Saturday Vespers

Image contributed by Coral Keogh

As the day and this week draws to a close, we thank you for your love and guidance. Thank you for the blessings and challenges. May we rest peacefully tonight, knowing that You are always with us.

We lift up our hearts in prayer for all humanity.

For Peace: May peace reign in every nation, and may conflict be resolved through dialogue and understanding.

For Justice: May justice prevail, and may the oppressed find relief.

For Healing: May the sick be healed, the wounded be comforted, and the brokenhearted be mended.

For Love: May love abound, and may we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves.

For Hope: May hope ignite the hearts of all, and may despair be replaced with faith.

For a lady in Australia who will need to under cancer surgery next month

For the Pastor in India who's wife needs your healing for her stage 4 cancer

For a lady in India who need your healing and relief for her back pain

For Jerry who was diagnosed with early-stage pancreas cancer. We pray for your healing and guidance as he gets treatment

Smurfs requests prayer that the Lord would provide them with funds they need for a new roof and that they can get the boiler to light up for heat

Maxime prays that God may use her talents

We entrust the world to Your loving care. Guide us, protect us, and lead us toward a brighter future.

Money, Money, Money

Money is never enough. We keep striving and working for more. This is not new; it is from eons that we already always trying to earn money and more money.

Tom Harper explains this from a Biblical perspective.

Imagine you suddenly find $100 million in your bank account (and it's rightfully yours). What would you do with it?

Once you've celebrated, paid off all your debt, bought a couple cars and moved into your new private-island home, what would be next in life?

An Indian saint and poet, Sant Kabir Das, said thus - 

"Sayeen Itna Deejiye, Ja Mein Kutumb Samaye.

Main Bhi Bhookha Na Rahun, Sadhu Na Bhookha Jaye".

(Please God, give me enough so that I can support myself and my family, and so that no one goes hungry, not me nor any saint who comes to my home). 

Proverbs 30:8-9 also says it so well:

"…give me neither poverty nor riches!

Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.

For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?"

And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name".

Ecclesiastes chapter 5 directly addresses this dreamy scenario of finding the rainbowed pot of gold. Here are a few points Solomon makes in verses 10 and 11:

1. Those who love money will never have enough.

2. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!

3. The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it.

4. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!

These pithy statements are straight from the New Living Translation. And how true they are!

The main point, which is also a universal truth as we have seen, is in verse 15 "We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can't take our riches with us."

If we can't take it with us, why do we strive for more than we need?

Trusting God for just enough is a way of describing how God provides what is needed in the moment, while also requiring trust in what will come next. 

Monday Quotes

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. Francis of Assisi

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. Billy Graham

My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world. Billy Graham

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Billy Graham

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that's really the essence of the Christian faith. Joel Osteen

When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man, when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man! John Wesley

The Christian missionary may preach the gospel to the poor naked heathen, but the spiritual heathen who populate Europe have as yet heard nothing of Christianity. Carl Jung

Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. Henri Nouwen

First of all, the Jewish religion has a great deal in common with the Christian religion because, as Rabbi Gillman points out in the show, Christianity is based on Judaism. Christ was Jewish. Barbara Walters

The sometimes-tough love of the Christian faith of my childhood demanded a certain amount of self-reflection and, occasionally, self-criticism. J. D. Vance

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. Abraham Lincoln

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. Albert Einstein

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' C. S. Lewis

God meets daily needs daily. Not weekly or annually. He will give you what you need when it is needed. Max Lucado

This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi