SONGS FOR PRAYER

SET PRAYER

 Dear Heavenly Father,

May your grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, You Son, in truth and love. Help us walk in the truth, just as You commanded us to, because this is love, that we walk according to Your commandments. Protect us from the many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Help us guard our hearts so that we don’t lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 

This we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

reading for: Tuesday Night, 30 August

Luke 14:25-33

Great Obedience comes with a Great Cost

• READ

  Shocking! That’s our reaction when we hear Jesus makes the strong statement, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (v. 26). How is that for “family values”? How is it that Jesus commands us to miseo or “hate” our closest family members? How can Jesus, the very embodiment of love itself, here call for his followers to hate their nearest kin and even their own lives? This is a difficult passage to read because it demands that we push away those whom we are most inclined to embrace. In our nation, where we are about to enshrine “family values” into our national constitution, we are confronted with what seems to be the very destruction of it.

  In light of Jesus’ previous instructions in Luke 12:51–53, where he exclaims, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” The division he then describes, happens in the household. He is speaking of a household divided between father and son, daughter and mother, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, because some family members hear the radical call to follow Jesus, while others don’t. Following Jesus calls for a commitment from us, that surpasses even that which we have for those most dear to us.

  In Luke chapter 18:18-30 we have a somewhat comforting, yet puzzling final word on family which Jesus assures “a rich ruler” who seeks knowledge about eternal life. Jesus tells him that those that have given up “wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God” (18:29) that they will receive “very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life” (18:30). There is a lot at stake in this reconfiguration, but faithful disciples should be assured that their sacrifice will be rewarded by more of what they lost (see Job 1:13–22 and 42:10–17)”. In short, Jesus is demanding top place and priority from all who choose to follow Him.

  The message is clear: discipleship costs. And not only that, anyone who is not prepared to carry his own cross (v27), cannot be Jesus’ disciple. The cost should be counted before the journey begins and one must begin with the end in mind, so that he reaches the finish line and wins the race (v30-33).

• REFLECT

  People are willing to pay a high price for things of great value. If the price of following Jesus and sharing in His Kingdom Rule is so high, there should be great value in it for discipleship to demand such a high price shouldn’t it? (See Matt 13:45-46). So what of the kingdom of God is of such great value that it costs everything? What is it that Jesus offers that’s so valuable to you that you would be willing to give up anything and everything? Have you found it yet?

reading for: Wednesday Night, 31 August

Deut 30:15-20

Choosing the Abundant Life that God Generously Offers

• READ

In his third address to the Israelites before they enter the Promised land, Moses makes an urgent appeal that they choose wisely between the two options he has been presenting all along (11:26–28). Our passage today can be organized in the table below:

The simple truth is: obedience results in blessing and disobedience results in the curse. If God’s people love Him, they demonstrate it by walking in his ways and obeying all his commands. Then they will enjoy life and prosperity. But if they turn away from Him and his way, they “shall surely perish” (v. 18). Here “the life” and “the good” are “the blessing” described in 11:26; 28:1–14, while “the death and the destruction” represent the curse (11:26; 28:15–68).

                Naturally, the kinds of behavior that bring on death and disaster involve turning their hearts away from God, demonstrated in disobedience and worship of other gods (vv. 17–18). Whereas obedience yields life, multiplication, and blessing in the land the Israelites are entering, disobedience yields certain destruction, death, and shortened life spans in the land they are entering.

                The final call to “choose life” at the end of verse 19 represents both the high point of Moses’ final address and the climax of his preaching on the plains of Moab. To choose life means to demonstrate covenant commitment (“love”) to God in actions that serve his interests, to “listen” to the voice of God, and to “hold fast” to him alone.

                Israel holds the keys to life in their own hands. Here “Life” means a long life in which the effects of sin and premature death are protected against. But it also means dwelling in the land that God had promised to their ancestors. With this last reference to the ancestors Moses has come full circle, ending where he began — with the people on the verge of the Promised Land and with God’s sworn promises ringing in his ears. God always keeps his word; the question here is, will the people keep theirs?

