Sunday, May 14, 2006
5/14/2006, #60, 2nd Quarter 2006
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:4)
Father, please help us recognize our condition for what it is. We are so easily offended and discouraged. Truly the battle is within ourselves as we strive with sin. Help us in the Episcopal Church to hear your son's call in Matthew 5 to a radical change of direction. The words are so familiar that we no longer hear them: write them on our hearts and our wills.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him; for whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives." (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Father, all of us in the Episcopal Church need your chastening. We have all erred and gone astray. Encourage us by your Holy Spirit to receive your corrections: they are a sign of your great love for us.
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (Hebrews 12:7)
Father, we don't like it, but we need it: please discipline us and bring us back to you.
But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8)
Holy Spirit, please help us embrace the chastening our father in heaven is sending us. Just as Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before him, help us also embrace all that our father in heaven gives us to do. (From Hebrews 12:2)
***** Keep praying for Fr. Love to be approved. Pray for God's will and work at General Convention. Pray for God to cleanse and renew his church, beginning with us.
Just before the battle of Jericho, Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in front of him. He asked, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" he said "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Joshua fell on his face and asked, "What does my Lord say?" (Joshua 5:13-15) Pray for us all that we may ask that question.
Word received yesterday morning: I Am . I Am holy. I want you to be a holy people.
Cry out to the Lord for his Church.
(Jeanne Gizara) Prayer for Diocesan Convention, May 13
Exodus 40: 34-38: Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out -- until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
Lord, we pray for your glory to saturate the grounds of Camp of the Woods on June 9 -- 11 as we convene for the Diocesan Convention. We pray for your clear direction and for our obedience to that direction in every aspect of the convention and in every detail of business, worship, fellowship, evangelism, Christian service, preaching and teaching. All for your glory, Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father, please help us recognize our condition for what it is. We are so easily offended and discouraged. Truly the battle is within ourselves as we strive with sin. Help us in the Episcopal Church to hear your son's call in Matthew 5 to a radical change of direction. The words are so familiar that we no longer hear them: write them on our hearts and our wills.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him; for whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives." (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Father, all of us in the Episcopal Church need your chastening. We have all erred and gone astray. Encourage us by your Holy Spirit to receive your corrections: they are a sign of your great love for us.
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (Hebrews 12:7)
Father, we don't like it, but we need it: please discipline us and bring us back to you.
But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8)
Holy Spirit, please help us embrace the chastening our father in heaven is sending us. Just as Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before him, help us also embrace all that our father in heaven gives us to do. (From Hebrews 12:2)
***** Keep praying for Fr. Love to be approved. Pray for God's will and work at General Convention. Pray for God to cleanse and renew his church, beginning with us.
Just before the battle of Jericho, Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in front of him. He asked, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" he said "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Joshua fell on his face and asked, "What does my Lord say?" (Joshua 5:13-15) Pray for us all that we may ask that question.
Word received yesterday morning: I Am . I Am holy. I want you to be a holy people.
Cry out to the Lord for his Church.
(Jeanne Gizara) Prayer for Diocesan Convention, May 13
Exodus 40: 34-38: Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out -- until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
Lord, we pray for your glory to saturate the grounds of Camp of the Woods on June 9 -- 11 as we convene for the Diocesan Convention. We pray for your clear direction and for our obedience to that direction in every aspect of the convention and in every detail of business, worship, fellowship, evangelism, Christian service, preaching and teaching. All for your glory, Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
