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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 for the Morning

I bless you for the day you have made, Mighty Lord God, and pray that I may spend this day rejoicing in your creation. I pray for your Holy Spirit to fill me with the joy of my salvation, so that your light may shine through me into the world, that your honor and glory may be known to all people.

Remind me of your blessings, I pray, with every tribulation I may face, so that I may act with energy, forgiveness and love, ever mindful of the grace You have shown to me. Through Christ I pray,

Prayer of Thanks

O Thou whose bounty fills my cup, With every blessing meet! I give Thee thanks for every drop, The bitter and the sweet.

I praise Thee for the desert road, And for the riverside; For all Thy goodness hath bestowed, And all Thy grace denied.

I thank Thee for both smile and frown, And for the gain and loss; I praise Thee for the future crown And for the present cross.

I thank Thee for both wings of love Which stirred my worldly nest; And for the stormy clouds which drove Me, trembling, to Thy breast.

I bless Thee for the glad increase, And for the waning joy; And for this strange, this settled peace Which nothing can destroy.

Benediction

Now the God of patience and consolation grant to me, and to all who pray in the name of Christ, to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That we may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

Proverbs 17:1

1 Corinthians 1:1-8 (ESV)

Introduction to 1 Corinthian -
Greetings and Thanksgiving

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge — even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you — so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Notes on the Scripture

During Paul's second journey, he established a church at Corinth, an important city in southern Greece. (Acts 18:1-17) On his third journey, he got reports of difficulties with the new Christian community. Much of the trouble came from members identifying themselves with different religious leaders.

There were also a wide variety of viewpoints, some of them extreme, about how the churches should be run, leadership, and Christian lifestyle, for the great majority of the church in Corinth were Gentiles and the background of Jewish morality that informed Jewish churches did not come naturally to many of them.

In fact, in this respect, the attitudes of metropolitan Greeks 2000 years ago were similar to modern secular attitudes. It was an individualistic society where philosophy and science were prominent, and self-fulfillment -- the purpose of one's life and how to best live -- were the subject of much philosophical discussion.

Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, written during his long stay in Ephesus during his third journey, is one of the most quoted books in the Bible. It is full of practical advice as well as teachings on strictly theological issues and contains several of his most powerful, beautiful writing.

In the opening verses, he mentions Sosthenes, which is a bit of a mystery. The former leader of the synagogue in Corinth, who had been instrumental in the founding of the church and had suffered violence, might have been traveling with Paul, and if so, it would be natural for Paul to send the letter in Sosthenes' name as well as his own. Or it might have been some unknown Greek with good writing skills, acting as Paul's secretary.

As usual, the letter begins with praise and thanks, reminding the Corinthians of their common great purpose. Paul starts, in other words, by building a sense of bond and kinship with the readers, reminding them of the love he has for them and assuring them that his only motivation is that all good things may come to them.

The beginning of 1 Corinthians from a 14th century Greek miniscule manuscript, penned by "Antonius, a monk".

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