Insight: 2 Peter: Prayers and Poetry

                Insight 

                His voice spoken then

                on the mountain a gift

                beyond comprehension.

                And now light is

                offered to each

                circumstance bearing light.

                As we listen

                from a heart insight

                gift of glory.

Psalm 89:38: "But thought hast cast off and rejected, Thou hast been full of wrath against Thine anointed."

                

Reflection Questions

        1. How do you recognize when a word is coming directly from the Lord's voice? 

        2. When have you been given a prophetic word from the Lord or been given one to speak to  another?

        3. How does that affect your choices and your heart?

Share: What helps you to listen for confirmation as to how  and when to share?

Message: 2nd Peter: Prayers and Poetry

2nd Peter 1:18-19: " And we ourselves heard that voice resound from the heavens while we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have been given the prophetic word--the written message of the prophets, made more reliable and fully validated by the confirming voice of God on the Mount of Transfiguration. And you will continue to do well if you stay focused on it. For this prophetic message is like a piercing light shining in a gloomy place until the dawning of a new day when the Morning Star rises in your hearts."

Message

Moment by moment.

He will guide us to hear His voice if we will choose to listen. He will guide sometimes through nudges and light led by the Spirit's whispers and insight.

His walk. His will. His words offered as a gift every new day.

Lord, please keep teaching us to hear what You say. To fill our hearts and souls and thoughts bound to You.And then to share what has been prepared for us to offer.

Your light--Your wisdom--Your truth.

Your thoughts,

Ambassadors: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

            Ambassadors

            To become the righteousness

            of God, a concept beyond

            comprehension.

           

            Yet the promise is given

            to be shared with

            everyone.

            No one exempt from

            offer of reconciliation

            mercy.

            Speak out in faith

            act sincerely as

            ambassadors.

            To become reconciled forever.

           

Reconciliation: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; …. and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

One of the joys of being around babies is to watch their curiosity as they inhale new experiences every day. Their surprise and joy, and sometimes startled fear, helps us to see and hear from a different perspective too.

What new perception would impact us every day if we recognized and accepted reconciliation as a reality? If we are willing to understand each other and mend broken communication? If we based all our reconciliation on God’s truth and not our own versions?

Like any ministry, reconciliation is not an easy choice and may have many difficult roads to navigate to get beyond past hurts, misunderstandings, and the uncertainty of what comes next.

Yet, when grounded in mutual commitment, each day is a fresh beginning grounded in love and grace and mercy. Like a sunrise it breathes beauty.

Lord, please help us to let go the pain of the past and the worry of the future and instead live each day as a new beginning. Give us Your strength to choose reconciliation to you and to others.

,

Psalm of Worship: 1 John 1:8

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Reflection Confirm: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Do you think the Lord gives signs today as He did then? Why or why not?

2.     What might be a sign to today’s culture that would have meant nothing in the past?

3.     How can we identify and confirm His signs as individuals and as worship communities?

Share: Have you ever experienced a sign that could not be mistaken?

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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Stand Firm: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           Stand Firm

            Because

            He is present

            kingdom readied

            take seriously command.

            Proclaim

            message in all circumstances

            with patience

            knowing of judgment.

            Persistent

            with compassion

            convince, rebuke, encourage

            life eternal.

Reflection: Persist: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     How do you stand firm in truth in times of battle?

2.     What do you think can be at stake in our souls even in what might be considered minor skirmishes?

3.     What kind of setbacks have you had to struggle with?

Share: How did His message give you courage to stand firm?

Persist: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: 2 Timothy 4:1-2

“In the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable, convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.”

There are many situations in our lives that we come to recognize as an end. Perhaps a relationship, or a job, or a goal, or a hope, or a question. Opportunities have dissolved. And, as if in a battle, weariness, discouragement, and doubt invade our hearts and souls. We often quit trying in all areas of our life and not just the one where we have been disappointed.

That is not an option, Timothy reminds us, where God’s message is to be spoken—shared—sustained—with or without words.

Solving a solution or seeing results is not the measure. Faithful persistence is. Especially in times of setbacks and failure. When we most need to trust in His truth and His word. Which never fails even when we cannot see, and may never see, the outcome.

His word that we all need in all circumstances because if we don’t stand firm we lose any hope of strength. The damage goes deeper than the surface and erodes compassion in our hearts. Building more walls. Burying truth instead of sharing it.

He stands for us. We only need to ask.

Lord, please give us Your strength to persist in all situations and stand firm in battles that try to separate us from Your grace and truth. May Your message hold us up together, with each other and with You.

Psalm of Worship: 1 John 1:1

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“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with out eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.”

Message: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           Message

            Sometimes so hard

            to speak

            when bound by chains

            of emptiness or neglect,

            fear and grief.

