Praying boldly

I’m writing to you who already believe
in the Name of Jesus, the Son of God,
so you may know you have received
the life unceasing.

In Christ you can be bold!
In Christ you can hold up anything
in prayer,
according to His will, and He will
hear.

When we know God hears us
and what we ask, we know we have
what’s been requested.

So if you see a brother or sister in Christ
doing something wrong, ask God on behalf
of the person’s life,
and God will give it
to all who haven’t killed the spirit.

About that, I do not say to pray
for some sins kill the soul, but know
that those born of God do not do this
for God protects those who belong to Christ
from even a touch of the evil one.

Know this! We’re God’s own children!
The whole world has fallen under
the power of the evil one,
but we know the Son of God has come
and given you
and me an understanding of Who
is True.

And through His Son, Christ Jesus,
we are in God, Who is True,
Who is life everlasting!

O Child of God, keep yourself
from believing any untrue word
or idolizing anyone but our Lord.

©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of 1 John 5:13-21

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Update from the Apostle John

Okay. Here’s how we can know
we’re of the Truth.

Here’s how we can be sure
our hearts are pure and surely
in God’s presence:

Our hearts torment us
when we feel guilty. Why?

We’re in God –
the Almighty God, Who is far above us
and greater than our hearts or anything
our hearts might try to hide.

Beloved, if our own selves
do not accuse us, then great!
Celebrate!

And come before God
with confidence,
ready to receive whatever we ask,
knowing we obey the LORD
and follow God’s good plan.

For the plan of God
commands us to believe
in the Anointed Name of Jesus,

and God commands us to believe
in the love shown by Christ –
love that must be shown by us
to one another.

So, let’s do it and live!

Let’s stay with God, living
in the LORD Who gives us
Christ as our home and Who
gives you and me to be
the earthed home of Christ Jesus.


©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of today’s Bible reading in 1 John 3:19-24

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Daniel prays for mercy

Background:

After the Hebrew people had been taken captive in Babylon (ancient Babel and modern-day Iraq), King Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream that kept him awake at night. In hope of sleep the king called magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him the meaning of this dream, but no one could. Instead, the not-so-wise men admitted that no one on earth could possibly do what the king asked. No one could possibly reveal the meaning of the dream except gods, who do not lower themselves to live on earth. This made the king so angry, however, that he ordered every supposedly wise person in the kingdom to be put to death!

When Daniel (known to the king by his Babylonian name Belteshazzar) heard of this predicament, he asked the king to give him a little time for the meaning of the dream to become clear. Then, hurrying home, he explained the situation to his Hebrew friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, also known by their Babylonian names of Hananiah, Mishal, and Azarish. Daniel urged his friends to plead for mercy from the God of heaven, so they would not be condemned to die nor would the wise men of Babylon.


Then during the night, the mystery was revealed. During the night, a vision came to Daniel. During the night, Daniel prayed to the God of heaven, praised the God of heaven, and said:

Praise be to the Name of God for ever and ever
for wisdom and power belong only to Him.

God alone can change times and seasons.
God alone can depose and raise up leaders and kings.
God alone can give wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

The God of Heaven reveals deep things
and knows what hides in the darkness,
for with God alone, all light dwells.

And so I thank You and praise You,
O God of my ancestors
for You have given me wisdom and power
and made known to me what we have asked
for You alone know the dream of kings.

Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had selected to slay the wise men of Babylon, and said, “Do not kill the wisdom of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will decipher his dream.”

So Arioch took Daniel to the king and said, “I found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell what dreams mean.”

“Belteshazzar,” the king said, “Are you able to tell what came in my dream. Are you able to tell and interpret?”

Daniel replied, “No wise man, no enchanter, no magician, no diviner can explain the mystery the king has seen, but God in heaven reveals mysteries."

Dreams and visions came to your mind as you lay in your bed, and these dreams and visions show days ahead – days in a mystery revealed now to me, not from my wisdom, but my God, the Revealer of Mysteries, Who wants you to know what will happen, Who wants you to know God of heaven, Who wants you to understand what turns and turns and awakens your mind.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of today’s Bible reading from Daniel 2:17-30


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Jesus prays for us

Prayer-a-phrase of Jesus' last prayer on earth:

Father,
I Am coming to You now!

