Week 6

Scriptures for the Week:
Mark 14: 1-15 and Mark 15:1-39

Daily Prayer Focuses:
Lent is a time of inward reflection and repentance, but it is also a time to think and pray for others. So this week we are reflecting, focusing, and praying about our city: Spokane, WA.


Monday, March 30th – For Those We Don’t Notice
It’s easy to drive by broken down homes or ignore the homeless person on the corner. So this week try to notice and pray for the broken, the homeless, and the marginalized in our city.
Here are some people you can help or pray for who are already helping the marginalized in our city:
http://www.ourplacespokane.org/
http://www.cupofcoolwater.org/
http://www.spokaneyfc.org/
http://www.thecitygatespokane.org/

Tuesday, March 31st – For Those Who Protect Us
Take some time today to pray for those in the police and fire departments. It’s not easy doing what they do and they and their families need our prayers.

Wednesday, April 1st – For Those Who Tend To Our Bodies
Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Ambulances Drivers, EMTs, and all those other people who work in some sort of medical field need prayer just as much as police officers and fire fighters. And their jobs can be extremely demanding and time consuming so pray for their health and their families today.

Thursday, April 2nd – For Those Who Work for the City
Sometimes the people at City Hall or who work in other civil service jobs get the short end of the stick. Some of us may pray for the mayor, but we probably never think to pray for accounts, clerks, engineers, garbage men, or postal workers. So take some time to pray for all of those who work for our city.
http://www.spokanecity.org/

Friday, April 3rd – For Those Who Are Losing Their Jobs
We all know the economy isn’t so hot right now and some in our city are more affected by that than others. So take sometime today to thank God for what you do have and pray for those who are losing or have lost their jobs.


Saturday, April 4th – For The City’s Health
We live in Spokane. But if we don’t take care our environment we may not want to live here anymore. So take some time to think and pray about what you can do to help Spokane’s environment.


Sunday, April 5th – For Those Who Are New To Our City
One of the main messages on this site is: “Spokane Welcomes You.” So the city is welcoming… but are you? Think about that, pray for help if you need it, or repent if you need to.

Week 5

John 12:20-33 A Grain of Wheat Must Die

There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee: "Sir, we want to see Jesus. Can you help us?"
Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip together told Jesus. Jesus answered, "Time's up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

"If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

"Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? 'Father, get me out of this'? No, this is why I came in the first place. I'll say, 'Father, put your glory on display.'"

A voice came out of the sky: "I have glorified it, and I'll glorify it again."

The listening crowd said, "Thunder!"

Others said, "An angel spoke to him!"

Jesus said, "The voice didn't come for me but for you. At this moment the world is in crisis. Now Satan, the ruler of this world, will be thrown out. And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me." He put it this way to show how he was going to be put to death.

As you are sitting at your computer screen, pray along with these sites this week:
Pray As You Go
Sacred Space

Prayer Focus: The World
All of us have a lot going on. School, work, family, relationships. . .survival. It's easy to forget that there is an entire world out there. Each day this week, take a moment to remember that the world is big. It's full of people just like you and me; struggling, laughing, grieving, living. In the spirit of Lent, give up a moment of your time to pray for them.

Monday
The struggle in Darfur continues and worsens. Take a minute to learn and PRAY.
Save Darfur

Tuesday
Native people around the world are often looked over and forgotten. There are tribes of people all around us right here in Spokane. Their ancestors were here before ours. Remember our Native American brothers and sisters as you pray today.
Spokane Tribe
Coeur d'Alene Tribe
Colville Tribe

Wednesday
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Here is are a couple of examples of people who are making a difference there:
Partners In Health
Matt and Stacey

Thursday
South Africa is one of those places those places that we pray for on a regular basis at The Porch. Below is a link to some people who live and care for people affected by HIV/AIDS in that country. Pray for them today as they work and live in difficult situations:
Positive Ray
Don't forget Mike and Robin and Two Tunics

Friday
There are areas of conflict all around the globe. Almost all of us have a friend or a family member who is or has been involved in Iraq or Afghanistan. Take some time to pray for the people of these regions, US and International soldiers, and all involved in these wars. Pray for peace to come to these regions soon.

