How to pray in the new year...

So, I'm not a "how to" girl really. But, after reading Psalm 20 in yesterday's lectionary, how to pray in the new year became planted in the mind of my heart. Here is a prayer to pray for yourself, your family, your friends, for all those missionaries you promised to pray for, for your pastor/priest/minister/clergy-person, for me (I'm smiling!) ... for whomever! As I write it I pray it for you, kind reader! But please, make it personal for whom you are praying by inserting his/her name instead of "you".

Here is my prayer for you for the new year based on Psalm 20:

May the LORD's answer find you in times of trouble;
and may His NAME rescue you, keep you safe from any harm.
May He send help and hope from his holy home,
and support and strengthen you from his shalom (contented peace).
May He remember all you have offered him ... your sacrifices
and show you his mercy and favor.

Take time to think on these things 
as you hold this person in prayer before the LORD.

May He grant you your heart's desires, your dreams!
and make all your plans succeed.
When you succeed, we will not be silent!
We will shout with joy and thanksgiving,
raising praise to our Great God so that all may see!
May the LORD answer all your prayers.

Take time to think on these things 
as you hold this person in prayer before the LORD.

I have no fear; I know that the LORD has sent his answer!
Help is coming. His mighty right hand has sent it.
Others put their hope in their own resources,
but we boast in the LORD our God!
All those others will collapse and fall,
but we will rise and stand firm.

Take time to think on these things 

as you hold this person in prayer before the LORD.

May the LORD God grant you victory!
On the day we call, O LORD, answer us.
In The Powerful Name, Jesus ... so be it!

Happy New Year! 

I LOVE sparklers! May Eternity dwell in your heart in 2014!

Merry Christmas!

Jesus is born!

Advent 4: Restore us, O God!

This morning we will declare with the Psalmist
Restore us, O God; let your face shine that we might be saved!

Three times we say it with the second time adding "God of hosts" and the third time "LORD God of hosts". Israel must be under great hardship and oppression that they call out to God in increasing pronouncements of his power and might and authority. God = creator and ruler of the universe with moral authority; God of hosts = commander of the armies of heaven (angels and archangels and all the company of heaven); LORD God of hosts = the I AM who IS All-mighty, All-powerful, All-knowing, All-present, simply ALL. You can't call on more.

Indeed Israel was in trouble ... they had been feeding on bread of tears and drinking their tears in full measure, to overflowing. They were scorned by their enemies, broken down and defenseless against those who hated them, taken advantage of by any who passed by, cut down and destroyed by those around them. Have you ever lived under that kind of great hardship and oppression - physically or emotionally or socially? Do you live under it now? Do you know someone living under it? This is living in darkness. Sometimes it is of our own making, from our own sinfulness. Sometimes not. Either way, it is darkness; it is feeding on bread of tears and drinking tears to full measure.

Do you see why they cried, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel! You who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim ... shine forth your might! Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine into this darkness that we might be saved!" Let your face shine ... Your Might, Your Glory, You ... the I AM ... shine your light upon us, let us see You that we might be saved!

This morning we are in the darkest day of the year and we cry out together
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let you light shine that we might be saved!

For those believe in Him, we are saved in Jesus Christ. The Light of His Presence is with us and lives within us! We may call on His Light to shine and defeat any darkness in which we may live ... our sinfulness, the oppression of others ... and be freed! And, with our brothers and sisters of all ages and around the world we may look for That Day when the Light will come again and restore us to a world of Light, where there is no darkness at all. There is hope in that declaration. Take hope today. Take hope. O God ... let your face shine!

Winter Solstice

I didn't know that our days are not counted by midnight to midnight, but are counted by solar noon, the mid-point of the day when the sun is at its daily peak in the sky. That means, if you live in the northern hemisphere, the shortest day of the year begins today, December 21, at 12:11pm and continues until tomorrow's "solar noon". Regardless of how you count the day or tell time, this day will give us the shortest amount of daylight ... about 9.5 hours. From this day onward, daylight will begin to increase. How very appropriate that we are in the midst of Advent's deepest time of darkness, and yet we know the Light is coming and will continue to grow brighter until That Day ... when darkness will be no longer. Oh, for That Day when the Noonday will be the only time we count ... the darkness of our sinfulness obliterated by the ever shining Light of the Son.

