| New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
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| Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
FEBRUARY 25-29
Sunday 8
Matthew 6:24-34
1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
Isaiah 49: 8-16a
Psalm 131
CALL TO WORSHIP
People of God, put your hope in God,
today and for evermore.
O God, don’t let me become uppity,
or arrogantly lift my
eyes too high.
People of God, put your hope in God,
today and for evermore.
OR
Live the moment now, it is unique,
the only time it will be available.
I will calm my soul
like a child,
like at child at its mother’s breast
People of small faith, stop worrying,
your heavenly Father knows your needs
before you ask.
I put my hope in God,
today and for evermore.
Do not get anxious about what might happen tomorrow,
today is enough for you to cope with.
I will calm my soul
like a child,
like a child at its mother’s breast.
PRAYER
OF APPROACH
Awesome God,
holy and wholesome is your fatherliness, your motherliness, your sisterliness, and your brotherliness. I trusting our lives
to you we find wholesome, abundant life. This morning may we experience your
joy, in joy may we find loving, and in loving may we offer that wonder-full
worship which is our highest attainment.
Through Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND
FORGIVENESS
It is written: The Lord will bring truth to light, he will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will uncover the truth of each human heart.
My sisters and brothers, let us ask for the Lord to come to us now, that we may be judged by his love and saved from the self-deceit that beguiles us, or from the passive guilt that immobilise us.
Let us pray.
Lord of light and love, let us not be afraid of you.
Come among us and
enter into each life:
shine your light, revealing things that are
crooked or corrupt,
forgive all that is sullen or rebellious,
dismiss our guilt and inertia,
re-awaken each gift and virtue,
stir up our neglected ideals,
and rekindle our passion for loving and serving
you
with the delight and liberty of those who know
they are redeemed.
For
your love’s sake.
Amen!
FORGIVENESS
My sisters and brothers, it is written that the Lord Jesus said: “Don’t be afraid, it is I; take heart!” “My son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven you. Go in peace.”
Thanks be to God!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Dear Lord Jesus,
if we start worrying over silly things,
show us the good things that are worth our best efforts,
If we start worrying over getting all things right the first time,
show us how to be glad over small successes.
If we start worrying about what might happen tomorrow,
next week or next year,
tell us again that you will always be with us,
our very best Friend who can never be defeated.
Amen!
.
PSALM 131
O Lord, my heart does not want conceit,
nor my eyes lust for more than is good for me.
I don’t want to fret and worry about questions
too big for my little human mind and soul.
It’s time to calm down, quieten myself,
like a child resting at its mother’s breast,
like a baby, my soul will be at peace.
Come on, you who are children of God!
Put your confidence in your Lord,
trust completely, now and evermore!
B.D.Prewer
2006
COLLECT
Eternal God, our most holy Friend,
let us take time to consider the freedom of the birds of the air, and the
beauty of the lilies of the field. Enable us to see your providence
undergirding all things, and your redeeming love transforming misfortune into
new opportunity. In trusting you without quibble, may we find our peace and our
joy. Through Christ, your supreme man of peace.
Amen!
SERMON:
SABRE-TOOTHED TIGERS AND ANXIETY
“I will calm down, quieten my soul,
like a child resting at its mother’s breast,
like a child, my soul will be at
peace.” Psalm 131:
Do not keep worrying about tomorrow,
tomorrow must look after itself.
Let today’s troubles be enough for you. Matthew 6:34
The faith of Jesus is not fairy floss stuff. Please
carefully underline his words: Let
today’s trouble be enough for you.
Jesus does not promise a carefree existence. He does not say that those who believe in him shall never have anxiety. Each day will bring its obstacles, and with those obstacles comes the question of how to best deal with them: surmount them, go around them, or remove them.
Trouble and anxiety is as old as the human race. From the times when tribes hunted woolly mammoths, giant kangaroos, or were confronted by sabre toothed tigers.
We are familiar with the contemporary wisdom that says that anxiety is rooted in our primitive reaction to threat: flight or fight. The indecision about which is the best option, creates anxiety. magine our distant ancestors rounding a rock and coming face to face with a sabre-toothed tiger! Sufficient to give anxiety, I would imagine?
Anxiety has not lessened in the 21st century. The shape of the sabre-toothed tigers may have changed, but not the threat. The AIDS pandemic, rumours of the dreaded SARS virus, and terrorist bombings in nightclubs or on public transport, just for starters. The new shape of sabre toothed tigers. Anxiety aplenty.
Add the population explosion creating a plague of Homo sapiens, the ongoing pollution of land, sea and air, changing world temperatures and unpredictable storms, the unholy lust by some for a third world war based on religion, underground spread of nuclear material, tough questions relating to cloning and stem cell research, unemployment and deregulation of commerce and industry, a drastic change in the face of the church in our land, cosmic threats from rogue meteorites, the drug culture, breakdown of family life, and increasing violence against the elderly or handicapped. Anxiety? You bet!
LAUGHTER?
At this stage in preparing this sermon, I started to
chuckle. The chuckle turned into laughter. Such a long lists of threats and
troubles! It’s all so ludicrous; a new breed of sabre-toothed tigers on the
crouch; in our hospitals, work place and the on public transport. Hiding under
our dining tables and stalking us in parklands.
