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MEDITATION:

Written by Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983), Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor and author.

Making a living can keep us so busy that the Sabbath catches us like a noose. Not only do our worries snare us, so do happy expectations: the harvest on the new stretch of land, the fur coat, the holidays, and the lecture on the Bible topic. In themselves they are all good things.

I remember moments during World War II when suddenly there was an immediate threat to our lives during an air raid or in prison. At that moment you saw everything from God’s point of view, and it gave you a totally different perspective, because you touched death, and therefore eternity. You saw that small things were small and big things were big. You would see everything in the right proportions.

Sometimes it’s necessary to draw apart, to look inward to achieve the quiet that allows repentance. The kind of personal reflection known as introspection has all but disappeared from our lives, let alone our vocabularies. When we get down to it, many of us view reflection of any kind as overly time-consuming, even nonproductive. Why don’t Christians spend more time agonizing over their sin and pleading for mercy?

PRAYER:

Written by Benedict (480-547), the father of Western monasticism and founder of the Rule of St. Benedict, a monastic community.

Father, in Your goodness grant me the intellect to comprehend You, the perception to discern You, and the reason to appreciate You. In Your kindness endow me with the diligence to look for You, the wisdom, to discover You, and the spirit to apprehend You. In Your graciousness bestow on me a heart to contemplate You, ears to hear You, eyes to see You, and a tongue to speak of You. In Your mercy to confer on me a conversation pleasing to You, the patience to wait for You, and the perserverance to long for You. Grant me a perfect end, Your holy presence.  I ask this in the name of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Christine Caine, a contemporary Australian activist, evangelist, author, and speaker. Excerpted from “Devotions by Christine Caine.”

Nothing about my birth—or yours—was random or accidental. I was born for this time—and so were you. We were each chosen for a particular, cosmically important task that can be done by no one else. We need to be diligent in listening to God’s voice calling us to that task—and in encouraging others to be similarly obedient.

That means that we can no longer overlook the grocery clerk at the checkout stand or the downcast person we pass on the street. Instead, we should choose to recognize their value, and call out their worth. It means caring enough to help the mom at preschool whose child won’t come when called, loving enough to offer a word of cheer or humor to the receptionist at the doctor’s office struggling to answer phones and still respond to every question at the counter. It means thanking the garbage man lifting bins at the curb, and recognizing the God-made-and-paid-for-soul in every person we encounter throughout the day. But we won’t—we can’t—help others know they matter unless we first recognize how much God loves and chooses each of us. And that’s a challenge we must face inside.

PRAYER:

Written by Clement of Alexandria (150-215), a Christian theologian and philosopher.

Be kind to Your little children, Lord; that is what we ask of You as their Tutor, You the Father, Israel’s guide; Son, yes, but Father as well. Grant that by doing what You told us to do, we may achieve a faithful likeness to the Image and, as far as is possible for us, may find in You a good God and a lenient Judge. May we all live in the peace that comes from You. May we journey towards Your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne tranquilly along by the Holy Spirit, Your Wisdom beyond all telling. Night and day until the last day of all, may our praises give You thanks, our thanksgiving praise You: You who alone are both Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son who is our Tutor and our Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit.

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MEDITATION:

Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British writer and lay theologian.  This is from his work “Mere Christianity.”

What we call “being in love” is a glorious state, and, in several ways, good for us. It helps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty, and it subordinates (especially at first) our merely animal sexuality; in that sense, love is the great conqueror of lust. No one in his senses would deny that being in love is far better than either common sensuality or cold self-centeredness. But, as I said before, ‘the most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of our own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs’. Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last.

PRAYER:

From the “Carmina Gadelica”,  six volumes of prayers, hymns, blessings, songs, proverbs and literary folkloric poems from the Gaelic speaking regions of Scotland.  Compilation of the works began by Alexander Carmichel between 1860 and 1909.

Peace between neighbors, peace between kindred. Peace between lovers, in love of the King of life.

Peace between person and person, peace between wife and husband, peace between woman and children. The peace of Christ above all peace.

Bless, O Christ, my face, let my face bless every thing; Bless, O Christ, mine eye, let mine eye bless all its sees.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus.”

When people vilify God for failing to make a wholly good world inhabited by wholly good people, I fear that they are not always concerned with moral goodness. Many times they only mean that God should have made a world in which they would always get what they want and one that would be inhabited by people of the sort they like. I suspect that all of the complaints we hear about the way the world runs are only so many variations on a theme spelled out so exquisitely in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: 

“Ah Love! Could you and I with Him conspire, to grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, would not we shatter it to bits—and, then re-mould it nearer to the heart’s desire!” 

