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“Centering Prayer” for Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Today’s Reflection:
[MANY] METHODS OF
PRAYER require concentration. Some forms of prayer involve passionate petition.
In intercession we earnestly bring our concerns to God. In listening prayer we
give rapt attention to what God is saying to us. Mantric meditation employs concentration.
The constant repetition of the mantra or short phrase helps the pray-er focus
and move into another state of consciousness. Concentration can make us more
attentive. Mindfulness meditation can increase awareness.
Centering Prayer
does not require constant use of a mantra or consciousness of breathing or any
effort of exerted attention. Letting go of all our efforts, we simply sit with
the intention of surrendering to God. We wait with openness, turning to God through
the use of our prayer word that expresses our readiness to receive the love of
God.
--J. David Muyskens,
Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God: The Practice of Centering Prayer
From page 84 of
Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God: The Practice of Centering Prayer by J.
David Muyskens. Copyright © 2006 by J. David Muyskens. All rights reserved.
Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn
more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
Have you practiced
centering prayer?
Today’s Scripture:
Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the
Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain,
that they may live.”--Ezekiel 37:9, NRSV
This Week: pray for
those mourning a parent.
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Did You Know?
Looking for a time
to get away? Rest? Renew? Join The Upper Room this July 13 – 17 for SOULfeast
at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina as we engage the Living Psalms. Leadership
includes Roberta Bondi, Rob Fuquay, Dana Trent, and more!
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Saints, Inc.:
This week we
remember: Martin Luther King Jr. (April
4).
Martin Luther King
Jr. (1929-68), American Baptist minister and civil rights leader. Born in
Atlanta January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was educated at Morehouse
College in Atlanta, Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and
Boston University. In 1954 he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery, Alabama, and quickly found himself thrust into the leadership of a
bus boycott that lasted more than a year and ended in a U.S. Supreme Court
order to desegregate buses and schools.
The experience in
Montgomery inspired King to look more closely at Gandhi's nonviolent protest.
In 1960 he resigned his pastorate to devote full-time leadership to the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he had helped to form in 1957.
Already the most visible leader in the civil rights movement, his courageous
conduct in the Birmingham march in 1963 in the face of bitter opposition
further elevated his status and gained for the movement the backing of
President John F. Kennedy. In the wake of Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the
United States Congress passed civil rights legislation. In 1964 King was
awarded the Nobel Prize. Adhering strictly to the principle of nonviolence, he
organized further protests in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and other states.
King was assassinated during a demonstration of support for striking sanitation
workers in Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968.
King's books include
Stride Toward Freedom, Why We Can't Wait,Strength to Love, and The Autobiography
of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborn Carson.
If Martin Luther
King Jr. had taken the Spiritual Types Test he probably would have been a
Prophet. King is remembered on April 4.
[Excerpted with
permission from the entry on Martin Luther King Jr. by E. Glenn Hinson, from
The Upper Room Dictionary of Christian Spiritual Formation, edited by Keith
Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 2003 by Upper Room Books®. All rights reserved.]
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Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of
Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Ezekiel 37:1
Yahweh’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in Yahweh’s Spirit, and set me
down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to
pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley;
and behold, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, Son of man, can these bones
live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. 4 Again he said to me, Prophesy over
these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word. 5 Thus says the
Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and
you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall
know that I am Yahweh. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I
prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. 8 I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them,
and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the
wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe
on these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and
the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an
exceedingly great army. 11 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope
is lost; we are clean cut off. 12 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out
of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 You
shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to
come up out of your graves, my people. 14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you
shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I,
Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it, says Yahweh.
Psalm 30: A Psalm. A
Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David.
1 I will extol you,
Yahweh, for you have raised me up,
and have not made my foes to rejoice over
me.
2 Yahweh my God, I
cried to you,
and you have healed
me.
3 Yahweh, you have
brought up my soul from Sheol.[a]
You have kept me alive, that I should not
go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to
Yahweh, you saints of his.
Give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is
but for a moment.
His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for
the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 As for me, I said
in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 You, Yahweh, when
you favored me, made my mountain stand strong;
but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
8 I cried to you,
Yahweh.
