FALL RETREAT!!!
... this weekend. Don't forget our worship service will take place at Morningstar Ranch and not at the Foundry.“Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other…” - Malachi 3:16
Psalm • Psalm 98
Old Testament • Malachi 3:13-4:6
Gospel • Luke 21:5-19
New Testament • 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
I love that first line from Malachi 3:16. Those who “feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard.” Our communication with one another matters to God. When we gather together to share what God is doing in our lives, how we are responding to God and what we think God would have us do he listens. While the context in Malachi is a negative one, God is defending himself to his unfaithful accusers, the concept remains valid for us today.
God guides us through the midst of our interaction with one another. Look in Acts 15. This is the story of the Jerusalem Council. God’s people discussed and God’s people acted and then, God acted through them. God is a benevolent eavesdropper.
This weekend Wheatland has its first Fall Retreat. It is my hope that during this time we will “talk with each other” not about our disobedience (we can if we need to!) but more about how God is working in and through us. How we hope God will work and what we hope for our futures together. Come to pray and come to talk.
Believe it or not, we are coming up on the end of the Church year. There are only three more weeks of what is called “ordinary time” and then, after that, we begin the Church year anew through celebrating the Season of Advent.
The readings that align with each week on the calendar are there to help us form our lives around Christ’s life. The Advent season builds within us an anticipation of Christ’s coming, both his return and his arrival in each of our hearts.
Let me encourage you to take time each week to read and reflect upon the passages that are provided below. May God bless you as you read and pray, pray and read. Amen.
Psalm • Psalm 17
Old Testament • Job 19:23-27
Gospel • Luke 20:27-38
New Testament • 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Psalm • Psalm 32 
Old Testament • Isaiah 1:10-20
Gospel • Luke 19:1-10
New Testament • 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
May God bless you as you read and pray, pray and read. Amen.
This is the prayer that we have prayed for the last several weeks at the beginning of our worship time. Saturday night we concluded our service with it after we discussed the first chapter in The Good and Beautiful God called “What Are You Seeking?”. The prayer comes from Celtic Daily Prayer and is based upon Psalm 27.
Let me encourage you to begin your day with these words on your lips. Like most good prayers this one is aspirational. It includes a proclamation on our part that we are seeking the Lord all the while asking for God’s mercy in the search. Kyrie eliason, Lord have mercy.
One thing I have asked of the Lord, 
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life;
to behold the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.
Call: Who is it that you seek?
Response: We seek the Lord our God.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your heart?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your soul?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your mind?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your strength?
Response: Amen. Christ, have mercy.
For the Morning Prayer at CDP you can click here Northumbria Community. Or, you may click on the prayer tab above.
Every once in awhile someone enters into our life creating such an impact that we cannot really know ourselves apart from some memory of their presence. Parents perform this function, of course, as do siblings, grandparents, and other family. Seldom do people outside of family leave such positive, lasting marks in our lives. Cecil Beaver was one of these people in mine.
In almost thirty years of pastoral ministry Cecil impacted countless people. For each of the years he served our small congregation in West Texas he had at least one person enter into some kind of ministry. He was quiet, unassuming and constant. He will be laid to rest today a mere 80 years old. Godspeed!
“For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.” – I Corinthians 4:15
Psalm • Psalm 84
Old Testament • Jeremiah 14:7-22
Gospel • Luke 18:9-14
New Testament • 2 Timothy 4:6-18
This week’s Gospel reading contains within it the origin of one of the most celebrated and prayed prayer within the 2000 year history of Christianity, the Jesus Prayer.
Here it is in both Greek and English:
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλό or, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
This prayer is central to the Eastern Orthodox faith but is also prayed by people of all Christian tribes from Roman Catholic and Anglican to Evangelical and Charismatic. The Jesus Prayer is a simple expression of trust in the person of Jesus Christ. It is a simple affirmation of Christ’s Lordship and a simple request for mercy. It assumes that God is merciful and that he longs to share that with us through Jesus.
Let me encourage you to consider making this prayer a part of your everyday life. Relying upon Christ and seeking his assistance through words prayed by our brothers and sisters in Christ long, long ago.