Until now,
I’ve been telling My followers many things
so they might have My joy.

I have given them Your word,
but the world detests them
because they do not belong
to anyone but You.

I’m not asking You
to take My followers out of this world,
but I pray for You to protect them from
the evil one.

My followers do not belong
to worldliness anymore than I do.

Oh, Father, make them holy
by Your truth!

As You have sent Me into the world,
I now send them.

Let My sacrifice count as theirs –
the ones made holy by Your truth,
sanctified by My prayers.


© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrased of today’s Bible reading from John 17:13-19

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Christ our Passover: the lasting sacrifice

Christ our Lasting Sacrifice
by Mary Harwell Sayler

I have come to do Your Will, O God
for the blood of animals cannot take away
sin forever.
Short-lived sacrifices, short-term offerings
do not cover sin forever,
and so You have prepared for Me
a Body
ready to be sacrificed –
the First to Last –
ready to do Your Will.

I have come to do Your Will, O God
as Holy Scriptures said I would
for You can no longer tolerate
temporary fixes:
interim sacrifices, itinerant offerings, burnt
offerings, sin offerings once accorded by Law.

You Will, O God, I have come to do to
fulfill the first way and establish the second
to sanctify All by offering
Myself –
the Body of Christ
arising – First and Last –
to do Your Will, O God.
I have come to do Your Will.



© Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved; prayer-a-phrase poem from today’s Bible reading in Hebrews 10:4-10

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Singing a Psalm on Easter week

Thank You, God!

Give thanks to the LORD
and call on God’s Name.
Tell about God’s work
for all people!

Sing to the LORD!
Sing praises to our God.
Tell of God’s wonderful works.

Let your glory be in the Holy Name.
Let your heart in the LORD rejoice.

Seek the LORD and find strength.
Let the LORD look at you
as you look at the LORD.

Oh, remember!
Remember all God has done.
Remember the wonders God created.
Remember and recall what
the Word of God says.

Oh, children of God,
you are chosen!
The LORD our God chooses you!

The LORD our God wants
what’s right for you
and all the world,
for God – our God remembers
the promises made to you
and to the people of God yet to come.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrased from today’s Bible reading in Psalm 105:1-8

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He is Risen!

After the Resurrection, Christ appeared to many people throughout Jerusalem and Galilee, and even then some did not believe, but Thomas did. Only a few days beforehand, the apostle had been willing to die for Christ, but he doubted the Resurrection until he saw for himself the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side. The Believing Thomas then exclaimed and proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Why did you doubt
the real live blood that sprouted
from Christ's side and bloomed
in the room where you gathered –

a bouquet of wine
poured behind
closed doors?

Could you not see the pores
opened, aching for you, always
to be, not beside yourself,
but Him?

His side lay bare to let you in,
so enter now. Come round His side
and worship Him again.


© 2013 Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. “Thomas” originally saw print in a 1998 issue of Central FL Episcopalian.

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Christ on Holy Saturday

Re: Deemed
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Consider the lily
of the moon.

Consider how
its spinning
does not toil.

Consider the lily-
shaped flames of hell
where the wretched
walk through water
on Christ’s back:

His face a lily
white with flame,

His tongue an
inferno for our
wrong words,

His eyes alight
with our cured souls,

His Body
our kind Host
of comfort.


© 2013, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. “Re:Deemed” appeared on the Catholic Exchange website in 2007 and is included in the Kindle e-book, a Christian Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry, available from Amazon.

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God’s promise from the prophet Isaiah

Promising Good Friday

Who believes what we have heard?
To whom has the strength of the LORD been revealed?
For the One we awaited grew up
like a shoot from a dry root in the ground.

He had no majestic form to look upon –
nothing in His appearance to cause desire.
Instead, He was despised and rejected –
suffering such grief, we wanted to hide our faces
from facing so much sorrow.