The picture I paint is cartoon stuff! Flight and fight seem equally
ineffective. We become so uptight. Worry, worry, worry, and incessantly have
bad news to swap with each other.
Then I asked myself, why do I find it humorous? The threats are real? Am I just being a maniac with my laughter? As I thought about this I very quickly eliminated that maniac word; that is one thing I refuse to entertain.
I kept looking for an accurate answer. How was it that I suddenly found I find my list of tigers funny? The answer came clearly: Because of faith. I could see the human predicament as ludicrous, I could laugh, because I have a fixed and safe reference point beyond such threats. There is an ultimate security which no sabre toothed tiger, in any of its contemporary manifestations, can destroy. In spite of my propensity for anxiety, there is a precious gift of faith which places even the worst threat in a Christian perspective. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
JESUS: WHICH MASTER?
Jesus knew that anxiety takes over when we serve the wrong masters or too many masters. “You cannot serve both God and Mammon,” he declared. Mammon, the god of possessions, stands for all the things than money can buy.
Too many of us either put our trust in Mammon, or try to have a bet each way: a big wager on Mammon and a fall-back bet on God. That will not work. Divided loyalty breeds more anxiety.
Jesus pointed to the birds of the air. They can only use their wits and rely on God’s providence. He pointed to the lilies of the field. Wild flowers can only rely on God’s rain and sunshine and soil. Anxiety is pointless for a tiny donkey orchid in the bush or a dandelion.
Then came his strong affirmation: First of all seek the realm of God and its
right living, and all you want will come to you. Therefore, do not keep worrying about
tomorrow,
tomorrow must look after itself. Let today’s
troubles be enough for you.
Fix your first loyalty. With God as our ultimate security, we can forget gloomy predictions of what might happen, and concentrate on living each day to the full. The realm of God is stronger than all evil threats. It is indestructible, and as a citizen of the realm, so will the essential you, your eternal soul.
I repeat something I said last week: Remember that Jesus was a Jew. His spiritual heritage was long and deep. It was grounded in the faithful God of Sarah and Abraham, Moses, Ruth and David, and enriched by the prophets and the Psalm writers.
He would have breathed in the sane words of Psalm 131.
People of God, put
your hope in God,
today and for evermore.
“I will calm down,
quieten my soul,
like a child resting at its mother’s breast,
like a child, my soul will be at peace.”
He had one Master. No divided loyalties. Jesus knew he could rely on God. Yet this did not mean that disastrous events would not engulf him, but when they did, God’s ultimate purpose for his life would not be annulled.
Dare to chuckle. Dare to laugh. Do not permit the sabre-toothed tigers to bluff you. Stop worrying about tomorrow. Deal with what today brings, do the best you can, that will be sufficient! Then go to bed and sleep within the everlasting arms of God.
Calm down, quieten
your soul,
like a child resting at its mother’s breast,
like a child, your soul will be at peace.”
THANKSGIVING: THE
GIFT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Generous Creator,
loving Saviour,
divine Helper:
We thank you
that no person anywhere in this world
is a “nobody” in your
sight;
there never has been
and never will be
an insignificant person.
When you bring a human soul into
being,
you reach deep into your own nature,
shaping us in your own likeness
and giving us your own breath.
By your Spirit you adopt us
into your true family.
You know our thoughts
and number the hairs on our head.
Through Christ you plant
eternal words into our minds;
You have shared our blood,
experienced our sufferings,
and have lain in a cold tomb.
Wherever one poor child dies
like just another sparrow
falling to the ground,
you call out its name
as a father calls his only child.
Awesome Creator and Redeemer,
we thank and praise you
that no person is a “nobody” to you.
Yours is the inclusive kingdom,
the gracious, embracing power,
and love’s purest glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen!
INTERCESSIONS:
Prayer for others is a renewing
of our commitment to Christ Jesus,
By which we seek the healing of
both neighbours and nations.
Let us pray.
While we in quietness bow in
prayer, O God,
there are thousands, maybe millions,
from Darwin to Washington,
and from London to Tokyo
who cry to you in our misery and pain.
O you who hear our prayers,
hear now the weakest and bleakest.
O you who hear our prayers,
heal now the broken and forsaken.
O you who hear our prayers,
restore now the dejected and rejected.
O you who hear our prayers,
lift up now the last and the least.
From Sydney to Beirut,
from Nairobi to Los Berlin,
hear our prayer, most Holy Friend.
By your gracious Spirit,
save these others as you are saving us
through the healing and liberating love
of Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.
In whose name we now pray.
Amen!
WORD OF MISSION AND BLESSING
God does not ask us to solve all
the world’s problems,
nor even to carry all of a neighbour’s burdens.
God knows our frame, and remembers that we are made of
dust.
But we are asked to go out into
the world in good spirits,
sharing to the best of our ability
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
With God’s help, we will.
God then in peace and joy,
with the blessing of the Companion God
upon you, around you, and within you.
Amen!
THREE BOOKS BY BRUCE PREWER
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