Day 12: Lent 2024

Lord thank You for the Easter Holidays of my past. I am blessed to have Godly parents that knew You and Your salvation. I am filled with joy as I remember Easter baskets, new suits and dresses, fancy hats and the excitement of joining others in chapel worship services. Beyond the Easter egg hunts, I am grateful for the time with family and the story of the resurrection that would be shared throughout the day. Thank You Lord that Christmas isn’t the only story that needs to be shared, it is only tells about when You came to earth. I am also glad that Easter isn’t the end of Your Son’s story. As certain as Your victory over death, You will come again Jesus. Help me Lord, to share that story with as much excitement as my grandchildren have in a backyard Easter egg hunt. In Jesus name.

Day 10: Lent 2024

“When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised!” is the first line of an old song that calls us to worship first thing in the morning. I confess, Lord, my heart isn’t always praising you as I should when you give me another day, another opportunity to serve You. You are worthy because of Good Friday and Easter. You are worthy because of the 33 years you lowered Yourself to being a man and yet still God. You are worthy because You still sit at the Father’s side petitioning on our behalf when we don’t even know what or how to pray. You are worthy because you have all power, all authority both in heaven and here on earth. You are worthy because of Your great love, mercy and grace made a way for us as created beings to come before our creator and commune with You. Thank You, Jesus for the blood, the way and the life You lived to reconcile us to Yourself and the Father. In Your great name I pray.  

Day 5: Lent 2024

Thank You, God, for the opportunity to come into Your house and worship You with fellow believers. So many believers across time and this present-day world never have had the chance to experience this blessing due to oppression. The Psalmist said, ‘I was glad when they said unto me, let us come into the house of the Lord’ and I amen that statement. Throughout my life, joy has been associated with going into Your house and singing songs of praise. I have also worshipped through heartfelt testimonies and prayers offered in church. I am grateful that You have provided men and women of God that have both taught and preached the Word in a way that has been winsome and convicting. I continue to pray for the furtherance of Your church, Christ’s bride, in a world racked with darkness, pain and evil. May my worship acceptable be in Your sight, my sole audience of One.  

Day 4: Lent 2024

God, I come before this morning knowing that You alone are God. I confess that I at times put other things before You, family, money, vacations, and other pursuits. You know this and my wandering heart for the things of this world. Draw me back by Your Holy Spirit through conviction and confession so that I might once again walk in one accord with You. I know that Your good pleasure gave me free will in this brief life that You have granted me. Help me to be mindful that I can use that gift to freely worship and walk with You each day, each moment. I know my own weakness, my own selfish self, and I realize that Christ came to not only deliver me from death but also self and sin. May that knowledge continue to transform me more and more into the likeness of my Savior, for His glory and my good.

Sunday

Saturdays don't have the same level of relief and release as they did when I was working. Retirement has deconstructed much of the stress I endured while working. The workplace and its daily demands usually could be put on hold whenever Saturday rolled around without its rude interruption by the alarm clock. Sure, Saturday had its own jobs around the house, the yard, the building project, cleaning and laundry, and other time constrictors that collaborated to keep me busy. The press of time is now more measured without Monday lurking at the end of the weekend. 

    Sunday was and still is the day of worship and rest. Of course, the proverbial oxen does get in the ditch on occasion but those disruptions are rare. I look forward to gathering with my brothers and sisters in Christ to joyfully worship. I am not always gleeful due to illness, pressing family concerns, or number of weighty issues that might rob me of my joy but usually the music, fellowship and the preaching of the word dispels those thoughts, at least for a short interval of time. As I have grown older, I have begun to anticipate entering the Lord's house. 

    Sunday afternoon has its own rewards as well. After a hearty Sunday lunch, I watch golf or football until the combination of food and stillness blurs my eyesight and I fight sleep. Sometimes, I give into sleep's grasp and lay down on my bed, hook up to my CPAP and nap for 30 minutes to an hour. Other days I just nod and gap on the couch, determined to fight off sleep but usually making a mockery of myself, so much so that my wife enjoys videoing me in my fit of stupor. I really don't care that she captures my slumber other than my open mouth and snorting being preserved and shared with my family. That image does project ineptness and Papa appears to be intoxicated!

    I am grateful that the Lord set aside a day for us to both worship and rest. He is worthy of our worship and all of us were made to worship something. There is God-size hole in all of our hearts that only He can fill. I look forward to Sunday in His house when I am both affirmed and affirming through worshiping Christ Jesus. The remainder of the day of rest allows me to recharge physically just as I have recharged spiritually that morning. Without a day of renewal I would be more empty and less effective, even in my post working life. Sunday is the day to reclaim and recalibrate the life that God has called us to live.