General Chat

:-D :-D @ Emma. Hope you have a lovely day today. Same goes for all on Genes chat - whatever their religious or non-religious views might be :-) :-)

Good morning and thank you Cynthia and John.

Emma

Many thanks for prayer from Wm Barclay, Cynthia. Thought from Selwyn Hughes who died 7 years ago and was described by George Carey as one of the giants of faith in our generation:

"If it pleases the king ' let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it." (Nehemiah Chapter 2 v.5)

SH' s comment. "Every Christian has the responsibility of coming before God to seek to discover just what it is that the Lord wants to achieve through his or her life. And as we are faithful in reading His Word, obeying His commands, and communing with Him in prayer, we can expect Him to reveal those special plans for our lives. Take our reading today: Nehemiah served the king faithfully, but when he heard about the disgraceful condition of God's city, Jerusalem, he caught a vision of rebuilding the walls. God then worked in the king's heart to give him a desire to assist Nehemiah in achieving that vision. Have you caught the vision of what God wants to achieve through your own individual life and witness on this earth? If not, why not?"

SH's prayer:
Gracious Father, give me, I pray, a clear picture of what You want to achieve through my own personal life and witness for You. I have kept myself in the dark too long; now I want to step out into the light - Your light. Amen.

Good morning everyone - I hope you all have a good day. :-)


O God, our Father, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus you have given us the remedy for sin. In him you have opened to us the way to forgiveness for all our past sins, and you have given us the strength and the power to live in purity and in truth.

Help us to put away all evil things.

Silence the evil word;
Forbid the evil deed;
Break the evil habit;
Banish the evil thought;
Take away the evil desire and the evil ambition;
and make our lives to shine like lights
in this dark world.


Help us to live in purity.

Make all our words so pure
that you may hear them;
Make all our deeds so pure
that you may see them;
Make all our thoughts and desires so pure
that they may bear your scrutiny.
And so grant that we, being pure in heart
may see you.


Help us to live in truth.

Grant that we may never speak or act a lie;
That we may never be misled by false or mistaken
beliefs;
That we may never evade the truth,
even when we do not want to see it.


Grant us at all times
to seek and to find;
To know and to love;
To obey and to live
the truth.


This we ask for the sake of him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, even for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.


- William Barclay


Cx :-)

*O Father, more and more the conviction grows that it is not what happens to me, but what I do with it, that is important*

Yes....good thoughts,


Ave Maria with a voice to to sooth the soul......sung by Mirusia Louwerse

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=related&v=sZoZwdesumY

"There is no love between I and John but for Cynthia's sake please keep out the sarcasm." being straight after my post made me wonder what I had said that could be be interpreted as being sarcastic.


Thank you, Susan, my pleasure.

I too, am enjoying the daily prayers. Thank you Cynthia and John and everyone.

I keep written prayers at hand for when I am feeling particularly anxious. I know that anxiety is a problem for many, particularly as we grow older and face new challenges. If I sit quietly for a while and concentrate on the words of comfort, it will usually stop the anxiety from overtaking me.

It was Mother's day here in the US yesterday, as well as being Ascension Day. My children all came to see me. My eldest boy (should say 'son' - he is 51, but will always be my boy), surprised me by sliding into the pew next to me, at church. He and his family are members of a different church, but occasionally he'll show up to worship with his mum! I so love all my children.

Ruby.

Good morning all and thank you for starting my day
so beautifully.

Emma

I was studying my navel last night trying to work out what Sandie thought I had said that was sarcastic. The only possible thing was when I commented about all these baptisms and said "Font of ev'ry blessing" would be a suitable hymn.

If that offended Sandie or anybody else, that was certainly never my intention. Just a light whimsy :-)

Love these Barclay prayers - good Scottish sense. I have followed Selwyn Hughes "Thoughts for the Day" for many years. Example:

"Would you like your life to be free of those potentially frustrating situations that block your way or impede your spiritual development? Then let me say at once, you could be worse off without them. The obstacles and opposition you face can turn out to be prods - prods toward your spiritual growth. A minister friend of mine who was going through a period of great difficulty once asked me to pray with him that God would remove all the obstacles from his ministry. I put my hand lovingly on his shoulder and replied: "If He does, it will make your ministry less effective." He saw the point, and instead asked me to pray that God would help him to die to his own concerns. I did, and from that day to this, his ministry has flourished and become extremely fruitful. And so, my friend, can yours.

