Scripture and Prayer on Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 5:1-15 and offers a prayer from Anselm:

O blessed Lord, who has commanded us to love one another, grant us grace that having received your undeserved bounty, we may love everyone in you and for you. We pray for your clemency for everyone; but especially for the friends whom your love has given us. Love them, O fountain of love, and make them love you with all their heart, that they may will and speak and do those things only which are pleasing to you.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 4:21-31 and offers a prayer from B.F. Westcott:

Blessed Lord, who for our sakes was content to bear sorrow, and want, and death, grant to us such a measure of your Spirit that we may follow you in all self-denial and tenderness of soul. Help us, by your great love, to support the afflicted, to relieve the needy and destitute, to comfort the feeble-minded, to share the burdens of the heavy laden, and always to see you in all who are poor and destitute.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Monday, June 8, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 4:12-20 and offers a prayer from Malcolm Boyd:

We who stand in the world offer ourselves and our society for your blessed healing.
We confess we have failed to love as you did.
We have been socially unjust, and our society is imperfect, fragmented, and sometimes sick to death.
Teach us your ways in the world and in this life which we share together.
Don’t let us restrict you to a narrow ghetto labelled “religion,” but lead us to worship you in the fullness of life as the Lord of politics, economics, and the arts.
Give us light to seek true morality, not in narrow legalisms but in sacrifice and open responsibility.
Show us how to express our love for you in very specific, human service to other people.
Lord, change our hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, and let us give thanks to you for all of life. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Monday, June 8, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Friday, June 5, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 3:15-22 and offers a prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Oh God our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of assembling here this morning. We thank you for all of the opportunities of life, and as we stand together today and discuss vital matters confronting our nation and confronting the world, we ask your guidance be with us in all our deliberations and help us at all times to seek to do those things which are high, noble and good, and to make our nation a great nation, a nation that follows all of the noble precepts of the Christian Religion and all of the noble precepts of democracy. Grant, O God, that as we move on we will move toward that city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Friday, June 5, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Thursday, June 4, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 3:1-14 and offers a prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

O God, our gracious Heavenly Father, help us to rise out of our attitude of self-centeredness, out of our egotism. Help us to rise to the point of having faith in you and realizing that we are dependent on you. And when we realize this, O God, we will live life with a new meaning and with a new understanding and with a new integration. We ask you to grant all of these blessings in the name and spirit of Jesus. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Thursday, June 4, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 2:11-21 and offers a prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

O God, our gracious heavenly Father, we thank thee for the inspiration of Jesus the Christ, who came to this world to show us the way. And grant that we will see in that life the fact that we are made for that which is high and noble and good. Help us to live in line with that high calling, that great destiny. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 1:18-2:10 and offers a prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being. We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls, and minds, and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not forget. And so as we look within ourselves we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against thee. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know thy will. Give us the courage to do thy will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on Monday, June 1, 2020

Pastor David reads Galatians 1:1-17 and offers this prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Most gracious and all wise God, before whose face the generations rise and fall; thou in whome we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee for all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and the love of human nature. We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love and we deliberately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie. We are forever offered the high road and yet we choose to travel the low road. For these sins O God forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. O God in these turbulent days when fear and doubt are mounting high, give us broad visions, penetrating eyes, and power of endurance. Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world, for a better distribution of wealth, and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Monday, June 1, 2020

Scripture and Prayer on May 29, 2020

Pastor David reads Ephesians 5:1-20 and offers a prayer from a plaque on the altar of the Coventry Cathedral in England:

The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,
Father, forgive.

The covetous desires of men and nations to possess what is not their own,
Father, forgive.

The greed which exploits the labors of men, and lays waste the earth,
Father, forgive.

Scripture and Prayer on Thursday, May 28, 2020

Pastor David reads Ephesians 4:17-32 and offers a prayer from Johann Arndt:

Bestow on me, Lord, a genial spirit and unwearied forbearance; a mild, loving patient heart; kindly looking, pleasant, friendly speech and manners in daily life; that I may give offense to no one, but as much as in me lies, live in charity with all people.

(Apologies for the late post today! There was a glitch with our upload earlier in the day.)

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Thursday, May 28, 2020