Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October 13, 2024

Saturday Vespers

Heavenly Father, we come before You today with hearts full of gratitude and concern. We thank You for Your love, mercy, and guidance. We pray for peace to reign throughout the world, that nations may live in harmony and understanding. Guide the leaders of our nations. Fill them with wisdom, compassion, and a true desire to serve their people. May they seek Your will in all they do and govern with justice and equity. Inspire us to be agents of peace in our communities. Grant us the courage to stand up for what is right and the compassion to help those in need. May we be beacons of hope, spreading love and kindness wherever we go. Lord, we pray for an end to suffering and injustice. May Your healing touch bring comfort to the afflicted, and may Your justice prevail. We Pray for a senior in India to get your comfort and healing from her hip and back pain. Anon says - Please pray for my husband because he is struggling with mental illness. Pray for a hedge of protection around him and my c...

As Far as I Can See

Someone recently shared this -  "I recently had the opportunity to visit a friend, one evening, who lives on the 28th floor of an apartment building. Standing on the balcony I could see the city with a completely new perspective. I was amazed at the expanse of the city, the beauty of the lights and the business of life as cars drive around. I never realized the vast network of roads my city had, nor the greenery nor the number of buildings and looking at the city lights, i wondered at the amount of electricity we consumed in keeping the city alive. Looking at the skyline changed my perspective of the government who provided us all these facilities, the ingenuity of people and of the city itself".  "And then I thought how limited my vision and understanding were when I was on the ground level.  It struck me then why it is better to trust in God. He can see much further than I ever can, has a perfect understanding of the world because He created it and can give perfect dir...

Peace and Justice for All

A wise judge once said, "it is not only necessary for justice to be done, but as importantly, it needs to be seen to be done." Drawing from these wise words, as Christians, it is not only important to follow Christ in letter and spirit, but also to be seen as followers of Christ, in our behavior and our attitudes to fellow men. We ourselves are the biggest witnesses to Christ and we are also our own enemy. We may preach the best of sermons, be most devout in our day-to-day devotions or know the Bible verbatim, but if our language, behavior and attitude does not reflect Christ, it is all in vain. Christ Himself spoke at length about the way we are to behave toward others; friends and enemies. More than that, however, the life He lived, accentuated by His love and compassion for the lost, provides the consummate example of what Christian behavior should look like, enabled by the Holy Spirit. The best barometer is how one reacts or behaves when facing extreme pressure of a threa...

Preach to Yourself!

In management, there is a concept of self-talk. There is nothing crazy about talking to oneself. Self-talk is the internal dialogue that people have with themselves, and it can have a big impact on how a person feels and acts. Positive self-talk can help people feel better about themselves, and can have many benefits, including goal attainment and building an overall positive attitude. Drawing a cue from this concept, when we do our daily devotions and or read the Bible, instead of a mechanical tick in the box, if we relate what is being read to our own lives, each phase or period, we will be able to spot where we went wrong and what we did right. This knowledge will help to correct ourselves for future, aligning our life to Christ and Gods ways and will. That is exactly how computers also work. They analyze the past to predict the future. What does it mean to "preach to ourselves"? "Preaching to ourselves is essentially the biblical call to "meditate" on Scrip...