Blog Archives

5/31/2019

Day 12: Loving Neighbor: A Bigger Circle

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Scripture:
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” - Ephesians 5:8-14
Reflection Questions:

Do you have attitudes toward groups or a person that are hindering your ability to love?
What are you hiding from the world?

Prayer:
God, reveal to me the ideas or biases that prevent me from greater love of you and my neighbor. Instill in me a willingness to grow, to stretch, and allow your Light to transform my darkness. Amen

Challenge:
To let go of previously held ideas that keep you away from greater love.

5/30/2019

Day 11: Loving Neighbor: Success Versus Significance

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Scripture:
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. -Psalm 90: 1-2
Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts. - Psalm 139: 23

Reflection Questions:

What opportunities could you explore in your congregation or in the community that fill a need?
What does living a life of significance mean to you?

Prayer:
God, I give thanks for the ways you have loved me and gifted me to love others. Search my heart, show me my spiritual gifts and how to invest my time, talent, and resources. Lead me to more deeply serve my neighbor. Amen

Challenge:
To think about your legacy and make steps toward living a life of significance if you aren’t already.

5/29/2019

Day 10: Loving Neighbor: Unbind

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Scripture:
Jesus began to weep. Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” - John 11:35, 38-44

Reflection Questions:

Where are the places in our own lives that we need God to resuscitate us?
Where are the place in our own lives that we need others to help unbind us?
Where are the places in the community or world that we can help unbind others?

Prayer:
God, thank you for bringing things that are dead to life. Show me the ways I can unbind others and allow others to unbind me. In Jesus’s name, Amen

Challenge:
To let the community unbind you

5/28/2019

Day 9: Loving Neighbor: See the Suffering

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Scripture:
Then the Lord said, “I’ve clearly seen my people oppressed in Egypt. I’ve heard their cry of injustice because of their slave masters. I know about their pain. 8 I’ve come down to rescue them from the Egyptians in order to take them out of that land and bring them to a good and broad land, a land that’s full of milk and honey, a place where the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites all live. Now the Israelites’ cries of injustice have reached me. I’ve seen just how much the Egyptians have oppressed them. So get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. ”But Moses said to God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Exodus 3: 7-11

Reflection Questions:

Where do you look at the world and your heart breaks?
Who is suffering in your community who everyone seems to be ignoring?
What excuses do you make for not being sent?

Prayer:
God, you see the suffering in my life, in the community and in the world. Inspire me to see the suffering to which I am called. Prompt me, make me aware of your still gentle voice, inviting me to be sent to whomever you choose. Help me to be courageous in the midst of any doubt or fear I have about engaging. Amen.

Challenge:
To reflect upon and see the suffering in the world.

5/27/2019

Day 8: Loving Neighbor: Loving Those Closest

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Scripture:
The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. - 1 John 4:21

Reflection Questions:

Who are the people in your family you can love today?
How can you express your love for your extended family today?
How can you express your love for your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Prayer:
God, thank you for those closest to me - family, friends, mentors, children, and other people you have placed in my life. Help me to love them with my full heart, with my words and actions. Amen

Challenge:
To show those closest to you how much you love them!

5/26/2019

Day 7: Loving God: Rest and Worship

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Scripture:
Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with celebration! Come before him with shouts of joy! Know that the Lord is God—he made us; we belong to him. We are his people, the sheep of his own pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courtyards with praise! Thank him! Bless his name! Because the Lord is good, his loyal love lasts forever; his faithfulness lasts generation after generation. Psalm 100: 1-5

Reflection Questions:

Have you spent enough time with God this week?
In what ways have you intentionally loved God this week?

Prayer:
Lord of all, giver of life, help me to rest today. Prepare and align my heart to worship. I come with an intention of gratitude. Remind me that I belong to you, and that your love for me is eternal. Fill me with your love and grace. As I sing, pray, hear the passages of scripture and reflect upon them, may I worship with you being the audience. In Christ’s name. Amen

Challenge:
To rest on the sabbath and worship with my faith community!

