Identity restoration 13
Seeds from God
If you don’t get this parable, how will you get any parable.
How many seeds get lost, how many are missed.
The seed is the word of God, but it comes in many different ways, through the bible, through creation, through the word of the spirit, through events, through people.
Every moment of every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in his soul. Just as the wind carries thousands of seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual life. Most of these seeds are lost because we are not prepared to receive them, that is the love of God which seeks us and our good in every situation. Thomas Merton.
How is God coming to me in this? How do I see Jesus in this situation?
Are we listening? Are we looking? Are we caught up in busyness, or taking the time to see God?
Seeds are being sown.
Those on the path – folks who are not even thinking or open to words coming from God. It falls, bounces off, the crow snatches it away.
Rocky soil – Hear it, receive it, rejoice in it, but without a root when external pressure comes on they fall away. Like a tree that is all top and no root is blown over by the wind. Seed does not penetrate and change their lives. Too many other voices crowd in and it just dies.
Thorns – receive the word, takes root, but these other things choke it out and it becomes unfruitful – it dies without offspring. Caught up in the future and the past and family and stuff and wealth and money and mother in law and parents and job. And these things strangle the word of God in our lives.
How will you structure your life so as to be this kind of soil? If you are doing something now that works for you keep doing it.
Saint Benedicts fixed hours of prayer.
David – 119:62 – at midnight I rise up to give you thanks.
Psalm 119:164 – 7 times a day do I praise you.
Psalm 55:16-17 As for me, I shall call upon God, And the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice.
Daniel. 6:10 3 times a day he prayed.
Roman empire controlled commerce and all else by about 150. Set up bell system. 6 you went to work. 9 – break time. 12 lunch – went home to rest. 3 back to work till dusk. Vespers. Then back home and day is over.
Jesus – Early morning – before light Matthew 1:35, Jesus in Gethsemane Luke 22:39-46 – as was his custom – night time.
Acts 3:1 - Peter and John up to temple at 3 – the ninth hour – the hour of prayer. Acts 10:11 Went to the roof at time of prayer at noon.
Saint Jerome, around 340 AD: Prayers, as every one knows, ought to be said at the third, sixth and ninth hours, at dawn and at evening. No meal should be begun without prayer, and before leaving table thanks should be returned to the Creator. We should rise two or three times in the night, and go over the parts of Scripture which we know by heart. When we leave the roof which shelters us, prayer should be our armor; and when we return from the street we should pray before we sit down, and not give the frail body rest until the soul is fed. In every act we do, in every step we take, let our hand trace the Lord’s cross.
From Jerome’s words it appears that regular repeated daily prayer was the norm in his day.
Parable of the Soils (4 types of soil)
1. Path - immediately snatched away
2. Rocky Soil - no roots, external pressure, quits
3. Thorny Soil - worries of this life - deceitfulness of life - desire for other things.
4. Good Soil - receives Word, “grips the Word” (Lk)
Finding Your Way
How can I structure/find rhythm in my life to live in the continuous awareness and attention to God’s presence? e.g. St. Benedict’s Fixed Hour Prayer
St. Benedict’s Fixed Hours of Prayer (525 AD)
For Benedict, as for many before him and all after him, fixed hour prayer was the work of God, the office?. It was an attempt to balance life so that there was a continuous awareness and attention to God’s presence. It was understood as an offering to God, the Creator, using Scripture, worship, and prayer. For Benedict the spiritual life of prayer was impossible to separate from our work. It was he who said: To pray is to work, to work is to pray.
1. Vigils (middle of night) Observed by those who are awake at night. Use the darkness to simply be with God, aware of the His Holy Presence in the quiet hours. Unresolved stress invites us to vigils.
2. Lauds (Morning Prayer) Wake to thank and praise God (Laudate) God. Spend some time in prayer and the Word.
3. Prime (Right before Starting Your Work Day) Take just a moment to look at your day’s calendar, asking God to be in all you attempt to do.
4. Terce (midmorning, coffee break) Again, take just a minute to breathe in God’s Spirit, offering the work of your hands to him.
5. Sext (Midday) It is now noon and the day is half-done, half-waiting. We are in the middle of the movement of life. This is a call into the presence, awareness of God who is with you as you encounter others.
6. None (Midafternoon or end of work day. Pronounced, Known) Time to reflect. Realize limits of your work. Begin to prepare to let go of the busy day. We face our mortality. Tomorrow will bring another chance.
7. Vespers (Evening Prayer between 6-8:30) Time for reading, praying, meditating on thoughts of God. With lauds, considered bookends of day.
8. Compline (Right before going to bed) Close the day with peacefulness, prayer, and perhaps a bit of devotional reading.
Fixed Hours Adaptation
Most Adaptations of Benedict’s Fixed Hour Prayer for Active People? Focuses on four stops in the day, renaming them:
1. Morning Prayer
2. Midday Prayer
3. Evening Prayer
4. Compline (Before Bed)
Looking to Jesus
Psalm 55:16-17
Review of last week – this week some practical stuff. Our God yearns for a relationship with us. Mole-whacking is not what we were created for.
