Thursday - Worshipping God

Thursday Retreat.....

Prayer:  Your name O Lord,  has saved us.  You fill our hearts with Your love and Your  strength.  May we lift up our voices today so that others may know of Your love and Your healing.   This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Read St. Matthew 28: 18 – 20 (yup,  again) 

So,  we have been given a Commission to go forth and share the Good News of Jesus with everyone we meet.  Yet how are we to do that?  Some people are quite comfortable with going up to strangers and sharing the story of Jesus.  Many people are not comfortable with telling people about Jesus.    The remainder of this month will be ways we can share the Good News of Jesus!

But there is a step we need to take before we share the Good News.  That is worship.   We need to worship God daily through reading the Bible, praying, and attending worship.

So why do we need to worship God?  It is not because God demands we worship God  but it is out of our love and joy that we come before God in worship.

But how do we worship?    Each Sunday we plunk ourselves down in the same pew as we always do and then our minds tend to drift off… and especially drift off during the preaching of the Sermon.

What is the Sermon?  Why is it important? 

Scholar Kenton Anderson has said that

“Preaching is helping people hear from God.   When we can give life to the words on the page; When we can feel the heartbeat of the writer; When we can show how faith encourages others; When we can demonstrate how lives are transformed;  When we bring together the human and the divine; Then we are truly proclaiming the love of God!”  

Sermons are preached so that we can learn of the love of God through Jesus Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.      Good sermons must give those of us in the pew something to take home and meditate upon during the week.    Good sermons must reflect the love of God through Jesus Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:  May we ascribe to You, O  Lord,  all glory and strength.  May we ascribe to You, O Lord the glory due Your name.    May Your love through Jesus Christ and the blessings of the Holy Spirit be with those who preach Your Word this Sunday.  This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Many blessings!