Month: June 2017

Matthew 10:40-42 – We choose welcome

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

Matthew 10:40-42

40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Sit with welcome.
  • Welcome.
  • Welcome all.
  • Welcome me.
  • Welcome you.
  • Welcome.
  • Welcome darkness.
  • Welcome waiting.
  • Welcome unknowning.
  • Welcome.
  • Welcome light.
  • Welcome breath.
  • Welcome wisdom.
  • Seek the fruit of the Spirit in welcome.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, July 2, 2017, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13:1-6
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD

Romans 6:12-23 – You are the slaves of the one whom you obey

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Romans 6:12-23

12Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

15What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Invite this to be your breath prayer:  freed from sin as you inhale and enslaved to God as you exhale.
  • Notice how the breath creates space in your chest.
  • Let the breath reach every part of your body and being.
  • You are slaves to the one you obey.
  • How do you wish to obey God today?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, July 2, 2017, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13:1-6
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD

Psalm 13:1-6 – How long must I bear pain in my soul

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

Psalm 13:1-6

1    How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2   How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3   Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
4   and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

5   But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6   I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Bring your attention to a place within you that feels distant from God.
  • Feel the yearning you have for God here.
  • Use your imagination to pay attention to the details of this place within you:  the feeling, the color, the texture, the smell, the taste, etc.  Describe this place in detail.  See this place within you.
  • Invite God to give light to your eyes.
  • Allow the divine light of God to bring healing to this place.
  • Turn away from anything trying to distract you from the light.
  • See the light bringing you healing.
  • What song arises from this place?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, July 2, 2017, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13:1-6
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD

Genesis 22:1-14 – The Lord will provide

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Genesis 22:1-14

1After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

9When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Turn your attention to the one human being in your life that is most precious to you.
  • How do you desire to praise God for the gift of this human being.?
  • Praise God.
  • In praising God your recognize your relationship with God is more precious that this human being.  God is the most important relationship you have.  It is because of your relationship with God that this precious human being is in your life.
  • How do you desire to praise God for the gift of this person?
  • How does God desire for you to be more fully present with God?  Perhaps there is something you need to let go in the relationship with your precious human being.
  • What does God ask you to let go?
  • Let go.  Notice what it feels like to let go.
  • In the experience of letting go, what does God have for you in that space?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, July 2, 2017, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13:1-6
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD

Matthew 10:24-39 – Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

Matthew 10:24-39

24“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

26“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.30And even the hairs of your head are all counted.31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • As you find freedom in the Breath, reflect on your relationships.
  • Which relationships are keeping you from God today?
  • Where do you notice this unfreedom in your body?
  • Hear the invitation from Jesus today to lean into your relationship with God.
  • Let your relationship with God be primary.
  • Let your relationship with God free you in the places of unfreedom.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 25, 2017, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD

Romans 6:1b-11 – The life he lives, he lives to God

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

Romans 6:1b-11

1bShould we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?2By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.7For whoever has died is freed from sin.8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Inhale “He lives to God.”
  • Exhale “He is freed from sin.”
  • Repeat as you feel led.
  • Sit with the grace of Christ.
  • Inhale “I live to God.”
  • Exhale “I am freed from sin.”
  • Repeat as you feel led.
  • Sit with the mercy of Christ.
  • Inhale “We live to God.”
  • Exhale “We are freed from sin.”
  • Repeat as you feel led.
  • Sit with the gift of freedom.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 25, 2017, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings (c) 2017 The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD