definitely deny. The idea that it is expedient to outgrow petitionary prayer goes to pieces on one clear fact — Jesus never outgrew it.
-From The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ
by James Stewart-

* Somehow I feel sure that the most direct route to religious experience is to ask for the grace to give, to share, to console another, to bandage a hurting wound, to lift a fallen human spirit, to mend a quarrel, to search out a forgotten friend, to dismiss a suspicion and replace it with trust, to encourage someone who has lost faith, to let someone who feels helpless do a favor for me, to keep a promise, to bury an old grudge, to reduce my demands on others, to fight for a principle, to express gratitude, to overcome a fear, to appreciate the beauty of nature, to tell someone I love him and then to tell him again.
There is a haunting possibility that I have not heard the voice of God speaking to me in all circumstances and persons in my life because I have been asking the wrong questions, making the wrong requests. I have been too busy speaking to listen. The Psalmist prays: “Create in me, O God, a loving and listening heart!” Maybe I should pray for such a heart.
-From A Reason to Live! A Reason to Die!
by John Powell-

* The prayer of faith, like some plant rooted in a fruitful soil, draws its virtue from a disposition which has been brought into conformity with the mind of Christ.
1.) It is subject to Divine will.(1 John 5:14).
2.) It is restrained within the interest of Christ. (John 14:13).
3.) It is instructed in the truth. (John 15:7)
4.) It is energized by the Spirit.
(Ephesians 3:20)
5.) It is interwoven with love and mercy.
(Mark 11:25)
6.) It is accompanied with obedience.
(1 John 3:22)
7.) It is so earnest that it will not accept denial.
(Luke 11:9)
8.) It goes out to look for, and to hasten its answer. (James 5:16)

-From The Hidden Life by D.M. M’Intyre-

Week #10 – Confession

Invocation:
Here in the presence of Almighty God, I kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient heart, confess my sins, so that I may obtain forgiveness by your infinite goodness and mercy. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 32

Daily Scripture Reading:

Monday 1 John 2:1-14
Tuesday Hosea 1:1-11
Wednesday Romans 10:1-13
Thursday Leviticus 26:32-45
Friday Nehemiah 9:1-3
Saturday Proverbs 28:13
Sunday Jeremiah 3:11-13

Selections For Meditation:

Personal Meditation

Prayer
It is easier to confess some things than others. But it is usually the more difficult ones and the more personal problems that we need to confess for they are impeding our Christian growth. Quiet yourself before God this week and let Him bring to your mind those things that you need to confess to Him. He knows best what lies between the two of you.

Hymn: “Just As I Am”

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee.
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot.
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about,
With many a conflict, many a doubt.
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
-Charlotte Elliot-

Benediction:
Dear Lord, grant me absolution and remission for all my sins, true repentance, amendment of life and the grace and consolation of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* “Confess your faults one to another” (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!
There are 2 dangers that a Christian community which practices confession must guard against. The first concerns the one who hears confessions. It is not a good thing for one person to be the confessor for all the others. All too easily this one person will be overburdened; thus confession will become for him an empty routine, and this will give rise to the disastrous misuse of the confessional for the exercise of spiritual domination of souls. In order that he may not succumb to this sinister danger of the confessional every person should refrain from listening to confession who does not himself practice it. Only the person who has so humbled himself can hear a brother’s confession without harm.
The second danger concerns the confessant. For the salvation of his soul let him guard against ever making a pious work of his confession. If he does so, it will become the final, most abominable, vicious, and impure prostitution of the heart; the act becomes an idle, lustful babbling. Confession as a pious work is an invention of the devil. It is only God’s offer of grace, help, and forgiveness that could make us dare to enter the abyss of confession. We can confess solely for the sake of the promise of absolution. Confession as a routine duty is spiritual death; confession in reliance upon the promise is life. The forgiveness of sins is the sole ground and goal of confession.
-From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer-

* Confession is so difficult a discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy.
But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners, we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God’s love and to confess our need openly before our brothers & sisters. We know we are not alone in our sin. The fear & pride which cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. We are sinners together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied but transformed.
The discipline of confession brings an end to pretense. God is calling into being a church that can openly confess its frail humanity and know the forgiving and empowering graces of Christ. Honesty leads to confession, and confession leads to change. May God give grace to the church once again to recover the discipline of confession.
-From Celebration of Discipline by
Richard J. Foster-

