GroshLink

You seem to glow with the salvation-bringing fire which our Lord came to send upon the earth. -- Gregory II to Boniface

Not every one of us has to face a great throng of pagans who curse us bitterly because we are the enemy of their gods. Even fewer of us have the opportunity (or if we would have the opportunity) take an axe to fell a "shrine of our culture" such as when Boniface demolished a huge sacred oak tree which was a shrine to Thor. But maybe our salt should be "saltier" and our light "less hidden." Boniface's biographer Willibald wrote,"When the pagans who had cursed saw this [the felling of the shrine of Thor by a axe of a mere mortal], they [stopped] cursing and, believing, blessed God." And Boniface used the oak to build a chapel, which became the center of his new monastery. Adapted from a Christianity Today post.

On Sunday morning, Hayley and Ellen were transformed after their commissioning by our local congregation to reproduce the likeness of Jesus in Tiffany Witman's 1st Grade Classroom at Donegal Springs Elementary School. And what a first day of school they gave testimony to! Although young disciples such as Hayley and Ellen are but vessels of clay, may the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ shine forth through the many new (and returning) students which pour on educational campuses the next several days. For at this stage of their pilgrim journey, they have been called to be Christ in the classroom. Please join me in prayer for . . .

children, parents, educators, and administrators of all ages in all levels of education that they might receive and be directed by the Light of Christ.

-intercede for followers of Christ headed off to institutions of learning. Pray that they would remember that they are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, such as St. Boniface, and that God's presence will never leave them nor forsake them. Pray that whether they're students who return home day-by-day such as Millersville commuters (or young ones such as those depicted in How to Eat Fried Worms) or learners who travel across the country/world to study at CMU or F&M, they are called to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

-petition for the campus ministers at Georgetown University to fix their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Likewise pray for followers of Christ among educators and administrators to remain sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see AND not to place their trust in the ways of the flesh and the world. Note: The letter from the Protestant Chaplain which immediately severed the annual covenant agreement w/the Affiliated Ministries (barring IVCF and other ministries from meeting, promoting, or existing in relationship to Georgetown) can be linked to through the student newspaper's coverage of the situation.

As we enter this time of prayer (and for some of us action), I second what one of my colleagues wrote w/regard to the situation at Georgetown, As angry as this injustice makes many of us feel, my desire, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to make sure that the manner in which I respond to all of this reflects the God whom I serve. I don't mean by this that a "good Christian" is one who is never firm, passionate, or sometimes even righteously angry. But we must never be vicious, name-calling, or publically "prophetic" about another person's motives. We must speak the truth in love, and we must speak to the facts, not innuendos.

Amen. May each one of us glow with the salvation-bringing fire which our Lord came to send upon the earth and may the love and grace of Christ be even more evident when we face opposition.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire." -- Hebrews 12:28-9

Note of apology: I've been working on this for quite some time and find it not fully refined yet necessary to post. Whatever is of value may it be remembered and guide our prayer, whatever is not may we loose memory of it and receive direction from the Spirit.