Suggestion for Daily Use

Follow the ‘Daily Prayer’ at the side+++Suivez le ‘Prière Quotidienne’. Read the bible passages and then the meditation. Pray, tell God how you felt about the reading and share the concerns of your life with him. Maybe you will continue the habit after Lent. Lisez les passages bible et après la méditation. Priez, dites à Dieu que vous avez ressenti à propos de la lecture et de partager les préoccupations de votre vie avec lui. Peut-être que vous allez continuer l'habitude après le Carême. Daily Prayer Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Luke 4.1-2 Now is the healing time decreed For sins of heart, of word or deed, When we in humble fear record The wrong that we have done the Lord. (Latin, before 12th century) Read: Read the Bible passage. Read the meditation Pray: Talk to God about what you have just read. Tell him your concerns - for yourself, your family, our church family, our world. Praise him. Pray the collect for the week – see next pages. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Prière Quotidienne Jésus, rempli de l'Esprit Saint, revint du Jourdain et le Saint-Esprit le conduisit dans le désert où il fut tenté par le diable durant quarante jours. Luc 4.1-2 Maintenant le temps de la guérison est décrété Pour les péchés du cœur, de la parole et des actes, Lorsque nous nous souvenons avec humilité Le mal que nous avons fait au Seigneur. Lire : Lisez le passage de la Bible. Lisez la méditation. Prier : Parlez avec le Seigneur de ce que vous avez lu. Parlez-lui de vos préoccupations pour vous-même, votre famille, notre famille de l’église, notre monde. Louez-le. Priez la collecte pour la semaine. Voyez les pages suivantes Mon âme, bénis le Seigneur ! Que tout qui est en moi bénisse son saint nom. Mon âme, bénis le Seigneur, et n’oublie aucun de ses bienfaits !

17 December 2010

Friday 17th December - Clinging on to the cup


Isaiah 51:17-23


So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes! Up on your feet, Jerusalem! You've drunk the cup God handed you, the strong drink of his anger. You drank it down to the last drop, staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk. And nobody to help you home, no one among your friends or children to take you by the hand and put you in bed. You've been hit with a double dose of trouble —does anyone care? Assault and battery, hunger and death —will anyone comfort? Your sons and daughters have passed out, strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits, Sleeping off the strong drink of God's anger, the rage of your God. Therefore listen, please, you with your splitting headaches, You who are nursing the hangovers that didn't come from drinking wine. Your Master, your God, has something to say, your God has taken up his people's case:"Look, I've taken back the drink that sent you reeling. No more drinking from that jug of my anger! I've passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you, 'Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!'And you had to do it. Flat on the ground, you were the dirt under their feet." (The Message)

God is speaking to his people. He is telling them that they have been drinking from the cup of his anger and have been getting drunk on it; no longer able to function properly, not in control, barely alive.

The thing is we deserve this anger. We reject God and go our own way and so we should have this cupful.

But God says Awake; awake! I have taken this cup away from you.

It is sadly true that guilt is a common feeling in our Christian lives… there are things that make us ashamed, ways of life that we have that we do not want to confront and things we would never dream of telling people about.

This is clinging on to the cup. We hold on to the view of life that sees how we don’t match up to God’s perfect standards. In this prophetic book of Isaiah and in everything we know of Christ, God invites us into seeing ourselves and each other in a new way.

Awake; awake! I have taken this cup away from you.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)