God's help for right reading
Leave me not, O gracious Presence, in such hours as I may today devote to the reading of books or of newspapers. Guide my mind to choose the right books and, having chosen them, to read them in the right way. When I read for profit, grant that all I read may lead me nearer to thyself. When I read for recreation, grant that what I read may not lead me away from thee. Let all my reading so refresh my mind that I may the more eagerly seek after whatsoever things are pure and fair and true.
-John Baillie
in A Diary of Private Prayer
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A prayer at midday
O God, through whose good gifts our bodies are again refreshed, may the lifting up of our thought to thee refresh our souls with strength and purpose for the unfinished day. Amen.
-Walter Russell Bowie
in Lift Up Your Hearts
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He changed the world
Martin Luther ... is one of the few men of whom it may be said that the history of the world was profoundly altered by his work. Not a great scholar, an organizer or a politician, he moved men by the power of a profound religious experience, resulting in unshakable trust in God, and in direct, immediate and personal relations to him, which brought a confident salvation .... He spoke to his countrymen as one profoundly of them in aspirations and sympathies, yet above them by virtue of a vivid and compelling faith, and a courage, physical and spiritual, of the most heroic mold.
-Williston Walker
in A History of the Christian Church
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Special Dates
- World Communion Sunday, October 4, 1998
- Pastor Appreciation Sunday, October 11, 1998
- Columbus Day, October 12, 1998
- United Nations Day, October 24, 1998
- Reformation Sunday, October 25, 1998
- Daylight-Saving Time ends, October 25, 1998
- Reformation Day, October 31, 1998
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Words of welcome
(Feel free to use these in your worship bulletins.)
Today is the gateway to another week. We join together here to thank God for a new week of promise and possibilities. Let us welcome the opportunity of worship. Let us greet one another joyfully and lovingly. Let us prepare ourselves to be God's people in God's world.
***
Welcome to the House of God. The Lord is always near to those who gather in his name. Let us eagerly call upon God and make a joyful noise with songs and prayers of praise. Glory be to God!
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Welcome to worship! Here let us seek to see God more clearly, love God more completely, and serve God more certainly. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised!
***
- Money is a bad master but a good servant.
- In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
-Albert Einstein
- Nothing in your life is so insignificant, so small, that God cannot be found at its center.
-Mother Frances Dominica
- Happiness arises as a byproduct of our getting absorbed in something worthwhile outside ourselves.
-Eugene Kennedy
- A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible.
-William Lyon Phelps
- When we petition God without thanks, we are mere spiritual consumers.
-Matthew Fox
- A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.
-Martin Luther
***
Using the car
A young boy had just gotten his driving permit. He asked his father if they could discuss the use of the car. His father said, "I'll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up, study your Bible, and get your hair cut and we'll talk about it."
After about a month the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss use of the car. His father said, "Son, I've been real proud of you. You have brought your grades up, you've studied your Bible diligently, but you didn't get your hair cut!"
The young man replied, "I've been thinking about that. You know, Samson
had long hair, Moses had long hair, why even Jesus had long hair ...."
To which his father replied, "Yes, and they WALKED everywhere they went!"
***
’Tis grace
We know very well why people become mentally ill. What we don't understand is why people survive the traumas of their lives as well as they do .... All we can say is that there is a force, the mechanics of which we do not fully understand, that seems to operate routinely in most people to protect and foster their mental health even under the most adverse conditions .... Could it be that the line in the song is true: "’Tis grace hath broughtme safe this far"?
-Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck
in The Road Less Traveled
***
Night and God
All day we turn the wheel;
All day we plow the sod;
But when we lay us down to rest,
We leave the night to God.
We yield us to his care,
Forget our joy and pain,
Knowing that he will keep the watch
Until we wake again.
When ends life's little day,
With all our journeys trod,
In perfect trust we'll turn to sleep,
Leaving the night to God.
