PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson:Proverbs 1:20-23 Wisdom personified

Time to reflect: If “wisdom” were a person she would be railing at us for choosing to be stupid. (Heavenly) wisdom is available to us if we would only choose to listen.

Moving through the day: Scripture, including Proverbs, has a lot to teach us about wisdom, if we'll only listen. Pray about any unwise things you do.

Scripture:

Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom

 20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
       she raises her voice in the public squares;

 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
       in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

 22 "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
       How long will mockers delight in mockery
       and fools hate knowledge?

 23 If you had responded to my rebuke,
       I would have poured out my heart to you
       and made my thoughts known to you.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Luke 7:11-23 Some things to think about

Time to reflect: The point of the passage was that Jesus was fulfilling the expectations for the Messiah. But few side points to think about: “Blessed be anyone who takes no offense at me.” You wouldn't think healing people and raising the dead would be offensive, but people can be offended by pretty much anything. Along with the the other signs of the Messiah was “the poor have good news brought to them.” This is as extraordinary as raising the dead. If Jesus hadn't raised this only son of a widow, there would have been no one to financially take care of her in her old age.

Moving through the day: Perhaps take one of these issues to think about.

Scripture:

11Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."

 14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" 15The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

 16They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." 17This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea[a] and the surrounding country.

Jesus and John the Baptist

 18John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

 20When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?' "

 21At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[b] are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: John 4:1-26

Time to reflect: Having just come back from a situation where I had to deal with a lot of judgmental people, this was a good passage to read. Jesus had several reasons to be judgmental toward this person, but he wasn't. Are we better than Jesus that we can be more judgmental than he?

Moving through the day: Pray about any tendency to be judgmental. Reach out to your own “Samaritan woman” today.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

 1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

 4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

 10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

 11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

 13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

 16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

 17"I have no husband," she replied.

   Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

 19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

 21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

 25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

 26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: Exodus 3:9-15 God's name

Time to reflect:The presentation of God's name has all kinds of things in it that may not be obvious. First, Moses was being sly: it was believed back then that if you knew the personal name of a God you had control over that God. So Moses' question was probably not innocent. On the other hand, God, not such a fool, comes back with a smart remark: translated, the name he gives Moses means “I am who I am” (it can also be translated “I exist in that I exist”). This is pretty much a “none of you business.” But people immediately took God literally, calling him “YHWH” (usually spelled out as “Yahweh” This came into German and English as Jehovah, but that's another story) or “I am.” So they started using this “name” in blessings and cursings -- they tried to have control over God. So, finally, God forbid such behavior by the commandment “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of Yahweh your God” (NRSV translation). “Wrongful use” is trying to manipulate God.

Moving Through The Day: Do you every find yourself trying to use any kind of ritual, superstition, Bible verse, religious phrase or attitude to force God to do you what you want?

Scripture:

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

 12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you [a] will worship God on this mountain."

 13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

 14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . [b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

 15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, [c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday

Scripture lesson: Mark 7:24-37 Healings

Time to reflect: It was a Rabbi's job to provide medical services. That he did “healings” was not unusual. What was unusual was his success rate and the severity of the things he healed. But even these things are not why Mark included these stories. The point of each story is not the healing but some teaching about Jesus. In the first story, the issue was that he healed a “foreigner's” daughter. In the second story the issue was that Jesus tried to keep his work quiet but people were not able to keep it to themselves.

Moving through the day: Going with the second story. As God's people, are we able to keep the Good News to ourselves?

Scripture:

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.[a] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil[b] spirit came and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

 27"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

 28"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

 29Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."

 30She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

The Healing of a Deaf and Mute Man

 31Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.[c] 32There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.

 33After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). 35At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

 36Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: James 2:1-10 Partiality

Time to reflect: A sermonette on partiality and church politics. Churches have always had a hard time living up to James 2:1-10. We make all kinds of excuses but there is no getting out of what this passage says. One vivid memory of mine is a senior pastor I once worked with who, without hesitation, dropped everything he had to do to go help move furniture for one of the poorest church members simply because no one else was available. This was such a good example of living out this passage.

Moving through the day:Pray about your life. When and in what way can you live up to this passage?

Scripture:

1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

 5Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?

 8If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself,"[a] you are doing right. 9But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 125 “do good, O Lord...”

Time to reflect:As we read the Psalms we need to always keep in mind that these are, for the most part, equivalent to prayers. They are honest expressions of the wishes and ideas of the people. They show that one can go to God with anything! It does not necessarily imply that God will, in any given usage of a Psalm, honor the request in the Psalm.

Moving Throughout the day: Pray that you may be one who trusts in God.

Scripture

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
       which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
       so the LORD surrounds his people
       both now and forevermore.

 3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain
       over the land allotted to the righteous,
       for then the righteous might use
       their hands to do evil.

 4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
       to those who are upright in heart.

 5 But those who turn to crooked ways
       the LORD will banish with the evildoers.
       Peace be upon Israel.