How do we do this? How do we fix our eyes on Jesus? My own biases and subsequent missed opportunities. The evangelical solution – daily quiet time – cold there be more that God has for us?
Fixing your eyes sharing time.
David – 119:62 – at midnight I rise up to give you thanks.
Psalm 119:164 – 7 times a day do I praise you.
Psalm 55:16-17 As for me, I shall call upon God, And the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice.
Daniel. 6:10 3 times a day he prayed.
Roman empire controlled commerce and all else by about 150. Set up bell system. 6 you went to work. 9 – break time. 12 lunch – went home to rest. 3 back to work till dusk. Vespers. Then back home and day is over.
Jesus –Mk 1:35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. , Jesus in Gethsemane Luke 22:39-46 – as was his custom – night time.
Apostles Acts 3:1 – up to temple at 3 – the ninth hour – the hour of prayer. On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray Acts 10:9. noon
Saint Jerome, around 340 AD: Prayers, as every one knows, ought to be said at the third, sixth and ninth hours, at dawn and at evening. No meal should be begun without prayer, and before leaving table thanks should be returned to the Creator. We should rise two or three times in the night, and go over the parts of Scripture which we know by heart. When we leave the roof which shelters us, prayer should be our armor; and when we return from the street we should pray before we sit down, and not give the frail body rest until the soul is fed. In every act we do, in every step we take, let our hand trace the Lord’s cross.
From Jerome’s words it appears that regular repeated daily prayer was the norm in his day.
When to look - Looking to the past – What God has already done for you. Looking to the present, What He is doing for you and who you are in Him. Looking to the future – What He will do for you and who you will be in Him. In light of this great salvation. Look with the eyes of faith. All that you can see, hear touch own is fading away. It is the things you cannot see that will last forever.
How does this translate for us? An invitation to take a break with Jesus – You deserve a break today at MacDonalds – Not! Rather, you are offered a break today with the King of the universe.
Anointing time for God to break up the hard ground. To give us eyes to see and hearts to seek Him and rejoice in Him.
Looking to Jesus
Psalm 55:16-17
Brief review: Life is more than mole-whacking.
David – Psalm 55:16-17, Psalm 119:62,
Psalm 119:164 – 7 times a day do I praise you.
Daniel. 6:10
Jesus –Mark 1:35 Luke 22:39-46
Apostles Acts 10:9
Jerome, around 340 AD: Prayers, as every one knows, ought to be said at the third, sixth and ninth hours, at dawn and at evening. No meal should be begun without prayer, and before leaving table thanks should be returned to the Creator. We should rise two or three times in the night, and go over the parts of Scripture which we know by heart. When we leave the roof which shelters us, prayer should be our armor; and when we return from the street we should pray before we sit down, and not give the frail body rest until the soul is fed. In every act we do, in every step we take, let our hand trace the Lord’s cross.
When to look –
Past - What God has ________________ done for you.
Present - What He is doing for you and who you are __________
Future – What He will do for you and who you will be in Him.
How does this translate for us? Life Rhythm. You are offered a break today with the King of the universe.
Looking to Jesus
Psalm 55:16-17
Brief review: Life is more than mole-whacking.
David – Psalm 55:16-17, Psalm 119:62,
Psalm 119:164 – 7 times a day do I praise you.
Daniel. 6:10
Jesus –Mark 1:35 Luke 22:39-46
Apostles Acts 10:9
Jerome, around 340 AD: Prayers, as every one knows, ought to be said at the third, sixth and ninth hours, at dawn and at evening. No meal should be begun without prayer, and before leaving table thanks should be returned to the Creator. We should rise two or three times in the night, and go over the parts of Scripture which we know by heart. When we leave the roof which shelters us, prayer should be our armor; and when we return from the street we should pray before we sit down, and not give the frail body rest until the soul is fed. In every act we do, in every step we take, let our hand trace the Lord’s cross.
When to look –
Past - What God has ________________ done for you.
Present - What He is doing for you and who you are __________
Future – What He will do for you and who you will be in Him.
How does this translate for us? Life Rhythm. You are offered a break today with the King of the universe.
Life Questions
Welcome: What is your favorite time of day?
Worship:
Word: read Psalms 55:16-17, Psalm 119:62,
Psalm 119:164, Daniel 6:10, Mark 1:35, Acts 10:9
Is there anything surprising to you in these verses?
What patterns or rhythms of life do you see in these verses?
How is your relational life with God? When do you spend time together? How do you spend time together?
Tell us about a time when you were truly honest with God. What happened?
What would you like to see God do in your life this week? Who would you like to be this week? (in Christ)
Pray for one another.
Life Questions
Welcome: What is your favorite time of day?
Worship:
Word: read Psalms 55:16-17, Psalm 119:62,
Psalm 119:164, Daniel 6:10, Mark 1:35, Acts 10:9
Is there anything surprising to you in these verses?
What patterns or rhythms of life do you see in these verses?
How is your relational life with God? When do you spend time together? How do you spend time together?
Tell us about a time when you were truly honest with God. What happened?
What would you like to see God do in your life this week? Who would you like to be this week? (in Christ)
Pray for one another.