Daily Bread by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
Give us each day the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.” Luke 11:1-4 NLT

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
The Lord’s Prayer, which is familiar to many, comes out of this context, out of the praying of Jesus himself. It is not just good advice about praying; it is his praying. Giving his followers this prayer, Jesus, like John, was following a common rabbinic pattern. When a rabbi taught a prayer, he would use it to teach his disciples the most distinctive, concise, essential elements of his teachings. Furthermore, disciples would learn to pray as their teacher prayed. From then on, when a disciple’s prayer would be heard, it would sound like that of his teacher’s prayers, bearing his mark and posture before the Father. Thus, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we sound like Jesus, we belong to him, and we pronounce the lessons he wanted us most to learn.

Comments:
I am often taken by surprise when my relationship to my daughter teaches me something about my relationship to God. Today's message was one of these moments.

In Exodus 3 when Moses finds God speaking out of a burning bush, God essentially tells him, “I have heard the cries of my people, I have seen their oppression, and I am sending you.” God cares deeply about human need, the world we live in, and the brokenness all around us--so much so that God sends his own children to respond.

When we pray the words Christ told us to pray, we pray out of the same paradox in which he prayed himself. He was both the Son who knew he would need the Father’s provision to get through the days before him and the Son who poured out his life for the crowds and individuals that needed him.

The Most Powerful Evangel by Ravi Zacharias

Take about 5 minutes to read this snippets version of Friday's, 'A Slice of Infinity'. Follow up by reading TODAY'S SLICE and forward any comments on your faith journey.


“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”- Matthew 16:25

A Slice of Infinity Snippets:
Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one’s own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don’t change the mind; prayer does.

Chad's Comments:
I'm sure many of you only read this snippets devotion once in a while and even less of the time read the actual 'A Slice of Infinity' thread. May I encourage you to read today's?

*To comment on this thread, visit the blog.
*Read today's slice and email me with your comments/questions/prayers for
our next posting.
*Check out Life Devotions and see if you would like to receive their daily snippets.
*Invite friends and family to join us on this faith journey.

Something Understood by Jill Carattini

Take ~5 minutes to read this 'COUGARS Daily' which contains snippets from A Slice of Infinity. Invite your family and friends to participate in reading with you daily. Then, consider sharing your comments or faith questions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com

- Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."(Luke 7:44-48)

A Slice of Infinity snippets:

"Do you see this woman?" Jesus asked as the others were questioning her resolve and reputation. "I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she has loved much" (Luke 7:47). In the story that calls our hearts and eyes to attention, we find that the woman not only saw God when others did not, but more significantly, God saw her when others did not. Pouring out all she had at the feet of Christ, weeping at the sight of her massive debt in the face of an innocent man, her silent prayer was interpreted, and answered. Then Jesus lifted her head and said to her, "Your sins are forgiven" (7:48).

Fittingly, George Herbert concludes his grand description of prayer as "something understood." At the feet of God, our broken words and hobbling metaphors are translated. Whether we know what we mean or what we say, God hears and knows and translates our own hearts to ourselves. Our tears and our groans come before the throne of a Father where we are heard and lifted as children understood.

Chad's Comments:
Sometimes it seems that when we are upset with God, we have the greatest opportunity to be near Him. Perhaps it is not our emotional tirade that gets to Him, but our brutal honesty. When we can approach the throne without our preconceptions, perhaps He then shows us the truth of our own hearts - even beyond our own understanding. I believe God knows my heart better than I.

* Make Space for friends in your life. Enjoin them to belief.
* Post your stories of God's intervention on the blog.
* Look for ways to share Awe and Wonder with children - leave suggestions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
* Consider joining Life-Devotions (a group of about 100 catholics and protestants sharing their faith through daily devotions and discussion - strong pro Life content)
* The Street Church
* Voice of the Martyrs

Beyond the Coins by Jill Carattini

Take ~5 minutes to read this 'COUGARS Daily' which contains snippets from A Slice of Infinity. Invite your family and friends to participate in reading with you daily. Then, consider sharing your comments or faith questions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com

- " Then Job replied to the Lord:
“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (Job 42:1-6)

- “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!" (Isaiah 40:5)

A Slice of Infinity snippets:
"I believe that God continues to move us to those places where we discover again one who is fearfully alive and reigning in a kingdom we grossly underestimate, one who can fill even our holiest moments with the mere hem of his robe, one who repeatedly shows us that even our best thoughts of Father, Son, and Spirit are but coins reflecting the real thing."

