PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 147 The Lord of all creation

Time to reflect: This is another Lord of Creation passage. We've had a bunch of them over the past few weeks. Some parts of this Psalm may be hard for us to relate to but it is poetry and imagery. We can translate into our own understanding of how the universe works, scientifically. Focusing on verses 19-20, however, as Christians, we do believe that we have special information. This does not need to condemn others who are not a part of our community, but should be taken as a special gift to be used well, and for which we should be grateful, as in this Psalm. Having or not having the Christian beliefs does not assure or make impossible God's salvation. However, it is good news that is comforting and supportive to our lives. Do we not want to share that information?

Moving Throughout the day: Since this is a tough issue for our generation, think through the idea that we can be right, in that we know some aspects of God's work that others do not have, without their being “wrong” or condemned.

 Scripture:

Praise the LORD.
       How good it is to sing praises to our God,
       how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
       he gathers the exiles of Israel.

  He heals the brokenhearted
       and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars
       and calls them each by name.

  Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
       his understanding has no limit.

  The LORD sustains the humble
       but casts the wicked to the ground.

  Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
       make music to our God on the harp.

  He covers the sky with clouds;
       he supplies the earth with rain
       and makes grass grow on the hills.

  He provides food for the cattle
       and for the young ravens when they call.

  His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
       nor his delight in the legs of a man;

  the LORD delights in those who fear him,
       who put their hope in his unfailing love.

  Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem;
       praise your God, O Zion,

  for he strengthens the bars of your gates
       and blesses your people within you.

  He grants peace to your borders
       and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

  He sends his command to the earth;
       his word runs swiftly.

  He spreads the snow like wool
       and scatters the frost like ashes.

  He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
       Who can withstand his icy blast?

  He sends his word and melts them;
       he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

  He has revealed his word to Jacob,
       his laws and decrees to Israel.

  He has done this for no other nation;
       they do not know his laws.
       Praise the LORD.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Isaiah 40:21-31 “Have you not heard?”

Time to reflect: The key concept of this passage is to contrast what we all know, that God is the creator of all, with the fact that we live our lives as if we didn't know this. It gets forgotten in the details, stresses and concerns of daily life. Sometimes we feel we can do things that God is not aware of, other times we feel like God isn't paying attention to our concerns and problems. So this passage is a good reminder of the nature of God.

Moving through the day: Focusing on verses 28 to 31, what difference does this information make in our lives? How can we view life differently if this became a core value and belief of ours? Prayer a prayer of thanksgiving for the reality of these verses.

Scripture:

Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       Has it not been told you from the beginning?
       Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
       and its people are like grasshoppers.
       He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
       and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught
       and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

  No sooner are they planted,
       no sooner are they sown,
       no sooner do they take root in the ground,
       than he blows on them and they wither,
       and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

  "To whom will you compare me?
       Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
       Who created all these?
       He who brings out the starry host one by one,
       and calls them each by name.
       Because of his great power and mighty strength,
       not one of them is missing.

  Why do you say, O Jacob,
       and complain, O Israel,
       "My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God"?

  Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

  He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

 Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

  but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Deuteronomy 6:4-9 The Shema

Time to reflect: Besides being the primary creed of Judaism, the larger passage here is the Christian Educator's pledge. It is every Christian's duty to pass on the faith to subsequent generations.

Moving through the day: This charge never goes away – what have you done lately to pass on the faith? Children? Grandchildren? Nieces and Nephews? Neighborhood children? Sunday School children?

 Scripture:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Job 38:4-70 Who do you think you are?

Time to reflect: This is a part of a long speech by God putting Job in his place: Job, so self-righteous about disagreeing with God about how he had been treated had been second guessing God. God points out that the creator of the universe might have a different perspective and agenda than a mere mortal.

Moving through the day: How often do you second-guess God? How often is it based and particular and personal issues that might be at odds with the greater scheme of things?

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
       Tell me, if you understand.

 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
       Who stretched a measuring line across it?

  On what were its footings set,
       or who laid its cornerstone-

  while the morning stars sang together
       and all the angels shouted for joy?

