17 October 2014
Collects
Prayers
developed from the daily readings
Friday 17
October 2014
Morning
Prayer
Psalm 106: 1– 24
The
psalmist begins praising God and marvelling at God’s faithful love and great
deeds. He then charges that we like the people of the past – from the Exodus to
the time of Aaron – go astray.
Ezra 5
In the second year of the reign of King Darius of
Persia Zechariah prophecies and Zerubbabel begins to rebuild the temple. The
governor Tattenai questions who gave them permission to begin again, sends a
letter to King Darius and watches and waits for the reply. The letter outlines
who is building the temple and why. They are servants of God, who they had
angered and therefore Nebuchadnezzar took them away into exile. King Cyrus
decreed the house should be rebuilt and gave them back the vessels originally
from the Jerusalem temple out of the Babylonian temple. The foundation stone
was laid and so the rebuild is continuing. The letter asks the King to check
the archives, see the decree and let his view be known.
Matthew 14: 1 – 21
News of Jesus comes to Herod Antipas after the death
of John the Baptist. He says to his servants that Jesus must be John the
Baptist resurrected. We are reminded of the circumstances of John’s death –
beheaded – by the request of Salome his niece (on the advice of her mother
Herodias). When Jesus hears of John’s death he takes himself to a deserted
place by boat. The crowds follow by foot and when he comes ashore he puts aside
his grief and cures the sick.
The disciples, later in the day tell Jesus to send the
crowds away since it is nearly dark and there is no food. Jesus replies that
they need not go and the disciples should feed them. All the disciples have is
5 loves and 2 fish. Jesus blesses the food breaks it and instructs that it be
shared. 5000 men with women and children are fed and 12 baskets of food remain.
Collect for
Morning Prayer
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| Desert flowers Head of the Bight SA 2014 L Osburn |
Friday 17 October 2014
Evening
Prayer
Psalm
106: 25 – 50
The
ancient people keep shifting allegiance and worshipping other gods. They even
conduct live sacrifice of their children. Yet God delivers them, shows
compassion. The psalmist asks for God to gather us in to give thanks, glory and
praise to God.
Daniel 3: 1 – 15
Nebuchadnezzar builds a giant, golden statue and
requires the people to bow down at the sound of a musical ensemble. Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego refuse. The refusal is reported to the king who becomes
enraged and threatens to burn the three in a furnace challenging, “who is the
god that will deliver you out of my hands?”
1 Peter 2:
11 – 17
Peter
urges the Christians to abstain from the things that wage war against the soul
and conduct themselves honourably so that even if they are maligned their
actions will be above reproach when God does the judging. Peter says that we
are to accept the rule in the countries we are in and as servants of God live
as free people but don’t use that as a pretext for evil. Honour everyone. Love
the family of believers. Fear God. Honour the ruler.
Collect for
Evening Prayer
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| The Travellers' Cross - Eyre Highway Eucla WA 2014 L Osburn |
Great God
of consistency and love, you want the best for us in our dynamic world. You
teach us to consistently worship you and put you first and as a result honour
all and gently and respectfully witness to your great love no matter the regime
we live under. Be with us all, especially those of us who live in situations
where regimes threaten our lives and the lives of those we love if we do not
bow to their god. Free our souls from destructive fear. Remind us that the
little we have, faith, hope, praise, the capacity for prayer is enough, more
than enough, abundantly enough to feed and strengthen our souls through Jesus
Christ our Lord and your Holy Spirit in our hearts. Amen.
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