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Prayer Is a Conversation
Growing up, prayer was largely a matter of table grace, prayer at church, and praying for Read More
Richard Oliphant Randolph | Read Psalm 19:1-6
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Sign Up TodayThe first six verses of the psalm celebrate a different form of God’s pedagogy. For the psalmist, the heavens proclaim God’s glory and handiwork. Perhaps gazing up into the heavens on a starry night, the psalmist sees the awesome glory of all creation. To translate his thoughts into the conceptual...
Take a leisurely walk today, or sit by a window and look outdoors; open your heart and mind to God’s presence and what God seeks to teach you through the natural world.
As we continue in the season of Lent, we remember another important chapter in salvation history. Just as God established covenants with Noah and Abraham and their descendants, so did God renew the relationship with the Israelites by giving them the law. Obedience to the law was not the means of earning God’s love, but a response of love by the people to the love God had already shown them. The psalmist understands that God’s law creates a cause for rejoicing, for it is more valuable than gold. Both Paul and John address situations in which some had distorted the worship of God. Either they considered themselves too good for the gospel (1 Corinthians), or they had violated the covenant by altering proper worship for the sake of profit (John).
• Read Exodus 20:1-17. How do you keep God central in your life? When do you relegate God to the margins?
• Read Psalm 19. What do the heavens tell you? How often do you spend time in nature? In what ways does that activity renew your spirit?
• Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. In what ways is the cross a stum-
bling block to you?
• Read John 2:13-22. What signs do you ask of God? In what ways might they be life-giving, a renewal of relationship with the Creator?
Respond by posting a prayer.
"Many of us are used to the idea that we might speak to God or to Jesus. Maybe at times it feels like shouting into the darkness or whatnot, but it’s not hard to do—at least as an imaginative exercise. What’s harder—even imaginatively—is to try to hear Jesus speaking to us. Are we just making things up? Are we just using Jesus as a puppet to say whatever we want to hear?" READ MORE
