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“Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭12‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus as we journey through Lent help us to walk towards You. This journey should not be about our accomplishments, about what we can do, about what have done. Lord this journey is to be about coming to You. It is about drawing closer to what brings blessings to others. It is about seeing the world and all that is in it with new eyes. To be able to hear the music of life living together in its varied rhythms and melodies with clearer ears. It is about loving with a depths that lives in this life and thrives in the divine.

Lord Jesus don’t let us give up when we find this journey too hard. When we don’t understand help us to find peace in Your grace. When we are weighed down with despair lead us deeper into You, our rock and our living salvation. We pray this in Your Holy name. Amen.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Too many people are wrapped up in their sins. Their identity has become so tied to their sins that they don’t know how to be their redeemed selves, they don’t know what it means to be redeemed, loved, different.

At times there is an emptiness that people feel when they experience forgiveness because they have held the guilt, the shame, the anger, the hurt for so long that it is part of who they are, in the woman from Luke 7:36-50 her sin was widely known.

Yet Jesus forgave her.

This teacher who people would crowd around to hear Him speak, this person of renown that the upper echelon of society invited over for dinner, and He forgave her sins.

She was not just a sinful woman to Jesus. In fact after she came to Him she was a forgiven person filled with the overflowing love of God, with thankfulness, and new life. She was forever changed because of Jesus, not just in her social interactions but deep inside.

The forgiveness of her sins gave her room in her life to love and be loved in a whole new way.

As we enter into Lent, how are you going to make room for Jesus? Is it by giving up something meaningless or will it be by making room in your life for something meaningful. Will you allow Jesus to forgive you? Will you allow Jesus to help you forgive someone else? Will you let go of the guilt, shame, hurt, and live as a child of God?

““For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

When we read about Pharisees, how many times do we want ignore the Pharisees’ humanity. Isn’t this problematic for our Christian lives, our beliefs.

Yet Pharisees are people. We might know other people who rub us the wrong way that we might try to deny their humanity or their right to be made in God’s image. The majority of us are feeling a little bit uneasy. But Jesus doesn’t completely disregard the Pharisees, he engages with them, as much as everyone else, maybe as much as the poor, sick, lost, and forgotten.

We like to think that the people who should have it all together, have it altogether and understand everything. However sometimes even the best of us need help. In Luke 7:36-50 we have two people that are the focus of the interaction with Jesus. We like to think that we are rooting for the woman because she was the one being put down.by everyone else and we want Jesus to lift her up and forgive her. Deep down we focus on the woman because some of us recognize that we need Jesus to lift us up, to forgive us. But we miss the need of the Pharisee also. Both of them have sins that need to be forgiven. Unfortunately the Pharisee didn’t recognize his need. This is tragic. Yet how many of us are more like the Pharisee hearing that the woman is forgiven and we struggle to be happy for them.

Jesus’ forgiveness is for all those who come to Him for the forgiveness He is offering. Whether we see ourselves in line with the woman or the Pharisee we need to come to Jesus for His live giving forgiveness.

“I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus as we make our way through this life that You have blessed us with, we face times of great joy and freedom. In these times we draw closer to You, the giver of joy with the freedom to choose You. We also face times when we seem to only be slipping, not able to gain traction to move, not able to grow, and yet in these times also we draw closer to You with the same freedom to choose You.

Lord in the quiet, peaceful times of our life with You, help us to breathe in the air that You give. Teach us the rhythm of breath, of movement, of feeling to live for You. In the still and quit times prepare our bodies and minds to hear You calling to us. It is in these times of preparation that we learn to walk the path of joy and the path of pain with You. It is in these times of quiet and serenity that we learn to breathe in the breath of God, instead of the airs of anxiety and chaos. In the peaceful meadows we learn to hear and listen to Your voice clearly so that when the overwhelming joy comes, we will not lose You. When the darkness hits and we struggle to move, we will be able to hear Your words of live as we focus on Your light of hope.

Lord Jesus, You truly are our refuge and our strength.

Thank-you

We pray this in Your holy name, Amen.

