GREETING (Adapted from Exodus 3:14-16)
I Am Who I Am, you have spoken
from the bush, the prophets and your Son!
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
has come to rescue those in bondage to sin!
Let us bow down before you, I Am,
and lift up prayers and songs of thanksgiving!
HYMN 552 “Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather”
PSALM 66
PRAYER
(Consider the following concerns of the Church for prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Follow with your personal prayer list.)
Those faithfully following Jesus’ way Those struggling with daily life
Those failing to follow Jesus’ way Accepting the life Jesus offers
Our faithfulness to Jesus’ way Those living Jesus new life
Learning Jesus’ way The wonder of eternal life
Accepting Jesus’ way for ourselves Those dead to life
Struggling to live Jesus’ way Those lives leading to death
Those wandering from Jesus’ way Christ the only way, truth and life
Those seeking truth Christ our only salvation
Those living in God’s truth Truth in other religions
Those content with the world’s truth Sharing our truth with other religions
The world’s truth vs. God’s truth _____________________________
Those doubting Jesus’ truth _____________________________
Inventing our own truth _____________________________
THE LORD'S PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Creator, your Son, Jesus, is our way, our truth, our life.
Everyone knows countless ways, but they are false.
Every day thousands of new truths arise, and are lies.
Every new product promises life, but never delivers.
Creator, your Son, Jesus, is our way, our truth, our life.
We know Jesus to be our way, the only way for us to go.
We have known, and sometimes, followed other ways.
They feel imprinted on us since birth, settling our fate.
But why follow to death when there is a better way?
We know Jesus to be our way, the only way for us to go.
And we know Jesus to be our truth, the only truth to trust.
Lies shouted loud enough or repeated often enough,
are often accepted as the truth in this foolish world.
Help us hold to real truth, lasting truth, Jesus’ truth.
We know Jesus to be our truth, the only truth to trust.
And we know Jesus to be life offered to all your children.
Money, power, fame, health, even the universe itself,
all are temporary, because everything will pass away.
Only in Christ is there anything permanent and forever.
We know Jesus to be life offered to all your children.
Creator, your Son, Jesus, is our way, our truth, our life.
We thank you and praise you for sending him to us.
Your goodness, your grace and love anchor our lives.
Your peace, your joy and the hope you offer, fill us.
Thanks to you, Creator, we have the way, truth and life. Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 164 “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life”
CLOSING PRAYER
Your greatness, I Am, is our joy and our hope,
for you have sent your Son to be our shepherd,
the true vine and bread of life, the world’s light,
the gate, opening to grace, shutting out danger.
He has become to us the resurrection and life,
our way, our truth and our life forever and ever.
May our thoughts, words and deeds all this day,
faithfully reflect his presence and compassion. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
