PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday

Scripture lesson: Matthew 18:21-35 7 X 70 |= 490

Time to reflect: From our knowledge of Biblical use of numbers we know that what Jesus was saying is that we should forgive an infinite number of times.

Moving through the day: Is there someone that you need to forgive one more time?

Scripture:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

 "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Romans 14 :1-12 “Let us no longer pass judgment on each other”

Time to reflect: The point of the first 6 verses is that we tend to fight over and pass judgment on each other over trivial details of the faith. Paul got really exasperated with the fights over whether “good” Christians should be Kosher or not. He suggests that those who want to be Kosher, let them be Kosher, and those that don't, that's their business (Paul himself apparently was Kosher). But this should be used to divide the community.

Moving through the day: Are there things we, individually or collectively, use to divide and separate that are actually small potatoes? (How much time does the Bible spend on the issue?) Pray for the ability to put things in perspective.

 

Scripture:

  Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written:
   " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
   'every knee will bow before me;
      every tongue will confess to God.' " So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 114 God can do anything

Time to reflect: This is a poetic song referring to the Exodus and God's power. This is poetic imagery

Moving Throughout the day: If you wanted to express what God's power is on the grandest scale, what imagery would you use? I might use “and God's calculations leave IBM's Big Blue in the dust”

 

Scripture:

When Israel came out of Egypt,
       the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

Judah became God's sanctuary,
       Israel his dominion.

The sea looked and fled,
       the Jordan turned back;

the mountains skipped like rams,
       the hills like lambs.

Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
       O Jordan, that you turned back,

you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
       you hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
       at the presence of the God of Jacob,

who turned the rock into a pool,
       the hard rock into springs of water.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Exodus 14:19-31 The Crossing of the “Red” (Reed) Sea

Time to reflect: There's always debate about miracle stories like this one. Are they myth? Are they totally supernatural? Are they natural events disguised as miracles? and so forth. A lot of this debate falls away when we redefine “miracle.” A miracle is a time when God is acting directly in this world. Whether or not miracle is supernatural or natural is then beside the point and does not affect our appreciation of the miracle. God, being God, certainly do things supernaturally, or can do things by a manipulation of natural forces. Either way, it is a miracle because God was making it happen.

 

Moving through the day: Think of some miracles (in the sense described above) that have occurred in your life. Thank God for them.

 

Scripture:

Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."

  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

  But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Riches

Time to reflect: Being rich and successful is not a problem, only a danger. We need to use our riches to do good things in God's behalf.

Moving Through The Day: Pray for wisdom on this matter.

Scripture:

  When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

  But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

 

 

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Exodus 12:1-14 The Passover

Time to reflect: Let's not worry about all the blood and stuff. The important thing is that “God saves.” That God can act in this world in a real and tangible way.

 

Moving through the day: Think of times when you felt that God intervened in your behalf, no matter how subtly. Make that a “day of remembrance” and celebrate it.

 

Scripture:

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

  "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

  "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance.

 

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 119:33-40 God's leadership

Time to reflect: None of us like rules and regulations and are inclined to ignore them if we can. Generally speaking we're pretty good at selecting only the Biblical rules that we find easy to live up to. But the Psalmist is asking God's help in learning, knowing, obeying a much wider range of commandments from God.

Moving through the day: Since this is a prayer, try praying it as if it was from you.

 

Scripture:

^NRS Psalm 119:33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end. ³⁴ Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. ³⁵ Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. ³⁶ Turn my heart to your decrees, and not to selfish gain. ³⁷ Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; give me life in your ways. ³⁸ Confirm to your servant your promise, which is for those who fear you. ³⁹ Turn away the disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good. ⁴⁰ See, I have longed for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life.