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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 Unity in Sunday Worship

Father of mercy, your love embraces everyone, and through the Resurrection of your Son you call me and all who pray with me into your wonderful light. Dispel our darkness and make us a people with one heart and one voice, forever singing your praise, in Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.

El Dorado Federated Church

Forgiveness

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.

PCUSA Book of Prayer, 5/30/2017

For All Who Sin

Mighty Jesus, you are the radiant dawn bringing life into the world, and yet there are those who would hide in the shadows and under cover, in the caves of the flesh, telling each other that the darkness is good, and easy, and comfortable. I pray dear God that you will send your Holy Spirit to all of them, to show them that the fearful jaws of their insecurity become toothless when seen in the sunshine of your Word, and that they might see the true nature of evil, which hides with them in the dark, to keep them company and whisper lies in their ears.

For those who have seen the light and shrunk from it, I pray that they may be restored, and that you will ease the terrible pain that drove them to hide from you, that they might be assured of forgiveness if they will only repent. Lighten the minds of those who have been warped by anger, by bitterness, by selfishness, or by the allure of glittering bangles of wealth or status or pride.

Have mercy on me, dear Jesus, where I have strayed; and bring your light to all our brothers and sisters, that they may seek your mercy also, and find your perfect and eternal life.

Mason Barge 11/26/13

Meditation

[Lightening the minds of those who have been warped by anger.]

Benediction

Now all glory to God, who is able to keep me from falling away and will bring me with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time,

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.

Psalm 16 (NKJV)

Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)

Remembering The Truth

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Notes on the Scripture

The world is full of a number of things. Especially today, in the information age, we are bombarded by ideas and arguments, not to mention our own thoughts at everything that goes on.

t is natural for children and even young adults, to whom so much of the world is new, to experiment with accepting and believing new ideas of all kinds. They are naturally susceptible to fraud, deceit, and manipulation. Every parent worries about sexual manipulation, drug use, and “getting into cars with strangers.” But older children are likely to spend time enraptured by new, odd, and even bizarre political and religious doctrines. In college, I was variously tempted by communism and by the “objectivist” ideas of Ayn Rand; I read Tarot cards at one point; and I think I’ll stop there before I really embarrass myself. Your child or grandchild may very well think that Justin Bieber is the greatest musician of all time.

Here, the Bible tells us that when we become adults, we must develop intellectual and emotional maturity; we must learn not to be “blown about by every wind of doctrine.” This is not to say that we should close our minds or stop learning. That is an equally foolish, and common, form of immaturity; really, if there is one lesson we should learn as adults, it is that just because we think something doesn’t mean it’s automatically true. We must not cling to ideas out of pride and defensiveness.

But there is one great Truth that we have learned and which we must hold to so firmly that a hurricane cannot dislodge it: Our conviction that Christ, the Son of God, lived, taught, died, and was resurrected, in order that our immortal souls might be saved through His grace. And we must speak this truth in love, not in hatred.

Daily Inspiration

“Wisdom”

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