We saw no explanation for Him,
and so we despised Him,
even though He took on our infirmities,
even though He took on our dis-ease,
even though we thought Him struck down
by God.

But He was wounded for our transgressions
and crushed for our iniquities.
Upon Him came the full punishment
to make us whole, and by the stripes
borne on His back, we all are healed.

Like sheep, we all have gone astray.
We have all turned to our own way,
and, as the LORD laid on Him
the iniquity of us all, He had to pay
for us,
for our ancestors,
and for our children’s crimes.

When accused of our wrongdoings,
He did not even open His mouth
but went silently like a sheep before its shearers,
like a Lamb led to its slaughter,
like a perversion of justice taken wordlessly away.

Who could imagine He had any future?
For He was cut from the land of the living
and stricken for our transgressions.

Someone carved His grave among the tombs
owned by the wicked and the rich,
even though He had done no violence,
nor even had a deceitful word
to say. But, by the will of the LORD,
pain crushed His life into an offering –

the final sacrifice we had to bring
to God for sin – for us,
for our ancestors, for our children – all,
His spiritual offspring.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase poem of today’s Bible reading in Isaiah 53:1-10

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Passover: The First, The Last

Promise of Passover

The blood of a lamb on the doorpost,
the blood of an unblemished lamb
on your doorpost,
the blood that drips from the crossbeams
is the sign on the house where you live –

the sign for death to pass over,
the sign for a day of remembrance,
the sign of the death of the firstborn –
of the Lamb who gave blood for your doorpost.


© 2013 Mary Harwell Sayler, poem prayer-a-phrased from today’s reading in Exodus 12

Bible prayer-a-phase of Isaiah 49

Staying Light in the LORD
by Mary Sayler

Before I was born, the LORD called me.
In the womb, God named me and made
my mouth a sword
hid in the hull of His hand –
a smooth arrow
quivering in Him.

And the LORD said to me, “Ah! You are
My servant who shines in Me,”
but I said, “No! I have served in vain.
I’ve spent my strength
for nothing but my own name,
while thinking myself pure, thinking
my cause was God-caused.

But the LORD, Who formed me to be
His servant as one who brings His own
back to Him in His own strength, not mine,
said, “It is too light a thing to raise and restore
My people who are My people, and so
I will give you as a light to the nations.
I will give you to the nations as a light,
and to the ends of the earth, this light,
lit only by Me, will shine My salvation
into the deepest dark corners of the earth,
lightening and lifting every unfinished end.”

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrased poem evoked by today’s Daily Bible Reading in Isaiah 49

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Name change and changing plans

One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Sabrina where the title character says, “Sometimes more isn’t better. Sometimes it’s just more,” to which I add, “Amen!” But I still wound up with 7 blogs and 2 websites so also add, “Oops.”

Too many good ideas, good activities, and even good ministries can be too much of a good thing.

Therefore, I recently let one website go but couldn’t get a handle on how to regroup the blogs. Since I believe in the importance of each one, I’ve been praying about this longer than Lent. But finally, clarity came the first day of Holy Week.

Having written about writing for many years, I have numerous articles to draw from that could be helpful, I hope, for members of the Christian Poets and Writers group on Facebook. Many of those articles, which will gradually appear in the Christian Poets and Writers blog, have previously appeared here, but In a Christian Writer’s Life is no longer my primary focus for newly written articles. The Bible is.

If you have visited my blogs on Bible People, Bible Prayers, Christian Healing Arts, and What the Bible Says About Love, I pray you’ll follow the newly revised blog here, where, Lord willing, new posts will most likely arise in prayer-a-phrases from Daily Bible Readings.

In addition some of my poems previously published in books or secular journals will soon be on the Poetry Editor blog, Lord willing, which means that the only blog of mine that may stay as is for now are reviews of new translations, study editions, and children’s Bibles on the Bible Reviewer blog.

With two new reviews still waiting to be winged, others may depend on whether Bible publishers add me to their list of reviewers. And, oh, I pray they do because when it comes to the Bible less just doesn’t work for me! Sometimes more is better.

© 2013, Mary Harwell Sayler

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