New Song’s first time marching in Las Vegas Gay Pride 2014
Almighty One, thank You for being the truth, thank You for being the Way, and thank You for being the Life. Make our love for You and each other be as real as Your love is for all of us. Lift our eyes away from ourselves and reveal to us the world that You want us to see: a world that needs hope, compassion and peace.
We cannot love God, whom we do not see, and hate those that we do see. So let us forgive and let go of what once was and move forward and enter into Your promise that lives in the here and now, so that we can stand up for love…stand up for the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the broken hearted. Help us to stand up for our brothers and sisters, in this very room, whom the world has forgotten. Help us to stand up for You, so that our light will shine and glorify our Father in heaven.
Shine in our lives Lord “so that we can see that to follow You is less about avoiding sin and more about courageously and actively doing God’s will” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). For it is through Christ, that we can do what the world will not do for us: Love God, love ourselves and love our neighbor.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ELCA, gay christian, Jesus, lutheran, Lutherans Concerned, open and affirming, Prayer, reconciled in christ, Social Justice, Stand up
All Saints Episcopal, Las Vegas, NV
Almighty God, You spoke everything into motion. Speak to us now and speak us into the motion of Your love. Shield us from the storms and the crashing waves of this life and give us the courage to take a giant leap of faith so that we can hold on to Your word in all that we do.
Remind us that there are no pieces missing from the gospel. There is no exclusion of anyone from the grace and sacrifice that confronts us at the cross. God’s love is for all and even though we run from so many things we cannot escape the truth that we have all been saved and redeemed by the Son of God.
Because of Jesus, our past does not define us. Because of Jesus, we are free to live a life full of love. And when we meet our maker, the only thing that mattered in this life is our relationship with God and with each other.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Episcopal, grace, Jesus, love of God, lutheran, Messiah, Prayer, Son of God
Bridge in Minneapolis, MN
Almighty Creator, breathe new life onto us. Wash away the ugliness of sin and make a message out of our messes. Let the glory of the Lord walk through us, minister to us and speak to us now by breaking down the walls that cause us to be strangers to each other.
Give us the courage to reach across the room, the street, or whatever stands before us, so that we won’t miss an opportunity to bring people closer to the gospel by letting Your light shine brighter than anything else in our life. Let people see You in us.
Prepare us for the mountains and valleys. Nurture us as we grow in faith. And remind us that no matter where we go that God goes with us always.
Tags: bible, Christian, Church, courage, ELCA, God, Gospel, grace, message, Prayer, Religious, Spiritual
Jehovah Jireh, You are the God that provides. The One who sees what we can’t see. You see our heart and who we really are. Although Your footprints are no longer on this earth, the imprint of everything that You stand for lives on in all of us.
Talk to us Lord. Speak to us now and reset our minds so that we can see glimpses of heaven and know the eternal truth of grace: that even as time slips away we will always be in the presence of our Creator. We will always be in the presence of love. We will always be in the presence of mercy and grace.
Lord, don’t let us miss this life and don’t let us work against You. Restore our faith so that we can see that there can be miracles, the miracles of friendship, love, kindness and compassion, which are all just reflections of the love and sacrifice shown to us on the cross.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, Church, Gospel, grace, heaven, jehovah nissi, Jesus, miracles, Prayer, Spiritual
“God is still speaking” (My mom’s handwriting in bisaya)
“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes 5:2
Lord, be glorified in our hearts today. You are in heaven and we are on earth, so let our words be few as Your truth surrounds us today. Repair what is broken in us so that we can go boldly to Your throne and seize Your Word and never let it go.
Remind us that we were not born with fear. Fears are finite but God is infinite. So even though Your footprints are no longer on this earth, the imprint of Your spirit lives on within us in every moment of our lives.
You see what people can’t see. You see beyond the walls that we build. You see our hearts. You see us. Let us all just have an amazing encounter with You as Your story unfolds before us. The story of love and how love always wins, how love endures beyond the wreckage of time, and how God’s love will bring healing to all things.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Glory, God, God's love, Gospel, Jesus, Love wins, Prayer, Religious, Spirit, truth, Worship
Artwork in front of North Central University in Minnesota
Lord of all hopefulness and joy, You are the One with the strength that we need. You are the One that brings us hope from this broken world. We need Your strength to keep journeying on in this life in the only direction that we can…the direction that leads us back to You.