* Complete sincerity is an unattainable ideal. But what is attainable is the periodic moment of sincerity, the moment, in fact, when we confess that we are not as we have sought to appear; and it is at those moments that we find contact with God once more. The progress of our spiritual life is made up of these successive discoveries, in which we perceive that we have turned away from God instead of going towards Him. That is what makes a great saint like St. Francis of Assisi declare himself chief among sinners. We cannot, indeed, be content with this fluctuating condition, any more than we can resign ourself to always re-discovering discordances between our personage and our person. We hear Christ’s command: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We find this intuitive aspiration towards perfection in unbelievers as well as in believers. It implies especially a complete concordance between personage and person. Now it is precisely because we feel the impossibility of following this call that we recognize our need of God and His grace, of Jesus Christ and His atonement. If we thought we did not need God, should we still have a spiritual life?
-From Reflections by Paul Tournier-

* We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future. It will not hurt us so long as we do not try to hide things, so long as we are ready to bow our heads in hearty shame where it is fit we should be ashamed. For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing. Shame is a thing to shame only those who want to appear, not those who want to be. Shame is to shame those who want to pass their examination, not those who would get into the heart of things. . . . To be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of truth.
-From An Anthology of George MacDonald edited by C. S. Lewis-

* Misunderstanding, then, on this point of known or conscious sin, opens the way for great dangers in the higher Christian life. When a believer, who has as he trusts entered upon the highway of holiness, finds himself surprised into sin, he is tempted either to be utterly discouraged, and to give everything up as lost; or else, in order to preserve the doctrine untouched, he feels it necessary to cover his sin up, calling it infirmity, and refusing to be honest and aboveboard about it. Either of these courses is equally fatal to any real growth and progress in the life of holiness. The only way is to face the sad fact at once, call the thing by its right name, and discover, if possible, the reason and the remedy. This life of union with God requires the utmost honesty with Him and with ourselves. The blessing, which the sin itself would only momentarily disturb, is sure to be lost by any dishonest dealing with it. A sudden failure is no reason for being discouraged and giving up all as lost. Neither is the integrity of our doctrine touched by it. We are not preaching a state, but a walk. The highway of holiness is not a place, but a way.
The fact is that that same moment which brings the consciousness of having sinned, ought to bring also the consciousness of being forgiven. This is especially essential to an unwavering walk in the highway of holiness, for no separation from God can be tolerated here for an instant.
We can only walk in this path by looking continually unto Jesus, moment by moment; and if our eyes are taken off of Him to look upon our own sin and our own weakness, we shall leave the path at once. The believer, therefore, who has, as he trusts, entered upon this highway, if he finds himself overcome by sin must flee with it instantly to Jesus. He must act on 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He must not hide his sin and seek to salve it over with excuses, or to push it out of his memory by the lapse of time. But he must do as the children of Israel did, rise up “early in the morning,” and “run” to the place where the evil thing is hidden, and take it out of its hiding place, and lay it “out before the Lord.” He must confess his sin.
From The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith

One of the critical events during the presidency of Ronald Reagan was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Hundreds of American soldiers were killed or wounded as they slept. You may recall the horrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig their trapped comrades from the rubble.
A few days after the tragedy, Marine Corps Commandant Paul X. Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors in a Frankfurt, Germany hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffery Lee Nashton, who was severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that he looked more like a machine than a man — yet he survived.
As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and in obvious pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it to the commandant. On the slip of paper were 2 words – “Semper Fi” — the Marine motto, which means“Forever Faithful.” What does it mean for you and me to be “forever faithful” to Jesus Christ?
Join us this Sunday, as we conclude our series on Lordship Living, and we’ll discover how we can be faithful to Christ in any and every situation. Hope to see you Sunday.

Faithful to Him,
Pastor Ben

Week #9 – Adoration

Invocation:
Eternal Father, let my first thought today be of You, let my first impulse be to worship You, let my first speech be Your name, let my first action be to kneel in prayer. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 150

Daily Scripture Reading:

Monday Deuteronomy 6:4-25
Tuesday Isaiah 42:1-13
Wednesday Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3
Thursday 1 Peter 1:3-9
Friday Job 38:1-33; 42:1-6
Saturday Revelation 21:1-7
Sunday Luke 1:46-55

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Try to make the first petitions of your prayer this week to be those of praise & adoration. Do not let yourself begin with your needs or from within the context of your life. Instead, begin your prayer against the backdrop of the greatness and majesty of God:

Our Father . . . Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done. . . .

