Devotion
Consider the Lilies
Frances Taylor
The first time I saw Sidney Poitier in a movie was in "The Lilies of the Field" for which he won an Oscar for best actor. The movie had a couple of important lessons and every time I read today's gospel passage I am reminded of both the movie and the lessons. A group of sisters want to build a chapel and they don't have the means to do it but believe that if they pray hard enough, the Lord will provide the means and men to do the work. Sidney needs a place to stay and the Superior sees her man. He stays on and works to build the chapel. Okay, you know there must be a twist! He tries to do it alone and fails. Eventually he must ask for help and the chapel is built.
Today we are being told not to worry about the needs of tomorrow but to concentrate on the "now." But what kind of "now" are we supposed to concentrate on? Not, we are told, on what we are to eat and drink, but to seek first the kingdom of God and then God will provide everything else that we truly need just as he feeds the earth to bring forth the flowers and cares for the birds of the air. The second lesson from the movie is that we all need help at times. Sometimes we need to ask for help, and sometimes we need to be help for others. It is often through his people that God provides for our needs. If we are truly seeking God's kingdom we will be ready both to ask for help and to offer it. As we continue this season of Lent. Let us reflect on the ways in which we will work to bring the kingdom to others through our prayers, fasting and almsgiving so that our celebration of Easter might be even more glorious.
Prayer
Yes, Lord. I know that you know us and you know what we need even more than we know ourselves. Give us the grace to put you and the kingdom first in our lives trusting in your goodness and mercy to provide for us. Amen.
Morning Prayer
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Inspiration
To reject the truths taught in God's Word, spoken by his prophets and apostles and by Jesus Christ his Son, is a grave offense. In the days when Hebrews was written, there were still true prophets in the Church, speaking from God. Today, we have his written Word as our "prophet. " If a preacher preaches truly according to the Book, we are in a grave sin if we reject it.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to discern when your Word is being taught correctly and when it is not. Teach me to embrace your truths and love them. Help me to walk in them and meditate on them. Let me not sin in rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible. Amen.
Night Prayer
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Inspiration
Sin rules our lives until we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we invite Him into our lives, our old sinful heart dies, and God creates within us a new one, where sin no longer rules our life; God does! Our thoughts and actions begin to change because we no longer desire a sinful lifestyle. We joyfully devote our lives to serving Him and inviting others to understand His promise of salvation.
Prayer
Dear Lord, we are sinners born again and recreated to live according to Your will. We are grateful for Your love and the peace we experience by abolishing our old sinful self. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion
Satan Has Been Defeated
Frances Taylor
Salvation and power have come with Christ and Satan has been defeated. Sin and death have been conquered by the actions of one man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, both human and divine who came into the world to bring the Good News of salvation by living, dying and rising for us. As Christians we claim to believe this but our actions sometimes deny it. Unfortunately, people seem to resurrect Satan all the time. We allow him to lead us away from God, forgetting the way to the Father that is love, and giving in to Satan's path of hatred, anger, pride, lust, chaos and destruction.
Satan, of course, doesn't present these as bad things, he makes them seem attractive. He presents sin as goods to be desired, as things to make us happy or give us pleasure. It can be hard to stay on the path that leads to God when the world seems to be crowding us and pushing us off of it. How easy it is to forget the sacrifice that bought our freedom! Which of us ...
