A Prayer For The New Year

A prayer on this New Year's Eve for the coming New Year.
from St. Ambrosia, the 4th century


We pray you, O Creator of everything,
at this hour preceding night,
that you be clement and watch over us.
Let dreams and phantoms of the night be scattered.
Keep us safe from our enemies and make us pure!

Jesu!! look on us when we fall;
One momentary glance of yours
Can from her guilt the soul recall
To tears of penitence divine.

Awake us from false sleep profound,
And through our senses pour your light;
Be your blest name the first we sound
At early morn, the last at night.

–from the hymn "At Cock-Crowing"

YET I AM NOT ALONE ...

YET I AM NOT ALONE, FOR THE FATHER IS WITH ME. John 16:32 (ESV)

Many of the redeemed find out often through difficult and lonely experiences that living out our beliefs often demands extreme sacrifice on many different levels and often multiple levels at the same time.
Living by the faith and growing in that faith may well mean that I lose the companionship of certain people or a time. Such losses often bring about a deep and painful sense of aloneness or loneliness. Even so, if I am to move forward in faith, or fly like the eagle flies, high and higher into the brighter light of the Lord, I have to be willing to potentially suffer an increasing amount of aloneness and loneliness.
No bird lives as solitary a life as does the eagle. It never flies in a flock, a most there might be two together in flight or perched, and this togetherness is but for a short time. While my faithfulness to the Word of God, and thus my growth in faith may cost me the companionship of others, I am never left alone. As the companionship of others decreases, the companionship of the Lord increases for me.
It is to such divine companionship, such heights of faith that the Lord calls all people. No one ever realizes how sweet the Lord really is, until they have had to walk or fly alone with Him. No person in the Scriptures, from Abraham to Paul, ever matured in their faith, or soared as high as they did without each of them having had to be alone with the Lord. The Lord had to isolate them, even as He isolated Jonah, so that they might learn the up look, learn to look to the Lord above in all things. Each instance of this isolation is a part, a glimpse of how the Lord is at work in all things for the good of those who love Him and have called according to His purpose (Rm 8:28-29).
Such isolations are much like a furnace that is used to purify gold (1 Pt 1:6-7). Through these isolations, the Lord seeks to purify our faith. Just as gold increases in its purity and value by the removal of what is not gold, so faith increases in its purity and richness by the removal of all that is not of saving faith.
Such isolations help to free us from our dependence upon others to sustain us. While such companions are valuable as they support and encourage us in our journey of faith, they can become obstacles to us in reaching the heights the Lord has called us to. They become obstacles as we place undo affection and faith in them for the comfort and safety they have provided to us. Our companions may well be all around us, but these isolations are of such an inner nature that they bring us to that place where we cannot share it with them. Moreover, even when we try, our companions and their comfort, no longer comfort. Then we are left alone, apart from human held, and it is in this aloneness, that we learn what true comfort really is and Who our true Comforter really is – the Lord and His Word.
When the Father has finished His work through some event or experience that has isolated us from others for a time, He often returns us to our companions. These companions are in no way loved less, but in fact are loved in a better way. For when my love for my companions is motivated by my dependence upon them, I love them for selfish and self-serving reasons. My isolations from them, serves to train me in the way of faith and dependency on the Lord alone, that I might love Him and my companions all the more selflessly, and thus rightly.
If I am to follow St. Paul, and press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14), then I must be willing, and welcoming, of those times when I must be alone and isolated with the Lord.
In time, the Lord will make it clear whether my isolation is of the Father or of myself and my faithfulness to my personal preferences.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord You have made me to fly, bear me up as on eagles wings to Your upward calling. Amen

IN OUR DARKNESS …

by Pastor Mark W. Love

In our darkness, where we rightfully abide,
The Lord of life, would not leave us hide.
In our darkness, where we justly grope,
The Lord of life, would not leave us without hope.
In our darkness, where we sinners love to be,
The Lord of life, would not leave us there eternally.
In our darkness, bound by sin to remain,
The Lord of life, in our flesh gladly came.
In our darkness, caught in guilt’s mighty power,
The Lord of life, comes to his helpless natal hour.
In our darkness, held by the chains of pride,
The Lord of life, comes to begin his saving stride.
In our darkness, lost from the Lord and each other,
The Lord of life, comes with flesh as our brother.
In our darkness, rejected by the righteous law,
The Lord of life, comes wrapped in swaddling cloth.
In our darkness, cast forever into death,
The Lord of life, come to breath our life’s breath.
In our darkness, yes are we, and for a time shall dwell,
The Lord of life, has come to be our Immanuel.

GRANT ME LIFE, COMPASSIONATE LORD ...

Excerpts from the Prayer 2 of St. Narekatsi

Grant me life, compassionate Lord.
Hear me, merciful Lord.
Be charitable to me, forgiving Lord.
Save me, long-suffering Lord.
Protect me, defender Lord.
Be generous, all-giving Lord.
Free me, all-powerful Lord.
Revive me, restoring Lord.
Raise me again, awe-inspiring Lord.
Enlighten me, heavenly Lord.
Cure me, omnipotent Lord.
Grant pardon, inscrutable Lord.
Bestow gifts, bountiful Lord.
Adorn me with grace, generous Lord.
Let us be reconciled, healing Lord.
Be accepting, unvengeful Lord.
Wipe away my transgressions, blessed Lord,
so that on that Day of Misery,
when I stare at the abyss on either side,
I may also catch sight of your salvation, my hope and guardian,
and on that terrifying journey your angel of peace may sweetly guide me.

Endow me, Lord, on the day my breath is finished
with a clean spirit raised in light among the joyful heavenly host,
with gifts of your love overtaking me.
Grant to my wayward soul an unexpected kindness on that day of despair.
Do not assign, blessed Lord and Savior, a wild beast to guide your sick sheep,
but grant me health, for I am dying of sin,
grant me salvation, for I am ruined by transgressions.

When Death Seems Untimely ...

