Daily Devotion for October 13, 2014
Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
Prayers
Scripture
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.
If you see your brother standing by the road
With a heavy load from the seeds he sowed;
And if you see your sister falling by the way
Just stop and say you're goin' the wrong way.
Refrain:
You've got to try a little kindness
Yes show a little kindness,
Yes shine your light for everyone to see.
And if you'll try a little kindness and you'll overlook the blindness
Of the narrow minded people on the narrow minded streets.
Don't walk around the down and out
Lend a helping hand instead of doubt,
And the kindness that you show every day
Will help someone along their way.
Music and Lyrics by
Curt Sapaugh and
Bobby Austin (1969)
Prayer for the Morning (Jane Austen)
Compassionate Lord, Your mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day. Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge; ripen for spiritual harvest. Let me this day know You as You are, love You supremely, serve You completely, admire You fully.
Through grace let my will respond to You, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that Your free love alone enables me to serve You. Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with Your choice gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase away its mists of ignorance.
For Protection of Body and Soul
Heavenly Father, I give you thanks for the protection you give me. You protect my body from the mighty forces of the universe that would kill me in an instant, with your good earth you have freely given me. You sustain my life with air, food, water, the shining sun and the gentle rain, the rich earth that grows my food. You protect my body from disease and trauma by the miracle of healing and the wonders of science.
Most of all, I thank you for preserving me from evil, the preservation of my soul; for the enemies of my soul abound on this earth, and often, I would do the damage myself. I pray that I have wisdom sufficient to allow you to do your will, and enter me, and protect my soul from dangers within and without by your infinite power. Let me put on your armor every day, and with your help and the forgiving grace of my savior, Jesus Christ, be kept pure, so that I may one day come before you in perfect joy.
In the name of the same Jesus Christ, I pray,
Meditation
[God will preserve us from evil.]
Parting Prayer
O good shepherd, seek me out, and bring me home to your fold again. Deal favourably with me according to your good pleasure, until I may dwell in your house all the days of my life, and praise you forever and ever with them that are there.
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 Way
To every man there openeth
A Way, and Ways, and a Way,
And the High Soul climbs the High Way,
And the Low Soul gropes the Low,
And in between, on the misty flats,
To rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A High Way, and a Low.
And every man decideth
The way his soul shall go.
The Way by John Oxenham
Nahum 3:1-7 (KJV)
The Destruction of Assyria
Woe to the bloody city!
it is all full of lies and robbery;
the prey departeth not;
the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels,
and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear:
and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases;
and there is none end of their corpses;
they stumble upon their corpses:
because of the multitude of the whoredoms
of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts,
that selleth nations through her whoredoms,
and families through her witchcrafts.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts;
and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face,
and I will shew the nations thy nakedness,
and the kingdoms thy shame.
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile,
and will set thee as a gazingstock.
And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee,
and say, Nineveh is laid waste:
who will bemoan her?
whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
Notes on the Scripture
Since Nahum was mentioned in Tobit, it seemed like a good time to include a reading. It is a short book of three chapters and notable for two reasons. First, it specifically and directly predicts the destruction of Nineveh, and secondly, it is vivid and colorful, an unabashed diatribe, notable for its violence even among the latter prophets — all of whom are fairly colorful. There is none of the subtlety or poetry of Habakkuk here! God will pull the skirts of the harlot over her face, and “cast abominable filth” on Nineveh; its people will “stumble upon their corpses.”
Some scholars have suggested that Nahum's writings are historical. Although the orthodox view is that the book was written as prophecy written in @ 615 B.C., just before the downfall of Assyria, several more recent scholars have suggested that he wrote this passage as liturgy just after its downfall in 612 B.C. But it is clearly written in the future tense and was credited as prophetic in Tobit, so most Christians take it at face value.