-Archibald Rutledge
***
Avoiding the weight of wealth
Recently, an Amish woman from Minnesota, Mary Lambright, was killed when a truck hit her horse-drawn buggy. Her husband, now a widower, Mahlon Lambright, is a 43-year-old carpenter with 11 children to raise. Yet, when he was offered $212,000 from the insurance company as a wrongful-death settlement, he turned it down, saying that he was concerned that the money would threaten his family's way of life, would cause more problems than it was worth, and that other members of the Amish community "would feel bad" if he took the money.
-Jonathan Kramer and Diane Dunaway Kramer
in Losing the Weight of the World
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God's world
O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide gray skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with color! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, world! I cannot get thee close enough!
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
***
When angels cheer
Yale surgeon and bioethicist Dr. Sherwin Nuland, in his bestselling book, The Wisdom of the Body, describes the experience of saving the life of a 42-year-old woman who had suffered an aneurysm of the splenetic artery:
"Something within me wanted to sing and shout, to dance carefree ... to acclaim my triumph to the heavens and the ages - a woman's life had been saved, and I would always remember the wonder of this night."
The Bible says that the angels cheer the touchdown in heaven of one sinner who repents.
-Homiletics
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A mystic and the creation
Why did you create [the things of the world]? They were all made for man, and man was made for you. That was the order you established. Woe to the soul who reverses it, who wishes the world for himself and his spirit for himself as well. Woe to him who shuts himself up in himself! This violates the fundamental law of creation.
-Francois Fenelon (1651-1715)
in Christian Perfection
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The fast that feeds the soul
Fast from criticism, and feast on praise.
Fast from self-pity, and feast on joy.
Fast from ill-temper, and feast on peace.
Fast from resentment, and feast on
contentment.
Fast from jealousy, and feast on love.
Fast from pride, and feast on humility.
Fast from selfishness, and feast on service.
Fast from fear, and feast on faith.
-Source unknown
***
God's law of prosperity
When Ruth and I got married we had barely two nickels to rub together. I had a fair salary as pastor of a church in Syracuse, but was paying off the heavy debts of my own education and putting my younger brother through college. I had saved no money, and we began our married life on the proverbial shoestring - a well-worn one at that. I recall one night during the Great Depression when funds dropped so low that I went walking up and down in the park with a feeling of desperation clutching at me. Ruth was never even fazed. "The Lord will provide," she said. "Let us just keep on serving him and trusting. He will give us fresh insights and ideas which we will turn into workable plans." Ruth had stumbled onto one of the greatest laws in this world, the law of supply.
Well, a good many years have passed since then and never yet have we missed a meal. (Probably wouldn't hurt if we did!) Indeed, the Lord has taken care of us. We have had a generous share of prosperity and enjoyed life, though we have also had our share of hard knocks. I've long since come around to Ruth's faith in God's law of abundance. I had to, for I witnessed it working not only in our own experience, but in the lives of hundreds of others as well.
-Norman Vincent Peale
in The Tough-Minded Optimist
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Where the value lies
The 19th-century missionary to Africa, David Livingstone, wrote in his diary these words:
"I put no value on anything I possess save in terms of the kingdom of God." Livingstone took seriously Christ's words: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ..." (Matthew 6:33).
***
Communion Sunday
The Holy Supper is kept indeed
In what we share with another's need;
Not what we give, but what we share:
For the gift without the giver is bare.
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three:
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me.
-James Russell Lowell
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Using the Web for outreach
Louise Northcutt found her church through the World Wide Web. She says, "I've been here in Warwick, New York, for five years, but it's hard to know where to go. So the fact that Christ Church had a Web site gave me good vibes. That gave me the incentive to go, and sure enough, the good vibes were confirmed.
Northcutt, who uses the Web for research, was searching through local Warwick sites when she came upon Christ Church's. And the fact that she was able to read it on her own, without feeling pressured to make any commitment, gave her the impetus she needed to walk in the door with her 12-year-old daughter ... "That was just enough to get me there," Northcutt says.
-Derek A. Baker in Yahoo! Internet Life
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Always an answer
After the Sunday evening service, one father always gave in to the pleas of his children for soda and ice cream. One night, however, he objected, saying, "Where does it say that, after a service, you should always get something to eat and drink?"
"The Bible says it," his teenage son answered. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst."
***
The impressive trees
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
-Willa Cather
Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.
-G.B. Shaw