Chad's comments: Pat shared this on the life-devotions blog today:
Modern Martyrs: Focus on the Family shared this quote from the Voice of the Martyrs organization, 'More Christians have been killed for their faith in the 20th century than have been martyred in the total history of Christianity.' Here are a few of the stories: 'A Sudanese Christian boy has his knees and feet nailed to a board and he is left to die. When rescued he says he forgives the man who did this because Jesus was also nailed and forgave him. A Vietnamese pastor is sentenced to two years in prison. When he is offered an early release, he declines stating that he has a group of new Believers in the prison he has to disciple. A Colombian missionary is kidnapped and told she only has two hours to live. She tells her captors that if she only has two hours to live, she wants to spend it telling them about Jesus.' Sign up for the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter at http://www.persecution.com/.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

* Post your stories of God's intervention on the blog.
* Look for ways to share Awe and Wonder with children - leave suggestions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
* Make Space for unbelievers in your life.
* Consider joining Life-Devotions (a group of about 100 catholics and protestants sharing their faith through daily devotions and discussion - strong pro Life content)

Via Dolorosa - Margaret Manning

Give yourself to God every morning when you wake. Have your way with me today oh Lord.

Take ~5 minutes to read this COUGARS Daily which contains snippets from A Slice of Infinity. Invite your family and friends to participate in reading with you daily. Then, consider sharing your comments or faith questions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com

- "I am deeply grieved, to the point of death"
- If it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but your will be done" (Matthew 26:36-46)


A Slice of Infinity snippets: "As I meditate on Jesus's passionate prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, his human agony and suffering on full display, I am reminded how often we followers of Jesus also long for God to provide another way in the face of our own suffering. We do not want to follow Jesus down the via dolorosa. We seek to follow the victorious entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem to be enthroned and crowned king. We want that kind of victory borne out in our lives as the absence of difficulty. We want the glory and the grandeur of Palm Sunday as our entry into eternal life, with as little pain and suffering as possible. But as author Kim Reisman has noted, "That is not the Jesus way. God doesn't dispense with death. God resurrects us from it. The truth is that the Jesus way isn't about God taking pain away from God's people; it's about God providing us with strength, courage, and meaning, with abundant life, often in the midst of pain."

Chad's comments: I really feel God is calling me to a deeper prayer life. However, I continue to find excuses for not being still and listening to God. How small a sacrifice is it for me to simply be still.

Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King. His love endures forever!

* Look for ways to share Awe and Wonder with children - leave suggestions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
* Make Space for unbelievers in your life.
* Consider joining Life-Devotions (a group of about 100 catholics and protestants sharing their faith through daily devotions and discussion - strong pro Life content)

The Right Side of Pain

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain... In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat--for he grants sleep to those he loves" (Psalms 127:1-2)

Slice of Infinity snippets: "Describing the disparity between the mind of humanity and the mind of God, Abraham Heschel writes, “The [human] conscience builds its confines, is subject to fatigue, longs for comfort, lulling, soothing. Yet those who are hurt, and He Who inhabits eternity, neither slumber nor sleep.”(1) In other words, God never sleeps or slumbers because those who are hurting never sleep or slumber. Try as we may as caretakers we cannot be as God to the hurting. We can stay awake with them in their pain and suffering, we can care for them as neighbors, but the house in which the suffering find unfailing love is the Lord’s. This is the house to which we must bring them. This is the house in which we must live. In this season where we journey again to the Cross, might we be as the friends of the paralytic who carried him all the way to Christ.”

Chad's comments: I recently spent some time our pastor discussing reaching unbelievers; he said, “Find a person’s deepest pain and you will likely find what they fear the most. Find the thing they fear the most and you will likely find their deepest pain. Where we haven’t experienced love, pain and fear rule.” It is in the context of pain that I believe we have a great opportunity to minister. By reaching out and touching people in their need (quite possibly by sharing your own pain and sin), we can develop the relationship that may bring the trust to love.