Lent Challenge
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Who’s at the Door
"Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with him and he will eat with me." (Rev 3:20) This is the last in a series of texts chosen by Albert Bogle as Moderator for this year. It has been used powerfully over the years as an image of Christ standing at the door of the human heart seeking admission. It has helped thousands to make a personal response of faith to the Risen Christ.
However, the verse sits within the letter of the Risen Christ to the church at Laodicea, the lukewarm church which has become complacent and too comfortable to be effective for Christ. The image is one of Christ being excluded from his own church, standing on the doorstep seeking readmission.
In our prayers for the month, we will develop the theme of doors that stand open or closed. We have drawn on the imagery of the book of Revelation for key texts - with a little bit of poetic licence for the last one.
Daily Prayer
Dear Lord,
On the night you were betrayed, and at a time when others were arguing about greatness, you showed where your confidence lay by divesting yourself again, and by washing feet. Forgive us when we are too fearful to serve, to lose face, position or reputation; when we like James and John seek the best seats, or are taken up by the need to be noticed. Your way is a different way. It bruises our egos, kills our pride and challenges who we really are. When this challenge comes, help us not to flinch, but to truly enter into the kind of service you have called us to. Service not to humiliate, debase or wound, but to reform, remake and rebuild, not just for today but forever. Then in the light of eternity, show us our highest destiny formed in serving over self.
Daily Reading
When Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
Faith Story: Finding God amidst tragedy
I was brought up in a Christian family in the north of Scotland and attended the Free Church at that time. Sunday was the Lord’s Day in our community and we all went to chuch morning and evening and Sunday school was held in the...
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