 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
       when it burst forth from the womb,

  when I made the clouds its garment
       and wrapped it in thick darkness,

  when I fixed limits for it
       and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
       here is where your proud waves halt'?

  "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
       or shown the dawn its place,

  that it might take the earth by the edges
       and shake the wicked out of it?

 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
       its features stand out like those of a garment.

  The wicked are denied their light,
       and their upraised arm is broken.

  "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
       or walked in the recesses of the deep?

  Have the gates of death been shown to you?
       Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death ?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
       Tell me, if you know all this.

  "What is the way to the abode of light?
       And where does darkness reside?

 Can you take them to their places?
       Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

  Surely you know, for you were already born!
       You have lived so many years!

  "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
       or seen the storehouses of the hail,

  which I reserve for times of trouble,
       for days of war and battle?

 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
       or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

  Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
       and a path for the thunderstorm,

  to water a land where no man lives,
       a desert with no one in it,

  to satisfy a desolate wasteland
       and make it sprout with grass?

  Does the rain have a father?
       Who fathers the drops of dew?

  From whose womb comes the ice?
       Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

  when the waters become hard as stone,
       when the surface of the deep is frozen?

  "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
       Can you loose the cords of Orion?

  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
       or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
       Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

  "Can you raise your voice to the clouds
       and cover yourself with a flood of water?

  Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
       Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?

 Who endowed the heart with wisdom
       or gave understanding to the mind ?

 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
       Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

when the dust becomes hard
       and the clods of earth stick together?

"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
       and satisfy the hunger of the lions

when they crouch in their dens
       or lie in wait in a thicket?

Who provides food for the raven
       when its young cry out to God
       and wander about for lack of food?

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Eating meat???

Time to reflect: This passage is not really about whether or not to eat meat, although that was the issue that precipitated this diatribe by Paul. The real question is: are we sometimes called on to make a compromise for the sake of others? Being right is less important than not causing others spiritual harm. A commonly mentioned analog is giving up public consumption of alcohol by someone who doesn't have a problem with alcohol, for the sake of those who do have a problem with it.

Moving through the day: Can you think of a situation in your life where, although you may be right, you are called upon to make a compromise rather than cause someone else a problem?

Scripture:

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.

 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 111 Studying God's works

Time to reflect: The 3^rd verse struck me on this reading (how many times have I read them Psalm, but this particular time this phrase jumps out at me). If we delight in God's works, and are willing to see God's hand in things, we can see God's work everywhere. And as we study God's works, we delight in God's works more and more.

Moving Throughout the day: Through the day, “study God's works” -- everything from the structure of the universe to the incredible creature we call “humans” to the makeup of sub-atomic particles and everything in between. Then give God praise for this amazing creation.

 Scripture:

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
       my hope comes from him.

 He alone is my rock and my salvation;
       he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God ;
       he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

  Trust in him at all times, O people;
       pour out your hearts to him,
       for God is our refuge.
       Selah

  Lowborn men are but a breath,
       the highborn are but a lie;
       if weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
       together they are only a breath.

  Do not trust in extortion
       or take pride in stolen goods;
       though your riches increase,
       do not set your heart on them.

  One thing God has spoken,
       two things have I heard:
       that you, O God, are strong,

  and that you, O Lord, are loving.
       Surely you will reward each person
       according to what he has done.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Prophets

Time to reflect: This passage documents the creation of the office of Prophet. It was an official position in the Temple – a paid profession. It's purpose was to put a buffer between God and the people. They would convey God's word to the people, collectively and personally. As is indicated, the problem that arose was that Prophets tended to give the message those paying them wanted, rather than what God had actually wanted said. Prophets that told the truth, like Jeremiah was always getting in trouble for it. Even though the historical office of Prophet died with the Temple, we still think of certain people as speaking in behalf of God – some honestly, some dishonestly.

Moving through the day: Who in our time do you view as a true Prophet and who do you view as a false Prophet? What Prophets say things that get them in trouble? How well do you accept a prophetic word that you don't like to hear?

Scripture:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."

 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. 1I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."