Hymn: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day.

All Thy works with joy surround Thee
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays:
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain,
Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest.
Thou our Father, Christ our brother
All who live in love are Thine,
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began,
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us onward,
In the triumph song of life.
-Henry Van Dyke-

Benediction:
Father, may my life make Your great heart glad today. Let me live in adoration, praise and gratitude for who You are and all You have come to mean to me. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* “Adoration” for the person of today is difficult because we are not altogether sure what it is or what it means. Yet, “adoration” is one of the great continuing words of the religious vocabulary, a vocabulary which is one of the richest, most retensive elements of our language. Words linger on long after the deep experience which they signified has been forgotten. Sometimes, even the capacity for the experience has become dimmed or lost, the meaning of the word blurred. We “adore” many things — the word is in common use, is used to describe lesser and often inane things or ideas. Thus “adoration” in its religious and original sense — the bowing down in awe and reverence, tinged with the fear of God — has become largely lost in superficial wonder and feeling.
-From Surprised By the Spirit by
Edward J. Farrell-

* The highest adoration is not occupied with the recollection of favors received and mercies extended, though they do help one be aware of the true nature of God. There is still, in all such recollection, a remnant of that self-centeredness which it should be the purpose of prayer to escape. In it, we are still thinking of God in terms of something done to “me” and for “me.” We never really adore Him, until we arrive at the moment when we worship Him for what He is in Himself, apart from any consideration of the impact of His Divine Selfhood upon our desires and our welfare. Then we love Him for Himself alone. Then we adore Him, regardless of whether any personal benefit is in anticipation or not. Then it is not what He has done for us or what we expect Him to do for us, but what He has been from eternity before we existed, and what He is now even if we were not here to need Him, and what he will be forever whether that “forever” includes us or not — it is that which captivates us and evokes from us the selfless offering of self in worship. That is pure adoration. Nothing less is worthy of the name.
-From An Autobiography of Prayer by
Albert E. Day-

* There is a place in the religious experience where we love god for Himself alone, with never a thought of His benefits. And there is a place where the heart does not reason from admiration to affection. True, it all may begin lower down, but it quickly rises to the height of blind adoration where reason is suspended and the heart worships in unreasoning blessedness. It can only exclaim, “Holy, holy, holy,” while scarcely knowing what it means.
If this should seem too mystical, too unreal, we offer no proof and make no effort to defend our position. This can only be understood by those who have experienced it. By the rank & file of present day Christians it will be rejected or shrugged off as preposterous. So be it. Some will read and will recognize an accurate description of the sunlit peaks where they have been for at least brief periods and to which they long often to return. And such will need no proof.
-From The Root of Righteousness by
A.W. Tozer-

* So we have come to the point at which, through discipline and silent waiting, prayer happens. We do not create prayer, but merely prepare the ground and clear away obstacles. Prayer is always a gift, a grace, the flame which ignites the wood; the Holy Spirit gives prayer. The human response is one of adoring love. It is this posture of adoration which is the central posture of worship. “Religion is adoration” wrote Von Hugel. As in meditation, adoring prayer calls for a concentration. But it is not a fierce mental concentration so much as a focusing of our love, an outpouring of wonder toward God. In meditation there was a simplifying of thought so that we came to think deeply around a single word or phrase or theme until thought gave way to prayer. Similarly in the prayer of adoration we focus ourselves. The mind becomes less active, and we allow ourselves, body & spirit, to rest in an attitude of outpoured offering to God.
-From True Prayer by Kenneth Leech-

* Our children can teach us a great deal about ourselves. My daughter once came home with the not unusual remark for a 9 year old, “I’ll never speak to Elizabeth again.” She was angry with Elizabeth but, either because of the latter’s size or the restraining influence of a civilized image of a young lady, she refrained from scratching Elizabeth’s eyes out. Instead, she did the more civilized thing: she refused to speak to her.
To act as if another does not exist is a more hostile act than to slap his face. In the latter action one at least acknowledges his presence. The silent treatment is an extremely powerful weapon of aggression. With God, we are seemingly unable to hurt him in any other way. The only weapon we can use on Him, as a vehicle for our anger at all the suffering he allows, is our silence. Like my daughter we can at least not speak to Him.
-From Guilt, Anger, and God by
C. Fitzsimons Allison-