To Yahweh I made supplication:
9 “What profit is
there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise you?
Shall it declare your truth?
10 Hear, Yahweh, and
have mercy on me.
Yahweh, be my helper.”
11 You have turned
my mourning into dancing for me.
You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed
me with gladness,
12 To the end that my heart may sing praise
to you, and not be silent.
Yahweh my God, I
will give thanks to you forever!
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 30:3 Sheol
is the place of the dead.
Psalm 130: A Song of
Ascents.
1 Out of the depths
I have cried to you, Yahweh.
2 Lord, hear my
voice.
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of
my petitions.
3 If you, Yah, kept
a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is
forgiveness with you,
therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for Yahweh.
My soul waits.
I hope in his word.
6 My soul longs for
the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning;
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 Israel, hope in
Yahweh,
for with Yahweh there is loving kindness.
With him is abundant redemption.
8 He will redeem
Israel from all their sins.
Romans 8:6 For the
mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; 7
because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to
God’s law, neither indeed can it be. 8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please
God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the
Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ,
he is not his. 10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him who
raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from
the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who
dwells in you.
John 11:1 Now a
certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her
sister, Martha. 2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and
wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 The sisters
therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great
affection is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not
to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” 5
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When therefore he heard
that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after
this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”
8 The disciples told
him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there
again?”
9 Jesus answered,
“Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t
stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if a man walks in the
night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.” 11 He said these things,
and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I
am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”
12 The disciples
therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
13 Now Jesus had
spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. 14
So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead. 15 I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to
him.”
16 Thomas therefore,
who is called Didymus,[a] said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we
may die with him.”
17 So when Jesus
came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. 18 Now Bethany
was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia[b] away. 19 Many of the Jews had
joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their
brother. 20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him,
but Mary stayed in the house. 21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you
would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that,
whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your
brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to
him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to
her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still
live, even if he dies. 26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?”
27 She said to him,
“Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who
comes into the world.”
28 When she had said
this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The
Teacher is here, and is calling you.”
29 When she heard
this, she arose quickly, and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into
the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. 31 Then the Jews who
were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that
she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the
tomb to weep there.” 32 Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw
him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been
here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
33 When Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned
in the spirit, and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?”
They told him,
“Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 The Jews therefore
said, “See how much affection he had for him!” 37 Some of them said, “Couldn’t
this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man
from dying?”
38 Jesus therefore,
again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay
against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister
of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he
has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to
her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”
41 So they took away
the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.[c] Jesus lifted up his
eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. 42 I know that
you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said
this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he
cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 He who was dead
came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around
with a cloth.
Jesus said to them,
“Free him, and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of
the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him.
Footnotes:
a. John 11:16
“Didymus” means “Twin”.
b. John 11:18 15
stadia is about 2.8 kilometers or 1.7 miles
c. John 11:41 NU
omits “from the place where the dead man was lying.”
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John Wesley’s
Commentary-Notes for:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
XXXVII The vision of
the resurrection of the dry bones, ver. 1- 10. The explication of it, ver.
11-14 A type of the happy coalition which would be between Israel and Judah,
ver. 15-22. A prediction of the kingdom of Christ, and of the glories and
graces of that kingdom, ver. 23-28.
Verse 1. And set me
down - So it seemed to me in the vision. Which is a lively representation of a
threefold resurrection:
1. Of the
resurrection of souls, from the death of sin, to the life of righteousness:
2. The resurrection
of the church from an afflicted state, to liberty and peace:
3. The resurrection
of the body at the great day, especially the bodies of believers to life
eternal.
3. And he - The
Lord.
Verse 7. Prophesied
- Declared these promises. As I prophesied - While I was prophesying. A noise -
A rattling of the bones in their motion. A shaking - A trembling or commotion
among the bones, enough to manifest a divine presence, working among them. Came
together - Glided nearer and nearer, 'till each bone met the bone to which it
was to be joined. Of all the bones of all those numerous slain, not one was
missing, not one missed its way, not one missed its place, but each knew and
found its fellow. Thus in the resurrection of the dead, the scattered atoms
shall be arranged in their proper place and order, and every bone come to his
bone, by the same wisdom and power by which they were first formed in the womb
of her that is with child.
