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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

The night has passed, the sun shines its light upon us, and the day lies open before me. As I rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence fill me with love for you and my fellow man, holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Abide with me, I pray, now and forever.

Mason Barge 5/29/2014

Concerning Forgiveness

Father, I ask you to help me to be generous when I think of the attitude and actions of others. Forgiving someone isn't an easy option, and I know that forgiveness isn't somehow pretending that something wrong hasn't happened. For what I have done wrong, forgive me Father. And let me live in obedience to your word, remembering that, as we forgive others, so shall we be forgiven.

For Love

Lord God, I thank you for all the love you have shown me: the love of family, the love of friends and fellow believers, and above all the inestimable love of my Lord Jesus Christ, which showers me and washes away the soil of this world. Like a great waterfall it gushes without ceasing, overwhelming every sin and pain the world can dish out.

Forgive my failures to love you fully in return, Lord. Forgive me for all the times I have disappointed those who love me or have disappointed you by failing those who might not even know who I am, but whom you have given me to love or help. Where I have brought sadness, anger or pain into the world, I pray that you forgive me, even if those who I have hurt will not or cannot.

And lead me henceforth to follow your example in all that I do, showing forth your love and grace in my every word and act. Let me be as constant and steadfast as Christ, even to the point of pain and death, should I ever be called to such sacrifice. Let me wash the feet of the world as you did, Holy Lord, for if there was no humility too great for you in your life, who am I to puff up in pride?

And I pray that you will accept my small and tarnished loving without judgment, but by your grace; and that your Holy Spirit will guide me in my imperfect love, to strengthen it, that, through me, the world may get a small glimpse of your love.

Mason Barge 11/09/2015

Benediction

And now, as a little child, let me abide in you all this day, oh Christ, so that when you appear I may have confidence and not shrink from you in shame at your coming. For I know that you are righteous, and I am sure that I will be made righteous only by my life in you.

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.

Move!

1 Peter 1:1-2 (ESV)

Saint Peter

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Notes on the Scripture

We have spent so much time on the writings of Paul over the past few years, it seems like a good idea to study a work of the other great founder of the Church, St. Peter. Peter was not a prolific writer, nor was he a great traveler like Paul, and he left us only two short epistles by his hand — 1 and 2 Peter. There is evidence, however, that the Gospel of Mark was partly the work of Peter; and indeed, it is hard to imagine how the eyewitness accounts of Mark could have been written without the knowledge of one of the early apostles.

imon Peter is always listed first among the apostles, and at many times he seems to act as their leader, or “first among equals.” He was made special by the commission of Christ himself, for Christ told Peter that he was the “rock” upon which Christ would found his church. The Catholic Church puts great emphasis on this and teaches that Peter was the first Pope, with special powers to forgive sin as Christ's representative. In fact, after Christ, Peter is the most important person in Catholic religious history.

While Peter does not have quite the same status in Protestant churches — most Protestants believe that grace comes directly from the relationship of the individual to God — his position as first among the apostles and (with Paul) the great founder of Christian churches gives him a special place among Protestants, also.

Peter was known primarily for his work with Jews, while Paul was more responsible for the conversion and leadership of Gentiles. Peter stayed in Jerusalem while Paul made his journeys, and he seemed to head the Council of Jerusalem (along with James), the center of Christianity. The Bible does not tell us what became of him thereafter, but there is strong evidence he later became the Bishop of Antioch and then traveled to Rome, where he became the first Bishop of Rome. We know that he was crucified; legend tells us that he was crucified upside down, as he did not think himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

At the start of this epistle, Peter appears to be addressing primarily the Jews who were evicted from Rome by Nero in 64 A.D., which perhaps would have put him in his 80s. These would have been members of the great church he had built up in Rome, in exile, and so were people that Peter would have considered part of his congregation. The five areas mentioned are all regions in modern-day Turkey. (We must remember that, 1000 years before the Ottoman Empire, these regions were essentially Greek.)

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