            Yet even there

            truth calls out

            to speak boldly

            after compassion and

            a way to restoration

            especially when

            understanding evades.

            Boldly speak

            message given,

            although a mystery,

            truth will deliver

            make known

            to each heart.

           

           

            

Reflection: Boldness: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Do you have difficulty recognizing a message from the Lord? Why or why not?

2.     What filters do you use to identify whether the words are His truth or your personal agenda?

3.     Do you ever struggle to share it? How do you pass it on?

4.     Do you consider yourself an ambassador for the Lord? Why or why not?

Share: What message have you heard from the Lord recently?

Boldness: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Ephesians 6:19-20

“Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

As we know, one of the key tasks of any human ambassador is to give a message. We often think of the messages as peace-bearers and treaty agreements. But sometimes the messages are words of warning as well.  Sometimes given in silence, and sometimes in words. Sometimes for good, and sometimes for power.

One silent common thread in crime dramas is when henchmen are told to “deliver a message” and the recipient is badly beaten.  Man’s solution.

And an opposite message of love is given any time a parent embraces a sobbing child in silence. God’s offer.

Jesus does not sugarcoat His words to His disciples and to His listeners, both of whom often do not understand or take affront. Yet He speaks the truth in love regardless of the consequences to Him personally, or opinions of others. He speaks them in mercy: words and actions towards life and healing and restoration. As a gift of life.

“I must speak,” Paul says, already knowing well the physical consequences of prisons and whippings. We already know the possible verbal consequences of ridicule and condemnation. And yet, without messages of truth, we cannot share hope.

Lord, please forgive us our timidity, and give us words in Your Spirit to share Your messages boldly in silence and in speech.

Psalm of Worship: Isaiah 55:13

“Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

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Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 1:1, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.”

Various voices echo in our minds when we embrace memories: parents, teachers, friends, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles or grandparents. We either choose an occasion to remember and let the memory reel play out vividly as the sights and sounds flow over us, or a present incident suddenly jettisons us into instant recall. The smell of Christmas cookies, spring’s first rain, swimming at the ocean, raking fall leaves. Ordinary days, repeating seasons catch us up with sudden pause.

Some shoot jagged edges of pain into our hearts. Some bring a peace blanket of comfort. Together they form the foundation of who we are today. Why we tend to accept certain concepts and reject others. Why we try to change our past to preserve a future. Stop addictions or abuse. Shore up love, forgiveness and compassion.

Vision given through the prophets, the Law, the tabernacle to God’s people. The Lord spoke His message in various ways to establish our foundation in Him. An inheritance that is both remembered and anticipated. A declaration of who we are that ignites our memory of Him. Expands our hearing, softens our touch, clears our sight, sweetens our taste, and freshens our lives with fragrance.

Lord, please weave all of our memories into You—into Your vision.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 139

“My frame was not hidden in Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Refining Words

MESSAGE

Each word a message

to speak whether

from heaven or earth

needs be told in honesty

to spread hope that all

may hear truth lived

in obedience, in action,

in trust. No time for

jealous comparisons. Eternal

life the cost, the charge.

Sent to prepare.

John 3

Kingdom Manna

Yoke

Luke 4:43, But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Sent for a purpose. Sent to accomplish a task. Sent to fulfill a covenant.

Message delivered in person. “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” Personally delivered in mercy. Committed wholly to His father’s mission. Jesus’ focus remained centered in God’s will.

Steeped in prophecy. Steeped in history. Steeped in prayer.

My mouth moves often but not necessarily with Your words, Lord. I react, respond, and reciprocate to actions with my own motives instead of yours. Or I get so sidetracked with details and time and lists and performance that I speak hollow words, surface clichés instead of sharing Your truths, Your good news.

Soak me so deep in Your scripture, Your covenant, that nothing but Your purpose will be spoken. Make me a committed messenger willing to speak whenever You send.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 111:9

He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 6: 13, Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

The Lord gave to Moses and Aaron a charge, a specific direction and a specific message to be delivered to specific people.

God gave this form of charge in limited instances in the Old Testament; to Moses and to Joshua. David gave this definition to his captains, once, and later to Solomon as he began his reign over Israel. This charge ‘enjoins’, ‘constitutes’, ‘sends with command’, says the dictionary.

An appointed task under God’s authority. Sent to put in order God’s inheritance.

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

An appointed church under Jesus’ authority. Sent with a message to receive God’s inheritance.

Lord, am I willing to accept the responsibilities of the cares You lay on my heart, confident that You will provide Your protection? Let me walk in the confidence of Your accomplished charge.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 91:11

For He will give His angels charge concerning you,

To guard you in all your ways.