* And let it be observed, as this is the end, so it is the whole and sole end, for which every man upon the face of the earth, for which every one of you, were brought into the world and endured with a living soul. Remember! You are born for nothing else. Your life is continued to you upon earth for no other purpose than this; that you may know, love and serve God on earth, and enjoy him to all eternity. Consider! You were not created to please your senses, to gratify your imagination, to gain money, or the praise of men; to seek happiness in any created good, in anything under the sun. All this is “walking in a vain shadow”; it is leading a restless, miserable life, in order to avoid a miserable eternity. On the contrary, you were created for this and for no other purpose, by seeking and finding happiness in God on earth, to secure the glory of God in heaven. Therefore let your heart continually say, “This one thing I do” — having one thing in view, remembering why I was born, and why I am continued in life — “I press on to the mark.” I aim at the one end of my begging, God; even at “God in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” He shall be my God forever and ever, and my guide even until death!
-From The Message of the Wesleys.
Compiled by Philip S. Watson-

* When the worst finally happens, or almost happens, a kind of peace comes. I had passed beyond grief, beyond terror, all but beyond hope, and it was there, in that wilderness, that for the first time in my life I caught sight of something of what it must be like to love God truly. It was only a glimpse, but it was like stumbling on fresh water in the desert, like remembering something so huge and extraordinary that my memory had been able to contain it. Though God was nowhere to be clearly seen, nowhere to be clearly heard, I had to be near Him — even in the elevator riding up to her floor, even walking down the corridor to the one door among all those doors that had her name taped on it. I loved him because there was nothing else left. I loved him because he seemed to have made himself as helpless in his might as I was in my helplessness. I loved him not so much in spite of there being nothing in it for me but almost because there was nothing in it for me. For the first time in my life, there in that wilderness, I caught what it must be like to love God truly, for his own sake, to love him no matter what. If I loved him with less than all my heart, soul, might, I loved him with at least as much of them as I had left for loving anything.
-From A Room Called Remember by
Frederick Buechner-

Some years ago, a man was learning to fly a plane. His instructor told him to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. The novice pilot was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out of control. It soon became evident the instructor was not going to help at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, the rookie’s mind began to function again. He quickly corrected the situation, then vented his frustrations at his instructor. The instructor calmly answered, “There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.”
There are times in our lives that God seems to say the same thing to us: “Remember this: as you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be alright.”
Have you discovered this wonderful truth yet? This Sunday, as we continue our series on “Lordship Living,” we’re going to look at one of the greatest stories on trust in the Scriptures. Come and join us as we learn the difference between simply believing in God and truly trusting Him. In the process, you’ll discover no situation is ever beyond God’s control.

You Are Loved!
Pastor Ben

Week #8 – Silence

Invocation:
O God, my Father, I have no words by which I dare express the things that stir within me. I lay bare myself, my world, before you in quietness. Watch over my spirit with Your great tenderness and understanding and judgment, so that I will find, in some strange new way, strength for my weakness, health for my illness, guidance for my journey. This is the stirring of my heart, O God, my Father. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 8

Daily Scripture Reading:
Monday Revelation 3:20-22
Tuesday James 3:1-12
Wednesday Ecclesiastes 5:1-3
Thursday 1 Kings 19:9-13
Friday Psalm 46
Saturday John 10:1-15
Sunday Habakkuk 2:20

Selections For Meditation:

Personal Meditation

Prayer
There is much to be said in the Christian life; but it is God who is to do the speaking. Pray for silence both in mind and spirit so that you may hear His voice. If He spoke to you in a whisper, would you be quiet enough to hear Him?

Hymn: “Still, Still With Thee”

Still still with Thee,
When purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh,
And the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning,
Lovelier than the daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness,
I am with Thee.

