122 Ensure your servant's well-being;
let not the arrogant oppress me.
123 My eyes fail, looking for your salvation,
looking for your righteous promise.
124 Deal with your servant according to your love
and teach me your decrees.
125 I am your servant; give me discernment
that I may understand your statutes.
I have been struggling with my weight a lot lately. I have a dear friend who is struggling with his sobriety. A friend of mine recently had an unusual conversation with someone. They confessed to being anorexic and told her she couldn't possibly understand what that's like. My friend admitted that to a degree, that's true. but, that having a father who's a recovering alcoholic and being a member of Weight Watchers' she did know what it was like to daily battle an obsession. This prayer came to mind...
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
Here are a couple of things to think about at Thanksgiving:
"I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess."
-- Martin Luther
"Lift up your heart to Him, sometimes even at your meals, and when you are in company; the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him. You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we are aware of."
-- Brother Lawrence
Praying through the elements of a worship service= A.C.T.S.
A-Adoration
If God were oneof your aquaintences, what compliments could you pay Him? What's cool about God? What 7 things does God deserve in Revelation 7:12?
C-Confession
What is standing between you and your relationship[ with God?
Psalm 139:23-24
T-Thanksgiving
What has God done for you, through you, or given you lately- for which you need to give Him credit?
Psalm 136:1-3
S-Supplication
Okay, let's pray- but remember J.O.Y. (Jesus, Others, then Yourself)
Why not follow this "HANDY" (see photo) outline?
Matthew 7:7
I have one cheerleader who threw up at school today and went home sick- probably nerves about the pep rally.
I had another cheerleader who left the football game just before kickoff because of a family emergency- I'm assuming that her grandfather may have just passed away. He suffered an anurism a couple of weeks ago and has been in the hospital.
Please keep my cheer squad in your prayers,
Thank you
Click here for my:Bulldog Cheer Coach's Blog
St.John LYF, Charter Oak
Here is St. John's LYF website-
http://stjlyf.blogspot.com
Visit for information on the National Gathering, the Des Moine Gathering, and a few pictures from last week's homecoming parade.
Please bookmark it to your favorites list so that you can check it at least once a month to see what's going on.
Please pass it on to other kids and parents who's email address you have.
And, please pray for our youth group and the youth of our congregation and community.
Pray for a revitalization of our LYF, with only 3 active members, a lot has got to give, fundraisers, service projects... there's a lot that we can't do anymore, at least not the same way.
And please pray for me, with 3 kids of our own, coaching 2 sports, taking on extra work like the school newsletter, school website, freelancing t-shirts and freelance work for the newspaper- I'm spread a little thin. And I'll be candid, I've had a lot of bumps and dips in my faith walk in the last year or two, so I need some prayer for my wrestling-match with God while we're at it.
Thank you thank you thank you.
In His hands,
Ted
9/11 and the sport of God
by Bill Moyers
Terrorists plant time bombs in our heads, hoping to turn each and every imagination into a private hell governed by our fear of them.
They win only if we let them, only if we become like them: vengeful, imperious, intolerant, paranoid. Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what's in God's mind. Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in.
So over the past four years I have kept reminding myself of not only the horror but the humanity that was revealed that day four years ago, when through the smoke and fire we glimpsed the heroism, compassion, and sacrifice of people who did the best of things in the worst of times. I keep telling myself that this beauty in us is real, that it makes life worthwhile and democracy work and that no terrorist can take it from us.
But I am not so sure. As a Christian realist I honor my inner skeptic. And as a journalist I always know the other side of the story.
+ Read the full article at TomPaine.com TomPaine.com - 9/11 And The Sport of God
PRAYER:
Dear Jesus,
Heal our nation.
So many conservative christians clamor that we must confess and repent our sins of permitting abortion and homosexuality.
Our hearts convict us that they may be right, but some even accuse You of sending Katrina to punish New Orleans, and that is insane and perhaps even blasphemous.
We also need to confess and repent of our sins of indulgence, pride, gluttony, greed and soft middle-class complacency toward our brothers and sisters in poverty...
And yes, of racism
even if it is unconsious or subconscious or covert or mild or accidental or institutional rather than hot, acute, hateful and personal.
Forgive us, Lord
And move us by Your Spirit to reach out and help,
and to re-examine our hearts and become more sensitive
And please, Lord
Don't let Satan use these disasters to polarize us further and divide us deeper.
In Jesus' Name,
AMEN
Take Action: The Katrina Pledge: A commitment to build a new America
"Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute" (Proverbs 31:8).
I guess I've let this blog lay fallow long enough. Yeah, I'll admit to doing a lot of wrestling with God lately, but the biggest reason was being away from internet access all summer.
Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in the Gulf region. Let us pray that racial tensions not be any more inflamed than they have been.
Click HERE for a list of chairitable organizations and ways that you can help victims of hurricane Katrina.
Click HERE for a list of chairitable organizations and ways that you can help victims of hurricane Katrina.
The experience of losing your faith, or of having lost it, is an experience that in the long run belongs to faith; or at least it can belong to faith if faith is still valuable to you, and it must be or you would not have written me about this. I don¿t know how the kind of faith required of a Christian living in the 20th century can be at all if it is not grounded on this experience that you are having right now of unbelief. "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" is the most natural and most human and most agonizing prayer in the gospels, and I think it is the foundation prayer of faith.
- Flannery O'Connor
Here is the 'C' in A.C.T.S.
I may be Lutheran, but I find Roman Catholic rituals fascinating.
Here is (minus the Mary and the Saint's stuff) the Latin prayer of confession:
Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti
Quia peccavi nimis
Cogitatione,
verbo
Et opere
Mea culpa
Mea culpa
Mea maxima culpa
I confess to God Almighty
That I have sinned
In thought,
in word
And in deed
Through my own fault
Through my own fault
Through my own grievous fault
