A Prayer a Day: Good morning,God.This morning I have been thinking about looking for you, Lord, in the regular events of life. Being out of the pattern of weekly public worship has changed about everything; I’m not sure there is actually a regular pattern of life to think about these days. Sunday has been my reboot my life day for decades. When I have wandered off your path during the week, coming into worship snaps me back. One reason I need to reboot, is my thinking goes off base. I don’t know if this is unusual, but when I get […]

A Prayer a Day: Good evening, Heavenly Father. Today I was thinking about all that has happened in just a couple of months. Imagine, the nightmare of 1.23 million people being infected with Coronavirus, 71,532 Americans have died, and 163,000 have thankfully recovered. It’s hard to imagine how many families, individuals, and communities have been negatively affected by this pandemic.This is only considering the medical aspects, not counting the lost jobs, businesses, and income. So, Lord, now people are arguing about when to reopen public places, and arguing about what rules must be in place to reopen. Lord, if you […]

A Prayer a Day: Good afternoon, Father God. It’s a sunny day in Springfield,Ohio. It is especially pleasing to me, because I watched the Weather Channel and the weatherman said, cool, cloudy, and rain. Based on that weather prediction, I wasn’t expecting much in the weather department. It just goes to show you, we human being are fallible and prone to getting things wrong. That’s a very good reason for us, to put our faith in your promises, Lord, instead of in other human beings’ predictions. One promise you made to us is in Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through […]

A Prayer a Day: Good morning,Lord. Since I have been writing these prayers, I have been thinking more about prayer as a practice. I try to write these prayers as would pray to you, God, but it’s a challenge. As you know, Lord, usually my prayers do not involve so many words, and never punctuation.Instead, often I think of something, hold the idea in my mind, and say to you, Lord; really, really? Or I think of some good thing someone has done and I say, “Bless them, Lord!” Or I think of some horrible thing I know about, like […]

A Prayer a Day:Good day, Lord. Sitting on this back porch, watching the bird fly into the Purple Martin house, I must report, the birds are not practicing social distancing. I have seen about twenty birds go into that house, and I have seen no birds leave.This whole social distancing or some call it physical distancing is a terrific challenge and hardship for some. There is a wide disparity of affect, depending on a number of factors, including how many people live at your house. One church member, with a very large family, told me they laughed about who would […]

A Prayer a Day: Good morning,Lord. This morning the news was doing a story on essential and non-essential workers. It turns out the most famous and wealthy in our society, athletes, musicians, and movie stars are non-essential according to the Coronavirus quarantine guidelines. While the news report was playing I started trying to list who I thought might logically be on the essential list. I thought of doctors, nurses, medical support staff, grocery store workers, police, firemen, EMT workers, pharmacists, and nursing home staff. I checked online for the official list and found: car repair shops, gas stations, clinical workers […]

A Prayer a Day: Good afternoon, Heavenly Father. It’s a rainy day in Springfield,Ohio. Every drop seems to make the grass greener and the flowers bigger. Thank you, God, for the rain that cleans, feeds, and waters our earth. Today, I spent some time thinking about the point of any of us attending church.I have heard many people over the years, explain to me that there really isn’t any good reason to go to church. Many years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I took a two-year vacation from church attendance. Before I took this vacation,I was attending […]

A Prayer a Day: Good evening, Lord. What a  busy day it has been.  Today in our sanctuary, looking up at the exposed trusses and roof, I marvel at what a big job this sanctuary remodel has ended up being. I’m going to write a sermon about it sometime. I’ll title the sermon, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now.” When we found out our sanctuary truss system was compromised, four and one half years ago and we moved out of our sanctuary to worship in our fellowship room. I thought fixing the problem would take about one to […]

A Prayer a Day: Lord, good afternoon. Today I have been thinking about the many scriptures, that say when we ask in your will, that you, God, hear us. 1John 5:14 reads, “This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Also, consider Mark 11:24, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” These are not difficult passages, Lord, as long as we pray fairly casually. But, when we have the deepest longings of our hearts lifted up […]

A Prayer a Day: Good morning, Lord. My greetings you each morning  reminds me that I am the arbitrator of my life. I decide, when I open my eyes and have had enough coffee to wake up, what kind of day it is and will be. I may look outside to see if the sun is shining, and check the sky to see if it is clear blue with white, puffy, clouds or gray, bleak, with dark thunder clouds on the horizon. The evaluation is mine and each individual person’s. Not only do we evaluate, we set the criteria for […]