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December 2, 2013

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Prayer, Wisdom & Guidance

Our Prayer Plates – (Prayer part 1)

Lord, you are the God who saves me. I cry out to you day and night. Receive my prayer, and listen to my cry. [Psalm 88:1-2 (NCV)]

“My Plate” is the latest guide to healthy eating with its five food groups: fruit, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. Just as we need an assortment of food to maintain our health, we need various kinds of prayer for spiritual health. Years ago, my pastor preached about the “Five Fingers of Prayer”: praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession and petition. Praise was to be first and foremost while petition (prayer for ourselves) was to be the last and least. Unfortunately, for me at least, my prayer plate is often too heavily laden with personal appeals and far too light on the others.

Lord, guide our prayers so they begin with praise to you for your glory and are filled with thanksgiving (for everything, not just the things we like). Don’t let us omit honest confession and enthusiastic appeals for others. Guide us, so that it is only after we have offered these prayers that we offer our own personal petitions.

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December 1, 2013

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Holidays & Holy Days, Wisdom & Guidance

Prepare the Way – 1st Sunday in Advent

Thunder in the desert! “Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said.” [Isaiah 40:3-5 (MSG)]

As we prepare for the Christmas holidays, Lord, guide us so that we do not forget the reason for the season. Let the desire for peace, love and joy lead us and not our concern for gifts, decorations, and food. May we truly prepare the way of the Lord, not the way of Santa Claus!

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November 30, 2013

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Faith & Hope

We are Never Abandoned

As a deer thirsts for streams of water, so I thirst for you, God. I thirst for the living God. When can I go to meet with him? Day and night, my tears have been my food. People are always saying, “Where is your God?” [Psalm 42:1-3 (NCV)]

Unfortunately, like David, there may be times we feel abandoned by God. Our faith doesn’t make us exempt from troubles nor does it render us impervious to sorrow, depression or despair. Our faith, however, does give us hope. Our hope in God (and professional help, if necessary) can carry us through those desolate and trying times of life.

Why am I so sad? Why am I so upset? I should put my hope in God and keep praising him, my Savior and my God. [Psalm 42:5-6a (NCV)]

A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory. [Thomas Brooks]

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November 29, 2013

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Attitudes & Behavior, God's Promises, Peace of God

You Deserve a Break Today!

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside peaceful waters. He renews my soul. [Psalm 23:2-3a (GW)]

Lord, help us to accept our physical and mental limitations. Don’t let our foolish pride keep us from stopping and taking a rest when it is needed. We need to renew both bodies and souls. As much as we may want to, we need to remember we can’t do it all. That’s your job!

 

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November 28, 2013

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Holidays & Holy Days, Joy, Thanks & Praise

Let Us Give Thanks (Thanksgiving Day)

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. [Psalm 28:7 (NLT)]

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. [Psalm 23:1 (NLT)]

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for you alone can meet our every need. You comfort us during the storms of life and strengthen us when we are weak. When we tire, you refresh us. When we fall, you lift and carry us. When we cry out in need, you sustain us. When we are lost, you seek and find us. You will neither abandon nor forsake, but love and bless us. May we walk in peace with you all the days of our lives. All honor and glory be unto you. Amen.

Thanksgiving – remember to do both this holiday season. [Sign seen in front of Naples, FL, school]

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November 27, 2013

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Attitudes & Behavior, Holidays & Holy Days, Thanks & Praise

What Do Have to Complain about? It’s Thanksgiving!

Thank the Lord because he is good. His love continues forever. [Psalm 107:1 (NCV)]

“I need more chairs and a larger table … I have all this silver to polish … I wish I had a double oven.” I’ve been busy this week getting ready to celebrate a day of thanks and yet I’m complaining. I have a sneaky suspicion that I ‘m not the only one. My grumbling stopped when I remembered a school we visited in Tanzania. The cooks had neither table nor chairs; they squatted and prepped the vegetables on a plastic tarp laid on the dirt floor. They couldn’t run out to the grocery for provisions; the food they prepared was brought to school by the children from their family gardens. They had no ovens; in fact, they had no stoves. Five open fires burned on the ground; pots of vegetable stew lay on the coals. Yet, the headmistress was filled with pride at this new addition to their school and thankful for the blessing of this facility.

2013-11-27This morning I arranged flowers for a festive table, and gave serious thought as to which serving platter to use for the turkey, which bowls to use for the yams and mashed potatoes, and which plates to save for the pie and cookies. In the afternoon, I joined others in my church family and helped make and pack 1,200 Thanksgiving lunches for migrant workers. We filled paper lunch bags with a turkey sandwich, a packet of mayo, an apple, a bag of chips and a mini candy bar. There won’t be fresh flowers, linen napkins, or silver platters on their tables but they will be immensely thankful for what they have.

Lord, help me cease my many foolish complaints. May I be thankful for every blessing in my life. Show me how to share my bounty with those less fortunate.

 

A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man
Less valuable than a blade of grass on the table;
And to him who has no means nor power
A burnt turnip is a roasted fowl. [Gulistan of Sa’di]

I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man who had no feet.[Indian proverb]