For many of us the idea of our death and the power of death is so far beyond us to deal with and grasp, but nothing is further beyond us and even more overwhelming to us than the death of those we love. This is especially true for those who die at what seems like an untimely age. For those who do not know Christ, death is the final word for them and there are no words for those they leave behind. Not so for those who are in Christ and those they leave behind.
Through His prophet Isaiah, the Lord speaks a better word to those who die in the faith and their loved ones. Whatever the age, the better word is “RESCUE!”

The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. Isaiah 57:1-2 (ESV)

For those who are in Christ, death at any age has become a rescue mission.
With regard to their earthly journey, we know not what lay ahead for those now gone from us at such a young age. This better word tells us that our all knowing Lord did know, and according to His mercy, chose to rescue them from some calamity, some evil, that was to great for them.
As the blessed Savior who would lose none of us, Christ makes rescue of those who are His.
He answers the prayer He taught us, as His Kingdom comes and forever delivers our loved one from calmity that was to much, to great for them.
Thanks be to God who gives them and us the victory, the rescue, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ...

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
Who seek him with their whole heart,
Who also do no wrong,
But walk in his ways! Psalm 119:2-3

The blessing announced threefold upon those who keep, those seek, and those who do no wrong, declares the certainty of my Lord’s blessings upon such as do these things.
But …
Who are these, that their keeping of His testimonies has brought them the blessing of God, the favor of God?
Who are these that have kept His testimonies, that have kept the Lord's whole counsel of commands, doctrines, and promises?
I must confess that I am not among them, for whatever I have kept of His testimonies; my keeping was but poor and self-seeking.
I must confess that whatever the form of my keeping of the Lord’s testimonies, both the form and my keeping lacked the “always” which the Lord's Law demands of my keeping.
Who are these that seek the Lord with their whole heart?
I must confess again, that I am not among those who have sought the Lord with their whole heart.
For my heart fractured and fragmented at best.
I have no heart that seeks the Lord, for my heart is unable to seek He whose whole heart longs for me.
Even in my seeking of the Lord, my heart’s bondage to sin would allow me to only seek and find a lord of my making.
Inasmuch as my heart is sinful and bound in sin, any seeking on my part would lack the ever required “always.”
And who are these that do no wrong?
Whoever these are, I must again confess that I am not one of them.
For having been conceived and born in sin, I am born wrong and bound to all that is wrong.
Even in the most right thing I might do, my wrongness in sin contaminates it so that in the lens of God’s Law, it, like me, is wrong.
Surely it is only in my wrongness I have achieve the illusive “always.”
Who are these that walk in his ways?
Again I am forced to ask who these are, for I am not among them and no matter the length or pace of my walking, I have never walk “always” in all His ways.
And in all my walking, surely I am "always" tripped up by the iota, the dot of the law that can never pass away.
So I stand before the Lord with my whole unwholesome heart, needing some other word from the Lord lest I perish for lack of blessedness.
In testimony of His love for me, the Lord sends His Testimony to take on my flesh, my life, my living under the Law, my guilt, my condemnation, my punishment, my hell and my death.
Surely it is on the Cross that the Lord Jesus allows Himself to be found among me and my companions of sin, guilt, wrath, and death.
Surely, it is on the Cross that the Lord Jesus willfully and wantingly remains as a companion to me among consequences of my sin.
It is in His Living Testimony – Jesus Christ, that all of God’s testimonies find their constant “Yes!” – For me!” (2 Cor. 1:20-22)
Only in His Living Testimony, in Jesus Christ, will I ever “always” be offered and given His blessedness for “always” keeping God's testimonies, “always” seeking God with His whole heart, “always” doing no wrong, and “always” walking in God's ways.
And if all this were not comforting enough, my Lord does not leave me to acquire all this to myself, but by His Testimony with the water, unites me to His Living Testimony – Jesus Christ.
By uniting me to His Living Testimony, I am by God’s grace, placed in Jesus Christ and I am born of God with a new life and a clean heart.
In His Living Testimony I am given a faith by which I receive and live in Jesus Christ – who has become my Testimony, my Heart, my Doing No Wrong, and my Way – “always!”
How true is that blessed revelation of the Lord that neither I, nor anyone else, lives by bread alone, BUT BY EVERY WORD, EVERY TESTIMONY THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD!

WHEN TEMPTATIONS AND THEIR POWER INCREASE...

I perceive that as the temptations and the power of those temptations increase, my only hope is to increase my time with the Lord in His Word, meditation, and prayer.

This may seem obvious to many, but when we’ve filled our time with so much other than the Lord, the obvious is always the first thing overlooked and dispensed with.

Taking this time, increasing this time, is the only sure way that is always open to me in every time of temptation and trial. God grant it to me and all! Amen.

LOOK ON MY AFFLICTION AND DELIVER ME ...

Look on my affliction and deliver me,
For I do not forget Your law. Psalm 119:153