Your word changes everything that it touches. It brings us into the experience that is the Gospel. It connects us with the Living God because not even one word of God will fall short of it’s eternal truth. So let Your glory break down the mountains that we face by healing Your church. Remind us that we are not defined by our circumstances but we are redefined by our salvation in Christ as a child of God.
Lord reveal Your truth to us each moment of our lives so that when all the odds are stacked against us, then we can have the faith to accomplish things that we never thought we could. Let us move these mountains together, let us soar on wings like eagles and let us live this life by not letting it pass us by.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, hope, Jesus, lutheran, move mountains, Prayer, salvation, truth
Northwest Community Church, Las Vegas NV
Lord, remove whatever keeps us from You. Calm our thoughts and focus all of our attention on You. Remind us that the hand that guides the planets also guides us.
You have wisdom that we don’t have, so guide us through the rocky terrain of life by illuminating the path that we need to take. And when uncertainty and doubt creep into our minds, reveal the strength of Your love in the truth of Jesus Christ, who is the point of impact when heaven collided with earth because God chose to meet us.
Don’t let us forget who You are. Don’t let us forget that because of Jesus Christ there is no dream that is impossible with God and that no prayer ever goes unheard. Don’t let us forget that there is always hope. There is always love. There is always the truth that sets us free from anything in this world. The truth that God love us all.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, Jesus, No impossible dream, No unanswered prayer, Prayer, With God all things are possible
License Plate
Lord God, make Your presence known to us. Calm the storms around us and anchor us in Your word so that we can experience You, respond to You, and grow our faith in Your truth.
Sometimes, when we look at the mirror, we forget that we were created by love to be loved. So turn our gaze off of ourselves and fix our sights on the truth that a perfect God would wrap Himself in our own imperfect skin and become the visible image of an invisible God. It is through Christ, that God leads us away from despair and carries away our burdens of disappointment.
“Because You, Lord, are our help. We sing in the shadow of Your wings. Our soul clings to You; You lift us up” Psalm 63.7
Lord, help us to keep on learning about You everyday. Show us glimpses of what love is so that we can love others with the same abandon as You love us. Thank You for life. Thank You for love. Thank You for being everything that You are.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Psalm, visible image of an invisible God
Minnesota clouds
You are the voice of the truth that we need to listen to. You have always been speaking to us but we so often fail to hear. Lord, focus our minds away from the chaos that surrounds us by giving us peace and the strength to stand firm upon Your Word.
Print Your truth onto our hearts. Call something out of us that wasn’t there before by engaging our imaginations, beyond the limitations of this world, so that we can believe in miracles again…so that we can dream again…so that we can just fully experience the presence of Living God.
Awaken us now, so that we can collide with grace, mercy and love. Speak to us so we can speak. Teach us so we can teach that heaven is real because God’s love is real and alive in all of us. For “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28 NIV) Amen.
Tags: bible, Christ, collide with grace, ELCA, Galatians, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, voice of truth
Altar of Atonement Lutheran in Minnesota
Lord of all creation, space and time, we thank You for the gift of each breath that we take. We pray that You will usher us into Your presence today by taking our gaze off of ourselves and fixing all of our focus on to the living Word of God.
Grab hold of us and let Your truth pour out into our hearts so that we can receive everything that You have to give. And even when taking one step forward seems too far away, we pray that You would just give us the strength to just get through the awkwardness of trusting You, so that we can believe in the miracles of grace, healing, love and forgiveness.
Give us the strength to face our fears knowing that God is in our side and that God’s love has already won the battle. Reveal to us that despair is not our destination because we never ever have to face these mountains alone.
Through Your Son, Jesus, we can face the cross and experience the presence of the Living God now, today and forever. For as long as there are people who need healing of the heart, mind, body and spirit, then we can all serve the Lord. We can serve the Lord by serving all of God’s children with the same love that served us on the cross.
Tags: bible, Christ, ELCA, God's love, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, strength, The same love
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