Morning Prayer
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Inspiration
Prayer was the bond that kept the apostles and the believers of the Early Church together. They spent much time praying in one another's houses – praying for strength and encouragement to remain steadfast in their faith in Christ. Prayer is the same bond that will keep families, marriages, and churches together. We cannot afford to take prayer for granted in our communal lives as believers.
Prayer
Dear God, I thank you that we can access you in prayer at all times. Father I pray that I will never neglect the importance of prayer in my life. We know that it is through prayer we remain strengthened and we are able to refresh our union in you. May it remain this way, O Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Devotion
Pick Up Your Cross
Frances Taylor
Jesus never said it would be easy to follow him. We all have crosses to bear. No one escapes. We may think that riches will buy happiness, but even the wealthiest get sick, lose people they love and eventually die. What about power? There are people who spend their whole life climbing over other people to get to the top whether in business, politics, or wealth, only to discover that they are not happy and have no one left except those who want to pull them down. Fame can bring more problems than it solves. What is Jesus trying to tell us, then?
I believe that he reminds us of what is important, that our priorities need to be to love the people we love, to be kind to strangers, to put God first in our lives. Neither money nor power nor fame will soothe the pain of illness, or the death of a loved one. Jesus tells us that he will help us carry our cross; all we need to do is ask for help. There's a tendency to think that whatever cross we bear must ...
Morning Prayer
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Inspiration
Paul gives thanks to God the Father (verse 12) for delivering us from the power of darkness and moving us into the realm of light, which is the Kingdom of Christ and of God. The kingdom will come to the earth in an outward form in the thousand-year reign of Christ and then in his everlasting reign in the New Heaven and New Earth. But even now it is here in a "hidden" sense in the form of the subjects of King Jesus (his Church) being present. Satan's kingdom also is here in this world, and it is a kingdom of darkness and sin. Only God's power could overcome the "power of darkness" and make us children of light.
Prayer
We give thanks to you, O Father, along with Paul for transferring us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You have made us to be a light to the ...