Yea, how I need the Lord to look upon my affliction.
Even more do I need His look to be continuous, for such are my afflictions, such is my need for His deliverance to be continuous.
Whatever the afflictions that are without me, they are but a messengers of the greater afflictions that are within me.
All such afflictions that come to me by the hand of those who lie, deceive, betray, or reject me, they are but messengers of the lying, deceiving, betraying and rejecting that takes place continuously within my own sinful heart.
These afflictions are too much, too continuous, I want them to end that I might have peace, that I might not struggle, that I might look at the Law of the Lord and be at peace with it.
Surely my afflictions within and without, like their mother that bore them - my own sinfulness, do not stop.
Even as my own heart accuses me, it does so from the remains of God’s Law that is still written there.
I cannot forget the Law of God, and no matter how good, how true, how right I believe this Law to be, it still increases the weight of my guilt that afflicts me to the point of death.
For as constant as are the afflictions without, and my own sin within, so constant as to be eternal, is the Law of God in its curse of eternal affliction.
My sinful nature, in its bondage to try and be God, would rescue me from these afflictions, yet all its efforts born of sin, only increases my afflictions, increases the weight of the Law against me.
My afflictions would drive me to seek mercy from those who afflict me.
My afflictions would drive me to plead with my afflicters, that they might ease, that they might cease to afflict me for an hour, a moment.
Yet, they that afflict me in this world, and I myself that afflict me from within, have no grace, no love that would move them beyond their own afflictions to ease mine.
I am left to seek mercy; to plead with He who’s Law afflicts me with bondage to my sin, bondage to an affliction of eternal death for my sin.
I am left to seek mercy, to plead with the Lord, who knowing of my affliction before it began, loved me so much that He moved beyond the affliction I have done to Him, moved beyond the affliction His own Law would make on me, to enter my affliction and deliver me.
I am left to seek deliverance from Him who demonstrates His own kind of love, for while I was an enemy, afflicted and afflicting in sin, sent His Son into my afflictions to deliver me.
By His birth into my flesh – He enters into the afflictions that continuously come from without me in this world.
By His baptism – I He enters into the continuous afflictions that come from the Law of God.
By His temptations – He enters into the continuous afflictions that arise from within my own sinful heart.
By His passion on the Cross – He surrenders to all these afflictions born of my guilt, that I and my guilt would be His to constantly deal with and deliver me.
By His death on the Cross – He takes me, my sin, my afflictions and all their power into death to make them dead for, dead to me.
By His resurrection – I am reborn, I am delivered from the power of all my afflictions.
Surely in Jesus Christ, the Lord has looked upon my affliction and delivered me.
And even now, does the Lord Jesus Christ continuously intercede for me in the midst of my afflictions – that I might have the favor and peace of God, my Heavenly Father.
Many and varied are the afflictions within and without me, yet in their multitude and variety, my Lord, along with His look and deliverance - is ever constant.
In looking upon my afflictions, the only thing of my Lord that changes is the ever increasing number of His mercies provided to me.
Lord, I believe, help me in the midst of my afflictions, to turn, to believe in my Lord Jesus Christ – who daily, hourly, nay minute by minute – afflicts me with every grace and blessing.
Thank You, blessed Lord for Your looking, Your loving and Your constantly deliverance of me, a poor miserable sinner through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

YOUR PROMISE IS WELL TRIED ...

Your promise is well tried,

And your servant loves it. Psalm 119:140

As the purity and strength of all things is tested in the furnace of fire,

so the purity and strength of the Lord’s promise is proven in the furnace of my failures in sin.

The promises of pride, pleasure and position that I have turned to are quickly consumed in the flames of my unfaithfulness before the Law of the Lord.

Such promises cannot withstand the flaming attacks of my faithful foe who would likewise consume me.

No king, no tyrant, no enemy made this furnace nor started its flames.

No, I fall bound headlong into the furnace and fire of my own making in sin.

Yet it is to me in my bondage and boundary within the furnace of sin, that my Lord and my God sends His promise.

It is in this furnace that one who is as the Son of God comes to me and preserves my life in the midst of my furnace and flame.

It is said that a pound of pure gold could be set into the center of the hottest furnace for as long as two months, and not lose a single ounce, a single gram.

How much more pure and mighty must the promise of God, the Son of God be, that when He was set into the center of hottest of all furnaces, fueled by my sin and made white hot by the wrath of God – He did not lose a single sinner, He did not lose me.

But let me be wise with this promise of Lord, for before You gave me this promise, I was first given to Your promise, Your Son Jesus Christ.

It is because You have given me to Your promise, to Your Son, that I am saved from my furnace, my fire, my sin.

And it is by Your promise, Your Son, that I am preserved through all the flames and furnaces of this world.

It is for this reason, born of Your promise, that I am Your servant and I love Your promise, Your Son Jesus Christ.

KEEP STEADY MY STEPS ACCORDING TO YOUR PROMISE ...

Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
And let no iniquity get dominion over me. Psalm 119:133


Oh that I might so keep every step, yea, every thought, every word, and every deed of my life that they would all be within the bounds of righteousness.
Yet by this plea, I confess that apart from the promise of the Lord, I have no steadiness, nay I have no steps.
So unsteady am I in my sinfulness that I surely surrender my thoughts, words and deeds according to the dominion my sinful pride, and therefore my pride’s master – Satan Himself.
Only my sinful pride could cast such a convincing illusion for me, that I might steadily order my steps apart from the Lord or His promises.
Only my sinful pride could cast a dominating illusion that I have no iniquity,
that I am not iniquitous, before I take my first step, my first thought, word or deed into all that is iniquity’s dominion.
For I am an iniquitous man, a man who is not even, not level, not right with the Lord or His will for me.
No, only under the dominion of my sinful pride’s illusions could I believe that I can step, think, speak, or do my life as if I were on even ground, level ground before the Lord.
Yet the Psalmist’s plea is that of one who has stepped under the dominion of his sinful pride and has found only unsteadiness all around him and in him.
How is it O Lord, why is it O blessed Lord, that I must ever be in the consequences of my own unsteadiness, ever be in the midst of my deep guilt before I fully see the truth of my iniquity, my infinite unevenness with You?
Surely it is in the depths of my iniquity that I see the blessedness of Your promises and I crave the dominion of Your grace.
Surely it is only in the sinking sand that I crave, that I cry out for Your keeping of me that I might stand, I might step and be steady in You.
Whatever the answer, I find that I am ever in the sinking sand, ever iniquitous in all my steps and ever in need of Your promises to steady me, yea, to save me.
So I turn to He who met me on my level – Jesus Christ.
For He is Your promise made flesh.
He is Your keeping of me as He descended to take, to keep His steps according to Your promises to me.
He is Your promise that came to step into my place, into my iniquity, into my sin, into my punishment, and into my death so that He might have dominion over me and my steps.
His resurrection reveals to me that He how great and glorious is His dominion.
His resurrection reveals that in Him, I shall be made anew and my footsteps reordered by His grace.
In Holy Baptism, He has united my every step to Himself and give me new steps of faith by His grace.
In His Blessed Meal of His Body and Blood, surely He steps into the humble sanctuary with all of heaven, that there exercises His blessed dominion of grace that I might be kept, and there for journey on, step by step in the land of the living.
Who am I that I should have such a God, such a Lord, such a Savior – that though I be unsteady in all my ways – He remains ever steady and ever steadying me in His steadfast love for me?
Blessed the Lord! Bless the Lord with me all you saints of His! Bless the Lord!
Keep, O Keep, steady my steps according to Your promise blessed Lord, that I may ever live in the dominion of Your grace, Your Christ and mine. Amen.

