February 24, 2021 at 12:54 pm · techteam · Comments Off on Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 9:1-13

Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 9:1-13

Dear Members and Friends of First UMC Colleyville:

This is our third week of praying the Scripture Lesson for Sunday together. Once again I have provided you with a variety of experiences from both Protestant and Catholic prayer traditions. Make sure that with each mediation you have a pen or pencil and paper. You might even want to invest in a journal or notebook to record your experiences.

This week’s scripture is Mark’s version of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:1-13). In 9:1 Jesus tells His disciples that some of them will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God coming with power. That verse introduces the Transfiguration in which Jesus is seen as the fulfillment of the both the Law (as depicted by Moses) and Prophets (as depicted by Elijah). The disciples’ presence coupled with Jesus’ radiance demonstrates the power promised in Verse one.  Peter, James and John are the witnesses who saw the kingdom coming in power.

DAY 1 – Bible Meditation Podcast #1241

When you go to this link, skip the first meditation and pray #1241: Mark 2-9 Gospel Meditation.  We will pray the top meditation on day 5.

DAY 2 – Lectio Divina

This link will take you to the Lectio Divina website that we use on Thursdays for Lectio Divina.

DAY 3 – Sacred Space

This link gives you the text and then several meditative questions to help you find where this passage speaks to your life.

DAY 4 – Lectio Divina by the British Bible Society

For today’s Lectio Divina prayer, turn to page 6 , The Second Sunday of Lent, March 8 in the pdf.
Please click this link.

DAY 5 – Bible Meditation Podcast #1242

Return to the same link as Day 1 but now pray Meditation #1242. It’s the same passage as before but with a different prayer focus.

DAY 6 – 3-Step Themed Scripture Meditation

This prayer invites us to look at the text in three ways: Encounter, Follow & Respond.

Thank you for praying with me this week. I hope this not only makes the sermon more meaningful but that you find yourself drawing closer to Jesus each day.

Grace and Peace –
Pastor Mike

February 16, 2021 at 12:19 pm · techteam · Comments Off on Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 1:40-45

Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 1:40-45

Dear Members and Friends of First UMC Colleyville:

This is our second week of praying the Scripture Lesson for Sunday together. Once again I have provided you with a variety of experiences from both Protestant and Catholic prayer traditions..

The passage is Mark 1:40-45 and is the story of Jesus healing of a leper. Make sure that with each mediation you have a pen or pencil and paper. You might even want to invest in a journal or notebook to record your experiences.

Day 1 – A Guided Meditation on Jesus’ healing of a leper

This week Nikki Rach of the Bible Meditation Podcast leads us in a verse-by-verse meditation on Mark 1:40-45. Be sure you’re in a comfortable place without any distractions before you begin. Let Nikki help you put yourself in the place of the leper and see and feel with the leper sees and feels. The recorded meditation will take you 12 minutes and 49 seconds to complete. Spend another five minutes or more on Luther’s questions that Nikki invites you to consider at the end of the meditation.

1. What lesson did you find in this story?

2. What cause for thanksgiving arises in this passage?

3. Is there something you need to confess that was brought to mind in this story?

4. How does this passage lead you into a time of prayer?

Day 2 – Lectio Divina

Today is the day when we practice the ancient prayer method of Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina allows us to go deeper into the Scripture by reading it several times, each time focusing on a different layer of the text. As with the meditation on Day 1, we should have paper or our journals as well as something to take down our responses.

The handout from the link offers us a beginning prayer to center us before we start our meditation. We start by reading (Lectio) the passage two or three times aloud.

Once we have a firm sense of the characters, the setting, and what is happening in the story we move on to the second step: Meditation (or Meditatio). Again we read the passage aloud and then respond to the three questions.

With the third step we respond to what we’ve read with Prayer (Oratio). As before, we read the Scripture passage aloud and then offer up to God whatever comes to mind: a word of praise, a request, or a word of thanks.

The fourth step is Contemplation (Contemplatio). We read the text one final time and wrestle with the four questions beginning with “What conversion of mind, heart, and life is the Lord asking of me?”

After an important time of silence, we pray the Lord’s Prayer and a portion of Psalm 32. We conclude our time of prayer by resolving to do something positive in response to what we’ve read.

Day 3 – Pray-As-You-Go Guided Meditation on Mark 1:40-45

Pray-As-You-Go takes you on a guided mediation of Sunday’s scripture. As I mentioned last week, the opening music is often eclectic but stick with it even if it’s sung in a different language. This week’s song is actually a famous prayer by Ignatius of Loyola known as the Prepatory Prayer. Here are the words in English: “‘Grant, Lord, that all my intentions, actions and operations be directed purely to your praise and your service.”