So shall it be at last,
In that bright morning
When the soul waketh,
and life’s shadows flee;
Oh, in that hour,
fairer than day-light dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought —
I am with Thee.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe-

Benediction:
Come, Lord, and speak to my heart. Communicate to it Your holy will, and mercifully work within it both to will and to do according to Your good pleasure. Alas! How long shall my exile be prolonged? When shall the veil be removed which separates time from eternity? When shall I see that which I now believe? When shall I find what I seek? When shall I possess what I love, which is You, O my God! Grant, O Jesus, that these holy desires with which you now inspire me, may be followed by that eternal happiness which I hope for from Your infinite mercy. Amen.
-Thomas a’ Kempis-

Selections For Meditation:

* Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful & attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self. It is a harrowing journey, a death to self — the false self — and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want. This is why St. Benedict speaks of silence as if it were a value in itself: for the sake of silence.
-From A Place Apart by M. Basil Pennington-

* Silence is the very presence of God — always there. But activity hides it. We need to leave activity long enough to discover the Presence — then we can return to activity with it.
Stillness is present throughout the run at every point. But if one only runs, he never knows stillness.
God is present in all beings, but we will never be aware of Him if we never stop and leave behind all beings to be to Him.
-From O Holy Mountain! by
M. Basil Pennington-

* Not long ago the religion instructor at a Christian high school decided to introduce silent meditation into one of his classes. He gave the students instructions simply to “be” during the silence: to be relaxed and awake, open to life as it is, with nothing to do but appreciate whatever comes. Week by week he slowly increased the amount of time to a maximum of 10 minutes.
The student response was very revealing. One boy summarized a general feeling of the class: “It is the only time in my day when I am not expected to achieve something.” The response of several irate parents was equally revealing: “It isn’t Christian,” said one. “I’m not paying all that tuition for my child to sit there and do nothing,” proclaimed another.
How is it that 10 minutes of silence can be so special to some and so threatening to others?
-From Spiritual Friend by Tilden H. Edwards-

* As there are definite hours in the Christian’s day for the Word, particularly the time of common worship & prayer, so the day also needs definite times of silence, silence under the Word and silence that comes out of the Word. These will be especially the times before and after hearing the Word. The Word comes not to the chatterer but to him that holds his tongue. The stillness of the temple is the sign of the holy presence of God in His Word.
There is an indifferent, or even negative, attitude toward silence which sees in it a disparagement of God’s revelation in the Word. This is the view which misinterprets silence as a ceremonial gesture, as a mystical desire to get beyond the Word. This is to miss the essential relationship of silence to the Word. Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God. We are silent before hearing the Word because our thoughts are already directed to the Word, as a child is quiet when he enters his father’s room. We are silent after hearing the Word because the Word is still speaking and dwelling within us. We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God. We keep silence solely for the sake of the Word, and therefore not in order to sho disregard for the Word but rather to honor and receive it.
Silence is nothing but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing. But everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practiced and learned, in these days when talkativeness and noise prevails. Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue, comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.
-From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer-

* The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The mark of a championship basketball team is a team that can score the points when they are needed. Most of us can get the ball in the hoop eventually but we can’t do it when it is needed. Likewise, a person who is under the discipline of silence is a person who can say what needs to be said when it needs to be said. “A Word filly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living in the discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.
-From Celebration of Discipline by
Richard J. Foster-

* For as long as I can remember, I have not feared silence but welcomed it as a source of spiritual deepening. Like other people living in the world, I’ve grown accustomed to the noise in my place of work, to the raucous sounds of the city, to the inner disquiet stirred up by busy thoughts and earnest projects. Silence can be an escape from the functional responsibilities and physical demands of listening and conversing with colleagues, friends and family members. But it can also be an opening to God.
A common problem related to why we may seek to escape silence, is the discovery that it evokes nameless misgivings, guilt feelings, strange, disquieting anxiety. Anything is better than this mess, and so we flick on the radio or pick up the phone and talk to a friend. If we can pass through these initial fears and remain silent, we may experience a gradual waning of inner chaos. Silence becomes like a creative space in which we regain perspective on the whole.
-From Pathways of Spiritual Living by
Susan Annette Muto-

* It is necessary that we find the silence of God not only in ourselves but also in one another. Unless some other person speaks to us in words that spring from God and communicate with the silence of God in our souls, we remain isolated in our own silence, from which God tends to withdraw. For inner silence depends on a continual seeking, a continual crying in the night, a repeated bending over the abyss. If we cling to a silence we think we have found forever, we stop seeking God and the silence goes dead within us. A silence in which He is no longer sought ceases to speak to us of Him. A silence from which He does not seem to be absent, dangerously threatens His continued presence. For He is found when He is sought and when He is no longer sought, He escapes us. He is heard only when we hope to hear Him, and if, thinking our hope to be fulfilled, we cease to listen, He ceases to speak, His silence ceases to be vivid and becomes dead, even though we re-charge it with the echo of our own emotional noise.