I AM YOUR SERVANT; GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING ...

I am your servant; give me understanding,

that I may know your testimonies! Psalm 119:125

To rightly call oneself a servant of the Lord is purely consequential.

Only by the Lord calling me His servant, may I dare to call myself such.

Apart from the calling of the Lord, I am bound as a servant and slave of sin and self.

If I would be a servant of the Lord, I have need of understanding.

For I have had knowledge prior to the call of the Lord, and with that knowledge I lived as Lord.

For any knowledge, apart from the Lord’s understanding, would only puff me up beyond my place as a servant.

As surely as I could never be the Lord’s servant apart from His calling, so surely I would never know the testimonies of the Lord apart from the understanding He alone provides.

Surely this understanding is nothing other the work of the Holy Spirit through faith.

The Pharisees and the Scribes had knowledge, had the divine knowledge of God’s word, and yet with all that knowledge they could not, and did not, know God’s Living Testimony before them in Jesus Christ.

Apart from the understanding that God given faith provides, one can only know the testimonies of God from above them.

Surely if I would rightly be a servant of the Lord,

if I would rightly know the testimonies of God,

and thus rightly know Jesus Christ,

then I must learn them from the place of faith beneath those testimonies, beneath the Cross.

For where I will not learn beneath the Sacred testimonies of God,

I will never really know anything,

I will never really be a servant of the Lord,

And I will never really know the living Testimony of God of who took my flesh and became my Servant and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I shall never understand that this Living Testimony of God came to save me from my ignorance and failure as a servant of the Most High God.

Thus I pray, give me understanding O Lord, that I may know, that I may believe in your crucified and risen Testimony, Jesus Christ.

In Him, let my prayer be understood and acceptable in Your sight. Amen.

I HOLD MY LIFE IN MY HAND CONTINUALLY ...

I hold my life in my hand continually,

but I do not forget your law. Psalm 119:109

St. Jerome would teach me that to hold my life in my hand continually is a Hebraism that confesses a state of extreme peril.

Surely David was in peril at the hand of Saul.

How much more surely is my life in peril in the hand of myself, my sin, my sinfulness?

Do I even rightly grasp the extremeness of my peril in sin, my sin, my sinfulness?

Within my hands, surely my life is exposed, it is available to those who, greater than I would snatch it out of my hand.

Within my hand, surely my life is exposed to me a poor miserable sinner.

Within my hand, my life is at the mercy of what my sinful heart, via my hand. might give it up to.

Within my hand, surely I give my life up to the very thing I hate.

Within my hand, surely I seldom, if ever, give my life up to the good, the right things for me.

Within my hand, surely my life lies within the grasp of my sinful pride that would deceive me to be other than what my God has created me to be, the commandment of my God permits me to be.

Could there be anything more feeble, more perilous for my life to be in, than my own hand, for my hand is sinful and it continually fails.

Holding my life in my feeble hands, in the midst of such great peril, I am driven too often to forget You, forget Your law, O Lord.

Surely through the consequences of my life being in my hand, does your Law convict me of the truth that my hope lies not in my hand.

Surely I need a hand that is continuously greater than mine.

Surely I need a hand that can never and will never lose its grip, its hold of me.

Surely I need a hand to so grip me, so hold my life that I shall not be snatched away from that hand.

Grant that no matter the depth of my peril or the feebleness of my hand, I may ever remember Your Law, O Lord.

Grant that no matter what my hand has given my life up to, I may ever remember Your Law, O Lord.

For where I have Your Law continuously confronting me with my feebleness, and basis of my peril in sin,

than am I rightly driven to the Hand greater than mine,

only then do I rightly hear the offer of Your hand of grace that has so securely taken hold of my life, so as to have it engraved on Your hand.

Yea, even as my life was in peril, You put my life into the hand of Your only begotten Son.

Yea, even as I have forgotten Your law in the midst of my feebleness, Your right hand held me, held my life secure before the peril of Your Law and Your righteous wrath against me.

Yea, even as Your Right hand had secured my life to Himself on the Cross, so also did He secure me in You gracious Father, as He commended His spirit and mine into Your hands.

Amen to those who have said, and I shall also continuously say:

“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Psalms 118:15-17

My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and constantly rescue me from my hand. Psalms 31:15

Keep me O Lord, in Your baptismal grip that I may have life by Your hand continuously here and in eternity, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen

BY YOUR APPOINTMENT THEY STAND THIS DAY ...

By your appointment they stand this day,

For all things are your servants. Psalm 119:91

Surely this appointment is reflected in Paul’s letter to the Colossians speaking of Christ, where the Lord revealed that:

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Col 1:16-18 (ESV)

All things were created by the Lord’s Word alone.

All things, with the exception of sinful man, daily, hourly, and minute by minute – answer the purpose their Creator gave them.

I alone, in my sinfulness – reject the Word of the Lord, thus rejecting the purpose my Creator gave me, and thus reject my Lord Creator.

Yet even in my rebellion, in my sin, my Lord made an appointment that I might yet still stand.

Surely His promise that the “seed of the woman” would come and crush the head of the serpent, was the Lord making an appointment to deal with what makes me fallen, and makes me to fall.

Surely this promise, the second of the Lord’s promises, was His appointing of a time and a means by which He would deal with His first promise of death to those who ate of the forbidden, who rejected the Word, who rejected their purpose and their Creator Lord.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son – the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in my place.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son to stand in the place of judgment against me, stand in the place of God’s wrath against me, stand in the place of the fallen, for we, for I cannot stand, and rise to stand over all that is fallen.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son –

- to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin,

- to be circumcised on the eighth day,

- to confess His faith in the temple,

- to be baptized,

- to be tempted,

- to teach and preach,

- to heal the sick, the lame, the deaf and the dumb,

- to raise the dead,

- to be betrayed,

- to give His flesh and blood in a meal that I might be strengthened by His keeping of all my appointments,

- to be so troubled and sweat so, as to sweat blood,

- to be lied about and condemned,

- to be abandoned by those who claimed to follow Him unto death,

- to be denied by his own around a fire,

- to be torturously beaten bloody,

- to be condemned by one who knew his innocence,

- to be crucified,

- to receive insults and mocking,

- to receive the sins of the world,

- to plead for the forgiveness of all as we grope in the ignorance of sin,

- to make arrangements for His mother,

- to thirst and receive no water,

- to suffer the wrath, the abandonment of God against my sins,

- to finish the wrath of God,

- to commend His spirit in the hands of His Father,

- to breath His last,

- to be laid in the tomb,

- to be sealed in the tomb,

- to descend into hell to proclaim the victory of the Lord’s appointments,

- to rise in His flesh on the third day,

- to bring Himself and His peace to those locked in rooms for fear,

- to eat food again with those who once betrayed him,

- to appear to many,

- to give me the sacred gift of baptism by which I receive His keeping of my appointments,

- to give me the name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

- to give me a great commission,

- to ascend the right hand of the Father.

Surely it was by His appointment I was baptized into Christ and all His appointments made and kept for me.

Surely it was by HIs appointment that I received the Holy Spirit in that baptism.

Surely it is by His appointment that I receive the absolution.

Surely it is by His appointment that I receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surely it is by His appointment that I live and move in Him, in His body the Holy Christian Church.

Surely it is by His appointment that I live and move and have my being in Him.

Surely it is by His appointment with me and God on a Cross that I stand this day as His servant.

Surely it is by His appointment that my comfort shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would cause my sufferings to be eternal.

Surely it is by His appointment that my peace shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would make war against me and within me.

Surely it is by His appointment that my hope shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would bring me despair.

Surely it is by His appointment that my faith shall stand because He has stood and forever stands in His appointed place for me.

Thanks be to God through His appointed Savior for me, even Jesus Christ! Amen.

LET YOUR STEADFAST LOVE COMFORT ME ...

Let your steadfast love comfort me
according to your promise to your servant. Psalm 119:76

In this petition, I cry for the comfort that I lack.
In this petition I learn the greatness of my lack.
So great is my discomfort, my disquietedness, my distress – that only the steadfast love of the Lord can meet my need.
By these words it is made clear to me that if I seek my comfort, quietness and peace in anything other than the Lord’s steadfast love, I shall have no comfort, no quietness or peace.
For nothing other than the Lord’s promises made and fulfilled for me – will truly comfort me.
In the verse just prior to this, I acknowledge that the Lord has afflicted me in righteousness.
My prayer in this petition is not that the rod of the Law be removed from me, no matter the level of discomfort,
Rather my prayer is that He would let His steadfast love secure me so that I am comforted according to His promise.
It is paradoxical hope that I should seek mercy from the very Lord who has afflicted me.
Surely I must leave the paradox of this hope to the He who created it and resolves it Jesus Christ
Such hope, and therefore comfort, comes from a faith that believes God’s Word for me is greater than His Word against me.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
Such was the faith that prayed, “
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Hosea 6:1-2 (ESV)
As all of God’s promises find their ‘Yes’ in Christ, so also the ‘Yes’ of my comfort in my lack is found in Christ alone.
Through Christ and His Cross,
the crosses that once seemed only to confound, confuse and consume me,
now become fountains from which comes such comfort and consolations so as to always exceed my lack.
For He who keeps the promises of God,
Was deny any comfort in the keeping of those promises as He met me in my lack at the Cross.
No lack of comfort would deter my Lord Jesus Christ from comforting me, one who deserves to lack, to be deny any comfort.
He cries out for no comfort for Himself, only for my forgiveness, only for my comfort in the midst of my guilt.
As the love of God that made and kept this promise for me is steadfast,
so shall my comfort and consolation be steadfast.
As it was purely out of such Divine goodness and mercy that such a promise of comfort came to such a sinner as I,
so it is from the same that this promise is kept to me through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Thanks be to God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I WAS AFFLICTED ...

It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes. Psalm 119:71

In the verses just prior to this, I prayed that the Lord would teach me good judgment (119:66).
Here my Lord tells me how I have been and shall be schooled in His statues.
Very little is to be learned without affliction because affliction brings what ease does not, reflection and examination.
Wisdom is the product of three elements – knowledge, experience, and reflection. Without reflection, there will be no examination of any experience with the knowledge I have.
Affliction is, as it were, God’s means of making me pause, making me take the time to look back over what I have experienced – that I might know the difference between my ways and His way.
Surely, this means that God's Word is best seen through the lens of my tears.
Abraham Wright speaks the truth of my afflictions:
Truly, I am mended by my sickness.
Surely I am enriched by my poverty.
Mightily am I strengthened by my weakness.
Surely, I must not frown upon the afflictions my Lord has unwillingly allowed to come and grieve me (Lament.3:33).
For though He cause me grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love (Lament. 3:32).
Surely, my journey in such afflictions shall be as the journey of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
Surely, my afflictions are as the flames of that fiery furnace.
Surely, such flames of such afflictions will burn away the bonds of my ignorance of the divine, as the flames loosed these men’s of an ignorant king who thought he was divine.
Surely, in these afflictions I am no less companioned by one who is the Son of God, as were these men in the fiery furnace.
Surely I, like an ignorant king, shall be made the wiser when the furnace into which I am thrown, has finished the work my Lord intended for it.
And I shall glorify the Most High God.
Surely, my afflictions put the lie that Satan still whispers through my sinful pride: “You’ll be like God.”
Affliction like nothing else confronts me with the reality that I am not God.
For it is through afflictions that I am brought to the end of myself.
And it is only at the end of myself that I shall truly find Christ who has met me at my end on the Cross.
The Lord reveals to me through St. Peter that these afflictions come by necessity (1st Peter 1).
They come for the sake of my faith.
For the Lord assures me that such afflictions purify my faith as fire is used to purify gold.
As the refiner seeks by the fire of a furnace to remove all that is not gold, so much more so does my Lord seek by the fire of affliction to remove all that is not of faith – not of the Word.

“Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.
For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”
Wisdom of Sirach 2:4-5

WHEN I THINK ON MY WAYS ...

When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies...
Psalm 119:59

Bound in sin, my sinful nature always holds before me a vision of myself in contrast to others. According to this sin cast vision, I am always better than others, if not most.
Upon hearing God’s Word though, I receive another vision of myself that is in conflict with the vision my sinful pride casts for me.
I find that I have believed in a vision of myself contrary to the real me. For having received God’s Word, I receive a vision of myself as I really am.
Before me are two ways.
The one way is to reject God’s Word and do battle with what He says of me.
The other way is to turn to Him who has spoken this all revealing word and bow to His Word against me, that I might hear, and hear and be raised up by His Word for me in Jesus Christ.
Only when my heart has bowed to the Word of God’s Law against me, will my feet be ready to walk in the way of His testimonies of mercy and grace.
While I would readily admit that I must bow and be willing to bow to His Word against me, how lowly will my bowing be?
It is one thing to acknowledge that God has a righteous word against me in my sin, but it quite another for me to fully receive and bow to that Word against me.
For if I am to listen to the full Word of the Lord against me, I will be more than bowed down by it, I will be brought so low as to be crushed by it.
Am I willing, not just to bow, but to let the Word of God bow me so lowly as to be crushed?
God of mercy grant it to me.
If only I would be willing to be bowed so low as to be crushed God’s Word against me, how much sweeter and beautiful will be the feet of those who bring God’s Word for me in Jesus Christ.
If my faith will not allow me be so bowed, allow me to be so crushed, then I do not have a faith that will ever receive Him Who was crushed for my iniquities (Isaiah 53:5).
How shall I receive He Who …
was crushed as I am crushed by the Law,
was crushed as I am crushed by the righteous wrath of God,
and was crushed by my death …
if am not willing to bow to my own crushed condition.
It was for this purpose that Christ came and bowed Himself so lowly as to allow Himself to be crushed for my iniquities and raised for my resurrection from the dust.
Make me to think of my ways that I may turn to Your testimonies O Lord.
Bow me; crush me my Lord, that I may find You, where You found me.
Bow me, crush me my Lord, that I my feet may follow in the way of Your testimonies.
Amen.

TURN MY EYES FROM ....

TURN my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and GIVE me life in your ways. Psalm 119:37

From First John 2:16, worthless things are not the things of the world, but the sinful eyes that perverts these blessings into being the means of selfish and self-serving gain.
As in all the Psalms, David here asks the Lord to do for him what he cannot do himself. He doesn’t pray, “I will turn from looking at worthless things.” His request is a confession that he cannot sufficiently in and of himself, keep himself from looking at things with a perverted and self-serving eye. He knows that God must turn his eyes to Himself.
David has faced and by God’s grace overcame many temptations in his life prior to ascending to the throne. During this time of adversity, he knew that his life was solely in the hands of God. Yet, having come to the throne, to the seat of power and wealth, he faced different kinds of temptations. I find that I can stand well and resist various kinds of temptations that others succumb to. And likewise, I am daily confronted with other temptations to which I must confess, like Paul, “the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Romans 7:19. For David, he was able to fix his eyes on the Lord as his greatest good and bear the temptations of adversity. Yet when it came to living in prosperity, he was not able to keep his eyes so fixed and therefore prays, “turn my eyes – turn what I cannot turn from, the worthless and unto You."
As windows are often the access of the thief and the murder, so also the eyes are such windows by which theft, murder, and death enter the heart. A person would be wise to consider that it was to the eye that the first sin was pleasing, and through that eye, death entered into the world.
This petition echoes the request in the Lord’s Prayer by which we ask our Father to “lead us not into temptation."
Albert Barnes wrote, “an ugly object loses much of its deformity when we look often upon it.” The Lord tells us in Numbers 15:39 that our hearts are inclined to whore after the basest of our desires. How often has some lust, some longing of our sinful nature altered how we see those things which God’s Word declares to be ugly because it is unholy and death. With our eyes fixed upon such unholy ugliness, our eyes will then begin to look for one other more worthless thing – the justification of taking this ugliness to ourselves and our pleasure.
In the Hebrew, the word for “eye” is also used for a “fountain”. It gives pause to consider how the eye is like a fountain. A fountain pours forth out of itself to others, while the eye pours into a person. As a fountain can only pour forth that which is supplied to it, so also the eye can only pour into the soul that which it supplies. So therefore, David, and I ought to plead with the Lord to turn my eyes to the holy supply, to Him so that I may have life.
Without the Lord giving life and understanding, I am bound to my sinful pride's definition and delusions of what life is. Apart from the Lord’s giving me life and understanding according to His word, according to reality – I am trapped to see things perversely and never in their right way. Only by the Lord giving me LIFE in Himself, shall I then know what is real life and what are the illusions of life.
“Give me life in your ways!” What are the Lord’s ways – His ways are the way of His Law and His Gospel and these ways meet me on the Cross. What a blessed and joyous thing it is that I have never, and shall never hear the Lord Jesus say, “turn my eyes from looking at worthless things.” I who have made myself worthless by my fixation of eyes and heart on those things which are worthless, have a Savior who never asked God to save Him from looking upon me. As surely as the Lord Jesus set, or fixed, His face toward Jerusalem, toward the Cross, so surely has He set and fixed His eyes upon me and all mankind that we might be saved from our own worthlessness.
“Give me life in your ways!” Having fixed His eyes upon me, so now He would have me fix my eyes on his Cross and His resurrection so that I might see and behold His forgiveness and newness of life for me and all who would believe.
“Give me life in your ways!” Now does he call me to fix my eyes upon His ways of giving life in the midst of my own worthlessness. Now does He call me to fix my eyes and my heart upon His Word and Sacraments as His chosen ways of giving, sustaining and increasing His life in me.
“Give me life in your ways!” Give me faith in Jesus Christ who is Your Way of life, living, and seeing all things.