Prayer:
O Father, more and more the conviction grows that it is not what happens to me, but what I do with it, that is important. Deepen this conviction within me so that it becomes a controlling one - today and every day. In Jesus' Name. Amen."

Me too.......whatever it was :-S


Never mind.......a new day and a new prayer.......good morning everyone :-)


O God, our Father, we know that the issues of life and death are in your hands, and we know that you are loving us with an everlasting love. If it is your will, grant to us to live in happiness and in peace.

In all our undertakings,
Grant us prosperity and good success.

In all our friendships,
Grant us to find our friends faithful and true.

In all bodily things,
Make us fit and healthy,
Able for the work of the day.

In all the things of the mind,
Make us calm and serene,
Free from anxiety and worry.

In material things,
Save us from poverty and from want.

In spiritual things,
Save us from doubt and from distrust.

Grant us
In our work satisfaction;
In our study true wisdom;
In our pleasure gladness;
In our love loyalty.

And if misfortune does come to us, grant that any trial may only bring us closer to one another and closer to you; and grant that nothing may shake our certainty that you work all things together for good, and that a Father’s hand will never cause his child a needless tear.

Hear this our prayer, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.


- William Barclay.

By whom?.....I must have missed it.

Eh? What sarcasm....where?

That was lovely Joy, thank you :-)

I also downloaded the PDF of the prayers.....great introduction I thought.

For Susan with numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTcQshpC8ZU
What a Friend we Have in Jesus by Ella Fitzgerald



For Cynthia: http://archive.org/details/bookofeverydaypr008788mbp
A Book Of Everyday Prayers (1959)
Author: William Barclay
http://archive.org/stream/bookofeverydaypr008788mbp#page/n7/mode/2up

One of my favourite books: Every Day With William Barclay.

I know that hymn John.....quite a 'jaunty' tune and very fast. :-D

All these baptisms, Cynthia. :-D That famous Robert Robinson hymn must be sung quite frequently: "Come thou font of every blessing" ;-)

I loved our service today and so did all of us oldies. The young man came with his guitar and modern songs and some of us (me particularly) are very very traditional. Any hymn written after 1750 with no thee and thou and praiseth in it is modern to me.

Yet we all sang our hearts out and it was so lovely to see him and his wife (newly married) leading our worship.

One "song" I had never heard before was "Will you come and follow me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8lOfMjtxdE

The line in it that really caught me was "Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen". That is so powerful, I think. :-) :-)

Yes, sorry......William Barclay again. He has such a way with words I find. :-)



Are there more Sundays than there used to be? They seem to come round pretty quickly.....


Reasonable congregation this morning with a good number in the creche. They have started to come into the service a little earlier than usual in an aid to help them to get used to what is going on.


After the main service, there were 7 baptisms - 2 adults and 5 infants............we needed traffic lights!


Our poor vicar will be exhausted by tonight having had services at 9 am and 11 am. Seven baptisms and then off to the cathedral for a special Queen's Scout award ceremony and back home for the annual Archdeacon's Visitation service.

This is a service where all Churchwardens and sidespeople (those who give out books and take the collection etc.) make solemn statements in front of the Archdeacon to undertake their duties properly. I've never been to one but I understand there are certain legalities to be fulfilled.


The vicar's wife went home early to make sure that he did, at least, have one meal today.



A good morning with happy people. :-)

Cynthia. What a powerful prayer!!! Was that Barclay? :-)

I really honed in on: "Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any
teaching which would encourage us to think
sin less serious, vice more attractive."

Amen.

Emma

O God, we thank you for all those in whose words and
in whose writings your truth has come to us.

For the historians, the psalmists and the prophets,
who wrote the Old Testament;
For those who wrote the Gospels and the Letters
of the New Testament.

For all who in every generation
have taught and explained and expounded and
preached the word of Scripture:
We thank you, O God.

Grant, O God, that no false teaching may ever have
any power to deceive us
or to seduce us from the truth.

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any
teaching which would encourage us to think
sin less serious, vice more attractive.

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any
teaching which would dethrone
Jesus Christ from the topmost place;

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any
teaching which for its own purposes perverts the truth.

O God, our Father, establish us immovably in the truth.
Give us minds which can see at once
the difference between the true and the false.

Make us able to test everything,
and to hold fast to that which is good.

Give us such a love of truth,
that no false thing may ever be able to lure us from it.

So grant that all our lives we may know, and love,
and live the truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.


Cx :-)

That was lovely Susan......the audience looked entranced. Great hymns like that really do inspire and lift your spirits. Thank you. :-)



Hello Emma and welcome Bids...... :-)