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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.

For Sunday Morning

Oh heavenly Lord, who decreed that we should take one day of rest, one special day in remembrance of you, today I celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the moment of His glorious victory over death. I add my voice to countless millions of others in thanks, in praise, and in awe of Your sacrifice for us.

Help me, dear Lord, to dedicate these few moments to You completely. You have taught us that we may dwell with you, even while we are caught in this difficult world, and I pray to dwell with you fully now. Guard me against wandering of mind and the intrusion of mundane thought, so that I may be fully present with you, through the power of Your Holy Spirit.

And in the coming week, I pray that my mind may constantly turn to you, so that I may always remember you when I am tempted to anger, to selfishness, to lust for power and the vanities of this world, or any of the myriad temptations that might assail me in the course of life. In the name of Christ and through faith in Him, I pray,

by Mason Barge

Anselm’s Prayer

Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you my whole being.

I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge; let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more, and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of your love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love.

by (Saint) Anselm, 1033-1109.

For Lost Souls

Heavenly Lord Jesus, I pray to you, help all the people on earth who are oblivious to you and your saving grace. I see and hear — I am bombarded with — words and actions that spring from the total darkness of those who do not know you. They blaspheme your name, they scorn your Word, they mock those who confess you.

I know your will be done in all things, mighty God, and it seems that there are those you will abandon to evil; yet even so, it is my prayer that you save them all, or save as many as you might be persuaded to; or even, that you save a single one by my prayer. I pray that you might have mercy upon the wretched atheists, the misguided who worship a God without Christ, and all the many who are simply confused and adrift. Save them Lord Christ; this I pray to you and in your name,

Mason Barge 5/16/2015

Benediction

Oh God Almighty, send me Your light and truth, to keep this day and all the days of my life. And may Your mighty hand protect me, and all my brothers and sisters who have joined me in prayer this day, blessing our homes and our lives.

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 15:19 (NKJV)

1 John 4:1-6 (ESV)

Telling Truth from Lies

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Notes on the Scripture

The difficulty in truly understanding this passage is not the practical message. John tells us to listen only to prophets who confess their belief that Jesus was a real human being and was the Messiah. The aim is to prevent Christians from being seduced by charismatic sect leaders with aberrant messages, and thus putting their access to God’s grace in peril.

The difficulty — which is easy to ignore — is John’s underlying assumption: belief is motivated by a spirit.

ecularists do not think that spirits exist. They believe that everything that motivates us is part of the visible world. But this is impossible for a Christian. Jesus explicitly promised us that God would send a spirit to be with us, which we call the Holy Spirit. The very word “spiritual” presupposes that there is at least one spirit, apart from the visible world and outside of ourselves.

It is very easy to pay lip service to the concept that their is a Holy Spirit without really believing or understanding what it means: There is an invisible being, completely external to us, which can affect our behavior. This being is our conduit to God. It is somewhat like a two-way radio.

If you have not availed yourself of the Holy Spirit as a real presence, you have cut yourself off from a powerful force. The greatest difficulty with accessing the teaching, comfort, and power of the Holy Spirit, is that its voice is easily drowned out. Notice that people with strong beliefs in spirits tend to live in isolated areas, where they are not constantly bombarded by human communication. Monks often takes vows of silence for this very reason.

People find themselves moved by the Spirit in many ways, including, sometimes, very raucous worship ceremonies. But the Holy Spirit is always available. Find a comfortable and quiet place, close your eyes, and simply ask the Holy Spirit to be with you. People say they hear the Spirit, or are “touched” by it, but these are analogies. You (probably) will not actually hear a voice or feel a physical touch; rather, you will simply know.

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