Monday, February 29, 2016

Prayer based on 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:8

1 Corinthians 5:9-6:8

LORD, you teach us not to endorse, support, or ignore open immorality among those who claim to be disciples.  At the same time, you encourage us to seek to make disciples of unbelievers regardless of their lawless behavior.   YOU desire your church to exercise discipline towards those who are not repentant and who would sin that grace may abound.  

I am thankful that so many of your people have been transformed from lawless lives to living now in repentance and faith.  

I confess that I have sometimes fallen into lawless moods and have failed to discipline myself to love righteousness as I should have.   Lord forgive me my lack of love for you and desire for holiness. 

Help me to seek first your kingdom and righteousness in all that I do.  Grant me wisdom with unbelievers so that I do not avoid them because they live consistent with their unbelief.  Allow me to be able to share your love and logic with them.   Let, me not endorse or enable wicked behavior among those who proclaim themselves to be believers but instead rebuke them with encouragements to repent.  

LORD, you teach us that we need to consider our union and relationship as believers as special and sacred.  We need to see ourselves as first of all members of your kingdom Church and only secondarily as citizens of our nations.  Our loyalty to each other as Christians needs to be greater than our seeking civil justice in the civil courts.  The church itself should be helping us resolve issues instead of seeking help from the unbelieving courts of this culture.

Thank you for all the times that others have forgiven me wrongs I have done.  For the times that your people have been able to resolve conflicts and avoided court actions.  Thank you for allowing me the grace to forgive others who have hurt me.   

I confess that at times I have trusted the unbelieving and secular government more than I have trusted your Church.  I have seen in the civil government a greater community of hope than in my brothers and sisters in the faith.  Help me see the Church through your eyes and to love the fellowship of disciples as you do.  

LORD, help us to become the Church you need us to be in this hour.  Make of us a true community of caring, concern, and conscience.  Send a great awakening to your people that we may give a clear witness of love to a watching world.   

Lord, help us now.  Show us how to show real love to each other as believers and give a clear testimony to the watching culture.   Help us to be effective in being the salt and light of the world.  Amen

Friday, February 26, 2016

Psalm Meditations

Psalm 95

Lord, give me a voice to sing your goodness, greatness, and grace.

Allow my heart to feel joy in a filled with grief.

Allow me to come before you thankful for what you being you and for what you have provided for me in your grace.

Lord, you are the great heroic saving KING.  Creator of every atom in the universe.

  Let me worship you in spirit and in truth, with an attitude of true submission to your will.  Help me not harden my heart over unanswered prayers.  Grant that I do not go astray from the path of life.  By your mercy, allow me to enter into your rest in my soul.

Psalm 40

Lord, give me patience in waiting for you to act in ways that I desperately need you to act.  Draw those I love out of the pit of destruction.  Set their feet on a secure foundation of true faith and love.  Put a new song in my mouth that will be able to praise you for their salvation.

Help me trust you in the dark.  Grant me to remember all the wondrous deeds and wisdom you have given to me in my life journey so far.  Help me see that none can compare with your greatness.

Lord, help me give witness of your great love on the cross in paying the penalty for my rebellion and immorality.  Allow me to speak to my inner heart the truth of your gospel that it may fully believe in your Thank you, Lord, for your steadfast love for me despite everything I have said and done which harmed others.

Preserve me this day due to your mercy, faithfulness, and steadfast love towards me.  Grant me a heart of deep repentance and change my mind to think your thoughts after you.

May it please you to save those who I love.  May the dark lord and enemy of life be defeated and bring your glory and truth to those in danger.

Give me a seeking heart for you.  A hunger and thirst for you.  A love for your great deeds of deliverance.  YOU LORD, are my help and strength.  Without you, I am poor, needy, and hopeless.

Psalm 54

Lord, hear my voice.  Save my loved ones for the glory of your name.  Destroy those things that make war against true faith.  Deliver them from trouble and triumph over the world, flesh, and devil.  Now come and help us.  Without you, we can do nothing.

May the God who saves be praised.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Meditation on Mark 2:13-22

Mark 2:13-22

Lord Jesus, this day allow me to hear your voice in my heart and soul that calls me to follow you.  Let me put aside all the other voices in my head and clearly hear you say to me; "Follow me".

Help me seek to reach out to those who are in need and not just put myself with people who have or think they have no needs.  Help me to  see that I need you as my soul physician and that my sickness can never be cured except by your great grace.  Heal me now!

Show me the value of fasting.  Grant me a hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Also, show me the value of fellowship with you.  Help me to not try to put my following you into a framework of legalism and self-righteousness.  

Let me drink the new wine of your renewed covenant with your people and know the joy of having my sins forgiven and your Spirit within me.   Help me to take joy in the gospel of pure grace this day.




Declaration of our Need of New Gospel Passion

Declaration of Our Need of New Gospel Passion
By
Dr. Norman Wise
2 Chronicles 7:14
14  if My people, upon whom My name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

With heavy hearts, we recognize that we are in a state of spiritual apathy.  Like the people of God who were warned in the Revelation we have become lukewarm and compromised in our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and HIS gospel of pure grace.  The light of our being a living witness of the great gospel of absolute love found in Christ Jesus has grown dim.

We confess that despite access to more resources and biblical teaching than any other group of believers in history, we are not characterized by careful study of the Scriptures, prayerful application of the Scriptures, or dependence upon the power of the Spirit in doing God’s work on earth.  We have often, not provided honest answers to the honest questions of our generation or demonstrated a loving sane and stable spirituality before the watching cultures of the world.

God is now awakening us from this spiritual slumber and calling us to mobilize ourselves to kingdom-focused prayer framed within a sound theology of the gospel of unconditional and sovereign grace.   Together, we desire to travel the narrow road of careful study of the Scripture, humility in hearing God’s word, brokenness caused by the Holy Spirit convicting us of our not living lives that incarnate scripture, and seeking the gift of repentance which will change our minds and our actions.

In desperation for God’s glory to be seen, we cry out for the full reformation of God’s church to commitment to the true gospel of God’s great grace in Christ Jesus alone.  We desire to center our lives in trusting in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, and in the Bible alone as the ultimate authority in faith and practice in our lives.

We desire now to experience the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit by seeing the LORD more clearly in the Scriptures, loving the LORD more dearly due to the great gospel of undeserved grace, which then following the LORD more nearly and practically in our lifestyle. 

Because we believe that only Christ Jesus alone can save, reform, restore, and revive us we pledge depending upon HIS sovereign grace to:

Turn in humble obedience from every sin God reveals to us in HIS word and in our conscience.

Pray with urgency for biblical reformation, recovery of the true gospel, and an awakening of our love for Jesus Christ.

Uniting with other believers who are seeking reformation, revival, and renewal in spreading the hope of a gospel centered reformation and revival.

Lord, send us a true biblical revival and let it begin in me!



Sunday, February 21, 2016

Questions to Journal on this week

Questions to muse on this week.

A.  Have you ever seen someone come to believe in Christianity that was not a Christian?  This would be someone that seemed like a real conversion took place?  If yes, then how often? 

B.  Have you ever had a “mountain top” experience in which you experienced the reality of God? 

C.  Have you ever felt greatly used by God and felt you had an impact on others due to your sharing your faith with people in words and deeds.

D.  How would you describe your current spirituality?  Is this a low point, a moderate moment of insight and faith, or are you near the peak of your experience and encounter with God.


E.  Has your faith led to a radical change in your lifestyle?  Do you know people who have had radical changes in their lifestyle because of their relationship with Jesus?

Musings on Genesis 37:1-11

Genesis 37:1-11

LORD, how hard it is for us to accept your plans. They don't seem fair. We seem to have to accept things that are unacceptable. Your ways are not our ways. 

