Prayer of the Church, 11.24.13

The Lord is our righteousness.  The Lord is our righteousness.  You, O God, are our righteousness. 

Thank you, wondrous Father that we may make a statement like that.  Help us understand the overwhelming nature of such a statement…that without you, we have nothing; without you, we are lost.

Thank you that you let us be a part of your world.  Thank you for the privilege of being your children.  Thank you for Jesus Christ who you have placed before us as our king and savior.

King Jesus of the peasant’s birth; born in lowly settings; raised the son of a tradesman.

King Jesus ridiculed for his good deeds, for his good works done in the wrong way, for his Good News.

King Jesus mocked, beaten, scourged, spat upon because he would not bow down before false gods and false religion.

King Jesus killed for our sins, crushed for our iniquities, made unclean when he took on our imperfection.

King Jesus raised from the dead and reigning forever, calling us to a life imitating him, calling us to a life of sacrifice and discomfort, calling us to a life of service, calling us to a life of glory when we are all united in the truth that is Jesus Christ.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.  All glory to the Father that he sacrificed his son to reunite us with him…royalty made peasant…perfection made unclean.  All glory to the Father who raised King Jesus from the dead and placed the Son beside the Father.

In the silence, let us reflect on the implications of such knowledge and how it should impact our daily lives, how we should strive to follow the life, teaching, sacrifice, and love of our King and Savior, Jesus.

Thank you, wondrous Lord.

Father, as we regularly pray for those ministering in your name, we specifically bring before you some of our brothers and sisters serving in Tuebingen, Germany.  We ask your continued blessings on the European Evangelistic Society as they strive to develop international Christian leaders and Unterwegs Campus Ministry as they minister to non-Christian students at the Eberhard-Karls University.  Give them zeal for their missions, wisdom for their decisions, and patience for their toils.

And now Lord, we pray together the prayer Jesus, our King and Savior taught us: 

Prayers of the Church, 8.4.13

God of life, from whom all creation flows, we acknowledge you as our creator, our Father, as the one true God.  We marvel at your greatness.  We are amazed at all the riches, all the gifts, all the blessings you have bestowed upon us.  You, O Lord, are a great and wondrous God. 

Knowing all of this, believing it in our hearts, we still act counter to your desires.  We do evil even when we recognize it as such and sometimes seem unable to stop ourselves.  Sometimes it’s worse because we are unwilling to stop our evil actions.  We are vile and petty, we are hateful and deceitful.  We lie, we cheat, we steal…we disappoint you. 

As you spoke in your Word, you were through with us, you were ready to destroy us.  We had rebelled one too many times.  It was over.  Yet, you did not completely give up on us.  With Noah you started again.  With Jesus Christ you started again.  You declared you anger, yet your love was just too great to let us go.  Praise be to you O Lord for sticking with us, for saving a people who so many times clearly deserved to be destroyed. 

We have been redeemed, evil as we are, much as we displease you…we have been set free through the blood of the Lamb – He was guilty of nothing, yet he bore all of our guilt.  He was blameless before you, O God, yet you let the weight of our sins crush him on that cross.  He made us clean. 

How do we respond?  How do we act?  What do we do?  We fall on our knees and praise your name for such boundless love; we work to strengthen the body of believers, to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters around us; we strive to like our savior, humbly sharing your love to those in need in so many ways.

You never gave up on us, you will never give up on us.  Help us never give up on our efforts to live lives that are pleasing to you.  Help us make friends of enemies, turn hate into love, and lift up those around us who are separated from your love.  Let the truth of the Gospel literally shine through us.

Thank you, loving God, for your merciful and endless love.

Now we turn our minds another way and bring before you a mission that we believe embodies what you hold dear, Father.  We ask your special blessing on Family Promise, the IHN Grandview has partnered with for many years.  We ask your continued blessing on them as they work to help challenged families stay together while they get back on their feet and move forward positively.

Thank you that you allow us to serve in your name.

