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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer to Follow God's Will Today (by Chas. Haddon Spurgeon)

O  God, the author of all good, I come to You for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world; I carry about with me an evil heart. I know that without You I can do nothing, that everything with which I shall be concerned, however harmless in itself, may prove an occasion of sin or folly, unless I am kept by Your power.

Hold me up O God and I shall be safe. Preserve my understanding from subtlety of error, my affections from love of idols, my character from stain of vice, my profession from every form of evil. May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Your blessing, and in which I cannot invite Your inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, or prepare me for disappointments.

Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food suitable for me, lest I be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or be poor, and steal, and take Your name in vain. May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Your will. Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, to improve my talents, to redeem my time, to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within, to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians. And to You, O God, be the glory.

by Chas. Haddon Spurgeon

For God's Peace

Drop thy still dews of quietness till all our strivings cease,
Take from our souls the strain and stress and let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

~ J. G. Whittier

Meditation

[“Take from our souls the strain and stress.”]

Closing Praise

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.

Office of Prime, Western Breviary 9/4/2014

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Christian Life

1 Peter 2:7-8 (ESV)

A Living Stone and a Holy People [2]

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

and

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Notes on the Scripture

ast Wednesday, we recalled how Christ commissioned Peter to be the “rock” on which His church was built, and how this happened immediately after Peter first confessed that Jesus was the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20). In yesterday's Scripture, Peter explained that once we confess our belief in Christ, we, like him, become the “living stones” that form the church.

Today's passage shows us a second aspect of Peter's message, continuing the metaphor of us as living stones. When we confess our faith and receive the Holy Spirit, we become another kind of living stone. To people who do not believe and refuse to hear the message of salvation, and would lure others to death, we become like stones in their path. We become “stumbling blocks” to the preachers of evil.

Life is frequently compared to a path or road. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

It is easy to picture the active, vocal, demanding atheists of the world hurtling down a smoothly paved highway that leads to death. Even worse, they take others with them, because the road to destruction is easy to find and smooth to travel. It is “downhill all the way”. All you have to do is give in to your instincts.

Who will stop them, if not those of us who have already been elected to God's kingdom? How can they change, how will they even have an opportunity to change, if we do not warn them that they are on the wrong road?

Peter thus extends the “living stone” metaphor to those who openly oppose the evils of the world, especially those who dare to speak up and tell a hostile world the truth. We become stones sitting in the road to destruction, to make those speeding towards their death slow down, or stumble.

This is not intended to be cruel or mean or hostile — just the opposite. A disciple of Christ speaks always gently and out of love. But to witness to Christ makes us bold in our faith. When we speak up in favor of Christ, or when we speak up against attempts to glorify something we know is evil, we become the stumbling stones on the road to death.

Daily Inspiration

“ Safe Refuge ”

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