Pentecost • 19

reading for: Tuesday Night, 24 September

mark 9:38-50

  • ReAD

    Scripture Reference: Mark 9:38-50

    49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”– Mark 9:49-50

  • Commentary

    What does it mean that everyone will be salted with fire? Does he mean that everyone will enter hell? Surely that is not what he means.

    This follows an expanded meditation by Christ on the fires of hell. Jesus puts it this way: If your hand causes you to sin, it is better to cut it off and enter life than have two hands and go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Jesus continues: If your foot causes you to sin, it is better to cut it off and enter life than to go with two feet to hell. Jesus says something similar about the eye. Verse 48 adds that hell is where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Hell is a severe place where there will be severe consequences of punishment and judgment. Jesus does not intend for anyone to go there, and that’s why he repeats that it is better to enter life. Jesus intends for all to have life. So we must take drastic action to enter life now.

    Jesus follows on by saying that everyone will be salted with fire. We must remember that the goal is for all to have life. Therefore, Jesus uses the fires of discipline and correction to correct and salt us so that we will be salty and enter life. This is similar to the action of cutting off our hands, feet, and eyes, for it speaks of responding to God and taking drastic steps now to follow God and enter life.

  • Reflect

    Will we enter life? What fires of discipline and correction is Jesus burning in us that we need to respond to so that we may enter life? Respond to Him and His correction. Don’t wait until we are faced with the fires of hell for it will certainly be more severe and painful for us.

    Prayer

    Our Father in Heaven, you intend for us to enter life. You created and formed us to become the image of God. You do not intend for any to perish but for all to enter life. Help us to respond to your correction and discipline and look to you.

reading for: Wednesday Night, 25 September

Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22

  • ReAD

    Scripture Reference: Esther 7:1-10; 9:20-22

    Key Verse:
    "For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?" — Esther 8:6 (ESV)

  • Commentary

    Esther’s story is a powerful reminder that God works through ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. As queen, Esther was called to a moment of courage that saved her people from destruction. In Esther 7:1-10, we see her intercede before the king, and in Esther 9:20-22, the Jews celebrate their deliverance through the Feast of Purim. Behind the scenes, God was at work, sustaining, guiding, and delivering His people.

    As a church, we’ve been on a similar journey. We’ve learned the importance of clinging to God’s vision and trusting His guidance, especially in uncertain times. Like Esther, we have discovered the power of prayer, how it strengthens us for life’s challenges—just as we learned over last two weeks in our series, "Prayer: Strength Training for Life."

    We’ve also come together as one community, much like the Jews did in Esther’s time. Bound by love, we’ve embraced the truth that “Listening is Loving,” realizing that when we listen to God and each other, His love works through us. From children to the elderly, we’re all part of this journey, sustained by God’s strength and united in faith.

    Esther’s story calls each generation—whether you’re a child, a teen navigating school, a young adult balancing work, or an elderly person dealing with health concerns—to reflect on how God is calling us to be courageous and to trust His unseen hand.

  • Reflect

    Where might God be calling you to act in courage, trusting in His strength, love, and guidance?

  • Prayer

    "Lord, our God, under the shadow of Your wings, let us hope. Protect us and carry us; You will carry us even to the end. Amen."

    (St. Augustine, Adapted from Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 28)

reading for: THURSDAY Night, 26 September

james 5:13-20

  • ReAD

    Scripture Reference: James 5:13-20

    The Prayer of Faith

    13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.[a] 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

    19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

  • commentary

    Tonight’s passage is a call to prayer. A call to become men and women of prayer. A call to pray without ceasing and a reminder that prayer does make a difference. The prayer of the righteous avails much. And by righteous, James did not mean that we are perfect and without sin. He meant that we are right before God because we have confessed and have received forgiveness and healing. We can do much when we are in right standing with God.

    And that is what we want to dwell on tonight – the relationship between confession, prayer and healing. James’ exhortation to confess our sins to one another is a practice that is largely lost and practically non-existent in our faith. Most of us likely feel uncomfortable or ashamed to confess and find ourselves paralyzed by the mere thought of confessing.

    Yet James cannot be more clear – “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed”. Could it be that the reason why the healing or breakthrough that we long for seems so out of grasp is because we have not learned to confess?

    And because we no longer practice confession, we continue to live in the dark and no one actually knows or see us as we truly are, and we remain alone in our sins without receiving prayer, forgiveness and healing?

    Could it be that a wound that is hidden cannot be healed and the part of us that is not known by others cannot receive love from them? Could it be that healing happens when we confess and receive prayer because we are brought into light? Could it be that we have been robbed of something precious and we don’t even know it?

  • Reflect

    Have you ever experienced the liberation that comes from confessing? When was the last time you confessed to someone? Will you practice confession and find healing from the darkness that is in you that is killing you?

  • Prayer

    “Lord, you know us and you see us. You know our every thought and understand our every emotion. Will you hear our confession and forgive us, and give us the grace and the strength to confess it to one another that we may receive prayer and healing.”

reading for: FRIDAY Night, 27 September

Psalms 124:8

  • ReAD

    Scripture reference: Psalm 124 

    Psalms 124:8

    Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

  • COMMENTARY

    What was the most recent struggle you had at work and how did you come out of it?

    Were you able to remain strong and steadfast, trusting in the LORD your God? Or did you barely make it out and are dreading the next time it happens again?

    Psalm 124 is another psalm of ascent and focuses squarely on the LORD who is Our Help.  “It is not a selected witness, inserted like a commercial into our lives to testify that life goes better with God; it is not part of a media blitz to convince us that God is superior to all the other gods on the market. It is not a press release. It is honest prayer.” (Eugene Peterson)

    So what is this honest prayer? Its an honest realisation that without the Heavenly Father beside him, he would have been completely engulfed and swallowed up by his enemies (v. 2-3). He would have been completely swept away by the torrential floods of his circumstances. Not just drowned but have a body nowhere to be found.

    Yet because the LORD, his Father in Heaven was with Him, there is deliverance. There is salvation. There is redemption. Just like a bird who escaped from the snare of mighty hunters, so we will come out stronger (v. 6-7).

    For our help is in the name of the LORD, the One who created the heavens and the earth.

    Its important for us however to note that its NOT the strength of the bird that enabled it to escape the snare. Its the strength and help that came from the LORD. Who not just watches over the birds and all creation. But protects, loves and helps. The bird trusted and relied on the LORD, Creator of Heaven and Earth, Heavenly Father. And that trust was well rewarded.

    In all of human and creation history, anyone who trusted and relied on the LORD for strength, would eventually experience the joy of salvation.

  • Reflect

    How have you been learning to pray and find strength in your times of struggle? The book of Psalms and in particular is a wonderful book to use and meditate on to help you pray.

  • Prayer

    Father in Heaven, where would I be without You? Where would I be without Your love and Your grace? If it were not for You I would have completely lost hope and trust in everything. Teach me Father to trust in You, just as Jesus fully and completely trusted in You. Even if it meant going to the cross to die.

    Holy Spirit fill me with a new heart and new desire to lean on You like never before.

    That One Day I would be able to sing this Psalm with all of my heart.

    Amen.

Season of LentCNL