Day 4 – Lectio Divina

Our second Lectio Divina meditation is from a book on pdf offered by the British United Bible Society. The pdf has several mediations for the first part of the year. Scroll down to the meditation for Sunday on page 17 (that’s the second page from the end). The date on the upper left side of the document is February12.

Day 5 – Guided Meditation on Mark 1:40-45

This meditation was part of a Lenten retreat in 2019. It’s from a group called Sacred Space. After clicking the link below, you begin on the first page and click your way through the prayer time. Note that you can click the upper left hand corner and have music and narration. When the narration moves on to text that does not appear on your screen, be sure to click the arrow at the bottom left to advance to the next page.

Day 6 – Commentary on Mark 1:40-45

This link offers commentary that sheds light on Jesus’ initial response to the leper’s request, “If you want, you can heal me.” Depending on the Greek manuscript, Jesus responds with either or anger or compassion. As Sarah Henrich of Luther Seminary points out, evidence is strong that his response was anger and that he even “snorted.” I think you’ll like where

Professor Henrich goes with that as well as her discussion on how Jesus and the leper change places.

Thank you for praying with me this week. I hope this not only makes the sermon more meaningful but that you find yourself drawing closer to Jesus each day.

Grace and Peace –
Pastor Mike

February 2, 2021 at 6:56 pm · techteam · Comments Off on Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 1:29-39

Praying the Scripture with Pastor Mike, Mark 1:29-39

Dear Members and Friends of First UMC Colleyville:

Below are links to several different prayer experiences that focus on this coming Sunday’s Gospel Reading: Mark 1:29-39.  I invite you to visit and use these links in the days ahead as we all prepare ourselves for worship on Sunday.

DAY 1

A Guided Meditation on the Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-Law

The first experience is a guided meditation or prayer on the first part of the passage (Mark 1:29-34), “The healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.”  It’s from a podcast called The Bible Meditation Podcast.  After walking us through the text, the narrator invites us to respond to the text with four questions originally posed by Martin Luther.  You’ll need to set aside about 15 minutes to do the meditation justice.  Make sure you have a pen or pencil and paper.

DAY 2

Lectio Divina

Today we will use the ancient prayer method Lectio Divina (Divine Reading).  Lectio Divina allows us to focus on the word by looking at a passage and asking ourselves different questions about what we’ve read.  The guide that we are using invites us to read the Scripture several times.

First, we begin with prayer to center us. Second, we Read (Lectio) the passage two or three times (preferably aloud) to get a feeling for what’s going on.  Following the guide, we move to the next step, Meditation (Meditatio). We read the passage aloud again and then respond to the three questions.  When we complete that phase we turn the paper over to find we are to respond to the reading with Prayer (Oratio).

Again, we read the Scripture passage aloud and then offer up to God whatever has come to mind (e.g., praise, petition or thanksgiving). Once that step is completed, we move on to Contemplation (Contemplatio) where we reflect on what we’ve read by responding to the questions under that heading.  Next, we offer up a moment of silence, pray the Lord’s Prayer and conclude the Closing Prayer from Psalm 147.  The last step is to look at something tangible we can do in response to what we’ve read.  Suggestions are given under the heading “Living the Word This Week.”

DAY 3

Pray-As-You-Go Guided Meditation on Mark 1:29-34

Pray-As-You-Go is my favorite online prayer tool.  It is available as a podcast and offers wonderful guided prayers on the Scriptures.  You will need about 15 minutes for this meditation.  Make sure you’re in a comfortable place but not so comfortable you fall asleep.  Pray-As-You-Go uses a variety of Christian music: traditional, classical, contemporary, and even ethnic.  If the music that begins the meditation is not your cup of tea, don’t worry.  It will pass in a couple of minutes.  Stick with the meditation to the very end.

DAY 4

Lectio Divina

This is another Lectio Divina meditation on our Scripture for today.  It comes from the British United Bible Society and is in the form of a book on pdf.  By clicking the link, you will be directed to the first page of the pdf.  Simply scroll down to the Meditation on page 16.  The date on the right page document is February 5.  That’s because that was the date this passage was read when the book was first printed.  If you have trouble scrolling down to page 16, go to the end and back up three pages.

DAY 5

Commentary and Reflections on the Lectionary Readings for Sunday, February 7, 2021

As we get closer to Sunday, we’re looking for more ways to apply the passage to our lives.  This link takes you to a site at First UMC of Baton Rouge.  It provides you with both text, commentary, and reflections on three of the lectionary passages slated for Sunday and closes using the Psalm for the day.

DAY 6

Commentary on Mark 1:29-39

Finally, this last link offers us some interesting thoughts on Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and how we might respond to this passage.

I hope you find these meditations helpful in preparing you for Sunday.  I know I will appreciate knowing that I have fellow travelers on the road with me as I prepare the sermon.  I covet your prayers and look forward to hearing your insights from these opportunities to connect with God.

Grace and Peace –
Pastor Mike