The family of Joseph could not accept what YOU had planned. Working through the heart of Jacob/Israel to favor him to encourage envious hate in his brothers. 

Even so when YOU came to us, LORD JESUS in the flesh and the FATHER clearly favored you above all others to be the MESSIAH, but we would not accept it. 

Why did we need a Savior? Why did we need a LORD? Why were YOU, LORD JESUS, needed? Were we not enough? Why do we need some KING to tell us what to do? Are we not all KINGS of our own souls? 

We cried out "We will not have the Messiah rule over us!" (Psalm 2:1-2)

Your prophecies made clear the Messiah had to come to save us from our sin by a suffering of hell fire for his people (Isaiah 53). Yet, we do not want to submit to these prophecies. The prophecies proclaim that every knee will bow. Yet, we do not bow. 

It is not fair. Why should we need YOU?

Lord, remove from me my self-sufficient and rebellious heart. Put in my heart repentance, acceptance, submission, and faith. Weaken and kill my self-righteousness and pride. Take from me the heart of Joseph's brothers, and help me see that I desperately need you. Amen

Friday, February 19, 2016

Meditation on Daniel 9:3-10

Meditation on Daniel 9:3-10

Lord, help us to turn our faces, souls, hearts, spirits, and true inner selfs totally in your direction and turn away from the lies, illusions, temptation, false hopes, and self-constructed idols of our minds. Help us turn from vain self-reliance being aware of our own weakness, limitations, foolishness, self-centeredness, and pride. 

We come pleading for your mercy. Have mercy and reveal yourself to us even though we are not seeking for you with our whole hearts and there is so much spiritual apathy in us. Spirit convict us fo sin, righteousness and judgment. Strip us of our self-righteousness and self-justification. Our blaming of others and excusing ourselves. Our living in a secular mental and emotional framework. Take us from "living under the sun" to living in the reality of eternity. 

Open our eyes to the reality that you are great, awesome, magnificent, faithful, committed, sacrificial, and loyal. Help us see that YOU, LORD, are not the one failing us but that are failing you. In that spiritual failure we now, have also failed all those who we have a duty to love and serve. Convict our conscience, in a deep and profound way that we cannot silence that we have horribly fallen short of our potential and brought negative impact upon those we most love. 

This is due to our failure to seek a deeper, real, transforming, relationship with YOU, LORD, even though you have passionately sought us. We have been indifferent and hard-hearted towards you as the Good Shepherd of our souls. Like sheep, we have gone astray. 

We have trusted in our own wisdom more than in the revelation you gave through your servants the prophets and apostles. More sure of our own minds than trusting in YOUR divine wisdom. Darkness has come to our souls and we are now without light. 

Now in your light let us see light. We have reason to feel moral shame. We have betrayed your love, your faithfulness, your goodness, your grace, your sacrifice, and your wisdom. In our pride, we have denied your goodness and proclaimed our own. 

Bring us now to your light. Break into our darkness. Don't allow us to continue down this path of insanity. Keep us from playing religious games. 

Take from us the feeling of living in a secular world and invade us with your divine presence on every side. Awaken our conscience that we may feel true guilt and hunger to find a real forgiving relationship with you. 

Come to LORD now in power even though we do not deserve any such manifestation of your love and compassion. To those most in darkness provide the brightest lights. To those most cynical give the most hope. To the doubting provide the greatest proofs. 

For your glory and kingdom's sake now move. For your name's sake now save us. We do not deserve your salvation but only your condemnation. 

But in the sacrifice of the LORD Messiah Jesus, LORD JESUS, now save us by your grace alone. We desperately need you more than we even think we need you. Help us see we need you. 

Save the unsavable. Take out the hearts of stone and replace them with sensitive hearts of flesh. Speak to the bones and make them live. Now LORD, out of nothing create faith, hope, and love once more. YOU are our only hope. Nothing and no one can now save but you. 

Come quickly now in reviving and living presence and power to us. Come now! 

