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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

Father, as I face this new day, let me be aware of the work you have done for me as I slept. I praise you that your loving care never slumbers, but has been with me while I was least aware of it; and that you renew me and the whole world, fresh every day, preparing your plans for me.

I pray that I may seek your will this day and during the coming week, that I may find your plan for my life, and carry out your plan in my every action. I lay my hopes and fears on an altar before you, that your Holy Spirit may guide my hopes toward the light of your holiness, and may quiet my fears with the knowledge of your infinite peace, in total confidence that your grace will save me from the evils of this world. In Jesus' name I pray,

Prayer for Personal Conduct (from 1 Timothy)

Lord God, I pray that this day my conduct will be like that you have set for your clergy, above reproach. May I be this day temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, and not violent, but gentle. May I never be quarrelsome, always seeking peace even in disagreement, and may my love be for you and my fellow man, not for money. I pray that I manage my own household well. If I have any children in my charge, I pray to that I may take the time to see that they are in control and behaving with proper respect. Grant me a good reputation with outsiders, so that I will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil. This I pray through my Lord Christ, whose love and attention ever gave us an example of conduct,

Benediction

May the God of peace, who declared victory over death by the resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ, make me perfect in every thought and act through His grace, that my life might be pleasing in his sight and that I might share the perfect peace that is only possible through Him, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

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.

The Rope to God

1 Corinthians 15:35-41 (ESV)

The Resurrection of the Dead [4]

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Notes on the Scripture

Apparently, someone has attacked the idea of human resurrection by asking about what kind of body the resurrected would have; Paul's response shows that the question is not an honest one, but a sarcastic one. But it is also an honest question that we might wonder about.

To discuss our physical form after the resurrection, he uses an analogy: a farmer planting a seed. It appears to die and disappears from our sight, but from it comes a new form. It isn't a perfect analogy, but the idea is not hard to grasp. We see a caterpiller become a pupa, seeming to be a dead, inanimate piece of trash; and then, one day, a butterfuly emerges.

Paul doesn't really answer the question here, though; possibly he doesn't know. Jesus, we know, appeared to be as he was before he died — remember, Thomas put his finger into the wound in Jesus' side — but he was likely to be a special case.

The gist of what Paul says here, is not to worry about it. Our form when we are resurrected will be better and more glorious than the form we have as humans. Change is unsettling or even frightening, especially when we don't know what the change will bring, but we must trust in God.

. . . (continued tomorrow).

Angels Rolling away the Stone from the Sepulchre by William Blake, c. 1805

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