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 MEDITATION:

Written by Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963), an American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor.

Any serious-minded Christian may at some time find himself wondering whether the service he is giving to God is the best it could be. He may even have times of doubting, and fear that his toil is fruitless and his life empty. This is not as bad as it sounds, and may actually prove to be an excellent thing for him—if he knows how to use it. Christian service, like every other phase of religion, can become a very hollow affair. The church has marked out certain work and approved it as service acceptable to God, and for the most part the church has been right. But is should be kept in mind that it is not the kind or quantity of work that makes it true service—it is the quality. Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then. If we are wise we will give attention now to the quality of our service; it is obvious that it will be too late to do anything about it when the service is ended and the account rendered up.

PRAYER:

Written by Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), an English journalist, writer,  and satirist.

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love give peace and joy.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace, that where there is hatred I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light; that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand than to be understood; to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.

 MEDITATION:

Written by Mark Roberts, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. He is the Executive Director of the Max DePree Center for Leadership at Fuller Seminary. This is an excerpt from his work “Another Great Omission.”

I’ve written about what might be called “The Great Omission.” It has to do with how we understand our salvation in Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 reveals the astounding good news that we are saved by grace through faith, not by our works. But all too often we omit that fact that our salvation is so much more than a “ticket to Heaven.” In fact, we begin to experience salvation in this life because we are “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (EPH 2:10). We are not saved by good works but for a rich and full life of doing good works that God has prepared for us.

If the first “Great Omission” comes in Ephesians 2:10, I would suggest that the latter portion of Ephesians 2 might be called “Another Great Omission.” You see, Ephesians 2:11-22 reveals further dimensions of our salvation given by God’s grace. This passage shows how salvation transforms, not just our personal lives, but also our relationships, our lives in community with others. The cross of Jesus Christ is meant to transform social structures and even cultures. Salvation has everything to do with how we live together as well as how we live individually. In a day in which we are committed to ending racism and mending the damage it has done, we need Ephesians 2:11-22 now more than ever.

As you go through this day, keep your eyes open to seeing how sin is manifested in broken relationships and social structures. Allow the Lord to give you a new perspective on the world in which you live.

PRAYER:

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

Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered. In our community, we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures. Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us. We pray in faith. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Hannah Whitall Smith (1832–1911), lay speaker and author in the Holiness Movement.

Every advancing soul must come sooner or later to the place where it can trust God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression, simply and only because of what He is in Himself, and not because of His promises or His gifts. It must learn to have its joy in Him alone, and to rejoice in Him when all else in Heaven and earth shall seem to fail.

The only way in which this place can be reached I believe, is by the soul being compelled to face in its own experience the loss of all things both inward and outward. I do not mean necessarily that all one’s friends must die, or all one’s money must be lost: but I do mean that the soul shall find itself, from either inward or outward causes, desolate, and bereft, and empty of all consolation. It must come to the end of everything that is not God; and must have nothing else left to rest on within or without.

PRAYER:

Written by Clement of Rome (35-99), Bishop of Rome and considered one of the first Apostolic Fathers of the Church.

You did make to appear the enduring fabric of the world by the works of Your hand; You, Lord, did create the earth on which we dwell, – You, who are faithful in all generations, just in judgments, wonderful in strength and majesty, with wisdom creating and with understanding fixing the things which were made, who are good among them that are being saved and faithful among them whose trust is in You; O merciful and Compassionate One, forgive us our iniquities and offenses and transgressions and trespasses. Reckon not every sin of Your servants and handmaids, but You will purify us with the purification of Your truth; and direct our steps that we may walk in holiness of heart and do what is good and well-pleasing in Your sight and in the sight of our rulers. Yes, Lord, make Your face to shine upon us for good in peace, that we may be shielded by Your mighty hand and delivered from every sin by Your uplifted arm. and deliver us from those who hate us wrongfully. Give concord and peace to us and all who dwell upon the earth, even as You gave to our fathers, when they called upon You in faith and truth, submissive as we are to Your almighty and all-excellent Name. AMEN

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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