ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
God is TRANSCENDENT
God is not simply the highest in an order of beings (this would be to grant Him eminence). He is transcendent—existing beyond and above the created universe.
Psalm 113:4-5
The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high,
Praise the Transcendent God
Praise Him because He is beyond understanding. Praise Him because He created our universe, but He transcends time and space. He exists beyond our world, but He still enters into our world.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for Amelia. Ask God to encourage her and guide her as she serves overseas.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Hebrews 13:1-13 – New International Version
Concluding Exhortations
13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
The exhortation to “keep on loving each other” indicates that this is both an essential issue and one that is by default hard to maintain. Clearly, love for people is the highest indication of love for God in Scripture. It is the second most important priority for humans, just behind “Love God.” It is also enormously difficult to sustain long-term love for one another. Why? Because we are often self-focused and because others annoy us and hurt us and misunderstand us. Sometimes it’s hard to keep on loving each other because we turn “love” into emotional feelings. We don’t “feel love” towards others so we don’t feel the necessity to “do love” towards them. In this passage two very direct applications of love are given. One is to show hospitality to strangers, and the other is to remember those who were suffering in prison. This would have likely entailed providing food and clothing for them since first century prisons did not feed the prisoners. But notice in addition to the practical physical needs being met, there is an encouragement here to dig deeper in connecting with others. He uses the historical example of Abraham unwittingly entertaining angels. This doesn’t mean we should be on the lookout for angels knocking on the door, but rather to have a higher vision for what we are doing when we show practical love for others. God is involved in our hospitality, or at least he wants to be. In addition, they are not just to “remember” those in prison but to relate to them in their hearts and minds. To suffer with them. This is another level of solidarity. It is attempting to feel what they feel. All this requires that we do not spend so much mental energy thinking about ourselves. May God help us think more often of the needs of others.