Lenten Devotional 2016

Monday, February 29 Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. I have always seen myself as a very forgiving person, so I began to wonder why I picked this verse to do a Lenten devotion on.  It suddenly came to me that there was one person I had never forgiven […]

Sunday, February 28 “Give us this day our daily bread” A hymn I wrote in 1997: “Our Daily Bread” We come to you, Christ, to be made whole, to fill the hunger deep in our souls. We come to pray that we may be fed: Give us this day our daily bread.   We hunger […]

Saturday, February 27 “Give us this daily our daily bread.” Daily bread. What a throw-away line. To me, it’s fathomable that if The Lord’s Prayer were brought to an editor’s desk in modern-day America, this clause would be marked for deletion. The primary reason I think this line doesn’t register with us is that “bread” […]

Friday February 26 “Give us this day our daily bread” This summer, Open Spirit offered an iftar, a Muslim breaking of the fast during the month of Ramadan.  About forty people–Christian, Jewish, Muslim and unaffiliated–gathered to offer a meal to our Muslim friends who had been fasting all day.  Before the sun set, several Muslim […]

Thursday, February 25 “Give us this day our daily bread” One of the most meaningful rituals for me in Christian worship is the sharing of bread during communion.  What makes it even more meaningful for me is freshly home baked bread.  The aroma scents the air with yeast while the soft texture nurtures the palate. […]

Wednesday, February 24 “Give us this day our daily bread.” For almost twenty years, Edwards Church has been offering a small loaf of bread to first-time visitors.  A group of men from the church gathered to make the first loaves–banana bread.  For a number of years, Ruth Heckman faithfully made loaves of corn bread.  Sandy […]

Tuesday, February 23 Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread When I say  this verse, the first thought that comes to me is the last day of my husband’s life, June 22, 2014.  Carroll had been in the hospital for a week and we had been told that he was nearing the end of his […]

Monday, February 22 Give us this day our daily bread… When Jesus spoke these words the tendency is to think of food to nourish the body.  If we look deeper the prayer also asks God to give us wisdom to guide us through the day. Each day presents challenges to get the required done.  What […]

Sunday, February 21 “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” This year, the Wednesday and Thursday Bible Study groups have been focusing on the gospel according to Matthew.  Because Matthew, like many Jews in his day, took “hallowed be thy name” so very seriously, he rarely wrote the […]

Saturday, February 20 “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” When I was fresh out of grad school, I gave a sermon on Jesus’ second coming. I felt, at the time, that there had been a great deal of interest in the potential for the “end times” to […]