With that hope I share with you a blessing based on a poem by 

Macrina Wiederkehr

May our Loving God

etch into your heart a bit of heaven

to fill you with His shining Light.

May our Loving God

grant you enough lightning and storms

to invigorate the soil of your life.

May our Loving God

breathe on you the wind of His Spirit

to remind you

of who you are

and Whose you are

and to grow in you the green-ness of new life.

+++

Winter Solstice, Fractal Art by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

Advent 3: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Wonderful rendition by the US Air Force of Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring giving Joy to the World at the Smithsonian.

Advent 2 - Steadfast: fixed in direction, unwavering, faith

Steadfast: adjective

1. fixed in direction; steadily directed
2. firm in purpose, resolution, faith, attachment, etc.
3. unwavering, as resolution, faith, adherence
4. firmly established
5. firmly fixed in place or position

This is the word that jumped out at me from Sunday's lectionary readings. Paul wrote to the Romans "... whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope." Hope in ... hope for ... what?

What is to come!

Or, perhaps, I should say
Who is to come
and What he will bring with him.

The Genealogy of Jesus, The Saint John's Bible

This is the genealogy of Jesus from The Saint John's Bible. It reminded me of the Jesse Tree image in Isaiah 11 ... "there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit." The people of Israel steadfastly waited and watched  for this "shoot" for 700 years. And, for those Jews who have not believed Jesus is that shoot, the Messiah, they have been waiting and watching for 2,700 years! Steadfast: fixed in a direction; firm in purpose, resolution, faith.

Think of all the Jews have endured over the ages. How many times has another nation wanted and tried to wipe them off the face of the earth? What kind of effort and energy have they needed to put forth to keep their identity as the people of God ... though they are dispersed around the world? How have they worked at keeping their faith central to Israel although their nation (only since 1948! and they had to fight for that!) is occupied by many nationalities and their place of worship is "owned" by an enemy? How have they endured? Steadfast: steadily directed, unwavering, firmly fixed in place or position. With steadfast purpose they take encouragement from the promises of God written in His Word in former days ... and they hope for their Messiah.

We face many things in these present days. As Christians there are many who would be glad to have us gone and not be reminded of Jesus the coming One. We are dispersed among the nations of the world, which at times makes our differences more evident than the One that brings us together. And, we have no central place of worship ... other than our church buildings ... and even then they can be occupied by those who do not believe. But, we know our Messiah, our Savior ... Jesus. No matter what we may endure, in Him we stand by steadfastness and by the encouragement of His Word that he is coming ... again.

It is His promise.

And, in that we wait and watch and have hope!

Put on the armor of light ... part 2

Yesterday morning my sister and I set up the tree and dressed it in lights. Our family tradition is to put a string of lights on the inside of the tree running up and down the trunk, and then, string lights around the outside branches. When we were finished we had sap all over our arms and hands and little scratches from the needles. But, it was worth it. The tree looks fantastic. (Have no fear, my sister adjusted the outer string of lights to fill that darkness at the bottom of the tree!)

While we were stringing the lights, my mind was working on "putting on the armor of light". What exactly does that mean? How do we do that? Well, it's like stringing the lights on the tree ... it needs to be put on the inside and on the outside. It needs to be a habit of the heart and lived out in the habit of daily life.

Putting the armor of light on the inside of our life means to take God's Word and "read, mark, and inwardly digest it". Today, we call this studying God's Word, but this is what Scripture means when it talks about meditating on God's Word. We read a passage of Scripture. We mark or highlight those thoughts or ideas that jump out at us. Then, we think about it, cross-reference it with other Scriptures, read commentaries about it, and consider what it looks like in real life. Finally, we think about how we can practice that "armor of light" in our own lives.

For instance, lately I've been reading quite a bit about God being my refuge. That has been the main theme jumping out at me from the Psalms appointed for each day. Not only have I underlined these passages, I have written them out in my journal. And, I have looked at other passages and stories about how God is our refuge (Lilias Trotter!). But, those are all words ... lip service to knowing that God is my refuge. Then, I have to practice it. When things appear to be bleak or without hope, I refuse to fall to the temptation that God is not at work. Instead, I remember ... God is my refuge. He is my hope and at work on my behalf. And, I pray that He strengthen this in my heart and mind. This is putting on the armor of light in me.

Putting on the armor of light on the outside of life means to practice it. It means giving testimony to how God does that for me so that others may see it and know it for themselves. This blog is one way I am practicing "God is my refuge" as an outward armor of light. I am telling others, you dear reader!, that looking to God in all circumstances, believing in His protection and care and keeping of us is real and tangible. Just this morning I looked to God in prayer for encouragement, and I said to Him out loud that I needed to hear from Him in a very tangible way that He was taking care of me, of my future. And, one hour later I received an unexpected package from UPS sitting inside the door. It was an invitation to apply for a position. Whether or not this comes to pass ... God let me know that He is my refuge. This has happened more than once over the year and each time God has shown me the present of His Presence with me in the present!

Finally, putting on the armor of light is not just what I do ... we do ... it is Christ within us. It is by the power of His Holy Spirit that we ... He and I, He and you ... string His Light on the inside trunk of our lives and on our outer branches. So let His Light shine.

Put on the armor of light

This afternoon we put on our coats and scarves and gloves and then, drove to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. The afternoon air hovered around the high 30's promising a perfect day for the adventure. It took us a little while to find just the right one, which meant by the time we paid for it and got it tied down to the car we were driving home in the swiftly growing dusk and swiftly dropping temperature. We talked about how fast it was growing dark these days and then, just as fast, we began talking about dinner. My sister looked at the clock and declared, "It's only 4:30!" The chilliness, the effort, the tree, the darkness, the hunger, the time ... all reminded me of this new season of Advent.

From this moment on, our days will shrink shorter and shorter, the darkness creep in earlier and earlier. It's a reminder that before Christ came into the world, we lived in darkness, in our sinfulness.
From this moment on, our days (especially in the north!) it will grow chillier and chillier ... a reminder that without the warmth of Christ's Presence there is little comfort or hope.
From this moment on, our days of darkness and chill are a reminder of the effort we must put forth to keep watch for Christ's coming, that we must put on hope, put on faith, put on love.
From this moment on, our days will require us to eat a bit more to stay warm and stay healthy. It's a reminder that we need to eat more of the Word of God and be strengthened by His promises.

And, then, I remembered a portion of Sunday's Epistle reading:  ... you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light ... put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13.11-12)

These days of Advent remind us to put on the armor of Light, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is come! His Presence is with us ... now. And, these days of Advent ... the chilliness, the effort, the tree, the darkness, the hunger ... remind us that it's time ... it's time to remember that He is coming again! So, bundle up! Put on faith in Christ. Put on hope in His coming. Put on His love for you and let it spill over to others.

And, the tree ... the only reminder I haven't mentioned yet ... the Christmas tree reminds us of growing in Him, ever green, ever lasting with Him. And, all those lights twinkling out from its branches remind us of His Light within us shining out into the world to bless, to show others that Jesus is come and is coming again. And, the joy of ornaments and garland ... reminders of how He dresses us in His grace and mercy, how beautifully He has made us. And, the gifts ... God's gift to us in Jesus Christ ... the Savior ... and His Holy Spirit, and the gifts He gives us to give to others.

Wow. All that from cutting down our Christmas tree.

PS - I already received a Christmas gift. God gave me part-time work at Stray Cat Studios and Store. Beside the bit of income it brings, I may be able to get my hands into some clay! Now, that is joy!