Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. Romans 6:13 b.
You know when you are surrendered , you rely on God. You let go and let God work!
From the Book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
A reading from Daniel 3: 14-20,46-52,91-92,95.
Blessed are you Lord! Daniel 3:52. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego prayed this while in the midst of flames in a fiery furnace. They were prepared not to be saved, even before they were rescued, they exulted in God’s goodness and glory.
So today in the midst of difficulties, we can declare his greatness because he is God and is deserving of our honor and praise.
He is the Good Shepherd who knows you and is concerned for your life. John 10:11.
Lord thanks for always being with us, even when all we feel is concern, Amen.
Portions taken from the Word Among Us
Today’s Psalm reading
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing that I lack. In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul. He guides me along right paths for the sake of his name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me. You set a table before me in front of my enemies;You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Indeed goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord for endless days.
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
I picked up this book about a year ago at the Majesty Christian Bookstore. I started reading it at the end of January. It is a guide to a 40 day journey that enabled me to discover the answer to Life’s most important question, What on Earth am I here for? By the end of the journey I had renewed my understanding of God’s purpose for my life and the big picture-how all the pieces fit together. The perspective that the book provides will reduce stress, simplify my decisions, increase my satisfaction and help prepare myself for eternity.
In the book’s dedication, Warren writes” Before you were born, God planned this moment in your life. It is no accident that you are holding this book. God longs for you to discover the life he created for you to live -here on earth and forever in eternity. ” I knew this but I needed a refresher course!!!
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ……he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1:11
Every day on the 40 day journey there is a lesson with a bible verse to learn, a point to ponder and a question to consider. I really learned a lot.
Maybe I have lived in a religious bubble, I had not heard of Rick Warren and this book that has sold 32 million copies! Churches all over the world have used this book with great results. I am happy I found this book!
With my Lutheran /Catholic background I wasn’t sure about what I would experience in the book and the 40 days. I was pleasantly surprised that what Warren talks about is Christian faith not a denominational faith. He talks about worship and the different styles of worship and they are all good as long as they are about worshiping God,to praise Him! It is not about us and our entertainment!
Another feature of the book is that he used 15 different Bible translations because every translation has its limitations and because we miss the meaning of bible verses because they are so familiar. So using different translations opens up new meanings or understandings of the verses.
I would highly recommend this book. It has awoken in me feelings of awe and wonder of our God! It showed me the right paths to take and some of the wrong ones that I have been wandering on for many years. This book is meant to be done with a small group or at least one other person to help as a sounding board. I would be happy to work with someone going through the 40 days.
Purpose Driven Life Purposes
- You were planned for God’s Pleasure
- You were formed for God’s Family
- You were created to become like Christ
- You were shaped for Serving God
- You were made for a Mission
I will be sharing more of what I have learned!
May God Bless you as he has blessed me through this book and my life,Amen.
PBPGINFWMY
Please be patient,God is not finished with me yet!
In my prayers today I asked for guidance in face of pandemic. For my Old Testament reading, I read Daniel 3:34-45, the prayer of Azariah.
Verses 38-40 really sums up our situation. We have in our day no prince, no prophet or leader, no burnt offering, sacrifice, obligation or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.
But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be recieved; as though it were burnt offerings of rams and bulls, or tens of thousands of fat lambs,
So our sacrifice be in your presence today and find favor before you, for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.
And verse 43.. Deliver us in accord with your wonders and bring glory to your name O Lord.
Take a few moments to read the Prayer!
Lessons in Prayer from Mother Teresa
This month in the Word Among Us they are featuring articles about Mother Teresa written by Father Raniero Cantalamessa.
Who is Jesus to me? Mother Teresa responds:
- Jesus is the Word—— to be spoken
- Jesus is the Life——to be lived
- Jesus is the Love—— to be loved
- Jesus is the Joy—-to be shared
- Jesus is the sacrifice—–to be offered
- Jesus is the Peace—–to be given
- Jesus is the Bread of Life——-to be eaten
- Jesus is the Hungry—– to be fed
- Jesus is the Thirsty—– to be satisfied
- Jesus is the Naked —- to be clothed
- Jesus is the Homeless— to be taken in
- Jesus is the Sick— to be healed
- Jesus is the Lonely — to be loved
Another well known saying of Mother Teresa is” The fruit of love is service/ The fruit of service is peace.:”
Mother Teresa said to her daughters, “I Thirst” and “You Did it to Me”- remember always to connect the two, the means with the aim. Our charism is to satiate the thirst of Jesus for love and souls— by working at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor. “You did it to me:”.Mother Teresa marked out each of the words on the fingers of her hand and said they comprised:” the Gospel in our five fingers.
If you have read my posts, you know I have a diverse religious background so I look at things from that perspective. What I have written here is how I look at my faith and the Church.
