Beginnings 2
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: Blessing
May the God of creation warm your heart like the campfires of old
Bring wisdom and peace as shown to the first peoples of this land
Shake off the dust from the desert plains by the refreshing rains
Followed by the glow and warmth of the sun
Let the light of God show us the right path and stand tall like the big
River gums drawing life from the ever-flowing waters.
By Uncle Vince Ross, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress UAICC
(Sourced from https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_prayer_resources)
Read:
Genesis 2:15-17.. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Any good story starts with a safe warm beginning before it introduces a crisis. This second creation story provides the setting for the crisis right here by giving the opportunity to the man of dust to have his first experience of faith in God. In hindsight we look at this and say “oh, no!” but if you look at the story as written the baby like creature that is the man is provided with his first chance to discover what a beautiful thing it is to trust in God.
It should come as no surprise that God would do this. For the whole of the Scriptures it is ‘faith’ in God that he most values and seeks to encourage in humankind. When he begins the path of restoring a people for himself he asks only one thing of Abraham, faith. When he employed Moses to save his people he looked only for faith. When Jesus called his disciples they followed him because they were people of faith. To become a Christian you are called to have faith in God. Only three things last forever, faith, hope and love.
Adam was not ‘set up’ for a fall, he was invited into a relationship. And so are you.
Beginnings 1
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: The heavenly food of God’s Word
O God,
who has made us that we live not by bread alone,
but by every word of God;
and who has taught us not to spend our labour
on that which cannot satisfy;
cause us to hunger after the heavenly food of your Word,
and to find in it our daily provision
on the way to eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayers for Divine Service, 1923,
Church of Scotland
(Sourced from Uniting in Worship, “A Treasury of Prayers” copyright JBCE 1988)
Read:
Genesis 2:4-9. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
(Genesis 2:4-9. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
This second creation story comes straight after the very poetic structured one of Genesis 1. In chapter one humanity was the last focus of the story like the climax of a great symphony working to a great revealing moment where humanity is made in the image of God. In the second creation story it begins with human beings whipped up from a bit of dust mixed with the breath of God himself. The play on words in Hebrew really highlights this. The man ‘adam’ was made from ‘adamah’. The difference between the creator God and the now living creature of dust couldn’t be starker. The man of duct is like a baby; helpless to provide for itself, or house itself, nor clothe itself. But like a father caring for a baby, God warmly provides everything that is needed to keep the ‘adam’ safe, healthy, and occupied. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Listening to Creation(2)
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image: Wayne McDonald, Cleaning boots to prevent the spread of Dieback, Bibbulmun Track, WA)
Prayer:
Grandfather,
look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
only the human family
has strayed away from the sacred way.
We know that we are the ones
who must come back together
to walk in the sacred way.
Grandfather, sacred one,
teach us love, compassion and honour
that we may heal the earth
and heal each other.
(Sourced from Bread of Tomorrow, Ed. Janet Morley, 1993)
Read:
Micah 6:6-8
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Thought for the Day:
Listen to the water, air and earth:
creation’s treasure store.
They’re wounded for the want
of being listened to.
They cry
and too few hear:
they slowly die
and too few mourn.
And yet
through those who give attention,
who stretch both hands
to touch, embrace and tend;
through those who marvel, reverence and kneel
and cup the water,
feel the breath of heaven,
and hear the humming earth,
a healing comes
and there are seeds of hope:
there is tomorrow
germinating in today.
(Sourced from Bread of Tomorrow, Ed. Janet Morley, 1993)
Listening to Creation(1)
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image: Sunset West Macdonnell Range, NT, Wayne McDonald)
Prayer: Familiar things
Sing from the mountain tops and shout to the skies!
Let the whole of our continent praise our God:
mountain and desert, river, waterfall and farmland.
Let all the animals praise our God:
koala and kangaroo, Tasmanian devil, possum and wombat.
Let the vegetation praise our God:
gumtree and wattle, grasstree, boronia and lotus lily.
Let the birds of plain and forest praise our God:
galah and emu, blue wren, honeyeater and jabiru.
Let everything living under the sun,
everything that is or ever will be,
sing praise to our God! Hallelujah!
(Sourced from Australian Psalms, Bruce Prewer, revised 2000)
Read:
Psalm 19:1-4
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Thought for the Day:
Psalm 19 is one of many psalms that give creation a “voice”. Creation’s voice is one of praise. In a future devotion we will be listening to creation’s pain. Today, we focus on the way in which creation declares the glory of God. Take some time this day to look at the sky, or at a flower, or a leaf. Look carefully, noticing detail that you would normally miss. How glorious is our creator God!
Hard Prayers
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER from Uniting Aboriginal and Islander CONGRESS
The scriptures speak to us from Isaiah 52:7;
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God Reigns”.
Our Creator God,
you have reminded us through the words of Isaiah,
That you are the God of all creation
And in that you show forth you love,
your peace and your goodness in abundance.
Right now though, our Creator God,
we as a collective nation are crying, hurting, grieving and struggling with fear
and anxiety from the Coronavirus and are desperately in need of the healing and the loving touch that can only come from your hand.
