Version The Lord's Prayer

Our Father...who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, abandoned, the sick, the aged and the very young, the unborn, and those who by victim of their circumstance bear the heat of the day.


Who art in heaven...where everything will be reversed, where the first will be last and the last will be first, where all will be well and every manner of being will be well.

Hallowed be thy name...may we acknowledge always your holiness, respecting that your ways are not our way, your standards not our standards. May the reverence we give your name pull us out of the selfishness that prevents us from seeing the pain of our neighbor.


Your kingdom come...help us create a world where beyond our own needs and hurts, we will do justice, love tenderly, and walk humbly with you and each other.

Your will be done...open our freedom to let you in so that the complete mutuality that characterizes your life might flow through our veins and thus the life we help generate may radiate your equal love for all and your special love for the poor.


On earth as it is in heaven...may the work of our hands, the temples and structures we build in this world, reflect the temple and the structure of your glory so that the graciousness, tenderness, and justice of heaven will show forth within all our structures on earth.

Give...life and love to us and help us see always everything as a gift. Help us to know that nothing comes to us by rights and that we must give because we have been given to.


Us...the truly plural us. Give not to just our own but to everyone, including those who are very different than the narrow us. Give your gifts to all of us equally.

This day...not tomorrow. Do not let us push things off into some indefinite future so that we can continue to live justified lives in the face of injustice because we can make good excuses for our inactivity.


Our Daily Bread...so that each person in the world may have enough clean water, enough clean air, adequate health care and sufficient access to education so as to have the sustenance for a healthy life.

And forgive us our trespasses...forgive us our blindness toward our neighbor, our self pre-occupation, our racism, our sexism, and our propensity to worry only about ourselves and our own.


As we forgive those who trespass against us...help us to forgive those who victimize us. Help us to mellow out in spirit, not to grow bitter with age. To forgive the imperfect systems that wounded, and ignored us.

And lead us not into temptation...do not judge us only by what we have not done to help, but give us instead more days to mend our ways, our selfishness, and our systems.


But deliver us from evil...that is from that blindness that lets us continue to participate in anonymous systems within which we need not see who gets less as we get more.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever
Amen

-Anonymous

Give Me Your Eyes

Justin introduced me to Brandon Heath a little over a year ago. I have loved the two songs of his that he showed me. Recently I was youtubing him and found another amazing song of his. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OihvG607W-c

(you cant insert the video- its disabled- I highly reccomend watching it though)

However, tonight my prayer is the chorus of this song:

Breathe in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere

Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

I've been here a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just move and pass me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well, I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way You've seen the people all along

Praise You In This Storm

I barely hear You whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away.

This a song I have always taken as an analogy of life's storms. But today I praise him in this storm, Ike. He will protect us even if we have to go through the storm...

Power of Praying Through the Bible

A few weeks ago I bought the book "The Power of Praying Through the Bible." I had written about it in my other blog. I just started it tonight and I already can see why my mom loves this author so much. Today we started in Genesis 1:27-2:7, which are as follows:

Genesis 1:27-2:7

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them

2:1-7

1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul

Thinking about life in that sense. Taking a step back from just reading the same ol story of how man was created and looking deeper and learning something new....Stormie talks about how he has been on a "personal" level with us from the beginning. Before we were ever anything, HE BREATHED our life into us. That is such an amazing concept for me to grasp. The reason we breathe is because he chose to give us that gift. I just want to stand in awe of the privilege he has given me. Stormie also talks about how he wants to hear us speak to him. The analogy she used is great. She talks about how a new parents loves to hear their baby coo and make any type of noise. The parent loves the child and loves that they can care for it and that their baby relies on the parents to teach them the correct way in life. God is just like that with us. We are his little babies and he is waiting for us to coo and talk to him and ask his advice on life. It is just such an amazing thought.

She suggests "breathing a prayer to God" and start with just "Thank You" so tonight my prayer will be full of thanks...

Dear Lord,

Thank You.

for your love,

for the breath of life you breathed into me.

for a family who has given me Godly advice and wisdom my whole life.

for allowing me to go to such a wonderful university

for allowing me to witness to whoever may need you

for giving me the words to say so that I can use the breath you bless me with in a way that is pleasing to you.

for a wonderful boyfriend whom I love.

for amazing friends whom I can count on.

for giving me opportunities and allowing my eyes to be open to new opportunities when they occur.

for letting me pass this book on the way to the check out at Barnes & Noble and know it was just what I needed.

for my four day weekends.

for your gifts that you give me daily

for your timing

for your provisions

for your love

for knowing you are always with me and will never leave me nor forsake me

for going to prepare a place for me one day

for going through a painful death so I wouldn't have to

Thank you.

-Amen

A Prayer for A Friend

Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.

Complicated circumstances
have clouded his view.
Lord I lift my friend up to You.

I fear that I won’t have the words
that he needs to hear.
I pray for Your wisdom , oh God.
And a heart that's sincere.
And Lord I lift my friend up
to You.
Lord I lift my friend to You.
My best friend in the
world, I know he means much
more to You.

I want so much to help him, but
this is something he has to do.
Lord I lift my friend up to You.
There's a way that seems so right to him.
But You know where that leads.
He's becoming a puppet of the world.
Too blind to see the strings. (my favorite line)

And Lord I lift my friend up to You.
Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.

By: Casting Crowns

Album: The Altar & The Door

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust the Lord your God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Psalms 46

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought of the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shieldswith fire.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

2nd Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2nd Timothy 1:7

Psalm 139:16

Love this verse: hence the new blog. : )

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
Psalm 139:16

Today in church Chris was talking about how our lives are already planned for us. It was werid when he turned to this verse because it has been my about me for a couple weeks now. It is so true and I am living the days ordained for me before I was even born.