We humans never get what we want, and oh, we want it so badly! We want it badly enough to conclude without hesitation that God should have designed this world with our specific needs in mind.

PRAYER:

From an ancient collection of prayers from the 6^th century.

O Lord Jesus Christ,  good Shepherd of the sheep, who came to seek the lost, and to gather them to your fold, have compassion upon those who have wandered from you; feed those who hunger, cause the weary to lie down in your pastures, bind up those who are broken in heart, and strengthen those who are weak, that we, relying on your care and being comforted by your love, may abide in your guidance to our lives’ end; for your name’s sake. AMEN.

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MEDITATION:

Written by James C. Fenhagen, a contemporary Episcopal minister and theological educator. This is an excerpt from his book “Mutual Ministry.”

One of the fruits of solitude is an increased capacity for compassion – the ability “to suffer with” another’s pain. It comes about as the result of an increased sense of solidarity with the human family of which we are a part. When Paul talks about “suffering with those who suffer,” he is talking about compassion, that supreme gift without which we are less than fully human. It might well be that the greatest threat to human survival now confronting us is not the loss of energy or the increase of pollution, but the loss of compassion. We are confronted daily with the pain of human tragedy—the breakup of the family or the sunken face of a starving child—to such an extent that we soon learn to turn off what we see. In order to cope with our feelings of helplessness, we teach ourselves how not to feel. The tragedy in this response, which is probably more widespread than we dare believe, is that we also deaden our capacity for love. For Christians, the cross stands as an ever-present reminder that love and suffering are two sides of the same coin.

PRAYER:

Written by Desmond Tutu, a contemporary South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop who actively opposed apartheid in the 1980s.

O God, all holy one, we are your children. Open our eyes and our hearts so that we may be able to discern your work in the universe and be able to see your features in every one of your children. May we learn that there are many paths but all lead to you. Help us to know that you have created us for family, for togetherness, for peace, for gentleness, for compassion, for caring, for sharing. May we know that you want us to care for one another as those who know that they are sisters and brothers, members of the same family, your family, the human family.

Help us to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, so that we may be able to live in peace and harmony, wiping away the tears from the eyes of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. And may we know war no more, as we strive to be what you want us to be: your children. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), an English writer and pacifist known for her works on religion and spiritual practices. This is an excerpt from her work “The Spiritual Life.”

We are the agents of the Creative Spirit in this world. Real advance in spiritual life, then, means accepting this vocation with all it involves. Not merely turning over the pages of an engineering magazine and enjoying the pictures but putting on overalls and getting on with the job. The real spiritual life must be horizontal as well as vertical; spread more and more as well as aspire more and more.

PRAYER:

Written by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), a minister and activist for the American civil rights movement.

Lord….

We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you. Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace. Help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children — Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow — will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Simon Tugwell a contemporary American Christian author. This is an excerpt from his book “Prayer.”

Before we get too carried away with thoughts of God’s power, we should listen attentively to what Paul says about the “weakness of God,” which is a vital part of God’s self-revelation. If we look at the way in which he discloses himself in Jesus Christ we have to acknowledge that he does not come into our world with a great display of superior power; in fact, this was one of the temptations which our Lord had to resist as being contrary to his mission, contrary to his true nature. He does not come in strength but in weakness, and he chooses the foolish and weak and unimportant things of the world, things that are nothing at all, to overthrow the strength and impressiveness of the world. He is like the judo expert who uses the strength of his opponent to bring him to the ground; it is the art of self-defense proper to the weak.  This is why, if we keep clamoring for things we want from God, we may often find ourselves disappointed, because we have forgotten the weakness of God and what we may call the poverty of God. We had thought of God as the dispenser of all good things we would possibly desire; but in a very real sense, God has nothing to give at all except himself.

PRAYER:

Written by Frank Borman, an American astronaut on the Apollo 8 and Gemini 7 launches.  This is a prayer written from Apollo 8.

Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen

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MEDITATION:

Written by R. C. Sproul (1939-2017), an American theologian and Presbyterian pastor. He was the founder of Ligonier Ministries and host of the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast.

There is much similarity between the English term for the assembly of God’s people and the terms for the same concept in other languages. Church in English, kirke in Dutch, and kirche in German. All of these words find their origin in kuriake, which is itself Greek in origin. Literally, kuriake means “belonging to the Lord.” Kurios in the Greek language can also refer to the master of slaves or servants. This explains Paul’s emphasis that he is a “servant” of the Lord. If Christians, the kuriake, belong to a master, then we are the servants or slaves of that master. To be known as servants or slaves of Christ is not to imply that our master is cruel; by no means could Jesus ever mistreat us. Instead, we are the Lord’s possession because He has purchased us from slavery to sin and death and thus also from the righteous wrath of God. As such, He is worthy of our total allegiance.