“but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, the world around us is filled with hardness trying to recreate hardness. Friends engaging in greed and pushing people down into discouragement and detachment. Lives are made of hurt, causing more hurt. Love being thrown out like trash to the curb. Lord, why has humanity become so shallow. Why have we moved so far from Your ever enlivening love for all of Your creation. Too often humanity cheapens life with stuff instead of instilling Your grace into relationships giving value to time spent together and life sharing journeys forming communities of rooted in You.

Lord Jesus, the busyness of minds chase after the illusions of success forgetting about the limited moments we have to share with the most important people around us. Self destruction leads us disguised as fulfillment and even contentment. We miss the underlying truth of Your sustaining love giving us breath, breath that is to be shared with words of life, and grace filled steps of growing together in hope and transformation.

Lord Jesus, Your faithfulness should be our guide but too often we miss Your truth in our delusions of grandeur, of our own rightness. Forgive us of our crass words, our hardened hearts, our misled minds. Lord minister to our very souls that we might draw strength from You in the fullness of life. Help us Lord to not repeat the destruction of past generations. Grant us Lord Your understanding that we would not continually go back to the sin filled ways of death and destruction but live in Your humility and strength. We pray this in Your life giving name. Amen.

““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

This is one of that many people struggle with. For some people they have never known what it means to be full and rich in spirit. Some people try to put themselves down because they want the reward and really won’t come close. But some are genuinely poor in spirit. They are hurting, fearful, lost in their minds and their struggles. It is not a false humility, it is a constant struggle.

Strangely enough this can actually help.

When we have everything together, we can easily drift away from Jesus because we don’t think we need Him. But when we are poor in spirit, we start to recognize that we are missing something vital in our lives. Some people will spend their lives searching for it. Some people will think that they are worthless never start looking. Some will try to make everything fit.

But the gospel is not about us searching for a hidden answer. The Gospel is that Jesus entered into the brokenness that is our world, our lives to meet us where we are at. To meet us in our failures, our empty successes, our feigning perfections, to meet us in our lies and invites us to follow Him. The invitation is not for the perfect because only He is perfect. The invitation is not just for the already repentant but the invitation does lead to repentance.

We are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the perfection of God. God still loves us and invites us to come back to Him. To come back to Him in our brokenness so that He will make us whole. Some will but unfortunately some will not. This is sad but it is not because God has not reached out. He has reached out to all of humanity through Jesus Christ. The wholeness that God offers in Jesus is not to be abused servants but living heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

““But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬-‭26‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Life at times seems unfair. It is. God did not promise an easy life. Jesus warned that there would be hardships, even those who followed Him would face hardships and struggles.

Why do we want a life that is fair?

When Jesus talked about the blessings given to those who in this life seem far from being blessed, He was pointing out a kingdom truth that many people did not want to realize because it directly affected them and for some it condemned them. Not just their understanding of God’s love but also what God’s blessing really looks like.

The warnings that Jesus gave in Luke 6:24-26 are to people who were lusting after wealth, hoarding power, and trying to make a good social impression. The irony is that many people who did this saw themselves as being blessed by God. God had given them this wealth, this power, this social standing, and you know what they were right. Unfortunately they stopped with themselves. in Genesis 2:15, Adam is placed in the Garden of Eden to care for it. In Genesis 4:9 the question Cain asks God is, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” We are to care for creation, we are also suppose to care for our fellow image bearers of God. Too often we want to say that was for Adam and Cain respectively and not for me. Yet the message of God continues through the old and the new Testaments, “Care for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.” Who does Jesus help, those who struggle to help themselves.

Jesus’ warning is to those who have held onto the blessing of God for themselves and not shared it with those around them that are hungry, are poor, are spoken poorly of because of Jesus. Jesus is saying that those who others have looked down upon, condemned forgotten about, also have a blessing from God. If we think about it a little more, it is when the two sides of this blessing meet that we see a fuller, deeper blessing that is truly life changing.

