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MEDITATION:

Written by Allan Descheneau, a contemporary pastor and owner of the “Art of the Christian Ninja” blogsite.  This is an excerpt from his work “God’s Established Order.”

Part of fearing God means doing what He says, and none of us does that all the time. One of the most amazing things about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God sent His Son into a world full of rebels. We don’t want to do things His way, we hate Him to His face, we argue with His teaching and His plan, we corrupt His Law and His Word, and in our rebellion we become blind, lame, and deaf to truth. We can’t change our hearts. We won’t choose Him as our Lord. And God’s response was to send Jesus to break the power of sin and make it possible for us to come back to Him. He takes a world of rebels and invites them to admit He is King.

One of the main things that Christians recognize, that non-believers don’t, is that we absolutely need God to be our highest authority. We’re no good on our own. When humans set things up without listening to God, we end up creating all sorts of horrible and dangerous chaos…Christianity seeks to help the weak, sick, hopeless, helpless, downtrodden, poor, and outcast. We champion peace and humility…When humans abandon God’s rule and authority and set up our own kingdoms, we utterly mess things up. Why? Because in this world there are only two teams: Jesus and Satan. And where God’s Son is abandoned there is only one team left, and it isn’t a good one.

PRAYER:

Written by Scott Cairns is a contemporary American poet, professor, and spiritual  essayist.

Beloved Lover of humankind, soften our hearts so that we too may have compassion for those who suffer, so that we too may give gladly of our time and treasure to those in need. May nothing we do be done in strife, but in confidence and in  peace. May nothing we do be done in foolish pride, but in lowliness of mind let us esteem others as greater than ourselves. May we esteem the needs of others as greater than our own. May we look with kindness and compassion upon their burdens. May our hearts become as tender wombs prepared to receive your grace, that in due time may we bring forth the joyful fruit of your Spirit. May this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. That being God he made himself impoverished, and took upon himself the form of a servant, humbled himself, and was obedient unto death — yet a death that has brought all to life. May we suspect our own power to say yes to whatever our God asks of us. We ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.