Morning Grace

- Re-read the passages from this week's devotions. Choose the one that is most meaningful to you to be your prayer focus for today. They are: Psalm 119:105-112 Genesis 26:1-5 I John 2:7-17 Romans 12:9-21 - Read the passage again and identify a word or phrases that jump out at you. - Read the passage again, and if possible read from a different translation ( biblegateway.com  has many translations you can choose from). Identify where this passage might be touching your life today. How is this relevant to your life? - Read the passage a third time, again in a different translation if possible. Ask yourself what God is calling you to do or to be from this passage. What change might God be moving your toward? - Close with a silent prayer, listening to God rather than speaking to God. What actions will you take today based on this prayer? - Recite the Lord's Prayer.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;  do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;  for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing th

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, b

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you. Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ~ Genesis 26:1-5 One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.  ~  Friedrich Nietzsche Reside in this land as an alien.   Reside in this land as an alien. I think

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word. Accept my offerings of praise, O LORD, and teach me your ordinances. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.  ~ Psalm 119:105-112 There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.” ~  Anne Lamott

- Re-read the passages from this week's devotions. Choose the one that is most meaningful to you to be your prayer focus for today. They are: Psalm 15 John 8:12-20 Deuteronomy 4:1-14 Romans 11:2-10 - Read the passage again and identify a word or phrases that jump out at you. - Read the passage again, and if possible read from a different translation ( biblegateway.com  has many translations you can choose from). Identify where this passage might be touching your life today. How is this relevant to your life? - Read the passage a third time, again in a different translation if possible. Ask yourself what God is calling you to do or to be from this passage. What change might God be moving your toward? - Close with a silent prayer, listening to God rather than speaking to God. What actions will you take today based on this prayer? - Recite the Lord's Prayer.

Beginning this week, for those who are missing some kind of ongoing Bible Study, I'll be adding information at the end of each devotional for further engagement with the text.  In addition, beginning in September, I'd like to do my devotions on some of your favorite topics, texts, themes, or books. Contact me at deaconallison12@gmail.com if you have anything you'd like to see in further devotions. I'll get to as many as I can over the course of the year! God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what is the divine reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, other

Beginning this week, for those who are missing some kind of ongoing Bible Study, I'll be adding information at the end of each devotional for further engagement with the text.  In addition, beginning in September, I'd like to do my devotions on some of your favorite topics, texts, themes, or books. Contact me at deaconallison12@gmail.com if you have anything you'd like to see in further devotions. I'll get to as many as I can over the course of the year! So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what the LORD did with regard to the Baal of Peor - how the LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the B

Beginning this week, for those who are missing some kind of ongoing Bible Study, I'll be adding information at the end of each devotional for further engagement with the text.  In addition, beginning in September, I'd like to do my devotions on some of your favorite topics, texts, themes, or books. Contact me at deaconallison12@gmail.com if you have anything you'd like to see in further devotions. I'll get to as many as I can over the course of the year! Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ Then the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards;  I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my

Beginning this week, for those who are missing some kind of ongoing Bible Study, I'll be adding information at the end of each devotional for further engagement with the text.  In addition, beginning in September, I'd like to do my devotions on some of your favorite topics, texts, themes, or books. Contact me at deaconallison12@gmail.com if you have anything you'd like to see in further devotions. I'll get to as many as I can over the course of the year! O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things