Unfortunately not everyone wants the deeper blessing of God. As much as this is a warning from Jesus for them, the blessings of this life is all they want. They condemn themselves because they deny Jesus, they deny God, they leave the grace and love of God on the table and say that they have all that they need, that this is all that there is. It is a sincere tragedy of their own making. Jesus warns us of what is to come and invites us not just into life here and now but life for eternity.

“They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭18‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Why do we not like recognizing that God is more trustworthy and honest than we remember?

We like to blame God for everything, it take the pressure off of us, it takes the responsibility off of us, at least that is what we sometimes like to think. Unfortunately we can’t blame God. Or maybe it is fortunately that we can’t blame God.

God gives us both the blessings and curses. He invites us to make an informed decision. God tells us what can and will happen but for some reason we seem to only see or hear the blessings or the curses, not both. God is intentional throughout the scriptures about giving us both, about helping us to see the benefits of being in a relationship with the one who gives us life or what it means to reject God. We forget that when we reject God we are rejecting everything that God has given to us. God warns us because God loves us.

It is out of this love that He warns us but also that He wants to bless us. It is also a reality that if we can blame God because He is devious, or has kept something from us then the blessing and the love that He claims to give is worthless. We try to blame God because of the reality of sin in our world and yet over and over again God helps us to see what life could look like on both sides of the road of life. God tells us both the blessings and curses, or warnings, He is not to blame, we are.

when we can see our place in this, we can truly start to see what God is trying to do. He is trying to bring healing into our lives, helping us to truly live, and to put an end to the brokenness that is plaguing the world. When we can come to terms with our own brokenness, we can start to receive the real blessing that God is giving to us, the blessing of His love through Jesus, of life and forgiveness through Jesus. God is not holding back on us, too often we are trying to hold Him back because we don’t recognize the love that we truly need.

““The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭9‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we have seen the power of Your hand at work in this world. We have seen Your mighty acts and witnessed Your gracious hand at work. And yet we wonder. The struggles of understanding the why of what is happening, of what has happened. The presence of evil in our world confounds our enlightened sensitivities. Cries rise up from the grieving of destroyed communities, of broken lives, of people in disbelief. How can the multitude of tragedies exist in a world ruled by You?

In the hurting hearts of so many we are confronted with our limited understanding, with our broken faithfulness and these questions and others race through our minds. These questions are raised up by voices trying to believe, by voices trying to dissuade the faithful from believing. Our understanding struggles to make sense of the tension between Your sovereignty and the sin sick creation the is tearing itself apart. We want to define and make declarations apart from the revelation that You have given to us. Too many people want to use a prophetic voice with out being called to be a prophet for You.

Lord help us to live this life in the constant struggle of seeking You while being confronted by our limited life, our fragility overcoming our prideful ignorance, of getting lost in ourselves until we have no other choice but to call out to You for help, for mercy. Lord Jesus help us to grow into the life of abundance, of trust, of faithfulness that You have granted us. Teach us to live in the constant tension of not fully understanding but also of hoping and trusting in Your ongoing faithfulness. Lord we pray this in Your holy name. Amen.

“But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭69‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord or mercy we pray for You to be with Thales who are living in the devastation left behind by the earth quake in Turkey and Syria. We see the pictures and videos of some of what people are dealing with. We can only imagine that struggles that rescuers are going through as they continue to search and allocating resources that may save some but deal a death blow to others. Lord as the hours have turned into days the harsh reality of death from this destruction in thick in the hearts and minds of hundreds and thousands of people.

Lord we pray for peace so that aid can be delivered to those in need in Syria. The continued fighting and territorial squabbles that are limiting the resources to help the injured, the buried, the broken, hungry, thirsty people, Lord may Your mercy change hearts and create a new resolve towards peace.

As we pray for healing we realize that many scars will never truly heal. They will be present on people’s bodies, hearts, minds, and souls like the holes from Your crucification Lord Jesus were evident to Thomas after You rose again. Lord have compassion on Your hurting children. May they receive the needed food, the needed water, medicine, blankets, shelter, hope and love to make it through the coming hours, days, months and years. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.