PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday: Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha

Time to Reflect: Well known and well understood story – we can be so busy serving Christ that we don't stop to listen to Christ.

Moving through the day: Build in a few short periods of time each day for prayer and meditation. As Luther is reported as having said “I've got so much work to do today, I'd better spend two hours in prayer instead of one."

Scripture:

At the Home of Martha and Mary

 38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

 41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

 

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Colossians 1:15-20 Creator not created

Time to reflect: Throughout Church history it concept of the Trinity and that Jesus was/is a part of that Trinity has been hard and many have rejected it. One of the common approaches was to think that Jesus was created, at birth, and then became divine at the Resurrection. Another approach was that Jesus was adopted by God and made divine at birth. Unfortunately, these explanations turn Jesus into a 2^nd God rather than a person of the Trinity. Like the first chapter of John, this passage is forcefully explaining that Christ was there from the beginning and rather than a creature, is Christ is the creator.

Moving through the day: Meditate on the idea that the Creator of the world is also the Savior of the world, and is also our constant companion and sustainer (The Holy Spirit). Like a parent for a child. The three are actually one.

Scripture:

The Supremacy of Christ

 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

 

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 52 “You'll get yours”

Time to reflect: A rare Psalm because it is addressing the Psalmist's enemies, the evil ones. In reality this is a literary device. The Psalm would still have been sung in the Temple to God, but “letting” God overhear his conversation with the enemy. However, the upshot is clear, the Psalmist is confident that in the end the enemy will get theirs.

Moving through the day: Do you have the same confidence in God?

Scripture:

Psalm 52

 1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
       Why do you boast all day long,
       you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

 2 Your tongue plots destruction;
       it is like a sharpened razor,
       you who practice deceit.

 3 You love evil rather than good,
       falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
       Selah

 4 You love every harmful word,
       O you deceitful tongue!

 5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
       He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent;
       he will uproot you from the land of the living.
       Selah

 6 The righteous will see and fear;
       they will laugh at him, saying,

 7 "Here now is the man
       who did not make God his stronghold
       but trusted in his great wealth
       and grew strong by destroying others!"

 8 But I am like an olive tree
       flourishing in the house of God;
       I trust in God's unfailing love
       for ever and ever.

 9 I will praise you forever for what you have done;
       in your name I will hope, for your name is good.
       I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

 

 

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Amos 8:1-12 A pun of condemnation

Time to Reflect: There is a Hebrew pun that is lost in most translations. One way of translating is: “what do you see? And I said “A basket of ripe fruit. Then the Lord said to me: The people of Israel is ripe for destruction.” One of the things that made a prophet a prophet is that they saw things differently. Everyone else saw a basket of summer fruit, Amos saw an analogy of the destruction coming upon Israel.

Moving Through the Day:

Try to think of a pun/analogy that would apply to this country. (e.g. “what do you see? I see a shredder. And the Lord said, so shall this people be shredded for their economic shredding of the poor.”)

Scripture:

Amos 8

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

 1 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 "What do you see, Amos?" he asked.
      "A basket of ripe fruit," I answered.
      Then the LORD said to me, "The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

 3 "In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. [a] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!"

 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
       and do away with the poor of the land,

 5 saying,
       "When will the New Moon be over
       that we may sell grain,
       and the Sabbath be ended
       that we may market wheat?"—
       skimping the measure,
       boosting the price
       and cheating with dishonest scales,

 6 buying the poor with silver
       and the needy for a pair of sandals,
       selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

 7 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: "I will never forget anything they have done.

 8 "Will not the land tremble for this,
       and all who live in it mourn?
       The whole land will rise like the Nile;
       it will be stirred up and then sink
       like the river of Egypt.

 9 "In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD,
       "I will make the sun go down at noon
       and darken the earth in broad daylight.

 10 I will turn your religious feasts into mourning
       and all your singing into weeping.
       I will make all of you wear sackcloth
       and shave your heads.
       I will make that time like mourning for an only son
       and the end of it like a bitter day.

 11 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD,
       "when I will send a famine through the land—
       not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
       but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

 12 Men will stagger from sea to sea
       and wander from north to east,
       searching for the word of the LORD,
       but they will not find it.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 15 Who are proper worshipers of God?

Time to reflect: We are called not to a bunch of rituals and rites but to treat others well.

Moving through the Day: Evaluate your life based on these standards.

Scripture:

A psalm of David.

 1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
       Who may live on your holy hill?

 2 He whose walk is blameless
       and who does what is righteous,
       who speaks the truth from his heart

 3 and has no slander on his tongue,
       who does his neighbor no wrong
       and casts no slur on his fellowman,

 4 who despises a vile man
       but honors those who fear the LORD,
       who keeps his oath
       even when it hurts,

 5 who lends his money without usury
       and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
       He who does these things
       will never be shaken.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Genesis 18:1-10a The promise of a child to Abraham and Sarah

Time to reflect: One of many unexpected children. Isaac was not so important in himself except that the line of Abraham through Isaac would become the Hebrews/Jews. Nothing is hopeless when it comes to God.

Moving through the day: Can you think of a time when you thought “Impossible” – but it wasn't?

Scripture: 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Genesis 18

The Three Visitors

 1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

 3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, [a] do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant."
      "Very well," they answered, "do as you say."

 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs [b] of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."

 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

 9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him.
      "There, in the tent," he said.

 10 Then the LORD [c] said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."
      Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: James 2:14-18 Faith vs Works

Time to reflect:  Commentators sometimes try to pit Paul's ?Faith alone? comments against James' comments about the value of good works, but this is a false dichotomy. They both say essentially the same thing but are merely approaching the problem from different directions. James doesn't think that works saves, only faith does that, but he is pointing out that true faith, real faith, will result in good works, as a bi-product.

Moving through the day: Pray that your good works are done as a result of faith and not as a substitute for faith.

Scripture:

James 2:14-18

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ?Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,? and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ?You have faith and I have works.? Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.