Daily Prayer

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

 

Since Sunday I have been mulling over one of the points I heard preached in the sermon at our church.  It was based on this passage:

 

I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, 'These are the LORD's people, and yet they had to leave his land.' I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.

 

"Therefore say to the Israelites, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.

 

Ezekiel 36:19-23

 

The point was this: How did the Israelites "profane" the Lord's name?  Was it by "using it in vain" (swearing)?  No.  They profaned His name by not living up to the covenant He had made with them.  They chose to do things "their way", and their sins piled higher and higher until, after repeatedly warning them, He finally sent them into exile in a foreign land.  And the people of that land assumed their God wasn't powerful enough to save them.  That is how they profaned His name.

 

So what about you and me?  Do the people around us see that our God is powerful?  Do they see how He has changed us?  Or do we still look like everyone else?  If they know we bear the "Christian" label but are still trapped by the worries and wants of this world, what does that tell them about our God?  And just to drive this point home, notice what the last line of this scripture says: He will prove Himself holy to the world … through us!

 

As I said, I have been mulling this over because I can see the issues this points to in my life.  How about you?

 

 

Amazing Grace and Eternal Peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

 

 

Father, may I thirst for holiness more than I desire anything else on earth.

 

Father, make me holy in every aspect of my conduct, do in me what You must to do through me what You will.

 

Father, because of my relationship with Jesus, may I count everything as loss and live a new life-style.

 

Father, send the Spirit to take me to the cross and crucify me to the world. Give me a new life-style.

 

God of peace, make me "perfect in holiness." Preserve me "whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thes 5:23).

 

(http://www.presentationministries.com/brochures/BeHoly.asp)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Tuesday morning, my friends.

 

This prayer is known as the "Te Deum" and is one of the oldest prayers of the Christian church.  It has an element of psalms and a wonderful profession of faith, very much like a creed.

 

Share a few minutes with God this morning while you lift this up to Him.

 

 

Grace and peace and joy be yours in abundance,

Bruce 

 

O GOD, we praise Thee: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.

Everlasting Father, all the earth doth worship Thee.

 

To Thee all the Angels, the Heavens and all the Powers,

all the Cherubim and Seraphim, unceasingly proclaim:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!

 

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.

 

The glorious choir of the Apostles,

the wonderful company of Prophets,

the white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee.

 

Holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee:

the Father of infinite Majesty;

Thy adorable, true and only Son;

and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

 

O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!

Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.

Thou, having taken it upon Thyself to deliver man, didst not disdain the Virgin's womb.

Thou overcame the sting of death and hast opened to believers the Kingdom of Heaven.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.

 

We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.

We beseech Thee, therefore, to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.

Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.

 

Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thine inheritance!

Govern them, and raise them up forever.

 

Every day we thank Thee.

And we praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever.

 

O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee.

O Lord, in Thee I have hoped; let me never be put to shame.

 

(http://www.explorefaith.org/prayer/essays/worldPrayer3.html)

 

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Monday morning, my friends.

 

Sometimes the Holy Spirit can take a piece of familiar scripture can really open our eyes and hearts to what it says.  That happened to me yesterday when I read these words from Psalm 30:

 

Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
         And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
 For His anger is but for a moment,
         His favor is for life;
         Weeping may endure for a night,
         But joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:4-5)

 

When we sin, we are deserving of God's anger, and we should be weeping.  We do sin – all of us.  We may be redeemed sinners, but still sinners none the less.  (Not feeling that way? Then maybe you should read 1 John 1:8-10.)

 

Yes, our God has righteous anger when we sin.  But because of what Christ has done for us, His favour, his forgiveness, lasts for eternity!  Are you weeping over something or someone you have lost?  Are you weeping over your sin?  Then look up, look for the morning light, and the joy that dawn will bring.

 

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

 

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 

 

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his passions fail not. 

 

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 

 

The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will hope in him. 

 

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 

 

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

 

(Lamentations 3:21-26)

 

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

 

(I realize these "daily" prayers have been anything but daily lately, and I appoligize for that.  My mornings seem to slip away quickly these days, and afternoons are not any better.  I will continue to send these and will endeavour to be more reglular about it.)

 

Two pieces of scripture I have read in the last few days keep swirling around in my head.  They are:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

and

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Luke 14:33)

It has been said that after the faith decision, everything else is about stewardship.  The question I ask myself is this: Am I being a good steward of all that has been given to me?  The purpose of the question is not to feel guilty and worry about it, but rather to seek God's wisdom (for he gives it freely to all who ask - James 1:5).  And His answer is that the more we seek Him and his righteousness, rather than the materialistic things of this world, the more peace and joy we will have (Matthew 7:33).

 

 

 

Grace and peace and joy be yours in abundance,

Bruce 

 

Lord, may we who have plenty
live simply
so that others may simply live.
Amen.