Thank you that you allow us to approach you in prayer, and we do that now, reciting the prayer that our savior, Jesus Christ taught us:

Prayers of the Church, 7.7.13

Almighty God, the God who made the heavens and the earth, who commands all of creation, we give you thanks for the opportunities you present to us:  opportunities to worship, to learn, to share your Word, to have meaningful relationships with our brothers and sisters and with our maker.  You could have crafted us as nothing more than robots, toys to play with, but instead created beings with the ability to have complex relationships.  You wanted a relationship – to share your love – Godly love, fatherly love.  Thank you for this great, unconditional love.

Oh, God who commands the planets in their orbits, the sun as it shines, help us to hear and respond to your commands to serve each other and the world around us, to reach out to the dispossessed, to help those in need whatever the affliction, to love the unlovable, to build relationships with our enemies, to allow ourselves discomfort, pain, and even loss for the sake of others and the sake of the Gospel.

Gracious God, who put the world right, who puts creation in order – we ask your power upon us, the faint, we ask your strength upon us, the powerless.  We know that we are weak and selfish.  We fail each other; we fail you.  Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your world since there’s no way we deserve it.  Help us fully participate in your work to put the world right and not be those who would ignore or hinder your plans, your desires.  Align ourselves with your will to bless others and share Your love through Jesus Christ.  We call on you, Lord, to renew our strength; give us the ability to run and not be weary, walk and not faint, persevere in the face of evil, and use every opportunity of sacrifice, service, and proclamation to share the Good News and glorify you.

In the silence, hear our struggles, Father.  Respond to our cries, to our whispered failures and fears.  Let us know you are listening.  Smile upon us and wrap us in your love.

Glory be to you, Oh God, who was, who is, and who will always be.

Now, we specifically ask your blessings on the ETSU campus house – the staff, volunteers, and students as they serve you and share your love as a community on the campus of East Tennessee State University.  Encourage them; give them wisdom and strength; help them persevere even when the responses they seek don’t come as quickly as they hope.

And now we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us:

Prayers of the Church, 6.2.13

Great are you, O Lord.  Your word is upright; all your work is done in faithfulness.  This earth is full of your steadfast love.  We give praise to you, wondrous God.

In the beginning was your Spirit.  Throughout the ages, it has strengthened your servants, guided the faithful, and overcome evil.

When we accepted you through Jesus Christ, you filled us with your Spirit and made our lives new.  There was excitement in the ever-revealing knowledge of you.  There was awe of your greatness as you increased our wisdom.  Our eyes were made open like those of a new baby. 

Remind us about the excitement of being a baby Christian.

Recreate the passion in us when we were new Christians…when we believed all things could be done through you.  We say we believe it and time takes its toll, life takes its toll.  We see evil, we experience hardship, and we forget that you don’t make bad things happen.  We just want you to fix all the evils, all the sickness, all the trouble in the world.

Help us move past being baby Christians.

Create in us the hunger for more, the hunger to be filled with the Spirit, the hunger to do more than let your blessings flow over us.  Create the desire to bless others the way you have blessed us. Create the desire for the world to be made a better place as more people know you, as more people meet Jesus Christ through us, as we work to glorify you.

Deepen our wisdom, our knowledge of you, our faith in you.

As we hear your call and we look at ways to be your church, help us develop our vision, make it tangible, bring it to life in the name of Jesus.  In the silence we ask your wisdom, knowledge and faith on our leaders as they seek to help this congregation do your will in the world around us.

Glory be to you, great and wonderful Lord.

We know that our mission is to reach the lost around us and across the globe.  We pray specifically now for one of our own, Cody Spencer, who serves in a CMF campus ministry in Spain.  Strengthen his spiritual gifts and let the light of Jesus Christ shine through him and his work.

