PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Sunday

Scripture lesson: Matthew 11:21-28 The Canaanite woman

Time to reflect: This is a passage that makes Jesus seem mean. I feel that he is teasing his disciples and challenging their prejudices. Canaanites were scorned by the Jewish society. The disciples seemed to accept that prejudice for they didn't propose that Jesus help her, only that he shut her up, she was bothering them. The ensuing dialog shows that no one is to be excluded.

Moving through the day:  Who are the “canaanites” in our midst? How are you and your church serving them?

Scripture:

"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

Rest for the Weary

 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Romans 11:1-2a,29-32 The Jews

Time to reflect: The relationship between Jews and Christianity is a difficult and complicated one that can’t be dealt with in any sort of fashion in a PrayerBit, but this is the passage of the day.  VERY BRIEFLY, Paul argues carefully in Romans 8-11 that the Jew’s rejection of Jesus was necessary to force the Church to evangelize gentiles and therefore a good thing.  But the Jews are NOT rejected by God and that, in fact, in some mysterious way, the gentile church will eventually become Jewish. 

Moving through the day: Again and again God has to intervene to push us out of our prejudices, preconceptions and love of the status quo.  Try to think of one area of your life where you know you need to break loose and do something different or challenging.  Make a plan for doing so.

 

Scripture:

I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel:

for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Genesis 45:1-15 Joseph and his brothers

Time to reflect: In spite of all that his brothers had done to him, Joseph still loved and missed them.  He did play a retaliatory dirty trick on them in chapter 44 but that was to get his youngest brother there too.  So the family was saved and in tact.  So a temporary happy ending.  Even the most important Biblical characters had hard times and good time, intrigue and bad behavior and redemption and good behavior.  They were just like us. 

 

Moving through the day: Think about and pray for your extended family, particularly any you may be estranged from.

 

Scripture:

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it.

 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

  "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.'

  "You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly."

 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

 

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 67 May God bless us

Time to reflect: A lovely little Psalm.  Read it slowly twice. 

Moving through the day: Pray it as a prayer.

 

Scripture:

May God be gracious to us and bless us
       and make his face shine upon us,
       Selah

  that your ways may be known on earth,
       your salvation among all nations.

  May the peoples praise you, O God;
       may all the peoples praise you.

  May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
       for you rule the peoples justly
       and guide the nations of the earth.
       Selah

May the peoples praise you, O God;
       may all the peoples praise you.

  Then the land will yield its harvest,
       and God, our God, will bless us.

  God will bless us,
       and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Isaiah 56:6-8   Inclusion of the “foreigner”

Time to reflect: Even in the time of Isaiah God sent messages indicating that exclusion and segregation was not .God’s intent.  We humans have always had a tough time with this message, however.  We keep wanting an “us and them” mentality and will use any excuse to maintain it.   

Moving through the day: Pray about and for anyone you would like to exclude or not accept. 

 

Scripture:

And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
       to serve him,
       to love the name of the LORD,
       and to worship him,
       all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
       and who hold fast to my covenant-

  these I will bring to my holy mountain
       and give them joy in my house of prayer.
       Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
       will be accepted on my altar;
       for my house will be called
       a house of prayer for all nations."

  The Sovereign LORD declares—
       he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
       "I will gather still others to them
       besides those already gathered."

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Monday

Scripture lesson: Acts 17:24-31 Paul's failed sermon about the “unknown god”

Time to reflect: Although not successful, this is a great sermon. It points out that our God is a mysterious God that is beyond the mind of humans.

Moving Through The Day:  Do we also, like the Athenians, get comfortable with a god or gods that we can control?

Scripture:

 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."