 

 

O God,
to those who have hunger, give bread,
and to us who have bread,
give the hunger for justice.  -- World Council of Churches

 

(http://www.prayingeachday.org/100Prayers.pdf)

 

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Monday afternoon, my friends.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is probably the greatest call for peace the world has ever known.  As followers of Christ we need to live it and breath it.  The prayer below is a prayer for peace.  May it be our prayer today and every day.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce 

 

To you, Creator of nature and humanity,

of truth and beauty, I pray:

 

Hear my voice,

for it is the voice

of the victims of all wars and violence

among individuals and nations.

 

Hear my voice,

for it is the voice

of all children who suffer and who will suffer

when people put their faith in weapons and war.

 

Hear my voice

when I beg you to instil

into the hearts of all human beings

the vision of peace,

the strength of justice

and the joy of fellowship.

 

Hear my voice,

for I speak for the multitudes

in every country and in every period of history

who do not want war

and are ready to walk the road of peace.

 

Hear my voice

and grant insight and strength

so that we may always respond

to hatred with love,

to injustice with total dedication to justice,

to need with the sharing of self,

to war with peace.

 

O God, hear my voice,

and grant to the world your everlasting peace.

 

(Pope John Paul II at Hiroshima, Japan, 1981)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

 

"Teach my heart this day where and how to find you."  That is the opening line of the prayer below.  Read it again and open your heart to Him.  "You have made me and re-made me."  Ain't that the truth.  We must always be open to how God wants to re-make us.

 

Have a great day.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

 

 

 

Prayer of St Anselm

 

O Lord my God.

Teach my heart this day

where and how to find you.

 

You have made me and re-made me,

and you have bestowed on me

all the good things I possess,

and still I do not know you.

 

I have not yet done

that for which I was made.

 

Teach me to seek you,

for I cannot seek you

unless you teach me,

or find you

unless you show yourself to me.

 

Let me seek you in my desire;

let me desire you in my seeking.

Let me find you by loving you;

let me love you when I find you.

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

 

Human nature is a funny thing.  The longer I am part of "the Church" the more tendancy I have to become confident in my own "righteousness".  I become like the pharisee in Luke 18:9-13:

   To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

   "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

Don't we all become a little like that sometimes?  We see someone on the street who is panhandling or muttering to themselves and we think "Thank God I'm not like them!"  Or we encounter someone who is arrogantly distainful about faith in God and we see ourselves as so much more enlightened, so much "better".

 

So what happens when I develop this righteous attitude?  Inevitibly, I fail; I sin.  And then I feel deep guilt and remorse and think that I am not worthy to be loved by God because, after all, God hates sin.  (And by extension He hates sinners.)  But why does God hate sin?  Is it because it "offends" Him?  I don't think so.  I think God hates sin because He knows so much better than we do how it hurts us.  He knows that when we sin we cause pain to ourselves and to others. He loves us too much to see us hurting.

 

We have to remember that the Church is NOT a place for "righteous people".  It is a place for redeemed sinners.  Yes we are redeemed, but we are still sinners.  And I (we?) need to continually remind myself of that.

 

(I will be away tomorrow and Monday so you won't likely see another message from me until at least Tuesday.  Have a wonderful weekend.)

 

 

Amazing Grace and Eternal Peace be yours,

Bruce 

 

O Father,

 

Give us the humility which

realizes its ignorance, a

dmits its mistakes,

recognizes its need,

welcomes advice,

accepts rebuke.

 

Help us always to

praise rather than to criticize,

to sympathize rather than to discourage,

to build rather than to destroy,

and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst.

 

This we ask for thy name's sake.

 

William Barclay 

(http://www.ramshornstudio.com/humility.htm)

  

 

 

Bruce MacPherson

macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821

 

You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material.

 

If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.

 

Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

 

 

 

Daily Prayer

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

 

If you are experiencing worry or anxiety today for any reason, lift this prayer and set your burdens down.

 

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Bruce

 

 

Lord Jesus,
you told your friends not to worry about the future.

You showed them how to have the attitude of simple trust that young children have,
so that they could place themselves into the caring hands of your Father.

And so I ask for the power of your Spirit that I may remain positive
throughout all that is ordinary in my daily life.

I know that your touch can change people and situations,
and so I ask you to join me in offering to our Father
not only the good things of this day but also the suffering and sacrifices
that I want to offer cheerfully and lovingly, and in a quiet and hidden way.

And so may any difficulties and frustration and pain of this day
be transformed in your presence for the benefit of other people.

 

Amen.

 

(http://www.prayingeachday.org/100Prayers.pdf)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

 

Good Tuesday morning, my friends.

 

This morning as I searched for a prayer to share with you, I came across this simple, to the point plea:

 

O Lord,

you know how busy I must be this day.

 

If I forget you,

do not forget me.

 

Perhaps it was the circumstances in which it was written that makes it so interesting.  Purportedly it was written by one Sir Jacob Astley just before the Battle of Edgehill, 1642!

 

We may not be going to war today, at least not in the traditional sense, but it is so easy for us in our day to day lives to forget that God is there with us.  But He will never forget us.

 

It is best, however, to include God in all that we do – offer Him your day (and indeed your whole self) with the prayer below.

 

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

 

Lord Jesus,

I give you my hands to do your work.

I give you my feet to go your way.

I give you my eyes to see as you do.

I give you my tongue to speak your words.

I give you my mind that you may think in me.

I give you my spirit that you may pray in me.

Above all,

I give you my heart that you may love in me

your Father and all mankind.

I give you my whole self that you may grow in me,

so that it is you, Lord Jesus,

who live and work and pray in me. 

(http://www.prayingeachday.org/100Prayers.pdf)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Monday morning, my friends.

 

What do you regret most in your life?  Bad decisions made in your youth?  A deteriorating relationship with your spouse? Time not spent with your kids when they were younger?  What is it that sometimes eats away at your soul?

 

This was the topic of a sermon I heard yesterday.  It sounds pretty depressing, and that is certainly the way it started out.  But in the end it was very freeing and uplifting.  We do not have to live with regrets and live in the past, no matter what has happened there.  God promises in Joel 2:25a that when we turn back to Him, He "will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten"!  Yes, we may have wasted many years, many opportunities, but we are still living and still breathing.  Like He did with Job, God will can and will restore us and prosper us.  

 

What does that mean? 

 

It means it is time to plant another harvest.  

 

It is time to start now to rebuild what has been broken down; build anew that which has been lost.  

When you come to Christ and repent, and let Him fill you up with His life, He will more than make up for these wasted years by an ever increasing Love from and for him.  This will fill you up and will flow over to others, including prodigal spouses and broken family relationships.  God can and will restore you and heal your broken relationships! (David Wilkerson - http://jesushealsmarriages.org/pain-and-hurt/god-will-restore-all-your-wasted-years-by-david-wilkerson/285/)

 

 It may not look exactly like what was there before – but then again, it may be a lot better.

 

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Bruce  

Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;

to you our vows will be fulfilled.

 

O you who hear prayer,

to you all men will come.

 

When we were overwhelmed by sins,

you forgave our transgressions.

 

Blessed are those you choose

and bring near to live in your courts!

 

We are filled with the good things of your house,

of your holy temple

 

Psalm 65:1-4

 

Dear Lord, sometimes it seems we lose more and more ground to the 'locusts' in our lives.

 

Restore what the 'locusts' have eaten,

 

restore us, Lord.

 

Amen. 

(http://www.google.ca/url?q=http://chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/&sa=U&ei=ydA_TsywGObjiAKbtJHDBg&ved=0CA0QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNFthA27ufqGIhKVRa_H1fkwE0HWXg)

 

 

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Daily Prayer

Good Friday morning, my friends.

 

My faith is evolving.  It began as primarily an intellectual exercise – I became convinced through several years of research that Jesus was who He said He was (the divine Son of God). Over the years it has been migrating from my brain to my heart.  This is far from complete (and never will be in this life) but I frequently have to remind myself that it is about relationship and not knowledge or works. 

 

Is your faith evolving?  Is your heart-felt relationship with God and His Son growing?  It is so easy to get off track with this, but the wonderful thing is that getting back on track is just as easy.  We simply reflect on the incredible love that God has for us, and all of the promises He has given us – to always be with us, to never leave us, and to prosper us.

 

Lift this prayer today and allow God to fill your heart with that love.  

 

 

Amazing Grace and Eternal Peace be yours,

Bruce

 

 

 

Father God, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me.

 

I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me.

 

If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there.

 

Teach me today to love you more.

 

Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child.

 

In Jesus name, Amen

http://www.beliefnet.com/Prayers/Christian/Guidance/A-Prayer-for-Resting-in-Gods-Love.aspx#ixzz1UA9gwmV0

 

 

 

Bruce MacPherson

macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821

 

You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material.

 

If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.

 

Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

 

 

 

Daily Prayer

Good Thursday morning my friends,

 

I am back at work after a wonderful two-week vacation.  While I was away I managed to get half-way through Eric Metasas' amazing biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy".  It is a great mix of story, history, theology and so much more. Bonhoeffer was an academic and a theologian, but unlike many in that category he had a love for the Bible that went beyond theology.  In a 1936 letter to his brother-in-law Rüdiger Schleicher, Bonhoeffer wrote:

 

First of all I will confess quite simply - I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive the answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God on one's own strength, one has to enquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us. Of course it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism, etc.; there is nothing to be said against that. Only that that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love; and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, "pondering them in our heart," so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only if we will venture into the words of the Bible, as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us along with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible.

 

Bonhoeffer loved the Sermon on the Mount.  Why not read those chapters today (Matthew 5-7) and ponder the words in your heart?

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was also a very humble man, and this comes through in the prayer below which he penned.

 

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

 

 

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.

Help me to pray

And to concentrate my thoughts on you;

I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,

But with you there is light;

I am lonely, but you do not leave me;

I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;

I am restless, but with you there is peace.

In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,

But you know the way for me….

Restore me to liberty,

And enable me to live now

That I may answer before you and before men.

Lord whatever this day may bring,

Your name be praised.

Amen

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

 

 

Bruce MacPherson

macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821

 

You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material.

 

If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.

 

Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.