And now, Lord, we pray together the prayer that Jesus prayed and taught us:

Prayers of the Church, 3.3.13

We come to you in this time of prayer, Lord, thankful that you allow us to reach out to you.  We are in awe of your majesty, your omnipotence, your power.  The heavens and the earth, the very universe itself falls subject to your desires.  Turn your face toward us, wondrous God, as we your children, kneel at your feet and call you Father. 

We come to you now, Lord, besieged…besieged by a cacophony of words, images, activities that call to us, invite us, entice us.  Satan imitates the most alluring parts of life.  The evil one uses us ourselves to focus on things other than your kingdom and your wishes.

We are tempted…we experience the temptation to complain, the temptation to draw inside ourselves, look out for ourselves, the temptation to think to highly of ourselves, the temptation to think others will take care of the needs around us, the temptation to believe our lives are about us.  Help us understand our lives, as followers of the Christ, are about the kingdom, being obedient to God, serving others in the name of Jesus.

Help us endure the onslaught of the world that tells us to feed our own needs when the needs of others stand so starkly before us.  Give us grace, give us empathetic spirits.  Help us be tender and kind.  Help us recognize that when we look into the eyes of another in need, we are looking into the eyes of Jesus, who lowered Himself to the position of a slave.  Engender in us the desire to act and the discipline to carry out your commandment to love others as our Savior loves us.

Bless our enemies, Lord.  Help us overcome the temptation to ignore, dismiss, or subordinate those we do not like, those with whom we do not agree, or those who do not like us.  We are all your children, and as your children, we have been made worthy…worthy of each other’s attention, understanding, and time.

In the silence, O God, hear our petitions…for your grace, your forgiveness.  Hear our pleas for mercy for ourselves and for those for whom we care.  Hear our thoughts of gratitude, love, and thanksgiving.


Our victory is in you, great and wondrous Lord.  Our victory is in helping your kingdom be made manifest and spread to the corners of the earth.  Praise be to you, Father.

We ask special blessings today, Father, on the Eldoret Mission in Kenya.  Give them strength, wisdom, and endurance, Lord, as they work to prepare ministers of the Gospel in the surrounding area.

And now we pray together the prayer that our savior Jesus Christ taught us to pray:

Prayers of the Church, 2.3.13

O most holy God, we come before you today in prayer, in awe of your greatness, mindful of your omnipotence, and in humble supplication.  Thank you for your creation.  Thank you for your love.  Thank you that we can call you Father.

As our father, you want us to live good lives, happy lives, loving lives.  You call us to live Christian lives, full of the Holy Spirit.  You are pleased when we worship you.  You also call on us to share the Good News to all who will hear it so they may live fulfilling, worshipful lives, too.

We’re so busy.  There are only so many hours in the day.  We have work; we have family, we have social and church obligations.  Each day is often over before we even realize it’s time for another. 

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Dear Father, help us hear our Savior’s call.  Help us not let our lives get in the way of reaching out to the lost.  While we can’t get away from our daily responsibilities -- and we shouldn’t -- help them not eclipse your command.  Help us weave threads of evangelism and discipleship into all that we do so that it’s second nature, so that it’s as normal to us as breathing.

We’re so busy that we often try very hard to not get inconvenienced, to not be interrupted.  Help us be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by you and your desires.  Help us realize that sharing the Good News IS central to our lives.

Most of us are ordinary, everyday people.  We often live mundane, imperfect lives.  Thank you for using us just as you have used your people all through the ages.  Thank you for trusting us.  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to please you.

Help us show the love of Jesus Christ to all those whose paths we cross, saved and unsaved, likeable and nasty, friend and enemy…for all are your children…and you desire all to be close to you.

In the silence, Lord, speak to us.  Let us be quiet and hear your call.

Praise be to you, wondrous Lord.

Just as we ask your care, mercy, and love on those on our prayer lists, we ask your special blessings today on Warren and Julie Veal and their family as they serve with Missionary Aviation Fellowship, sharing the love of Jesus Christ through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed.

As we prepare our hearts and minds for our time of communion, let us pray together as Jesus Christ taught us to pray…