Saturday
Open up Google Maps or Google Earth. Pick a place that you are curious about. Explore it from space. Look up information. Who lives there. Who are their tribes. What are their customs and struggles. The world is a big place. Remember. Pray.

Week 4

John 3:14-21 (The Message)

No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.

Pray As You Go
Sacred Space

Lent is a time of inward reflection and repentance, so this week we are reflecting, focusing, and praying about our neighbors and neighborhoods.

Monday

Lets make things real easy today. Go out side! One thing that we do in the winter in Spokane is hibernate and hideout. Hiding usually means that we are hiding from some one or something. We all voluntarily hide from the cold in the winter months but involuntarily it becomes our neighbors. Take twenty minutes or so to be outside and be aware of the world around you. You can just sit on the front step, start working on the yard, smoke a pipe, stretch, throw on a coat and have a conversation with your friend on the porch instead of the living room. Its almost spring…its not that cold.

Tuesday

Take twenty to thirty minutes and simply go for a walk in your neighborhood. Walking helps us slow down, even if you are going speed walk or power walk, and see the things we miss along the way. Say hello to people who are out and about.

Wednesday

Third place community – a place where people gather that is not work or home, and for our purposes and to go a step further a place that is not a church building. Find the closest third place community (you can do more than one) to where you live. If possible, go in and ask some questions or just say hello, make some kind of connection with who and what happens there. Before you drive or walk off, take some time to bring these people before God and pray for them.

Thursday

As a church, we live in the west central neighborhood. It would be easy to just “go to church” at a building in a needy neighborhood. It would be something completely different to be the church in a needy neighborhood and be their neighbors. So instead of walking around your neighborhood this time, go be present in the

God has called us as a church to live in west central. As we all know, church is not a building or something you “go to.” Its people, it always has been. So, today spend some time being present in the neighborhood God has called us to. There is are restaurants and bars, there are grocery stores, there is a community center, there are parks, there are sidewalks for walking, or you could just sit out front or the porch build. Introduce your self and interact with people where can and pray for everyone you meet (praying for people behind their backs is okay). Remember we are not out proselytizing, we are out giving attention to a neighborhood that needs attention (where that leads is totally open).

Friday

As globalization grows, the less we are aware of the local economy. All political and economic arguments aside, local business owners are our neighbors. Find a local business and support it, at least today. This is probably going cost than going to Walmart or Safeway or Red Robin,

Saturday

Assuming that you have some time on your hands, having it be Saturday. Grab some people and go for a drive across town. If you live on the west side of town head east, if you live on the south hill head to the north side, go somewhere you have never gone before or generally avoid. We live in the relatively small city/region of Spokane. There is a downtown core, the surrounding around and even some suburbia beyond that. Filled with all kinds of residential areas, business districts, recreational activity, crazy cool landscapes and tons and tons of people. Its easy to hide in the norms of life, but lets live within the greater community of Spokane and not hide in our houses or stick to our side of the block

Week 3

Scripture for the Week:

John 2:13-32 (The Message)

Tear Down This Temple . . .

When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.

Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, "Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a shopping mall!" That's when his disciples remembered the Scripture, "Zeal for your house consumes me."

But the Jews were upset. They asked, "What credentials can you present to justify this?" Jesus answered, "Tear down this Temple and in three days I'll put it back together."

They were indignant: "It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you're going to rebuild it in three days?" But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.

During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right through them.

Daily Prayer Online:

Sacred Space

Pray as You Go

You can pick your nose but you can’t pick your family!!! Funny, right? Actually for some of us, family is the least funny thing we know. Whether at odds or in good with your family, these relationship have to be tended to if they are going to be of benefit to anyone, and they really can be of benefit to more than just you.

No man is an island. God assured us of that with our families. I think if you look at how God talks about family in the Bible we would probably see that family can be wonderful ties to people who can support us and love us and ultimately can’t ever divorce as much as we try. Family is often difficult but at the end of the day is going to take our individual investment for it to flourish.

Monday

Take a few minutes to map out your family tree back to at least your grandparents. Make sure to include step or half family members cousins and children of cousins and siblings. Yeah I know, that is going to be harder for some more than others, its okay to use more than one piece of paper. Once you get it all on paper, say a short prayer of thanksgiving to God for these people. And yeah, I know, doing this might be harder to do for certain family members.

