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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

Blessed are you, Lord God of my salvation, to you be praise and glory forever. As once you ransomed your people from Egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land, so now you have delivered me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of your risen Son.

May I, the fruit of your new creation, rejoice in this new day you have made, and praise you for your mighty acts. Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To Be Free of Anxiety

Set free, O Lord, the souls of your servants from all restlessness and anxiety. Give us that peace and power which flow from you alone. Shield us from all perplexity and distress, that upheld by your strength and secured on the rock of your faithfulness, we may abide in you now and evermore.

Oxford Book p80, unattributed 8/22/2015

That the World May Find Christ

Almighty God, whose compassions fail not, and whose loving-kindness reacheth unto the world’s end; We give thee humble thanks for opening heathen lands to the light of thy truth; for making paths in the deep waters and highways in the desert; and for planting thy Church in all the earth. Grant, we beseech thee, unto us thy servants, that with lively faith we may labour abundantly to make known to all men thy blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

From the Book of Common Prayer (1916, Episcopal)

Meditation

[Secured on the rock of faithfulness.]

Parting Prayer

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip me with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in me what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Mason Barge 5/2/2014

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.

Proverbs 18:2 (NKJV)

Exodus 3:1-6 (ESV)

Moses and The Burning Bush [1]

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Notes on the Scripture

Moses, who would become the greatest prophet of God until the coming of Christ Himself, is different from most of the holy figures in the Bible, because he is an ordinary man, ridden with faults. His early life was unusual but not necessarily supernatural. Unlike almost every other Old Testament prophet, his early life was characterized by neither great righteousness nor signs of a great destiny. God has, in fact, been silent for centuries.

And now, at a fairly advanced age, he is happy to live out his life as an escaped criminal, in the mean prosperity of a shepherd, grazing his father-in-law's herd in the margins of the civilized world.

Surprise!

Perhaps it is related to Moses' worldliness, but compare how God presents Himself to Moses as opposed to, say, Abraham or Mary, whom He approaches as a warm friend. Moses is contacted by a rather terrifying vision, not in human form; the burning bush does not come to him, but commands him to approach in humility and reverence. If you consider the rude "Hello" Paul got on the road to Damascus, it seems that the way in which He approaches people has much to do with their godliness.

But Moses is no Saul/Paul; he is not horrendously sinful, just a bit slack. He has simply been living his life as if God did not exist. Unlike Adam, when God calls him, he does not try to hide; he is not a purposeful sinner, trying to hide from God. When the Lord calls him, Moses says "Here I am" and obeys in fear and wonder. Fear of God, as Proverbs tells us, is the beginning of all wisdom, and Moses is at the beginning of his relationship with God.

The bush is symbolic; for like the bush, Moses is touched by God's fiery hand, but not destroyed. And similarly, the Hebrews will suffer God's wrath, but He will not destroy them. The bush foreshadows God's treatment of Moses and the Hebrews.

Moses and the Burning Bush by Ernst Fuchs.

Daily Inspiration

“ God Spoke ”

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