Deus Misereatur

  (I pulled these prayers from my prayer journal. I read Scripture and then turned a small portion into a prayer for myself, my family, my church and my friends. Each one is from a different day in the last three weeks) “ Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted ” (Psalm 89:15-16). Ah, Lord, may our day-in-and-day-out lives be illuminated with the light of your uplifted face – to know your smile, feeling its warmth and glow. May our hearts meet you by being lifted up to exult in your name, your honor. And in your righteousness may we be exalted. O Lord, hear our prayer.   One of your trademarks, your traits, O God, is to care about the oppressed, to rise up on their behalf to defend them (Psalm 103:6). Please do so, Lord. Show forth your righteousness and justice so that those who see it may know it was you and give you praise; so that the oppressor ma...

  Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. You, Mighty God, Lord Most High, our Rescuer and our Savior. As your upright word goes forth from your preachers, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, may it not return to you void, but accomplish what you please and prosper in the thing for which you sent it. May your church, including this congregation, and Central 7 th Day Adventist Church, Chisolm Trail Presbyterian, Christ Community, and Christ Family Church, display your righteousness, exhibit your justice, and thrive in your steadfast love as we are reformed by your word and your way. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made...

(The following was a portion of my letter to my congregation on 8 April 2021) Viktor Frankl, a Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist, survived the Nazi concentration camps of Aushwitz and Dachau during World War 2. He became famous later for his book Man’s Search for Meaning which he wrote many years after his nightmarish confinement. In 1995, around his 90 th birthday, Frankl was interviewed in First Things . He made this very interesting observation: “ I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers .” Here is where I’m going with this: Ideas have consequences. People act, make decisions, and do things—good, evil, or otherwise—and those actions don’t just drop out of thin air. Those actions, our actions, come from ideas of right and wrong, good and bad. That’s why it’s important to have teac...

  (This congregational prayer is woven together by Psalm 16) Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” This, Lord, your whole Church, including this congregation, Bethel Baptist, Bethlehem Primitive Baptist, Bethany First Nazarene, and Calvary Holiness churches, declares with gladness and boldness. Continue to be your peoples’ refuge and preserver; strengthen your Church in godliness and graciousness; keep her ever in the faith once for all delivered to the saints; stop the mouths of heretics who attempt to demoralize her; fortify the faithful leaders who work hard to build her up in sound doctrine; and empower her with the new life of Christ risen from the dead! As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. We cry out to you ...

  (This is from my weekly letter to the congregation for 1 April 2021) I was at lunch with someone recently. This person described to me a loss they had: they feel like they lost the clear sense of God’s presence in their lives. But in that discussion this person made a telling observation that I think takes us somewhere important. This person said something like this, “Maybe it’s because we’re not serving like we used to do.” That seems right to me. It’s not that we have to merit and secure God’s presence by our activity, but there is a connection between our assisting others and God’s attending us. This brings me to consider 1 Corinthians 16:15-18 and refreshing service:   “Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, bec...

  O LORD, you are the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. You dwell in the high and holy place with those who have a contrite and humble spirit, for you revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones (Isaiah 57:15). In the name of Jesus Christ your Son we come humbly, and we pray for this world and the struggles and troubles of many nations. Please govern and bring restoration in the catastrophes brought on through nature and the tragedies brought on by means of human malice. Give aid to the distressed, relief to the weak, food, water and shelter to the waterless and weary, and justice to the victimized. Set the nations and their leaders on a course for peace and lawfulness for all their inhabitants. O Lord, hear our prayer.   Dearest Father , we entreat your caring direction for our own country. We desire our leaders to be people of upright and godly forthrightness in their actions, legislations, judicial decisions and...

  The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition Samuel L. Bray and Drew N. Keane (editors) IVP ivpress.com ISBN: 978-0-8308-4192-9; March 2021; $28.00   You either love them, or you hate them. It’s just about that simple. Some feel prayerbooks are constricting, like a bad asthma reaction constricts the airway. Others feel freed up and that they can breathe easier by having the routine and regularity of such a breviary. One either loves them or hates them. Recently Samuel L. Bray, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, as well as a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and Drew N. Keane, lecturer in the Department of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University, teamed up to put forth a new rendition of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (1662-BCP). Actually, this 832-page handy hardback is a lightly touched edition set up for an international audience. It keeps the King’s English...