Tomorrow's Offering

I'm having trouble believing it's Saturday. Didn't I just wake up on Monday morning, glad that I had a few days before the sermon crunch took over my life again?

It's a good thing the Grandview elders are good at calling because there was a lot of pastoral work this week. Also, with the start date of the Table just around the corner, there are more details to anticipate. Fortunately we've got a good team in place.

The theme for this month's sermons will be:We'll be looking at people in the scripture who dared to stand for God even though they were in tricky situations. If I enjoy preparing for all of the sermons as much as I've enjoyed this one, then it will be a fun month (for me at least!). Tomorrow we will look at Micaiah, a prophet during the reign of King Ahab (circa 850 BC, 1 Kings 22). My favorite thing about him? He was a sassy prophet. It's no wonder Ahab didn't like him.

Here's the prayer. If you're in town I hope to see you tomorrow. If you're not in town, I hope don't forsake the assembling together of the body of Christ. If worship isn't local then it isn't universal.

Prayers of the Church for Grandview
3 August 2008

God who became flesh and stood among us, who felt the loam and the earth under your feet, we come before you in our flesh and we take a stand in your name. We stand and proclaim that you are a great God, a great king above all Gods. In your hands are the caverns of the earth and the heights of the hills are yours. The fish that dart through the ocean, the birds slicing through the air, and the beasts prowling the forests all belong to you. We are here to see that the praise and worship of humanity are yours as well.

Accept, we pray, this offering of time that we make by gathering together. Accept the offering of song and hopes and joy along with our admission of pain and disappointment and suffering. Work together all of these things for our good and for the good of those around us. Help us to be a blessing to the whole earth. Give us the wisdom and the resolve we need to make the right choices today so that tomorrow we will be in a position to bless our families, our friends, and our enemies.

Forgive us, Lord, for not seeing the connection between today’s sloth and tomorrow’s inability to overcome evil. Forgive us for being blind to today’s habits that become tomorrow’s sins—sins that work in us like leaven to bring death into our relationships and into our lives. Forgive us for forgetting that the sin really does lead us away from you.

We so often pray that you would give us the desire of our hearts while not realizing how deceitful our hearts are. Lord, please give us clean hands and pure hearts before honoring even our most sincere, but misguided, requests.

We invite you to show us the wickedness that we have hidden in our hearts, the secret desires that surprise even us, the rebellion that we have unwittingly embraced. Show us these things, please, in the silence:

silence

Please continue to bless the organizations that further the work of your kingdom here and around the world. Bless Agape Women’s Services, Appalachian Christian Camp, Appalachian Christian Village, Higher Ministries, the Christian Student Fellowship at ETSU, Emmanuel School of Religion, the European Evangelistic Society, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Milligan College, and the Salvation Army—and all who provide labor and support for them.

Reinvigorate, heal, strengthen, encourage, and embolden those who are sick, struggling, or sad. Give your protection to those who are risking their lives to protect us. Give a peaceful death to those whose time to die has come. Give us the hearts of servant so we might minister to those on our prayer list.

And, as always, we ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit we might mean it when we ask you to bless our enemies—just like your Son told us to do, even our Lord and Savior Jesus of Nazareth, who taught us to pray: