Tag Archives: God

Sunday Morning Prayers

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Upon occasion I have been asked to do “prayers of the people” at church. It is a good way for me to learn to pray outside my own box. Thank you for letting me share one of those prayers.

Good morning, Father God. We thank you for this beautiful morning and for letting us be a part of it. We thank you for all our blessings, for all our answered prayers, for forgiving all our sins and we thank you for loving us, sometimes in spite of ourselves. We thank you for being with all the people on our prayer lists, for those who are struggling with many difficulties, for those who are grieving, for those who are suffering illness, for those on the road to recovery and we pray for those who have yet to become aware of your presence in their lives.

We thank you for being with your people all over the world, Father, for those in war torn countries, for those courageously coping with natural disasters, and for those loved ones of ours who live in other lands. Please grant them your peace and protection.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you, to praise you, to appreciate you and to show our love for you by showing our love for one another. We thank you for our awareness of your Holy Spirit present with us this morning.

We thank you for being with each and every one of us as we go about our daily activities and pray that you will keep us safe from all harm and evil and help us to be the best we can be for you today and always.

Above all, Father, we thank you for Your Son, our Lord Jesus in whose name we pray and who taught us to pray The Lord’s Prayer. Amen.

The congregation then prays The Lord’s Prayer in unison. I’m sure many churches follow a similar procedure, and I find it very spiritual and comforting.

Letting Go, Letting God

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After attending two funerals this week and another today, I have just heard of one on the horizon. Whoa! So much grief in such a short span of time made me sit back and go through some devotional material to try to put it all into perspective and here is what was written in my spiritual journal in 2006; a quote from Our Daily Bread, brackets, mine.

If we are willing to submit to God, any loss in life will be seen as an opportunity to give back to him what is rightfully his and trust him to provide what is needed (comfort, peace, security, whatever is needed). If we commit ourselves to him daily and thank him for every blessing, our confidence in him will survive any test. Submission to God means taking our hands off what belongs to him.

And don’t we all belong to him? Now I will let go and let God pilot me through this sea of grief and pray that his peace and comfort will bless these grieving families.

Gratefully Yours (Day One)

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There seems to be a “gratitude” thing going on these days and I would like to participate. I’m seeing people being grateful on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc., so I’m going to be grateful on my blog for a few days. Would anyone like to join me? It could be a lot of fun  :). Let’s be grateful for five things a day for five days and see where that takes us. It goes without saying that every day I am grateful for the presence of God in my life, so although He is always part of my list, I won’t list Him every day because I tell Him every day. So here goes…

Today I am grateful for:

waking up this morning

having enough milk for my coffee and butter for my toast after forgetting to go shopping for these items

being energized after my fitness class instead of cramped and achy

getting a last minute appointment for a hair cut

Snapd newspaper emailing me the results of their coverage of my book launch on September 6th. (wish I could find a way to share that with you!)

And that’s my gratitude list for today. I can hardly wait for tomorrow!  🙂

 

 

Should We or Not?

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There is something happening on our planet that needs world wide prayer to overcome.

We are told not to fight evil with evil but to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

The Power of Prayer manifested in global consciousness will go a long way in combating the forces of evil filtering into all corners of our world.

Shall we as a world wide community join forces in calling upon that Power to destroy the evil that seeks to destroy us?m

To those who know that Power as God, should we pray?

To those who don’t, for the sake of humanity, would you? Or not?

 

 

 

Everyone Needs a Hug

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Living alone, I often go without a hug for days on end. Two weeks ago, a church friend, knowing this, gave me my usual Sunday hug. I responded by saying, “I don’t need a hug today because I had so many yesterday.” “Yesterday” was the day of my book launch. It was filled with hugs and well wishes.

The following Sunday, my hugging friend approached (reproached) me, saying, “Last Sunday you said you didn’t need a hug…but I did.”

Ouch! How often do we overlook the needs of another simply because our own needs have been met?

Another life lesson learned. TYG.

 

 

Before They Call

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Yesterday I wrote about seeing God, and that we’d been told that no one has ever seen Him.

Today I found out where I had heard (or seen) that phrase.

1 John 4:12 says No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (NIV)

Is it any wonder I saw God on Saturday? Love was everywhere that day!

Today’s title is from Isaiah 65:24

Until tomorrow….or whenever   🙂

Have You Seen God?

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We have been told that no one has ever seen God.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I saw Him on Saturday at My Precious Life’s successful book launch!

I saw Him in the faces of my church family who worked for hours setting up tables and chairs, food and drink, and nourished me with the gifts of flowers, words of encouragement, and a cuppa tea and a plate of goodies after the books were signed and sold.

I saw Him in the faces of my dear and lovely family, rearranging their day to come to my launch; and in the faces of three of my little great-grandchildren who gave up their play time for GG.

I saw Him in the faces of friends who came from far and near; friends from bygone days who nourished me with warm hugs and loving memories.

I saw Him in the faces of those who lined up to buy copies of My Precious Life.

Have you seen God?

Look closely at those whose lives touch yours in any wonderful way, and like me, you will say, “I saw God today.“

 

Up For the Challenge – Part II

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As promised, here is my response to a young man’s thoughts on the Book of Job, and Christianity in general:

First of all, let me direct you to Biblica.com and the links Biblica/Home and Bible FAQs. It explains the writing of the Bible.

My core belief is that God is the author of the Bible, writing through all the people who chose to record the happenings of the day as they were inspired by him. (Just as I have been inspired by him to write my book.) This is borne out in the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered within a ten year period between 1946 and 1956. The Bible is also a wonderful history book, crammed full of hisorical events and happenings. And yes, it certainly is subject to interpretation, and many translations. But at the core, when you sort the grain from the chaff, is God’s basic love for mankind, which only comes to light fully in the New Testament when he stopped being mad at us for being such a bunch of dunderheads.

Christianity survived in spite of political leaders, even though those leaders had an innocent man put to death because he was a threat to their governing, and the god they believed in. Christianity still survives in spite of political agendas because of that murdered man.

God does not “hold it all together”. We are all given free will to choose how to behave, what to believe, and how to live our lives. This is why you believe what you believe and I believe what I believe. And that’s okay, providing we are open to learning everything we can in the short time alloted to us on this planet. It is why we are here.

I suggested reading the Book of Job because of Satan. Most people think it was God who dumped on Job, but as you read, it was Satan’s aim to cause as much harm in the world as possible, both way back then and to this day.

Life is a battlefield of Good and Evil (take an “o” out of good and add a “d” to evil). You can see that in our day to day life, and we all wage our own battles every day.

Please don’t make the mistake of not believing in the devil, because that is just what he waits for. (Aha, I just got another one!)

A little humility is good, and a little less ego is even better.

I’m not here to tell you what to believe or not, but please don’t shut the door on the possibility that there is a God, and that he loves you more than you’ll ever know, and waits for you to give him the chance to tell you so. He is telling you now, through me!

I trust you are intelligent enough to not let “intelligence” get in the way of a great learning experience.

These are my thoughts on your thoughts, and my opinions/beliefs on the matter.

P.S. Have you figured out why you celebrate Christmas yet? It is because of that murdered Man. It’s all in the history book!  🙂

And may I add here that it is my hope that we have continued conversations when circumstances and time allow.

Up For the Challenge, Part I

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The following is a result of challenging a young man to read the book of Job, after a lengthy discussion about God, Jesus, Satan and the Bible in general. Because of  his claim to atheism, we agreed to disagree on a number of things, but he did agree to read Job and here are his thoughts, posted with his permission.

Above all else the Book of Job is an allegory for people to appreciate what it is that they have, and to persevere when times get tough. This, in my opinion, can be understood by believers and non-believers alike, since the main message is quite clear. However, I don’t think that you need God in order to use this story in every-day life. Every person goes through trials and tribulations, some that are more challenging than others, but in the end one has to persevere and continue to work hard to make those hard times pass. For me, a deity is not the main source of either good or bad times, and it is only through what we do during those hard times that shapes and influences us as a person. Ultimately, I believe that we as humans must accept all that happens as our own responsibility and not blame or praise any one or any thing else since we can only control what is in our power to control.

There are many things from the Bible and the Scriptures that we can take and make good use of, since the main message is to be a moral and contributing member of society. However, that message was passed down from mankind for centuries since it helps to serve our own needs and our own purposes, and we do not need a God to tell us not to hurt other people since we fully understand that hurting people leads to a dysfunctional community. When the Bible was written some 1800 years ago (and as early as 1500 years ago), society was quite primative in that clearly defined laws were still rudimentary and people were still trying to figure things out. Societies around the world rose and collapsed as they tried to codify laws that worked for their civilization. Christianity survived because the main political leaders found utility in it (yes, I know that makes me sound like a cynic) and that’s how it was able to spread. But the message, the essence of the Bible, to be a good person is something that should be instilled, but I do not think that an omnipresent and omnipotent God is needed to hold it all together. To give praise to a supreme being for when things go well, and to accept full “blame” for when things go bad is in complete contradiction to human nature and human ego. You are right in that humility is something that all people need to practice–to know one’s limitations and to accept one’s shortcomings–but, again, for me, God does not factor into that.

There are many things in this world that I will never understand, and there are things that humans cannot understand, and may never understand, but thats OK since the fact that we live on this floating rock orbiting a giant star is the most random occurrence out there (in my humble opinion).

I am curious to hear what you have to say about this, and look forward to reading what your opinions/beliefs are on the matter.

My responsive thoughts will appear tomorrow. (God willing).