Last Sunday in worship I realized how long Lent really was, even though I’ve worked to walk through Lent the last several years. The liturgy on Sunday in the Anglican Church amplifies that longing. We don’t sing as many songs. The songs are more “mournful” in a way. Lent gets long and I’m thinking, “Wow! Could we hurry this up?” Continue reading “Longing for Passion Week”
Tag: Spiritual hunger
Lead me into deeper self-examination, Lord
“Oh, how we need a deeper musing on our perennial knack for disobedience and God’s unbounded habit of mercy. Oh, how we need a richer contemplation on that Life that is life indeed and that shows us the way so we may follow in his steps. Oh, how we need a fuller meditation on that death that sets us free. And, oh, how we need a more profound experience of that resurrection that empowers us to obey Christ in all things.” — Richard Foster, Longing for God
Prayer for Pentecost
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Spiritual “Know It Alls”
Reading for today:
Ps. 119:97-120; 81; 82
Gen. 45:16-28
1 Cor. 8:1-13
Mark 6:13-29
As we walk with God, it turns out that people who act like they “know it all” … don’t. And those who are quiet about things probably know a whole lot more. Continue reading “Spiritual “Know It Alls””
Searching the mind of God
Reading for today:
Psalm 78
Gen. 45:1-15
1 Cor. 7:32-40
Mark 6:1-13
God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. (1 Cor. 2:10, CEB)
We are enabled with so much ability in the Kingdom of God. We have the ability so search the mind of Christ. We settle for so little. Lord, forgive me for my short-sighted thinking. Forgive me because I settle for so little. Tune my heart to seek YOU. Help me settle for only you. The adventure is so great!
The need of the hour
The need of the hour is not in our own ingenuity. We need to be smart, to be sure, but it is not necessarily “being smarter” that is the need of the hour.
The need of the hour is not more labor. Hard work is necessary, but hard labor only gets us so far.
The need of the hour is prayer. Bold, audacious prayer. Prayer that won’t give up. Prayer that won’t stop even if it gets to the point of embarrassing. This is the need of the hour. God, save me from my own laziness.
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. (Luke 11:8, NIV)
Words that are capturing my heart
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3: 7-14, NIV)