Lord, have mercy, Messiah have mercy, Lord have mercy. 

Please hear our cry. 

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Meditation on Psalm 37:1-18

Lord, let me not be in a panic about the evil that surrounds me or wonder how those who disobey you can seem to do so well. Remind me that your enemies will fade and wither. Their "success" is short lived. That your loving redemptive patience gives them time to have a change of mind and heart. Lord, convert or cripple them. 

Help me to rely on you and focus on seeking to create the deeds of love that you designed me to accomplish. Teach me the ways of faithful living. Forgive me for my unfaithfulness in so many ways in the past. Help me be able to live with the impact and damage such unfaithfulness has caused. Lord have mercy on all those I failed. 

LORD, be my one desire. Help my heart respond in joy, awe, and love as I meditate upon your goodness, greatness, and grace. Open my eyes to see you and grant my soul the ability to respond with delight. Awaken me to your presence and power. Let a clearer vision of you fill my soul. Lord of grace, please have grace on me.

I commit to you my lifestyle, my habits, my goals, and my days. Into your hands, I give you my life, my breath, and my being. YOU have bought me with your blood now possess me with your SPIRIT. Act now for your glory and forgive me my lack of faith. 

Show now your righteousness, justice, and mercy before the watching world. 

Help me not panic but to find in you, my refuge. Help me trust you in the dark. Help me not fear the enemy of my soul but instead, rely on you to deliver. 

Keep me from frustration, fear, and mere human anger. Let not worry lead me to reckless actions. Help me trust that you will work all things out for good. Evil will not win in the long run. Your kingdom will come. 

Help me see myself as I am. Take from me pride, self-righteousness, and self-centeredness. 

Let me see that you are never afraid of evil winning. You laugh in the face of the devil. LORD, you have no fear. Give to my your courage. 

Provide your help to the poor and needy, Save the oppressed. Protect the unborn and end abortion. Break the power of those who bring harm and oppress. Destroy ISIS by conversion or by crippling their efforts to do harm. Steal from them their financial resources and defeat all their plans of battle. Contain them and take from them favor with all who would ally themselves with them. Lord hear us. End this dark source of spiritual and physical death. Break their strength. 

Uphold your Church and revive, renew, reform, and restore her to be a clear light to the nations. Destroy the gates of hell in our generation. Do more than we think is possible. Convert the Middle East according to your promises in Isaiah 19. Move the mountains that we might all be in wonder to you. 

Convert us deeply and significantly, encounter our children, and provide profound transforming faith to our grandchildren. Move now LORD and show your power to save the unsavable. 

Lord, your steadfast love is new every morning and great is your faithfulness. Lord help me see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly this day. Amen

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Musings on Phil 4:1-9

Lord, help me to stand firm in the Lord and to see the connection I have with my brothers and sisters in YOU. 

Help us to have unity and agreement in the fellowship. Save us from all the schemes of the devil to divide us. 

I have joy knowing who YOU are LORD. YOU are good, great, and full of grace. Ever present with me in this broken and difficult world. Working everything out for ultimate kingdom good. 

Help me recognize reality as YOU have made it and think as you think in a reasonable and logical manner. Let me live in the reality that YOU are present here with me. 

Help me give to you my fears and anxiety. Let me cast my cares upon you. Give to me an ability to pray to you and depend on you in every circumstance. Grant me to be thankful that you are here with me and active in moving everything forward to establish your eternal righteous kingdom. I release to you my deepest and darkest fears, those that suck from me my hope. Now in their place put your peace, contentment, and assurance. Protect my intellect and emotions from being overwhelmed. 

Bring to my mind the reality that there is great evidence of your greatness, goodness, and grace on every side. Enable me to make a full and complete inventory of every particular person and event that demonstrates your love and care for me. LORD of well-being, now, be with me. 

