Tag: redemption

Prayer Note #54 — Seeking My True Self in God

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SEEKING MY TRUE SELF IN GOD My Father, my Lord, my Redeemer: I love you. I love you for who you are. I see in you the very essence of all that is worthy of my worship, the very foundation of all that is good and worthy of desiring. To desire you, long for you, … Continue reading Prayer Note #54 — Seeking My True Self in God

Prayer Note #51 — A Prayer of Longing for a Spiritual Springtime

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Lord of Life, you are turning the ground green around me. The warming sun and the nourishing rain are renewing the life of the soil. The birds of the warm months are all returning -- the alien starlings in their noisy multitudes, the fierce-eyed, raucous grackles, too. Even the nighthawks, the dark-sky hunters are in … Continue reading Prayer Note #51 — A Prayer of Longing for a Spiritual Springtime

Prayer Note #49 — A Prayer for Those Who Know Their Sins Well

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Without your mercy, I will die. Apart from your forgiveness, you will consume me in the fires of your holy judgment. How can I live apart from you? I would be lost entirely! Yet, how can I live in your presence? I should be devoured by your holy wrath! I will hide in Jesus. In … Continue reading Prayer Note #49 — A Prayer for Those Who Know Their Sins Well

Prayer Note #47–A Prayer for Pure Pleasure

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Lord, my Shepherd, shepherd my wayward will.  Keep prodding me back onto the right path.  You see my mind -- how it wanders after pretty, poisonous pleasures.  I beg your help.  Keep me from pursuing those enticing, envenomed enchantments Capture my heart with visions of your true joy, the powerfully pure pleasures of your kingdom.  … Continue reading Prayer Note #47–A Prayer for Pure Pleasure

Pastor Note #56 — On Marriage and Redemption

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        I’ve been married now for almost twenty-nine years.  So has my wife.  We got married at the same time.  I think I can say without much hesitation that my wife and I have a good marriage.  It has been a tremendous blessing to my life.  Nothing in my life has quite equaled it, except … Continue reading Pastor Note #56 — On Marriage and Redemption

Pastor Note #52 — Ministry Q. & A. — 3/18/2013

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As with most organizations, the church tends to follow the 80/20 rule.  How should a pastor encourage others to get involved in church activities?  Accept leadership positions?  Participate in Sunday Worship?  Is this even a pastor’s responsibility? Bluntly put, there is nothing that a pastor, as a human being, can do to accomplish what is … Continue reading Pastor Note #52 — Ministry Q. & A. — 3/18/2013

Prayer Note #44 — Longings

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    Lord Jesus, you are King and Lord.  There is life nowhere except in you.  Apart from you is the abyss, the nightmare, the acid fog that corrodes my flesh and my spirit and my life itself. In you, Good Savior, is freshness.  In you is soothing sunshine and richness and life overflowing.  In … Continue reading Prayer Note #44 — Longings

Prayer Note #41 — An Advent Devotional Prayer — Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15

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  The Death of Evil, the Birth of Hope   Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15               O Lord, your anger frightens us.  When we read such passages of scripture as this one, we are made uneasy.  We move on quickly to happier lines and brighter verses.  Through your prophet Isaiah here … Continue reading Prayer Note #41 — An Advent Devotional Prayer — Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15

Pastor Note #47 — Living in Time, Living with God, Part 3: Disciplines of Christian Remembering

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            Time can seem like an enemy to us sometimes.  Our lives flow away from us into the past.  And as they do, they seem to slip through our fingers like sand.  We can especially feel that way as we watch our children and then our grandchildren grow up and … Continue reading Pastor Note #47 — Living in Time, Living with God, Part 3: Disciplines of Christian Remembering

Prayer Note #39 — On Not Being All That I Could Be

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

Let me have ears to hear you clearly and a heart and mind to understand you deeply and a strong inclination to go as you lead me and to use what you have given me, and so to glorify your name. You have given me many gifts, many resources, many tools.  But mostly I squander … Continue reading Prayer Note #39 — On Not Being All That I Could Be