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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 Sunday Worship

O  God, you make me glad with the weekly remembrance of the glorious resurrection of your Son my Lord: Give me the peace to worship you with my whole heart and mind, forgetting the cares of the world, and dwelling with you for a short moment with my entire being. And give me this day such blessing through my worship of you, that the week to come may be spent in living knowledge of your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

RMB

For Eternal Life

O  Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life; whoever lives and believes in Him, will not die eternally, but have everlasting life. You have taught us, by the holy Apostle Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for those who sleep in him.

I humbly beseech you, O Father, to raise me and all who confess your holy name, from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we depart this life, we may rest in Him; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in your sight. I pray that you will give us that blessing, which your well-beloved Son will then pronounce to all who love and fear you, saying, Come, you blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Grant this, I beseech you, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer.

BCP 1928, as revised, Mason Barge, 2013

Benediction

May the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to Himself;
May the power of the Lord Jesus strengthen us in his service;
May the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our souls.
May the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Be among us and remain with us always.

~ William Temple, 1920

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 Traveller

1 Peter 1:25, 2:1-3 (ESV)

The Milk of Human Kindness

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Notes on the Scripture

he passage begins with the last verse from 1 Peter 1, to remind us of all he had to say about the imperishable Word, Jesus Christ, in the preceding chapter. We have been reborn by our belief in Christ, and in our reborn identity we must love one another like brothers and sisters.

This change is an actual change in who we are. We are not the same people acting differently. And thus we must strive to make our love for one another sincere and true, loving our fellows not just in our faces and words, but also in our hearts.

Look at the list of actions and thoughts that Peter tells us to put away: Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. These are not characteristics of a baby. They are evils we learn to practice as we grow older, in order to manipulate the world and other people with dishonesty. Of course a baby wants things. He wants milk. He wants pain to go away. But as we grow older, our brain begins to serve these wants and we become devious. Evil comes naturally to us.

We get a second chance when we accept Christ, because we become babies again. But what we want now is to satisfy a spiritual need, which Peter likens to the milk an infant cries for. Our new self, receiving this “spiritual milk” grows into something that, unlike a human baby, will live forever.

If we learn how good this is and truly live in Christ, there is no need for malice, or deceit, etc. We can have all the milk we want; Christ has given us a full inheritance that will completely satisfy every need of our reborn selves. As we grow in the spirit, then, it becomes easier and easier to put aside malice and deceit and envy. For what good can malice do for us, when the milk that fully sustains us is the milk of love and kindness? What is there that we can envy, when we have everything?

Daily Inspiration

“Kindness”

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