Deus Misereatur

As Solomon once declared, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, for you keep faith with your people who strive to walk before you with all their heart (1 Kings 8.23). Because of your great love with which you have loved us in Christ Jesus, we long to completely put away the old methods of being human which grows corrupt through deceitful lusts, and we yearn to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, to walk fully in the new humanity created after your likeness in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4.22-24).  Help us, O our Father!  We plead for your Church world over, along with this congregation, and the numerous churches in the greater OKC area such as Bridgeway Church; Calvary Temple-Edmond; Capitol Hill Assembly of God; St. Eugene Catholic Church; Central Seventh Day Adventist Church; and Cherokee Hills Christian Church. Sustain our brotherhood in the world in the face of fierce barbarity; fortifying those who are challenged by persecut...

Hot Mess and Human Madness This morning I was reading Genesis 37. There in that oddly familiar story of a highly dysfunctional family – a father (Jacob) playing favorites between his sons (Joseph over the other brothers) along with the resentment that leads to the betrayal of family loyalties and brutalizing family love (Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers) – there is something going on unseen and unobserved. In this hot mess and human madness God is working. “Impossible!” someone will likely say, and they would seem to be correct. Up to our eyeballs in the hot mess and human madness, where all we see is manipulation, machinations and vengeful maneuvers, it is clearly impossible that God could actually be working. It’s not until the latter end of the story that it begins to show up. There’s the classic line from Joseph, where, in fulfillment of his two dreams, his brothers and father have bowed to him that he will say, “ Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for ...

Too Good To Be True: Christian Hope in a Hopeless Age by Ricky Jones My rating: 5 of 5 stars In my experience, Christians often struggle with a sense of assurance – whether its assurance of salvation or assurance that God loves them. Some of the reasons may be because they never felt quite loved or accepted by their parents when they were kids. At other times, it seems to be related to how those they were deeply entwined with betrayed them, as in a disastrous marriage. And still at other times it may be the result of poor biblical instruction. Or it might even be a mash up of all of these background experiences, so that as they come to God they perceive him through this messy, mangled set of lenses. Ricky Jones, Pastor of RiverOaks Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has recently penned a 125 page paperback, “Too Good to Be True: Christian Hope in a Hopeless Age,” where he tackles assurance for the Christian. Much of the book is autobiographical, showing how the author himself c...

Sunday morning: Yahweh, God of might and power, who made all things, and then lavished good things upon us and still do; thank you that you give us all things richly to enjoy, you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. You who know all things, whose eyes run to and fro through the whole earth beholding the good and evil, from whom no creature is hidden, but all are naked and exposed to your eyes; hear the groaning of those weighed down under stress or distress…, see the grief of those who have lost loved ones…., take note of those shackled and shamed by injustice or bigotry from above or below…., give heed to the ones who are unfairly incarcerated or enslaved…. For all who are in these situations and others, we cry out to you on their behalf imploring you to raise them up, refresh them, restore their wholesome dreams, and set them free. Spirit of God who hovered over that which at the beginning was tohu v’bohu , formless and void, bringing forth ...

Holy Father, who sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust, who provides food for the good and the evil, thank you for your tender mercies enjoyed by so many. O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the whole heavens adore; let the whole earth also worship, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you; and men, women, girls and boys everywhere love you and serve you in peace through Jesus Christ. We ask this especially for families, neighbors, co-workers, and friends we know…. Almighty God, we pray for churches in the greater OKC area, especially All Souls Episcopal Church; Angie Smith Indian Methodist Church; Apostolic Assembly; Apostolic Faith Church; Apostolic Faith Tabernacle and First Baptist of OKC . We pray that their work, toil, patient endurance and rejecting evil would flourish; that they would not abandon their first love; and that where they have fallen into error or compromised with the world, that you would straighten them out and build t...

Louisiana still needs help to dig its way out of the aftermath of the flood. 146,000 homes flooded in 9 Parishes (40,000 in Baton Rouge). Some places like Denham Springs had 90% of homes flooded. I'm posting the link the PCA's disaster relief page that has some ways you can help: http://pcamna.org/disaster-response/storms/ Feel free to share this post on your social networks. Mike

Sticky Leadership: How Successful Entrepreneurs Get Their Leadership to Stick in the Heads, Hearts and Actions of Others by Larry Briggs My rating: 4 of 5 stars Whether directing an organization, company, not-for-profit agency, cotton-gin cooperative, or PTA, leadership skills are required. Most people learn how to lead “on the fly,” in all of the give-and-take of guiding people to accomplish a goal or project. After engaging in these learned-leadership practices for a while, those ways become customary and habitual. And when this happens, one can find oneself in a rut of routine that reproduces marginal results. Therefore, it’s helpful to occasionally pick up material on leadership that can, once more, reignite thinking with regard to the why and how of leading others. Larry Briggs, leadership coach, consultant and founder of V2A (vision-to-action), has compiled a resource to guide, encourage and help leaders, “Sticky Leadership: How Successful Entrepreneurs Get Their Leadership to...