Verse 8. Came up -
Gradually spreading itself.
Verse 9. Prophesy -
Declare what my will is. O breath - The soul, whose emblem here is wind; which,
as it gently blew upon these lifeless creatures, each was inspired with its own
soul or spirit.
Verse 10. And the
breath - The spirit of life, or the soul, Gen. ii, 7.
Verse 11. The whole
house - The emblem of the house of Israel. Are dried - Our state is as
hopeless, as far from recovery, as dried bones are from life.
Verse 12. I will
open - Though your captivity be as death, your persons close as the grave, yet
I will open those graves.
Psalm 30
PS 30 He praises God
for delivering him, and exhorts others to praise him, ver. 1-5. Recollects his
former security, and his prayer when in trouble, ver. 6-10. And stirs himself
up to thankfulness, ver. 11, 12. A Psalm and song, at the dedication of the
house of David. Title of the psalm. Song - A psalm to be sung with the voice to
an instrument. David - At the dedication of David's house, which was built,
2 Sam. v, 11, and
doubtless was dedicated, as God had commanded.
Verse 5. Cometh -
Speedily and in due season.
Verse 7. Mountain -
My kingdom: kingdoms are usually called mountains in prophetical writings.
Verse 9. Profit -
What wilt thou gain by it? The dust - Shall they that are dead celebrate thy
goodness in the land of the living? Or, shall my dust praise thee?
Verse 11. Sackcloth
- Given me occasion to put off that sackcloth, which they used to wear in times
of mourning, Esth iv, 1 chap. xxxv, 13 Isaiah xxxii, 11 Joel i, 13. Girded -
With joy, as with a garment, surrounding me on every side.
Verse 12. My glory -
My tongue
Psalm 130
PS 130 The psalmist
confessing his sins, expresses his hope in God, ver. 1-6. And exhorts Israel to
hope in him, ver.7, 8. A song of degrees.
Verse 3. Mark -
Observe them accurately and punish them as they deserve. Stand - At thy
tribunal.
Verse 4. Forgiveness
- Thou art able and ready to forgive repenting sinners. Feared - Not with a slavish,
but with a childlike fear. This mercy of thine is the foundation of all
religion, without which men would desperately proceed in their impious courses.
Verse 5. I wait -
That he would pardon my sins.
Verse 6. They -
Whether soldiers that keep the night-watches in an army, or the priests or
Levites who did so in the temple.
Verse 7. Israel -
Every true Israelite. Plenteous - Abundantly sufficient for all persons who
accept it upon God's terms.
Romans 8:6-11
Verse 6. For to be
carnally minded - That is, to mind the things of the flesh. Is death - The sure
mark of spiritual death, and the way to death everlasting. But to be
spiritually minded - That is, to mind the things of the Spirit. Is life - A
sure mark of spiritual life, and the way to life everlasting. And attended with
peace - The peace of God, which is the foretaste of life everlasting; and peace
with God, opposite to the enmity mentioned in the next verse.
Verse 7. Enmity
against God - His existence, power, and providence.
Verse 8. They who are
in the flesh - Under the government of it.
Verse 9. In the
Spirit - Under his government. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ -
Dwelling and governing in him. He is none of his - He is not a member of
Christ; not a Christian; not in a state of salvation. A plain, express
declaration, which admits of no exception. He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear!
Verse 10. Now if
Christ be in you - Where the Spirit of Christ is, there is Christ. The body
indeed is dead - Devoted to death. Because of sin - Heretofore committed. But
the Spirit is life - Already truly alive. Because of righteousness - Now
attained. From ver. 13, St. Paul, having finished what he had begun, chap. vi,
1, describes purely the state of believers.
John 11:1-45
Verse 1. One Lazarus
- It is probable, Lazarus was younger than his sisters. Bethany is named, the
town of Mary and Martha, and Lazarus is mentioned after them, ver. 5.
