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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 Joy in God’s Creation

O  Heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty; Open my eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that rejoicing in your whole creation, I may learn to serve you with gladness, faithfully managing your bounty; for the sake of him by whom all things were made, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Meditation

“I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world, than stand with the world and be judged by God.”

~ John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, 5th century

Benediction

Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you direct my way unto you, and make me and all of us to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end that we may establish our hearts unblameable in holiness before you, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

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 119:1-3, 101-105 (ESV)

Matthew 4:18-22 (ESV)

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

hile walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Notes on the Scripture

All of us hear some sort of call to Christ. Most often when we read about it in the Bible, it is dramatic. Picture Saul on the road to Damascus, being knocked from his horse and stricken blind; or Jonah, being swallowed by a great fish and disgorged on a beach.

The call to the first four apostles is almost as dramatic. Peter and Andrew, fishermen at work, immediately leave their nets to follow Jesus. Being a fisherman is honest labor but a hard life with little reward, and back then even more so than today. It was literally a earning a living, and a risky one at that — for coming up empty-handed after a day’s work is always a risk for fishermen, and injury is common. Christ’s first call, a call that will determine the people he will leave in charge of his church, is not to the educated, wealthy, influential. His called disciples are not people who have shown any intimation of greatness.

And what do they do when they hear the call? They leave their work on the spot. Ultimately, they abandon their slim source of sustenance. We call someone taking great risk without any backup “jumping without a net,” figuratively; but they do so, literally.

James and John are in a similar position, but notice the difference. They are said to leave their boat and their father, emphasizing that they have left behind their home and family. We see people in the two primary spheres of life — at work and at home — dropping everything.

Such calls continue to happen today; a man or woman, in a sudden flash of insight, will repent of their sin and follow Christ. Often dramatic conversions occur to prisoners, addicts — people whose lives are truly a mess. But for most of us the call comes more subtly, more gradually, often to the point where we hardly notice it. We do not need to experience our rebirth in Christ as a great moment of epiphany. Although theologians will tell us that there is a moment when the miracle occurs and we answer our call, we may hardly know when it was.

Growing gradually in faith is the rule; it is the sudden dramatic call that is the exception. God gives us a lifetime to find him, and our growth in faith may happen in such small stages, with so many small steps backwards, that we hardly notice how much we change. We should, none of us, doubt our call! Nor should we fear to drop our nets and follow Christ in stages. We come to Christ as we are called, and if the realization of our salvation comes slowly, it is none the less real and eternal.

Daily Inspiration

“Eternity”

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