Understanding that all followers of Christ are possessions of the Lord has important implications for how we treat other Christians. To do wrong to another believer is to do wrong to one of Jesus’ own beloved. Lest we miss the point, to mistreat another Christian is to mistreat Christ Himself. All believers are so closely united to Jesus that to treat people in the church poorly is to dishonor the Lord of the church. Therefore, we should be known as those who are kind to others in the body of Christ. As servants together in the kingdom of God we must be ever conscious that He takes our treatment of His people seriously; thus, we must do good to them just as we would do good to Him.

PRAYER:

Written by John Baillie (1886-1960), a Scottish theologian and a Church of Scotland minister.

Thank you, Lord, for this new day. For its gladness and brightness, for its many hours waiting to be filled with joyful and helpful labor; for its open doors of possibility; for its hope of new beginnings. Stir up in my heart the desire to make the very most of today’s opportunities. Do not let me break any of yesterday’s promises or leave unrepaired any of yesterday’s wrongs. Do not let me see anyone in distress and pass by on the other side. Give me the strength to confront any mountain of duty or bad habit. Where an action of mine can make the this world a better place, where a word of mine can cheer a sad heart or strengthen a weak will, where a prayer of mine can serve Christ’s kingdom, there let me act and speak and pray. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus.”

What God is going to bring out of human history in his people is going to be the greatest reflection of God’s own glory, wisdom, and love. That is what human history is about. It is to make a society of the redeemed that will be the crown jewel of creation. And when we look at all of the terrible things that happen in human history, when we look at the extent of human evil in it, we want to remember what would be lost if human history had not happened. What would be lost is precisely this crown jewel of creation, which consists of Christlike people living together with the kind of love that the members of the Trinity have for one another and enjoying that full, shared, self-subsistent being that characterizes God himself as God dwells in those people.

PRAYER:

A Puritan prayer from “The Valley of Vision.”

BLESSED GOD, ten thousand snares are mine without and within, defend  me when sloth and indolence seize me, give me views of heaven; when sinners entice me, give me disrelish of their ways; when sensual pleasures tempt me, purify and refine me; when I desire worldly possessions,  help me to be rich toward you; when the vanities of the world ensnare me, let me not plunge into new guilt and ruin.

May I remember the dignity of my spiritual release, never be too busy to attend to my soul, never be so engrossed with time that I neglect the things of eternity; thus may I not only live, but grow towards You.  Form my mind to right notions of religion, that I may not judge of grace by wrong conceptions, nor measure my spiritual advances by the efforts of my natural being.

May I seek after an increase of divine love to You after unreserved resignation to thy will, after extensive benevolence to my fellow creatures, after patience and fortitude of soul, after a heavenly disposition after a concern that I may please you  in public and private.

Draw on my soul the lineaments of Christ, in every trace and feature of which You take delight, for I am your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,  your letter written with the Holy Spirit’s pen, your tilled soil ready for the sowing, then harvest.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Tim Keller, a contemporary pastor at Redeemer Church in New York City.  This is an excerpt from his book “Generous Justice.”

The Hebrew word for “justice,” mishpat, occurs in its various forms more than 200 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Its most basic meaning is to treat people equitably. It means acquitting or punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social status. But mishpat means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. It also means giving people their rights. It is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care. If you look at every place the word is used in the Old Testament, several classes of persons continually come up. Over and over again, mishpat describes taking up the care and cause of widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor—those who have been called “the quartet of the vulnerable.” In premodern, agrarian societies, these four groups had no social power. They lived at subsistence level and were only days from starvation if there was any famine, invasion, or even minor social unrest. Today, this quartet would be expanded to include the refugee, the migrant worker, the homeless, and many single parents and elderly people. Any neglect shown to the needs of the members of this quartet is not called merely a lack of mercy or charity but a violation of justice, of mishpat. God loves and defends those with the least economic and social power, and so should we. That is what it means to “do justice.”

PRAYER:

Written by Alan Paton (1903-1988), a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.

God loves widows dearly. He talks about us a lot in the Bible…O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others

Open my ears that I may hear their cries;

Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,

Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,

And use me to bring them to those places.

And so open my eyes and my ears

That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee. Amen.

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