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of man. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.
Silence, then, belongs to the substance of sanctity. In silence and hope are formed the strength of the Saints (Isaiah 30:15).
-From Thoughts in Solitude
by Thomas Merton-

One day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim on the ruler, no right even to ask for help. Yet, the emperor threw him several gold coins. One of the emperors attendants was astonished at the general’s generosity and commented, “Sir, copper coins would adequately meet that beggar’s need. Why give him gold?” Alexander responded in royal fashion, “Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit my giving.”
That’s the way it is with God as well. His generosity toward us is lavish, not because we deserve it but because that is His nature. He is a loving, generous Creator who showers us with blessings we don’t deserve.
This week, in our series on Lordship Living, I want to challenge your thinking regarding generosity. Are you a generous person? Do you practice generosity toward others? And here’s the most critical question: What does your pattern of generosity reveal about you?
This Sunday, we will learn about the God who lavishes blessings on those who least deserve them — people like you & me! I am with you on this journey. Together, we will discover how to be more like our Heavenly Father — who gives generously to all. See you on Sunday!

In HIS Service,
Pastor Ben

Week #7 – Making Moments

Invocation
Father, give me eyes to see and a heart to respond to all which will come to me this week. Forbid that I should miss its graces by looking ahead to some other day or week. Let me accept the newness each moment brings with awareness and gratitude. In the name of the One who makes all things new, I pray. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 81

Daily Scripture Readings:
Monday Luke 24:13-35
Tuesday Mark 9:2-8
Wednesday 1 Chronicles 28:10-30
Thursday Revelation 3:14-22
Friday 1 Samuel 7:7-17
Saturday Mark 14:1-9
Sunday Matthew 17:1-13

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Begin to pray this week that the moments of your life may themselves become prayers. Whether they are in the joy of a birthday party, in the weariness that comes from labor, in the majesty of the setting sun or in the pain that comes with tears. Pray that each in its turn will cause you to lift your voice to Him.

Hymn: “This Is My Father’s World”
by Maltbie D. Babcock

This is my Father’s world
And to my listening ears,
All nature sings, and round me rings,
The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world,
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.

Benediction:
Father, so much of my life seems to be devoid of events that can be labeled important. It’s content and quality will more likely be determined by my responses to the ordinary. Let me see Your hand in the providences and circumstances of this day. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time? Amidst the meditation of mountains, the humility of flowers — wiser than all alphabets — clouds that die constantly for the sake of His glory, we are hating, hunting, hurting. Suddenly we feel ashamed for our clashes and complaints in the face of the tacit glory in nature. It is so embarrassing to live! How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.
-From Man’s Quest for God, by
Abraham Joshua Heschel-

* Temperance, then, is the teacher of that genial humility which is an essential of spiritual health. It makes us realize that the normal and moderate course is the only one we can handle successfully in our own power: that extraordinary practices, penance, spiritual efforts, with their corresponding graces, must never be deliberately sought. Some people appear to think that the “spiritual life” is a peculiar condition. But the solid norm of the spiritual life should be like that of the natural life. The extremes of joy, discipline, vision, are not in our hands but in the Hand of God. We can maintain the soul’s house in order without any of these. It is not the best housekeeper who has the most ferocious spring-clean, or get things from the store when she is expecting guests. “If any man open the door, I will come in to him”; share his ordinary meal, and irradiate his ordinary life. The demand for temperance of soul, for acknowledgement of the sacred character of the normal, is based on that fact — the central Christian fact — of the humble entrance of God into our common human life. The supernatural can and does seek and find us, in and through our daily normal experience: the invisible in the visible. There is no need to be peculiar in order to find God. The Magi were taught by the heavens to follow a star; and it brought them, not to a paralyzing disclosure of the Transcendent, but to a little Boy on His mother’s knee.
-From The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life by Evelyn Underhill-