• REFLECT

   Consider some of the significant decisions you’ve made this year. Are they truly life-giving for yourself and others? How can you move one more step forward into the abundant life that God wants for you?   

reading for: Thursday Night, 1 September

Philemon 1:1-21

God’s Generosity: Paying it Forward

• READ

  Philemon is a rich man. He owns a slave, Onesimus (v. 16), and is master of a house large enough to accommodate a church (v.2). He, his wife Apphia, and Archippus are the leaders of this congregation (v. 1–2), and the whole community is invited to listen in as the apostle makes his request (v. 2). What has Onesimus done to Philemon? Did he simply run away? Verse 18 mentions both “wronged” and “owes … anything”; did Onesimus steal something from his master? Paul says only that Onesimus has found his way to Paul, who is in prison (v. 1), and has become a Christian through Paul’s ministry (v. 10), even as Philemon himself once did (v. 19).

  The letter starts with a greeting that reminds Paul’s listeners that he speaks not on his own authority but as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. (v.1-3) Following the salutation, Paul gives thanks and gives his reason for writing. Philemon’s love and faith are well known among Christians (v. 4–5), and the apostle prays that the partnership of Philemon’s faith (v. 6“sharing”) might become still more well known among believers. Paul asks no small favour from Philemon in order to make effective that “knowledge of every good thing” (v. 6). He calls him to set free his slave Onesimus and forgive his debt, two things that could cause a rich man in those days to lose face.

  Paul says he makes an appeal rather than a command (v. 8–9) because of his love for Philemon. His reminds Philemon of the cost of Christian discipleship through repeated references to his own imprisonment (v. 1, 9, 10, 13, 23) and asks no more of Philemon than Christ asks of all believers. They are coworkers (v. 1) and partners (v. 6, 17) in the gospel; Philemon is both Paul’s brother (v. 7, 20) and his son (v. 10). Philemon has hosted not only the church but the apostle as well (v. 7) and will soon have the opportunity again to show hospitality (v. 22).

  Peace between Philemon and Onesimus requires that the former receive the latter “no longer as a slave but … a beloved brother” now that both are Christians (v. 16). Onesimus therefore now merits the same welcome in Philemon’s home that Paul enjoys.

• REFLECT

  Consider God’s generous mercy and grace towards yourself and those around you. Is there someone you can be Christ-like and generous towards in your attitude, actions or words today?

reading for: Friday Night, 2 September

Psalm 1

• READ

  If we want to follow God’s “way” rather than a path that leads to destruction, how do we go about finding it? In the New Testament, toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns his listeners, in words like those of the conclusion to Psalm 1, that entering the kingdom of heaven is like choosing between a broad, well-trodden roadway and a barely distinguishable footpath. The incentive to find and take the narrow path is that it leads ultimately to life, while the broad and easy road ends in destruction (Matt. 7:13–14). But how does one find this path of life in order to enter it? And once on the road, what map ensures we won’t get lost?

  At the end of his sermon, Jesus introduces the story of the wise and foolish house builders. The wise builder built on a rock-solid foundation so that his house continued to stand in the face of the storms and floods of life. The fool, by contrast, took the easy way and built on the shifting sands. His house suffered complete collapse when the storms blew and the floods rose (Matt. 7:24–27). The only difference between the two, Jesus says, is their attention and response to his teaching. The former both heard and put into practice what Jesus taught. The latter failed to listen deeply or else refused to act altogether.

  Psalm 1 offers the same warning: Hear and do. Delight in the Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy), meditate on it, and act. Let what you hear, read, and study so saturate your being that your life takes up residence on the path that God knows and emanates a fragrance of character that sets it clearly apart from the wicked, sinners, and mockers of verse 1. Such a person is truly “blessed.” Jesus describes the characteristics of the “blessed” in the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3–10). Taken together, these blessings set the citizen of God’s kingdom clearly apart from those who refuse to follow Christ along that path. The Beatitudes are not rules to be followed but characteristics growing in those who have bound their lives to Jesus Christ and have planted their roots deep in the stream of life that flows out from his words, life, and person.

  Here in Psalm 1, the blessed one will send down roots deeply into the stream of life that flows out of God’s Law - His teaching and guidelines. These teachings are snapshots in Scripture of faithful living, miraculously lived by persons of little faith empowered by God when they heard and obeyed what he said. The psalmists are just such people who have their roots planted deep in the streams of God’s Word. They listen carefully, and they act out of what they hear. That is why their words of faith—sometimes anguished, often angry, deeply questioning, but always honest and coupled with an abiding sense of confidence and even joy—can be God’s words to us, guiding us, challenging us, shaping us, leading us. If only we will listen and obey.

• REFLECT

  Are you waking up strong, not going to bed wrong and pausing in your day to pray? How can you strengthen yours and others daily walk?