As the First Peoples, we recognised and lived in your abundant love and grace for millennia,
And our relationship with you was imbedded in the love and respect that we shared.
Therefore, we as First People of this Country,
to whom you gave this Country too before time immemorial,
now cry out to you on behalf of this Nation, to once again shine the light of your love, healing, blessing, care and peace
upon us all, as we face the challenge of the Coronavirus.
Our Creator God, you are the Great Physician, you are the Great Healer, you are the Great Comforter, cover this nation with your goodness, and bring about complete restoration, so that with our united voices and hearts we might once again declare, “Our God Reigns”.
Pastor Mark Kickett of National UAICC
Read:
Romans 9:1-5. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
(Romans 9:1-5. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Paul is a great believer that God responds to prayer. He has just rejoiced in that fact in the previous chapter where he reflects that the Holy Spirit herself intercedes with us when we don’t know how to pray. But that does not mean that Paul believes that prayer is a quick fix for every problem. Here he agonises over the fact that not many of his fellow Jews were responding favourably to the good news of Jesus their Messiah. In his heart he knew that the answer to his prayers were generations away and that caused him deep grief.
Sometimes prayer is a time when we sit with God in the dust and mourn for the way things are while nevertheless believing God is faithful and moving still. Not all time in prayer is peace and stillness, sometimes it is tears and sorrow and that’s ok.
A Big Prayer
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Your Son’s outstretched arms on the cross remind us of your reconciling embrace.
May we embrace our near and distant neighbours with open arms so they too know your love.
We long for the restoration of all things, the return of the Messiah and your ultimate embrace; on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen
(From TEAR Australia, Richard Ford.)
Read:
Ephesians 3:14-21. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every familya] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(Ephesians 3:14-21. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
What is the biggest boldest prayer you could pray for those you hold dear? For Paul, this was it. Yet even with an ambitious prayer of this size Paul can still say in verse 20 that God is able to do even more than that. He freely admits that he can’t imagine more than that but he knows that God can.
Why does he expect God to be so surprising (as opposed to a god that has to be nagged to do even the smallest thing)? Because in Jesus he surprised us all and did something that no-one had imagined or prayed for. Born in a manger, he touched lepers and ate and befriended irreligious outcasts, taught that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, washed feet, and willingly embraced an unjust death; God dying for the ungodly.
So often our prayers are ‘Lord, make my life (or the life of my loved one) better. Paul encourages you to pray for the unexpected to a God of great surprises.
Now, what could you pray for? Pray …
Listening to Others
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer:
Lord, today brings
Paths to discover
Possibilities to choose
People to encounter
Peace to possess
Promises to fulfil
Perplexities to ponder
Power to strengthen
Pointers to guide
Pardon to accept
Praises to sing
and a Presence to proclaim.
(Sourced from Tides and Seasons, David Adam, 1994)
Read:
Luke 24:13-21
Ask for God’s guidance, then read this slowly, imagining the scene described. If you are able, walk while you read. Read a second time, imagining yourself either as one of the disciples, or as Jesus.
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Thought for the Day:
Jesus is a good listener. He joins these two grieving disciples and walks with them. He asks them a leading question, and then helps them to be more specific by asking “What things?” The two disciples explain to Jesus, whom they do not recognise, about why they are so sad. Jesus listens without interrupting and lets them recount in their own words the events which Jesus himself has just experienced.
How well do you listen? Be mindful today of listening without interrupting, trying to understand what life is like through the eyes of someone else.
Reread the prayer, asking God to guide you to “people to encounter”.
Listening to Ourselves
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image Wayne McDonald, Bibbulmun Track, WA)
Prayer:
God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution. Amen.
(Sourced from Be Our Freedom Lord, Terry Falla, revised 2015)
Read:
Mark 12:28-34.
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘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 mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Thought for the Day:
Jesus said “Love your neighbour as yourself”. The more we love ourselves, the greater is our capacity to love our neighbour. Loving ourselves does not mean being vain and self-centred. We can love ourselves because we know that we are loved by God. Loving ourselves means listening to ourselves, alert to thinking and acting as a follower of Christ. When we realise the need to change, we can ask God for guidance, and as in today’s prayer, “deal with the pain of it” and “feel the joy of it”. What do you think? You may have a different way of understanding who you are. Find someone to talk over your thoughts with.
Listening to God
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer: As you read this, begin with clenched fists. Gradually open your hands as you pray.
Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
(Sourced from With Open Hands, by Henri Nouwen, 1995)
Read:
1 Samuel 3:1-9
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, ‘Samuel!’ Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again.’ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Thought for the Day:
How interesting that God spoke to the boy, and not to the priest. Eli’s role was to interpret what was happening and to instruct Samuel on how to respond. Although Eli had been a priest for most of his life, at first he didn’t recognise the voice of God. He needed God to persist before he realised what was going on. The opening sentences tell us that encounters with God were rare, so we can understand why Eli didn’t get it at first.
Could it be that God speaks often, but that we do not realise? God “speaks” in many different ways. Are you prepared to listen?
Finish by rereading Henri Nouwen’s prayer.