* Varied and rich are the methods used by individuals who have discovered the strength and the security that come from the practice of the Presence of God. Most often, these practices are very private and are a part of the intimate resources of personal religious living. To talk about such things is like living one’s private life in public. In the course of a lifetime, a person may be privileged to share the testimony in most unexpected ways.
. . . There is a friend who is in her seventies now. In her professional life she was a secretary. Each morning before breakfast she sits at her typewriter and writes a letter to God. No one else ever sees what she writes. It is part of her own private communion with Him.
There is another person well into the later years. For some months now she has been in uncertain health. Each morning when she awakes, she stops for a period of meditation. The phrase is the same each day: “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” At night, as she turns out the light over her bed, she says it a little differently because “rejoice” and “be glad” are not very restful words. So, she says, “This is the night which the Lord has made. I will relax and rest in it.” One day she had a fall, but managed to pull herself up without calling for help. She was quite shaken and was much in pain. She prepared herself for bed and with much discomfort was able to get in beneath the covers. As she turned out the light, she said, “This is the night which the Lord has made. I will relax and cry in it.” Then she realized what she had said, and her tears were all mixed with her laughter.
Varied and rich indeed are the methods used by individuals who have discovered the strength and serenity that come from the “practice of the Presence of God.”
-From The Inward Journey
by Howard Thurman-

* Alan Watts once used a royal comparison for our moving around. A king and queen are the center of “where it’s at,” so they move with easy, royal bearing. They have no place to “get.” They have already “arrived.” Looking deeply at our lineage, we see that we are of the highest royal line: the royal image of God is in us — covered over, but indestructibly there. We need rush nowhere else to get it. We mainly need to attentively relax and dissolve the amnesia that obscures our true identity.
-From Living Simply Through the Day by
Tilden H. Edwards-

* This “dark night” of disbelief lasted four bleak and barren months. Then it happened. It was the beginning of the rest of my life, the pivotal religious experience of my own personal history. In the evenings, we novices had a 15 minute examination of conscience, during which we knelt on wooden blocks, our hands resting on our desks, our minds combing through the day for failures of commission and omission in thought, word, and deed. The only thing I did well, or at least so it seemed to me, was to get that wooden block in the right place. A well-adjusted kneeler, I used to say humorously to myself, was half the battle.
It happened on a definite Friday evening in the early spring, while I was kicking that kneeler into place for the evening examination of conscience. With all the suddenness and jolt of a heart attack, I was filled with an experiential awareness of the presence of God within me. It has been said that no one can convey an experience to another, but can only offer his reflections on the experience. I am sure that this is true. I can only say, in trying to share my experience with you, that I felt like a balloon being blown up with the pure pleasure of God’s loving presence, even to the point of discomfort and doubt that I could hold any more of this sudden ecstasy.
-From He Touched Me by John Powell-

* Nothing is more reasonable, perfect or divine than the will of God. No difference in time, place or circumstance could add to its infinite worth, and if you have been granted the secret of how to discover it in every moment, you have found what is most precious and desirable. God is telling you that if you abandon all restraint, carry your wishes to their furthest limits, open your heart boundlessly, there is not a single moment when you will not be shown everything you can possibly wish for.
The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love. The more a soul loves, the more it longs, the more it hopes, the more it finds. The will of God is manifest in each moment, an immense ocean which the heart only fathoms insofar as it overflows with faith, trust and love. The whole of the rest of creation cannot fill your heart, which is larger than all that is not God; terrifying mountains are mere molehills to it. It is in His purpose, hidden in the cloud of all that happens to you in the present moment, that you must rely. You will find it always surpasses your own wishes. Woo no man, worship no shadows or fantasies; they have nothing to offer or accept from you. Only God’s purpose can satisfy your longing and leave you nothing to wish for. Adore, walk close to it, see through and abandon all fantasy. Faith is death and destruction to the senses for they worship creatures, whereas faith worships the divine will of God. Discard idols, and the senses will cry like disappointed children, but faith triumphs for it can never be estranged from God’s will. When the present moment terrifies, crushes, lays waste and overwhelms the senses, God nourishes, strengthens and revives faith, which, like a general in command of an impregnable position, scorns such useless defenses.
When the will of God is revealed to souls and has made them feel that they, for their part, have given themselves to Him, they are aware of a powerful ally on every hand, for then they taste the happiness of the presence of God which they can only enjoy when they have learned, through surrendering themselves, where they stand each moment in relation to His ever-loving will.
-From The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade-