conformed

A Prayer for Sunday Worship

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Oh Lord God, we earnestly seek your help in truly worshiping you. We thank you for this occasion and bless your name for setting apart this sacred season. Lord, would you please shut the door on the distractions of the world for us? Help us forget our worries and concerns. Enable us to rise above the worldly tendencies that weigh us down. May the allure of earthly things fade away, and may you draw us close to yourself. Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

Lord, help us to enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise. May we worship You in spirit and in truth and not just in singing and lifting hands. May our entire lives become offerings of worship as You commanded in Romans 12:2.

We enter Your presence with a myriad of distractions and a multitude of things coming at us from all sides. We who are programmed into anxiety by every other voice in our heads seek after Your peace that will calm our fears and give rest to our souls.

Help us not to be conformed any longer to the thought patterns and ways of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through the reading and hearing of Your Word. Help us not only to retain new information but to put it into practice by obeying what we hear. May we truly be doers of Your Word and not hearers only.

Help us to be mindful of those who are struggling or hurting within our midst. Help us to see them through Your eyes of compassion and to invite them into the circle of our fellowship. May we be Your hands and feet to them just as others have been Your hands and feet to us in our time of need.

Above all, help us to remember that Your Church is not a location or a building but a community of flesh and blood believers gathered together for a unified purpose. Remind us that as we exit through the sanctuary doors that we are still as much the Church as we were inside. May we bear in mind that as we drive off the parking lot of the church building, we are truly entering the mission field where the harvest is ripe and ready but the workers are few. Make us Your workers tomorrow and every day. Amen.

Joy in the Midst of Sadness

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

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I celebrated with the rest of the family as my niece turned 2. Finally, I can stop counting in months. I was seriously running out of fingers and toes to count on.

I loved seeing the pure unadulterated joy on her face when she saw her presents and the complete love and trust she has for her mommy and daddy and two big brothers. It did my heart good.

But I also remembered Adrian Peterson’s 2-year old son who was allegedly beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend. My heart hurts and I have questions I can’t answer.

Who does that to a 2-year old? For what possible reason?

I know we live in a broken world filled with broken people. Creation groans for deliverance and for everything to be made right. Too many defenseless and helpless children suffer, too many people go to bed hungry, too many marriages fall apart, and too many die way too young.

Then I remember how this story ends. I cheated and read the last page. It’s about God wiping away every tear from our eyes. It’s about a new Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth where lambs lie safely next to lions, where others is no need for sun, moon, or stars because God is there.

I love what the guest pastor said. God didn’t want an only child, so He chose us to be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus and become heirs with Jesus to all the promises of God.

I love this version of Romans 8:29-30: “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”

That’s what keeps me going in the midst of so much suffering and sadness. That’s why I can find joy in everything. Because ultimately Love does win.