Maurine Hebrank died Monday, November 6, 2023. Maurine was a member of the Ogden United Methodist Church, but she was also active in the CAUMC Willing Workers group and the book club. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers.
An obituary can be found here.
Bernice DiFilippo, mother of Raelene Dawson, died unexpectedly yesterday (Tuesday, November 7, 2023). She has been received into the arms of God’s mercy, but please keep Raelene, Lonnie, and the rest of her family and friends in your prayers.
I just finished Flame of Love by Clark H. Pinnock. He closed the book with a prayer to the Holy Spirit. That prayer was a hymn written by Charles Wesley (John Wesley’s brother) in 1762. It’s found as #501 in The United Methodist Hymnal. I wanted to share it with you here:
O Thou who camest from above,
the pure celestial fire to impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
upon the mean altar of my heart.There let it for thy glory burn
with inextinguishable blaze,
and trembling to its source return,
in humble prayer and fervent praise.Jesus, confirm my hearts desire
to work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up thy gift in me.Ready for all thy perfect will,
my acts of faith and love repeat,
till death thy endless mercies seal,
and make my sacrifice complete.
If you take time to pause and remember 9/11 today, I would again commend to you this prayer from Rev. Jeremy Pridgeon. In over a decade I haven’t found a better one.
Link: http://bit.ly/2eYITAb
Today, I’m praying these verses from Albert Midlane for College Avenue United Methodist Church, for the UMC in general and for the church universal:
1 Revive thy work, O Lord,
thy mighty arm make bare;
speak with the voice that wakes the dead,
and make thy people hear.
2 Revive thy work, O Lord,
disturb this sleep of death;
quicken the smould’ring embers now
by thine almighty breath. [1]
[1] Albert Midlane, “Revive Thy Work, O Lord,” 1858, Hymnary.org, accessed September 19, 2022, https://bit.ly/3BRJqeQ.
Below is the “Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” that we’ll be using in worship tomorrow (Sunday, January 2, 2022). I try to pray this prayer every day, but I think it’s especially appropriate at the start of a new year.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Note: I don’t take the phrase “put me to suffering” to mean that God wants us to suffer or that God will force us to suffer. Instead, I see it as our affirmation that we are willing to suffer for the work of the kingdom. E.g., in the 1960s the civil rights movement involved a lot of suffering for a lot of faithful Christians. As Christians, we don’t seek suffering out, but we are willing to bear the suffering that falls on us as we seek to live out our faith.
To update the language to modern usage, I have substituted “yours” for “thine,” “you” for “thou,” etc. from the version of this prayer found in the United Methodist Hymnal (607).
Photo Credit: Lewis Hine/Library of Congress via PINGnews. Additional photo information: TITLE: 488 Macon, Ga. Lewis W. Hine 1-19-1909. Bibb Mill No. 1 Many youngsters here. Some boys were so small they had to climb up on the spinning frame to mend the broken threads and put back the empty bobbins. Location: Macon, Georgia. More.
Please note that a version of this post originally appeared in 2011.
Bishop Saenz has written a letter addressing the shocking events that took place in the national capital last Wednesday (January 6, 2020). You can read it here. One of the things he is asking is for United Methodists in Kansas and Nebraska to pray together from this coming Sunday until Easter Sunday. Here’s the prayer from The Book of Worship that he’s asking us to use:
God of all the ages, in your sight nations rise and fall and pass-through times of peril. Now when our land is troubled, be near to judge and save. May leaders be led by your wisdom; may they search your will and see it clearly. If we have turned from your way, reverse our ways and help us to repent. Give us your light and your truth, let them guide us; through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of this world, and our Savior. Amen. [1]
After what happened last week, I plan to start praying today.
[1] “A Prayer in a Time of National Crisis,” The United Methodist Book of Worship (Nashville, TN: United Methodist Publishing House, 1992), 517.
Pastor Mark Demas, who was serving Coffeyville First United Methodist Church, has contracted Covid-19 and died. I’m praying for his family, his friends, and his congregation, many of whom I know. Stay safe folks. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Wash your hands.
Good advice from Emmanuel Acho:
Log off if you need to, but join us for Communion on Zoom at 6 p.m. I don’t know what I’m going to say, but I’m trusting that the Holy Spirit will show up.
Here in Abilene, we are not under any physical threat, so I do not want to respond to the events in the capitol today in haste or anger. And right now, I am grieving the sad state of American democracy, and my grief is producing a lot of anger. All I know to do is to pray. Please join me. We’ll pray together at the communion service tonight at 6 p.m. Visit abilenefirstumc.org/zoom-meetings/ for more information.
From 8 a.m. to 12 noon on Christmas Eve (December 24, 2020), the sanctuary will be open for prayer. You’ll need to come to the entryway marked “office” on the east side of the building and ring the doorbell on the glass door.