Fill me now with the attitude of gratitude in the middle of my sorrow. Lord have mercy. Amen

Monday, February 15, 2016

Meditation on Psalm 25

Meditation on Psalm 25

LORD, I lift up my soul, spirit, heart, and life. All that I am I lift up to you. Help me feel your presence with me, around me, over me, under me, and in me. Open me to an experience of your "being". 

Lord, help me to trust you. Keep me from loss and shame. Defeat the unbelief in my heart, the dark culture around me, and the dark destroyer of souls who desires my destruction. Help me to wait for you to move and act in dependence on your promises. Protect me from those who seek to hurt me. 

Teach me how to live a lifestyle that shows your wisdom and love. Lead me today in everything I do and everything I don't do. You are the ultimate power and the ruler over my salvation and I will depend on you to keep your promises even on the days in which I have not yet seen them fulfilled. I will trust you in the dark days of defeat. 

When you think of me this day LORD, do it through the sacrifice of your suffering on the cross. Be merciful to me and apply all the unconditional and sacrificial love you have for me. Place the rebellions of my past under the grace of your blood and wash them clean from my record. LORD, remember me in your kindness and eternal love. 

LORD, you are good, great, and full of grace. You instruct me on my worst days with patience and care. Help me to accept myself for who I really am in your sight. Let me not think of myself in an exalted way. Help me to see I am dust and very frail. I need you to teach me how to live. Help me guard your promises and commitments in my heart. 

For the sake of YOUR plan of salvation, provide me pardon for all my lack of love and logic in my life. My guilt is great. I need your grace. 

Be my friend this day. Help me escape from all the traps of the enemy. Instruct me in your wisdom from above. Allow my children to be the objects of your grace. Help me live in the knowledge of your love for me 

LORD, turn to me. Help me encounter and experience your grace. I feel alone and hurting. My true self is greatly distressed. Consider my situation and struggles. The problems before me seem like mountains. Forgive all my sins in your great redemptive actions and love. 

I take refuge in YOU, LORD. Save me from the foes of my soul. Defeat the plans of the dark lord for me and protect me from his hatred. Help me leave a good legacy for the next generation. Allow your grace to triumph in me and through me. I trust you and wait for you to demonstrate YOUR power in the critical issues I now face. 

Restore, reform, renew and revive your community of faith dear KING Jesus. Bring light to the darkness. Save us now! Save your Church! Act now in a way never expected. 

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Prayer based on Rev 2:1-7

To the Church in Ephesus
2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
LORD, this day let me see that you are walking in the middle of the church services.  YOU are in the middle of the life and ministry of your people.  Open our eyes to see you. 
2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 
LORD, help us to be involved in doing the works you have called us to, ready for the blood, sweat, and tears of ministry.  Give us hearts ready to run the marathon of a faithful life of service to you.  Help us not tolerate in our lives evil and keep us from not confronting open rebellion against you in our communities.  Help us to stand  for true doctrine and to be ready to suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness and for YOU.   Renew our strength that we may not become weary in doing your will in our lives 
4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 
LORD, stir up our hearts to love.  Tell us again the stories of how you loved us and the other believers so much that you died for them.  Grant us a vision of how precious other believers are to you that we may find them just as precious to us.  Help us see you more clearly so that we might love you more dearly, and then follow you in giving up our lives for each other even as you gave up YOUR life for us.  Lord help us live lives worthy of the gospel.  
6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 
LORD, let us hate the idea that we may sin that grace may abound.  Help us to turn against the idea that being saved by grace leads us to a lifestyle of guilt free to sin.  Allow us to see that your grace should lead us to say no to sin and yes to righteousness out of wild gratitude for your love. 
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (ESV)
LORD, you have given us the victory in your death, burial, and resurrection all done for our good.  Allow us to truly from the heart, have a real belief  in YOU that we may know YOU personally and dwell with you forever in Eden restored on steroids.  Amen

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Musings on Phil 2:1-12

Lord, thank you for the encouragement of the promises of pardon and power in the Messiah and the assurance that nothing can separate me from your LOVE. YOUR SPIRIT comes to show and helps me to feel your empathy for me and care for me. LORD, I am awestruck at your great salvation of my soul and life. 