Ecclesiastical history informs us, that Lazarus was now thirty years old, and
that he lived thirty years after Christ's ascension.
Verse 2. It was that
Mary who afterward anointed, &c. She was more known than her elder sister
Martha, and as such is named before her.
Verse 4. This
sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God - The event of this sickness
will not be death, in the usual sense of the word, a final separation of his
soul and body; but a manifestation of the glorious power of God.
Verse 7. Let us go
into Judea - From the country east of Jordan, whither he had retired some time
before, when the Jews sought to stone him, chap. x, 39,
Verse 40.
Verse 9. Are there
not twelve hours in the day? - The Jews always divided the space from sunrise
to sunset, were the days longer or shorter, into twelve parts: so that the
hours of their day were all the year the same in number, though much shorter in
winter than in summer. If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not - As if he
had said, So there is such a space, a determined time, which God has allotted
me. During that time I stumble not, amidst all the snares that are laid for me.
Because he seeth the light of this world - And so I see the light of God
surrounding me.
Verse 10. But if a
man walk in the night - If he have not light from God; if his providence does
no longer protect him.
Verse 11. Our friend
Lazarus sleepeth - This he spoke, just when he died. Sleepeth - Such is the
death of good men in the language of heaven. But the disciples did not yet
understand this language. And the slowness of our understanding makes the
Scripture often descend to our barbarous manner of speaking.
Verse 16. Thomas in
Hebrew, as Didymus in Greek, signifies a twin. With him - With Jesus, whom he
supposed the Jews would kill. It seems to be the language of despair.
Verse 20. Mary sat
in the house - Probably not hearing what was said.
Verse 22. Whatsoever
thou wilt ask, God will give it thee - So that she already believed he could
raise him from the dead.
Verse 25. l am the
resurrection - Of the dead. And the life - Of the living. He that believeth in
me, though he die, yet shall he live - In life everlasting.
Verse 32. She fell
at his feet - This Martha had not done. So she makes amends for her slowness in
coming.
Verse 33. He groaned
- So he restrained his tears. So he stopped them soon after, ver. 38. He
troubled himself - An expression amazingly elegant, and full of the highest
propriety. For the affections of Jesus were not properly passions, but
voluntary emotions, which were wholly in his own power. And this tender trouble
which he now voluntarily sustained, was full of the highest order and reason.
Verse 35. Jesus wept
- Out of sympathy with those who were in tears all around him, as well as from
a deep sense of the misery sin had brought upon human nature.
Verse 37. Could not
this person have even caused, that this man should not have died? - Yet they
never dreamed that he could raise him again! What a strange mixture of faith
and unbelief.
Verse 38. It was a
cave - So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, except Rachel, were
buried in the cave of Machpelah, Gen. xlix, 29-31. These caves were commonly in
rocks, which abounded in that country, either hollowed by nature or hewn by
art. And the entrance was shut up with a great stone, which sometimes had a
monumental inscription.
Verse 39. Lord, by
this time he stinketh - Thus did reason and faith struggle together.
Verse 40. Said I not
- It appears by this, that Christ had said more to Martha than is before
recorded.
Verse 41. Jesus
lifted up his eyes - Not as if he applied to his Father for assistance. There
is not the least show of this. He wrought the miracle with an air of absolute
sovereignty, as the Lord of life and death. But it was as if he had said, I
thank thee, that by the disposal of thy providence, thou hast granted my
desire, in this remarkable opportunity of exerting my power, and showing forth
thy praise.
Verse 43. He cried
with a loud voice - That all who were present might hear. Lazarus, come forth -
Jesus called him out of the tomb as easily as if he had been not only alive,
but awake also.
Verse 44. And he
came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes - Which were wrapt round each
hand and each foot, and his face was wrapt about with a napkin - If the Jews
buried as the Egyptians did, the face was not covered with it, but it only went
round the forehead, and under the chin; so that he might easily see his way.
Verse 45. Many
believed on Him - And so the Son of God was glorified, according to what our
Lord had said, ver. 4.
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