Pathways Press.com

It’s been awhile since I added to this site.  I am inspired by the coming Lenten season to change this and return to a practice of spiritual writing. Lent begins this coming Wednesday (March 1) with Ash Wednesday.

Lent is a time to prepare for the miracle of Easter.  It is a season of imitating the practices and teachings of Jesus and traditionally includes activities of  fasting, self-denial, spiritual growth, conversion, and simplicity.  Lent represents a time for taking spiritual inventory and then addressing those things that hinder our relationship with Jesus. Prayer, charitable service, scripture reading and fasting are common practices associated with the Lenten season since these disciplines help enrich our spiritual lives.

I have decided that this Lent I wanted to explore prayer.  I have been researching historical Lenten prayer and want to share some of the beautiful prayers I have discovered each day of Lent.  I hope that you will find the daily prayer that you read to be meaningful to you and that it will help you focus your attention on Christ during this important season.

The first prayer will be posted on Ash Wednesday.  Each day following, until Easter Sunday, I will post a new prayer.  I’ll provide a very short background about the author/source of the prayer – but the focus of each day will be the prayer itself.  I hope you find this meaningful and that you will forward to any friends that you think would like to participate.  I hope the prayers are inspiring and help you focus this season on your faith journey.

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Human conscience cannot tell a person what is right and what is wrong – the conscience can only tell a person whether or not he is acting according to what he already believes to be right.  The Holy Scriptures, which are the word of God, are our only rule for faith, obedience, and life.  We cannot have two equal authorities without making one of them the standard for interpreting the other.    While we must view the Old and New Testament as a whole and  be careful not to take any verse or portion of the Bible out of context, it is important that we strive to understand God’s message to us and make it the rule upon which we base our lives.   It’s part of the process of agreeing to the Authority of God versus subtly putting our own conscience before the will of God.  Not an easy task and one that requires much prayer.

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That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.  [Ephesians 2:19-22   The Message]

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If we are going to base our life on something, there better be a strong, solid foundation for our beliefs.  The Bible carries God’s authority and wisdom for how we should live.  As Christians, we build our entire lives (both now and eternal) on the truth of God’s Word.  Scripture is our strong foundation.   No message of Scripture originates from man’s own wisdom, but only from the inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit. We must take care to understand God’s Word, interpret it correctly, and obey it completely.  Scripture provides the only path for fully understanding God’s promises. The Bible is the solid foundation upon which we, as Christians, learn to live in a manner that is pleasing to God.  It is worth our time to read and study it so we know the truth.  Armed with God’s truth, we can avoid the struggles found in this dark world and see the light that shines from a creative, consistent, loving and living God.

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While the basic knowledge of God through His glorious works of nature is available to all mankind, God’s Word and the Holy Spirit are special gifts given to people of faith. The Holy Spirit works by and with the Word in our hearts to reveal many truths about God and His will.  These truths cannot be known solely from a simple belief in God’s existence.   Through the Holy Spirit we can see and believe the truth revealed in scripture.  The Holy Spirit highlights the truth for us – nothing is added to Scripture by the Spirit,  but the Spirit gives us a deeper understanding of it.  God promises that the Holy Spirit is with us and our children forever.  How are we using these precious gifts from a God who seeks relationship with us?

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There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.  [2 Timothy 3:14-17, The Message]

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God not only provides natural revelation of Himself, but He further reveals Himself to believers through the Holy Spirit. We cannot learn the deep things of God – His divine nature, attributes and wisdom– on our own, indeed we need the help of the Spirit to enlighten us. The Holy Spirit, shares with us God’s divine wisdom and grace and allows us to see the wondrous love of God. Without the light of God’s spirit within us we are left in the dark. How can we be more aware of the Holy Spirit in our lives so we can better know our loving God? The spirit guides us through scripture, through circumstance, through relationship with other believers, and through prayer. Allow the spirit to pour faith into you and move you to relationship with God and others.

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The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?

[Acts 17:28  The Message]

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The glory and power and divinity of God are clearly seen by the beauty of what He created.  Who has not viewed beautiful blue skies, starry nights, colorful sunsets, or powerful stormy skies and not marveled at the glorious work of God? God signed creation for all mankind to see and revealed himself in the heavens.  We do not worship an unknown God – we worship a wise, powerful and creative being who is trustworthy and with us. Take time to remember God every time you look toward the sky and remember that He is with us at all times.

The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. Day and night they keep on telling about God. Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it. [Psalm 19:1-4 The Living Bible]

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God instilled an understanding of what is right and wrong in the hearts of all people – even those who do not yet know God have a sense of the natural law, a sense of what is right or wrong. This natural law is evidenced in man’s conscience and reasoning.  Even those who do not accept God’s written law can live lives that do what the law requires – they can love others, know not to steal, be truthful.  The danger in relying only on our own conscience, which is knowledge shared with oneself, is that sometimes the verdict we come to on our own is not the same as what God would say! We are blessed to have God’s revealed law available to us so we might live our lives as God intended.  But even in knowing the law we fall short of God’s standards – we sin.  Our salvation is ultimately won by the transformation we make in our life when we understand that Christ died to save us.  No matter what we think about our own behavior, God will impartially judge us all by how we have lived our life and only His grace will be able to ultimately save us.

When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them  on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all. [Romans 2:14-16  NIV]

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