appointed prayer

week of October 5

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Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon your church the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Anna, Isaac, and Haley the Christmas dogSolomon tells us that “a happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing” (Proverbs 17:22, AMP ). God undoubtedly has a sense of humor; we need only look at some of the animals He created (it’s hard not to smile at the sight of a hippo, a monkey, or a puppy). Or think of some of the married couples you know: don’t you think God was smiling at the wedding as He looked ahead to the interaction of the wildly different personalities that will be living together?

And as if often the case, medical science is proving the wisdom of Solomon’s Spirit-inspired words.

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two tools for developing a love filter

Saturday, October 4, 2008 · living the life · no responses · comments closed

I concluded my last post with the idea that Jesus’ wisdom in dealing with difficult people was the result of filtering their actions and His responses through love — what I termed a “love filter.”

I should note here that a love filter isn’t rose-colored glasses; choosing to filter people and the world through love is not choosing to ignore problems or act as if none exist. We saw last time that Jesus didn’t ignore problems; rather, He had the wisdom to know when to confront and when to overlook.

So the question becomes, “How do we love as Jesus loved? How do we develop that wisdom?” This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are two things that are helping me.

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return of the annoying people; or, I need a love filter

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 · living the life · no responses · comments closed

Getting an eternal perspective on annoying people helped some, but it didn’t solve the problem. For the last few days, I’ve been having fantasies of telling this person — let’s call him Alan — of telling Alan off: kindly and gently, but still telling him off.

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getting some perspective on annoying people

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 · living the life · one response · comments closed

I was writing in my journal yesterday about my frustration — my anger, really — with a coworker, using ink on paper as a way to vent and perhaps to find some perspective. I wrote,

“I feel like he is often — always? — judging me. And he is arrogant — and insecure, and well-intentioned. But he doesn’t extend grace to others. Should I expect an atheist to be grace-full? I suppose not.”

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Mary Magdalene, passionate witness

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 · living the life · no responses · comments closed

In honor of Mary Magdalene’s feast day, I reviewed what the Bible actually says about this most controversial of Jesus’ disciples. As I noted, this Mary has enough to recommend her to our consideration without the speculations of prostitution or marriage to Jesus.

Perhaps the most obvious lesson from her life is that God heals and restores. Both Mark and Luke note that Jesus healed Mary of seven demons. Some scholars take this literally, while others suggest that seven is used to symbolize the severity of her physical, non-demonic illness. Whatever your view of demonic activity, Mary had a serious problem and Jesus solved it. Completely.

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Will the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?

Monday, July 21, 2008 · meditations · no responses · comments closed

July 22 is the feast of Mary Magdalene in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox churches. Because of the popularity of The DaVinci Code, this Mary has received a lot of attention in the last few years, though most of it has been based on poor scholarship or fabrication of “facts” about her (this article in the Wikipedia gives a good run-down of the various ideas about Mary Magdalene and their origins).

Among Christians, it is commonly — and mistakenly — believed that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute and the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet; she’s also often identified with Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Much of this conflation of different women is based on a sermon given by Pope Gregory I in 591; as an aside, it’s interesting to note that one man’s misunderstanding of Scripture could have such a widespread acceptance. I remember hearing in Sunday school or sermons that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who anointed Christ. However, the Gospels don’t support this idea at all. So what do we know about Mary?

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the gift of hope

Saturday, July 19, 2008 · meditations · no responses · comments closed

I got a package a few days ago. Packages aren’t that unusual for me, because I order from Amazon fairly often (too often!), but every time a box shows up at the door, the kids are excited — especially Isaac, who always asks if it’s for him (unfortunately, it rarely is, which makes me think that I ought to mail something to him just because). This package, however, was unexpected, and it wasn’t from Amazon, so I was excited. And, it came while Teddie and the kids were out of town, so it was doubly nice to get a surprise when I was home alone with Haley (our dog). I have had some health problems over the last year or so that have been a little challenging (well, truthfully, more than a little — but that’s for some other time). So my sister Jennifer sent me hope.

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“Lord, make me,” or prayers, desire, effort, and responsibility

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 · living the life, prayer · no responses · comments closed

Okay, I couldn’t not write about this week’s prayer, specifically the first part:

Lord, make me have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name

While I respect the desire expressed in this prayer, I confess that I’m troubled by make me each time I read it. We recently sang a song at church that expressed a similar sentiment: […]

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