Tuesday

Today just focus on your immediate family: Parents, siblings, and also all the halves and steps. Write down each name in list form. Next to each name write something that you like about them or something that has endeared you to them. When this is done, say this short prayer for each of them. “Lord help me love _____” (Keep this list)

Wednesday

Today pick two or three of your family members from yesterdays list and call them, for no other reason then to say hi. If you are feeling up to it, tell them what you wrote down about them on your list. Mom’s always like the phone call, so do that but maybe you need to call that sister you haven’t talked to in months or that nephew that you yelled at last time you saw him or your Dad who loves you but screwed up pretty bad when you were young. Basically, there are conversations that won’t start unless we start them.

Thursday

Grandparents. Our society is pretty much ashamed of old people. If they are not stuffed into nursing homes they are often simply forgotten. Take some time today to write them a card or letter (attach a picture of yourself), a phone call would be good to, or if you have the ability to, go see them. If you don’t have any grandparents left, then find that person in your life that holds the geezer status and honor them in their age and wisdom with your attention and love. (if you have opportunity converse with them….listen to what they have to say, they are dripping with wonderful stories and wisdom you can’t get anywhere else).

Friday

This will be a day of planning; plan a meal with your family within the next week. If making a short trip is not possible grab those people who are significant to you, “your family away from family.” If you are close in proximity to your family this should be easy. If family is an hour or two away, it’s worth taking the time and money to make the trip. I’m not talking about one of those quick dinners where you shoot the breeze till the food is gone. But one of those dinners where you turn off the TV, Radios, phones and share the experience. Whether you go out and have duck confit and cioppani or stay in and have macaroni and cheese, give them your attention, push through the awkwardness if need be and share an experience with them.

Week 2

Scripture for the Week:

Mark 8:31-38 (The Message)

Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: "It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive." He said this simply and clearly so they couldn't miss it.

But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. "Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works."

Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

"If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I'm leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you'll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels."

Daily Prayer Online:

Sacred Space

Pray as You Go

Daily Prayer Focuses:

Lent is a time of inward reflection and repentance, so this week we are reflecting, focusing, and praying about our lives and relationships at school and/or work.

Monday, March 2^nd – Those We Don’t Get Along With

We all have those people that we don’t get along with well, can’t stand, or just don’t like. But we aren’t challenge by Jesus to be selective in whom we show love to. Jesus wants us to love, period. So take some time today to say this ancient prayer as a way to remind yourself that you aren’t perfect either.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Tuesday, March 3^rd – Those Who Are in Authority Over Us

It can be challenging to go to school and/or work and have someone tell us what to do. And sometimes we find it challenging because we have a hard time being humble.

Ephesians 4:2 says “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

So spend some time today reciting this simple verse as a reminder to be humble when dealing with those who are in authority over us.

Wednesday, March 4^th – Those Who Are On The Same Level

1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 (The Message): If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Think about that today, cause it kind of says it all.

Thursday, March 5^th – Those Who Are Below Us

It’s not easy being told what to do or learn. But it’s really easy to forget that when we are the ones doing the telling or teaching. So today try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s not easy so don’t act like it is. Take some time to pray… we need as much help as we can get.

Friday, March 6^th – Those Times We Don’t Want To Go

It’s tempting to say “suck it up and get out of bed” instead try praying this:

Dear God help me to not be lazy today.

Saturday, March 7^th – Those Times We Should Rest

Lent is about repentance and some of us need to repent of our inability to rest. School and/or work can be exhausting, but sometimes the exhaustion is our fault. It can be our fault when we don’t take the time to rest. So take some time to rest today. Turn off the computer and cell phone and go do something fun and/or restful. Go for a walk, stare out a window, or take a nap. Be still. Rest. It’s okay the world will be there when you’re done resting.

Sunday, March 8^th – Those Times We Don’t Think God Has Anything To Do With School and/or Work

In the Gospel According to Matthew (from the Message) it says:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for "God is with us").

So Jesus is known as “God is with us”…

so the next time you’re at school and/or work and wondering why you’re there or what this has to do with God, say to yourself “God is with us.” That simple phrase can be a simple prayer that can help our attitudes in a big way.