Today at Mass we heard Matthew 5:14- 16. Verse 14 says you are the light of the world….and verse 16 says your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father!
Christianity began over 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ, our Savior left his Church to his Apostles and to Peter and to Paul and many others. They had one thing in common, they were human but they depended on the Holy Spirit to guide them.
The Church grew with the successors of Peter guiding the Church through the centuries. They faced many challenges and persecutions. The first major split was between East and West, between Constantinople and Rome.
The next major split came with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Luther and others had concerns with other men, not God, on the direction of his Church. The invention of the printing press made the ideas of the Reformers available to the World. Now we have the Internet.
The problems we have are human beings and the Devil, whose mission is to destroy us and the Church. From Day One the human race (we) questioned what God can do! That’s what drove the Reformation. Man as a rational intelligent being through the sciences decided what is possible and what is not. So many of the Church’s teachings and even Christ’s healing and miracles have been debunked by Human beings.
What can’t God do? The Old and New Testaments are crammed full examples of what God can do!! And Jesus Christ came to us, to save us, heal us and show us “The Way, the Truth and the Life”, from John 14:6.
Christ challenged his believers to have a childlike faith, or faith the size of a mustard seed. If we had that type of faith would we question everything?
The Reformation spawned a lot of questions about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. One of the biggest issues that has split the Church is about the Last Supper and Christ’s sharing of his Body and Blood in the Bread and Wine. What we share today at Communion can’t be the real body and blood of Christ can it? The Catholic Church says that it is his body and blood.
My child-like faith says Why Not? Do we know everything? And everything we know comes to us by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Does everything have to make sense?
Does God provide everything we pray for? It is done when and how God wants it to be done.
God has sent us to be his good and faithful servants, to be good stewards of his creation but has not turned all the controls over to us.
He gave us rules to live by, the Ten Commandments and Jesus gave us the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:35-40). You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. Over the centuries God has through divinely inspired writings (The Bible) and the Church, through its teachings provided the rules.
Again being childlike we humans don’t like to follow the rules, or we make up the rules that suit us! In today’s society everyone can do as they like and we have to accept everybody’s right to be or do whatever they want. It doesn’t work that way! What does God want us to do and be like?
We are all sinners and it is impossible for us to be perfect like God! And ultimately we are not the judge of anyone, God will hold us, individually accountable on the last day.
Just go to Jesus Christ in prayer and build a personal relationship with him! I am trying, day by day, one step at a time. I am currently reading ” The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It is a guide to a 42 day Spiritual Journey. I’m at Day 13 and it is fantastic and it’s helpful to me.
Let us pray, Dear Heavenly Father, Unite your Church on earth, teach us your ways and deliver us from the evil of division, so we might better serve as your disciples. In your name we pray. Amen.
I met Linda Serbati through my friend Ted Lewandowski. Linda’s family belonged to the Byzantine Catholic church, Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Erie, Pa. We were married September 11, 1982 in that church. It was a beautiful wedding mass steeped in the Byzantine traditions in a beautiful church. While we were dating we attended Mass there and attended marriage preparation classes.
We moved to Budd Lake, New Jersey to begin our married life, and I took a job with the Boy Scouts. We joined a new Lutheran congregation and when Erin was born, she was baptized in the Church. A few years later we moved to Greensburg, Pa. for a promotion with the Scouts and we attended Zion Lutheran Church in Greensburg.
Then we bought our home in South Greensburg and attended St. Bruno Catholic church. We liked it and we joined the Church . Erin enrolled in our church school for kindergarten. I participated in the RCIA program to become a Catholic and Erin participated in School and also became a Catholic and Linda transferred her membership. That was 30 years ago!!!
So if you have been following my stories, Linda, Erin and I have been influenced in our religious journey from 4 different faith traditions to where we are today. It’s been a great journey so far….. and it is continuing!!!
So my prayer today in for the Catholic church and the Byzantine Rite of the Church.
Watch for my final blog tomorrow as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity concludes.
Today I will offer my prayers for those brothers and sisters of the Lutheran tradition.
My maternal grandparents, Helen and John Carlson were members of Bethany Lutheran church in Erie Pa. which was a Swedish Lutheran church . Their children LeRoy, Donald and Dorothy Mae were baptized and confirmed at Bethany. The services were in Swedish and English, one service of each every Sunday.until the 1950’s.My grandparents had Swedish language Bibles and hymnal which I still have. Our Pastors were Swedish until the mid 1970’s.
My mother Dorothy Mae married my Dad, Wilbur Waite, he became a Lutheran. and my 3 brothers and I were baptized and confirmed at Bethany also. Pastor Sjostrand confirmed me!We were active in Sunday School, and Luther League,the Church youth group. We attended Church camp for many years.
My favorite hymn growing up was A Mighty Fortress is My God by Martin Luther .
I joined Zion Lutheran Church in Greensburg when I began working for the Boy Scouts.