5/25/2019

Day 6: Loving God: Trust

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Scripture:
But now, says the Lord—the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel. Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched and flame won’t burn you. -Isaiah 43:1-2

Reflection Questions:

Is there an area in your life where you are not fully trusting God?
What would trusting God look like today in this situation?

Prayer:
God, trusting you in the places in my life where things are going well is easy. Help me to trust that you are working in the situations that I can’t control. Amen

Challenge:
To trust God today.

5/24/2019

Day 5: Loving God: Creation

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Scripture:
Heaven is declaring God’s glory; the sky is proclaiming his handiwork. One day gushes the news to the next, and one night informs another what needs to be known. Of course, there’s no speech, no words—their voices can’t be heard— but their sound extends throughout the world; their words reach the ends of the earth. God has made a tent in heaven for the sun. The sun is like a groom coming out of his honeymoon suite; like a warrior, it thrills at running its course. It rises in one end of the sky; its circuit is complete at the other. Nothing escapes its heat. Psalm 19:1-6

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth! You made your glory higher than heaven! When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made—the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place—what are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur. You’ve let them rule over your handiwork, putting everything under their feet—all sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too, the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth. Psalm 8:1,3-9

Reflection Questions:

Reflect on a time when you have experienced a moment of majesty in nature.
When were you overtaken by the depth of this existence, the beauty of this world, or your inability to grasp it all?

Prayer:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. Show me the way your creation proclaims your love for me and the world. Amen

Challenge:
To get outside in nature and enjoy God’s creation. Go outside and be present to God in nature. Take a walk, sit on a bench, or simply take in the beauty of your surroundings.

5/23/2019

Day 4: Loving God: Letting God Read Us

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Scripture:
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Psalm 139:1-6

Reflection Questions:

Who is the person that can read you like a book?
How is God speaking to you today through God’s word?

Prayer:
God, I give thanks for your Word. You know me better than I know myself. Open my mind and heart to the way you want to speak to me through the Bible. Amen

Challenge:
To Let the Bible read you through Lectio Divina (divine reading - described below)

One of the most ancient ways to experience the Bible comes through a practice called lectio divina (Latin for "divine reading"). The practice moves through four phases with an underlying confidence that God speaks to us whenever we read the Bible. The first step is to read the passage over and over, savoring each word and waiting for one to rise above the rest. Once a single word or phrase sticks in your mind, you begin to explore the word. What feelings, emotions or memories does it evoke? After a time of experiencing the word, it's time to ask and listen to God for the answer to what this word is meant to say to you. Why this word? What is God saying? Finally, use the word as a focus point to let go of every distracting thought so that you can rest in the presence of God.

5/22/2019

Day 3: Loving God: Be Still

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Scripture:
And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6: 5-6

Be Still and know that I am God - Psalm 46: 10

Reflection Questions:

When you are quiet, what does your thought world gravitate toward?
Are the voices kind, Critical, Distracting?
How can you bring stillness throughout your day?

Prayer:
God, I offer all of myself to you, my thoughts, my heart, my impurities, all to you. Be with me in the silence. Amen

Challenge:
To practice silence as a way of resting in God.

<<Previous

21 DAYS OF Prayer

Day 12: Loving Neighbor: A Bigger Circle

Day 11: Loving Neighbor: Success Versus Significance

Day 10: Loving Neighbor: Unbind

Day 9: Loving Neighbor: See the Suffering

Day 8: Loving Neighbor: Loving Those Closest

Day 7: Loving God: Rest and Worship

Day 6: Loving God: Trust

Day 5: Loving God: Creation

Day 4: Loving God: Letting God Read Us

Day 3: Loving God: Be Still

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Office Hours
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21 DAYS OF Prayer

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Archives

Categories

Sunday morning in-person worship at 10:00 am Worship Service on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/aldersgateUMCEBYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@aldersgateumcnj1154/streams

Office Hours​Tues-Friday 9 am - 2:00 pm

Telephone​732.254.7361

Email​[email protected]

Sunday morning in-person worship at 10:00 am
Worship Service on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/aldersgateUMCEB
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@aldersgateumcnj1154/streams

Office Hours
Tues-Friday 9 am - 2:00 pm

Telephone
732.254.7361

Email
[email protected]