AS MY SOUL CLINGS TO THE DUST

My soul clings to the dust;
Give me life according to your word. Psalm 119:25

The Hebrew word for "cling", could also be translated “cleaves”.
The meaning of this term could be said, “My soul – ‘is joined,’ ‘has adhered,’ ‘has overtaken,’ ‘has taken hold,’ ‘has joined itself’ – to the dust.”
Under the bondage of sin, our soul has become like a polypus, that which is always adhering to the rocks, to things earthly.
So tightly does our sin bound soul cling to the dust that nothing of ourselves or this earth can set us free from the dust.
Because of my sin, I am joined to that which is apart from the Lord. Apart from the Lord, all that I have is that from which I came – the dust. And all that which I am will return, by God’s curse upon my sin – my apartness, to the dust.
Because of my sin, I lack the ability to cling to anything other than those things, which are dust.
So I, with the Psalmist, must cry out for that which none of us can secure for ourselves – GIVE ME LIFE ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD!
Grant me Lord, blessed Lord that which I cannot do or obtain for myself.
SET ME FREE WITH A NEW LIFE THAT COMES FROM YOUR WORD ALONE – JESUS CHRIST – THE WORD MADE FLESH.
This freedom through His Word is the promise of Christ our Lord: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Though we have been born again in baptism, and our soul is set free in the holiness of Christ – no one can be careless in earthly things, for if you turn to these things in your heart, that is to touch them, you will be adhered to these so strongly that only Christ can set you free.
And so, daily, hourly, aye, from moment to moment and situation to situation, we live by the blessed path of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Aye, faith in Jesus, who out of love – clung ‘joined,’ ‘adhered,’ ‘overtook,’ ‘took hold,’ and ‘has joined Himself’ – to the dust, to us – so that we might have life and have it to the full.
To Him alone be the glory. Amen

DO YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO FEAR ABOUT YOURSELF?

In much of my ministry as a pastor and my life as believer, nothing gets more in my way than – myself. I read a short article this weekend by Dr. R. Larry Moyer that spoke to me about being my biggest obstacle in the faith.
The titled of the article was “Six Things You May Have Missed in Seminary”. Much of the article was shallow, but there were two points of wisdom that struck me as insightful and profound. While these points don’t follow upon each other in the article, they do go hand in hand.
The first point was simply that my greatest strengths uncontrolled, would become my greatest weaknesses. At the heart of this observation is the proverbial truth that I can and well, if unchecked, become my biggest obstacle to faith and living of the faith. This is often hard to see in ourselves because in our constant cascade of failings and faults, we long and love to live in our strengths and successes.
The second point of wisdom in this article echoes the truth of Proverbs 27:6a: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend …” According to Moyer, each of us needs dedicated friends who are willing to wound us in a particular way. Such friends are willing to tell me the things about me - I need to fear. We all have a hunger to hear good things about ourselves, and we may even want to hear the not so good things about ourselves. The question is - has a friend ever been so faithful to you, that they told you what you need to fear about yourself? Whether they're aware of it or not, such a friend is grounding you. Such groundings serve to make your steps secure in the truth and in He is the way, the truth, and the life.
This grounding is at the heart of the confession our sins in the Divine Service, if only we’ll listen to it. In hearing and confessing those words, “I a poor miserable sinner,” I ought be very afraid of the wretched man (Rom 7), and in such fear, turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He alone can rescue me from me (Rom 7). Lord, grant me such a righteous fear. In His blessed forgiveness, the Lord Christ brings me beyond myself and into a daily newness of life.
May the Lord grant me and you such friends, and such fear of ourselves, that we may live and believe in our only Rescuer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This may be obvious to you, but it wasn’t to me!

A PRAYER FOR LIVING THE FAITH AT HOME

A Prayer For Living the Faith At Home
Based on Psalm 101:1-8.

By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will speak of Your steadfast love and justice.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will ponder with them, the way that is blameless.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I may hate the work of those who fall away so that it shall not cling to me or them.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that a perverse heart shall be far from me that I will know nothing of evil.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I may reject whoever slanders his neighbor secretly.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will not endure whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that the one who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister with me.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that no one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that Morning by morning I will reject all that is wicked, cutting off all the evildoers from the dwelling place of the Lord, be it in me, my home, or my church.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
I pray, when will You come to us?
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
I pray in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

The Blessed Usefulness of Prayer

If someone wants to describe adequately the usefulness of pious, earnest prayer, he will, in my opinion, surely find a beginning more easily than a conclusion.
Pious prayer offered in faith is familiar conversation with God.
It is a salutary remedy to all the difficulties of life.
It is the key to heaven and the door to paradise.
It shows us how much we depend on God, and it is a ladder of ascension to God.
It is a shield for our defense and a faithful messenger of the ambassador.
It is refreshment in the heat of misfortune; it is medicine during illness.
It is a winch, drawing us to heaven,
and a vessel that draws water from the font of divine kindness.
It is a sword against the devil and a defense against misfortune.
It is a wind that blows away evil and brings earthly benefits.
It is a nurse that nurtures virtues and conquers faults.
It is a great fortification for the soul and gives free access to God.
It is a spiritual feast and a heavenly delicacy.
It is a consolation for the dejected and a delight for the holy.
It grants knowledge of the secret things of God and acquires His gifts.
It upholds the world and rescues people.
It is a joy for the heart and a jubilation for the mind.
It follows God's gift of grace, and it leads ahead into glory.
It is a garden of happiness and a tree full of delights.
It calms the conscience and increases our thankfulness.
It sends demons running and draws angels close.
It is a soothing remedy for the misfortunes of this life
and the sweet smell of the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
It is a foretaste of the life to come and sweetens the bitterness of death.
Whoever is truly a child of God through faith will, with childlike trust,
address his or her heavenly Father every day in prayer.
The one in whose heart the Holy Spirit has made His home will,
as a spiritual priest, daily offer to God this incense of prayer.
There are four immovable truths on which our confidence to pray rests.
Because of these, we may be certain that our heavenly Father mercifully hears our prayers.
The truths on which our certainty rests are:
(1) God's omnipotent kindness;
(2) God's unfailing truthfulness;
(3) Christ's intercession as our mediator; and
(4) the Holy Spirit's testimony.

-Johann Gerhard Excerpted from Treasury of Daily Prayer CPH

Adolescent Subculture

Adolescent SubculturePosted At: 5:10pm by Rev. William M. Cwirla
http://blog.higherthings.org/wcwirla/article/4283.html

I have long maintained, most recently in an interview with Michael "internet Monk" Spencer, that adolescence as a state of being should not be coddled or encouraged. Rather, we adults need to run the race side by side with these young emerging adults and invite them to run in the adult world. John Stonestreet over at Breakpoint agrees. He notes that prior to 1941 or so, there really was no such thing as a "teenager." The whole concept of adolescence as a subculture appears to be the product of the post-world war nucleated family, the alienated father, and mass marketing that target teenagers.
Even worse, adolescence has become the pinnacle of human existence, rather than an apprenticeship that must be endured on the way to something greater. How many adults do you know who are stuck at senior prom? "Forever Eighteen."
Stonestreet cites six characteristic of a culture gone adolescent. These make me think:
1. Demand of instant gratification leading to lack of commitment (marriage, church, whatever)
2. Absence of long-term thinking (What do you want to do when you grow up, if ever?)
3. Motivated by feeling rather than truth. (It feels right to me.)
4. Wanting grown up things without being grown up. (Sex, shacking up, BMWs)
5. Expecting bailouts rather than accepting consequences. (Hmmm. Sound familiar?)
6. Focusing on appearance rather than depth. (Can you say boob job?)
Stonestreet's antidote? Challenge young adults. Educate them in worldview and apologetics. Teach them as Christians what we are for, not just what we are against. Confront them with the major cultural issues rather than isolate them. I couldn't agree more. Judging by the packed sessions at the HT Sola conferences that dealt with atheism, abortion, and hot button cultural issues, our youth are agreeing. Raise the bar high and they will rise to the challenge. Lower the bar, and they will sink.
The last thing we need is another generation of Forever Eighteens.
Read it all for yourself: Our Adolescent Culture
Major HT: Sandra Ostapowich.

Forgiving Little in the Midst of Being Forgiven Much

"Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger ... " Eph 4:26 (ESV)
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Ephesians 4:6
When dealing with the faults and failings of others. Go into your closest and say your “Our Father”, and when you get to the petition wherein you ask, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” you must remember that God has forgiven you much more, and daily forgives you much more, than your neighbor could ever possibly sin against you.”
Martin Luther
Sermon on Trinity 20, Ephesians 5

YOUR WORSHIP: IS IT OF GOD OR OF SELF?

“Worship is not a function of the mouth but of the whole body.
It is to bow the head, bend the body, fall on the knees, prostrate one's self, and so forth, and to do such things as a sign and acknowledgment of an authority and power greater than self. Just as people bow in one form or another in silence before secular princes and Lords, and just as popes, bishops, abbots, and people generally, have themselves honored and adored by bowing and kneeling, and so forth.
Such outward adoration of the bending of the body is what the Scriptures really mean by worship. We read in the Scriptures that worship or adoration is rendered outwardly both to God and to kings without distinction, just as bowing and kneeling are still rendered outwardly both to God and to men.
From this understanding of outward worship you will also understand what Christ meant by true spiritual worship. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 (ESV) It is the adoration or bowing of the heart that Jesus refers to here, so that from the bottom of your heart you are to thereby show and confess yourself to be God’s subordinate creature who owes all to Him.
For from this you see that true worship can only arise from faith; it is faith's sublime activity with respect to God. For no one is able to offer such heartfelt confession, adoration, bending, and bowing of the heart (or whatever you want to call it) before God in his heart, unless he unwaveringly believes and holds God Almighty to be his Lord and Father, from whom he receives and will receive all good things, and through whom, without any merit or worthiness on his part, he is redeemed and preserved from all sins and evil.” Martin Luther (Excerpted from Treasury of Daily Prayer CPH)
In all that the church would establish as corporate worship (worship of the whole body of Christ as one), it must be above all else a matter of bowing both body and soul before the Lord in the rhythm of His speaking and His body responding to Him who alone gives them life. Even as our Lord began this rhythm at the moment of creation where He spoke and creation responded. This rhythm continues through the flow of the Holy Scriptures and even today as we gather for worship and depart out into the world.
In our forms and styles of worship there is freedom. But in no part of what of what we would call worship, can we free ourselves from the belief and confession that we poor miserable sinners and gathered before the most gracious and redeeming God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If worship is to be an expression of a believer’s faith in this reality, then in no part of true worship can anyone expect the content or style of worship to bow to them before they will participate in it.
What then are we to make of those who would put conditions and terms (on the style or content of worship) that must be met before they will participate in worship services, devotions, and prayer? Well, it can be rightly call worship, but in no way it is a worship of the one true God. All such worship is nothing other than a worship of self and the expectation that the Church and God Almighty should bow to their desires and whims before they will grant the favor of their presence and praise.
Again it needs to be said: “... the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 (ESV)