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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 to Bear My Burden

Holy God, use me today as may suit you; this is my prayer, to submit myself totally to your Holy Spirit, showing the face of Christ to the world in my love and my proclamation of your majesty. If the world hates me for it, let me remember that this hatred is for you. If I be like Christ, should I resent a crown of thorns? Put your words in my mouth, O Holy Spirit, whatever the cost, and teach me to bear any burden with the joy of eternal salvation. For every stripe on my back, put an angel in my heart to heal me. In the name and faith of Christ, I pray,

Mason Barge 1/14/2015

Prayer for Eternal Life

Almighty God, with whom abide the spirits of those who depart hence in the love of Christ, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; I give you hearty thanks for the good examples of all your servants, who, having finished their course in faith, now rest from their labors. And I pray to you that I, with all those who are departed in the true faith of your holy Name, may have my own perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in your eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

by Mason Barge

Meditation

[Death is simply rest from our labors.]

Blessing

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace, this day and evermore.

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.

Icon of Saint Silvanus

Psalm 91:11-12 (NKJV)

1 John 1:5-10 (ESV)

Walking in the Light

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Notes on the Scripture

he three epistles called 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John were written by John the Evangelist, the same person who wrote the Gospel According to John. We do not see much of him in Acts, but he apparently spent his old age in Ephesus, where there was a great church, and the three epistles he penned are a practical guide complementing the very theoretical Gospel he wrote.

The theme of God as light, and evil as dark, reminds us directly of the opening of John's Gospel: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:4-5) John is always poetic, and this passage is no exception. He compares Christ to light in his gospel, and in his epistle, he compares a person who lives by the word of Christ to a person who walks in that light.

The image is a very easy one to understand, because everyone knows what it is like to try to walk in darkness. You run into things, you creep slowly. If you have ever tried to walk in the woods at night without a flashlight, you will know it is next to impossible. You simply cannot do it.

So John is telling us that trying to find righteousness before God, without the knowledge of Christ we take from the Bible, is like trying to walk in total darkness. We are blind for lack of light.

But in this passage, he makes a more specific point: Refusing to admit our sin, as Christ taught us to do, is like turning off our flashlight at night. We cannot make the mistake of thinking we have become perfect, no matter how hard we try to follow God's law. Certainly we try to avoid sin; if we love Christ, we avoid sinful behavior the best we can out of our love for Him, our love for others, and even our love for ourselves.

But we must never make the mistake of thinking we have become perfect or even better than other people. "All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Our sin, and the grace we receive by being forgiven for our sin through our belief in Christ, is the very essence of Christianity.

Daily Inspiration

“Forgiveness by Living”

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