Lord, unite all your disciples in having one outlook based on your scripture, a unity of passion, and with one heart seek to serve and worship you.

Save us from the insanity of baptizing our selfishness and self-centeredness in religious competition with other groups of disciples. Let us look at the virtues of other movements and the vices or our own traditions. Help us care for the needs of others as well as striving to properly handle our own affairs in love. 

Messiah Jesus give us your mind and heart. Even as YOU left heaven to come to earth, live the only fully righteousness life, becoming the bone of bone and the flesh of flesh with us, and then submitting to the sacrificial condemnation of being upon the cross. YET, such sacrifice led to our salvation and the glorification of the LORD JESUS. 

Lord, let me get in touch with the salvation you have placed into my soul and help me find the way to bring out the wonder of that salvation in a very sober and realistic manner in the practical activities of my life. 

I praise you for being active in my life. It gives you wild pleasure to see me become like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Musings on Psalm 88

Musings on Psalm 88

Living and great LORD, the ultimate supreme power that can save me out of futility and death. All mighty and wise ONE, have mercy for the sake of the Messiah Jesus on me and hear the cries of my heart. 

My soul faces many struggles, losses, and is in the dark about many things. I feel that I have no strength in my soul. YOU have ordained this chapter in my life that is dark and deep with sorrow. The weight of my life is crushing me.   My heart is heavy with grief. The pounding waves of change are overwhelming. 

I seek you day by day. Not as much as I should. Not as intently as I should. Forgive me for not having greater focus and faith that would lead me to you. My eyes are filled with sadness because of the sorrow of my soul. I lift my hands to you and need you to fill me with your peace. 

Do not hide your face from me. Let me see your face. Help me to see that you are not casting away your love for me but that nothing in creation can separate me from your strong committed love. Lord, I am helpless and have many fears. 

My beloved and my friend is no longer by my side. You have called her home. YOU are my refuge and comforter. In you, I will trust. In you, I will find my rest and restoration. 

Come now and help me this day to know how to follow YOU. Increase my love for YOU, LORD. Open my eyes to see YOU, LORD, as you are and allow me to encounter you in many ways in my life. Amen

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Meditation on James 4:1-10

4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

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LORD, I give you my passions and desires.  My selfishness and self-centeredness.  Help me not be angry with others because they oppose me or hurt me.  Save your people from strife and division.  Help us to have more faith in prayer than in our power.  Allow our prayers to become more kingdom minded than simply attempting to use you as our personal "genie".   Provide to me a hunger and thirst for righteousness that is reflected in my prayers.   Give me a passion for YOU and YOUR will. 

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4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 

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Lord, forgive my spiritual adultery.  Help me to see and repent of how American culture has corrupted my outlook on life and feelings.  Help me not desire the praise of the unbelieving community and people around me.  Allow me to remember that my baptism has separated me from this society of rebellion and made me a citizen of your eternal kingdom of loving righteousness.  Help me understand how YOU demand I only worship YOU and YOU alone!

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6 But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

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Give to me and your children around the world super grace.  Humble us and keep us from pride.  Let YOUR will and not our will be done on earth as in heaven.  Allow us to firmly reject the lies and illusions offered by the dark lord of rebellion.  Help us change the deeds of our hands that they may be free of corruption and abuse.  Also, grant that our motivations and thoughts would reflect your holy heart.  

Give to me holy tears this day of repentance.  Help me to truly hate the sin in my life and feel the shame of it deeply in my soul.  Keep me from killing the struggles of my soul with the amusements and distractions offered by the unbelieving culture.  Give me the wisdom to humble myself by admitting who I am and known that without you I can do nothing.  

LORD lift me up.  Lord lift up your communities of faith, Lord, lift up your children.  Without your help, we will perish.  Lord have mercy.  Amen.