Boundaries: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

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                       Boundaries

                        Like squalling over tired

                        infants we resist authority

                        provision, instead lash out at

                        loving arms’ firm boundaries.

                        Condemnation on sin

                        non-negotiable, battle won

                        still searches for those missing.

                        Cared for by intercession.

                        We see only through penalty.

                        He sees only through love.

                       

Reflection: Authority: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

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Reflection Questions

1.     How easily do you give or accept forgiveness?

2.     Is there a difference between resolving condemnation for ourselves, for others, or from God? Why?

3.     Jesus interceded for us when still under condemnation. How can that affect our prayers for those around us?

4.     Consequences still remain. How can Jesus’ intercession sustain us through them?

Share: Which of these thoughts are the most encouraging for you this week?

Authority: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

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Reading: Romans 8:34

“Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.”

We see condemnation through the eyes of penalty.

God sees it through the grace and redemption that Jesus paid on the Cross.

Even in our ongoing sin Jesus continues to pray for us. He stays with us side-by-side with His abundant mercy interceding, calling us to accept His boundaries. He continues to stay beside us through our failures and consequences until we are whole.

He takes our cold hearts and teaches us to lift up ourselves and others into His prayers for each of us. Because only He can truly see what to condemn and what to redeem.

He alone knows who we are meant to be and how we are to be made whole.

Will we accept His compassionate authority?

“We are invited to believe until the whole gospel of Christ is fully formed in us. The secret of a holy life is not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfection of Jesus be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Oswald Chambers

Lord, please give us the wisdom to receive Your condemnation and intercession by Your mercy.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:33

“Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.”

Word: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           Word

            By His name.

            Word spoken

            shared, confirmed.

            By His presence.

            Walking alongside in

            signs and power.

            By His authority.

            

Confirm: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Mark 16:17-20

“And theses signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will….And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.”

His name. His presence. His authority.

How often do we forget that sharing the good news with life changing power depends on His foundation and not ours?

Too often we concentrate on the how to share, what words to share, when to share and let this training ground become the criteria for accomplishment instead of recognizing them as tools we are given to bridge our diverse communication gaps.

A sign for one person may have no influence on another.

Or we may be given a word to speak that seems impossible and confusing and yet it is exactly the word that needs to be said at that moment—at that time—to only that one person.

Recently our worship community read the story of Paul and Ananias (Acts 9: 10-20) when the Lord called Ananias to go to Paul with a message. Respectfully Ananias first requested a confirmation that they were talking about the same dangerous Paul who was hunting down new believers to jail and that the Lord was the one sending him. Then with the confirmation he then went out and proclaimed the Lord’s message as given. In obedience, and in the Lord’s strength.

Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear when You give us Your signs to share Your message. May we speak only under Your light and follow Your Spirit’s leading keeping us faithful to Your work and not our own man-made substitutions.

In Your name—in Your presence—and only under Your authority.

Psalm of Worship: 1 John 1:6

“If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true.”

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Authority: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

            Authority

            Works alone cannot stand

            apart from heart motive

            based on whether truth or fraud.

            Lord alone sees through

            deceit, willful sin,

            measures by faith, purpose,

            set in His authority

            hold steady in endurance.

            Works then will hold.

            

Promises: Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 12:2, “and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Personally we have all made promises that we could not keep. Perhaps made in haste and forgotten, or deeply sincere but without the means or the authority needed to see them through to completion.

We have also all had promises broken to us, and so we are either leery of promises or consider them casual commitments when others make them. Especially from those in power.

Publicly our world history is replete with misused and manipulated promises made in almost every field of our lives: political, educational, financial, and spiritual as leadership at all levels break their words. Abuse their positions.

When Jesus went to the cross the disciples thought He had broken His promises made when He began His ministry. That the authorities had won. His hope, spoken from Isaiah, given at the beginning of public ministry, now merely dust. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Purpose shattered.

When in reality, Jesus completely fulfilled all the promises God has made to His people forever. Past, present, and future promises all completed by Jesus’ grace and mercy.

Words now concrete—irrefutable.

Jesus fulfills His promises through absolute authority. Protects His promises. Exercised through immeasurable sacrificial love.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 93: 1-2

“The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;

The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength;

Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.

Thy throne is established from of old; Thou art from everlasting.”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     What is your reflex attitude towards any command?

2.     Does it change according to the speaker? Why or why not?

3.     Are there areas in your life where you need to become more obedient or less obedient to people authority?

4.     When is heartfelt obedience easy for you, or is it ever?

Share: How do you determine when it is God leading you through human messengers?

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Have you ever had a position of authority that went to your head? What were the consequences to others? To yourself?

2.     How open are you to advice and accountability? Why? Or Why not?

3.     How can we learn to distinguish between an obstacle we need to overcome and a closed door we need to obey?

4.     Have you prayer support as you follow the dreams God has given you.  

Share: Has the Lord given you insight to recognize a false path? How?

Tabernacle

Scepter

Authority from God

alone to raise up

ruler’s staff.

Risen through Israel

Judah’s scepter of

Jesus’ inheritance,

eternal reign.

His power given to

heal broken humanity

baptized in His name

bound by love’s obedience.

Genesis 49:10, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah; nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,”