Today is October 21.
   
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.  
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”     
    
Today’s reading is from Psalm 75.   
  

      1 We praise you, God,   
         we praise you, for your Name is near;   
         people tell of your wonderful deeds.   
       2 You say, “I choose the appointed time;   
         it is I who judge with equity.   
      3 When the earth and all its people quake,   
         it is I who hold its pillars firm.   
      4 To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’   
         and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns.   
      5 Do not lift your horns against heaven;   
         do not speak so defiantly.’ ”   
      6 No one from the east or the west   
         or from the desert can exalt themselves.   
      7 It is God who judges:   
         He brings one down, he exalts another.   
            9 As for me, I will declare this forever;   
         I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.   
  

This Psalm describes God as the ultimate judge – a judge who is righteous, fair, holy and most importantly, trustworthy. The Psalmist declares that God is the only one we can trust to always do the right thing without partiality. When you consider the wrongs in the world, or in your own life, how does it make you feel to hear that there is a perfect judge?   
    
This God, contrary to popular understanding, isn’t a spiteful God who wields his power from heaven favorably toward people who does what he says and destroys people who are disobedient and sinful. If that were the case, there would be no one left on earth. Listen to the Psalm again and see if you can hear what the Psalmist is declaring.   

The Psalm draws us over and over again to hope. No matter what injustice you have experienced or may be experiencing even now, God is the perfect Judge and he will one day overturn every wrong and make everything right and good again. Think about one thing today that you’d like to be put right again, and as we close our time, can you put your hope in God to make that thing new again, in his time?  

Music: Who Can Compare - Vineyard Worship - (YouTube)

This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.

1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.

Today is October 18  

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit.    
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
   
Today’s reading is from the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, the MSG version.   
  
1 - 4  So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.  
 
As we begin our time of prayer, consider what it means to you that Luke investigated, in detail, the first hand accounts of what happened during the life of Jesus. Luke, a doctor, was looking for the truth, and that led him to believe the incredible story that follows this passage. Luke probably started this project with a healthy amount of skepticism, but he finished it as a full believer in Christ. Do you approach the Gospel with skepticism? Does faith become any easier to believe when you see that someone as thorough as Luke was so convinced that this was the truth? 

Luke’s gospel was written to assure a man named Theophilus that what he had learned was true. Does this assure you that the story is true. Luke has not been swayed by the bias of knowing Jesus, or the need to prove anything but the truth. How does this make his account different than the others? As you listen again, think about what it means that after Luke approached the evidence with doubt, yet. He became convinced “beyond a shadow,” that what he had written was true. 

As you go through your day, consider what it would take for you to believe, “beyond the shadow of a doubt,” that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Or, maybe you do believe without doubt. Think about what it is that convinced you it was true.  
 
Music: "Stand In Awe" - Vineyard Worship 
Stand in Awe 

Today is October 17 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you.   
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
  
Today’s reading is from Psalm 119.   
  
      9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?   
         By living according to your word.   
      10 I seek you with all my heart;   
         do not let me stray from your commands.   
      11 I have hidden your word in my heart   
         that I might not sin against you.   
      12 Praise be to you, LORD;   
         teach me your decrees.   
      13 With my lips I recount   
         all the laws that come from your mouth.   
      14 I rejoice in following your statutes   
         as one rejoices in great riches.   
      15 I meditate on your precepts   
         and consider your ways.   
      16 I delight in your decrees;   
         I will not neglect your word.   
   
Can you remember getting your drivers permit? Do you remember the test you had to take, just to be able to get behind the wheel with a parent? If you have your driver’s license you took the test. How hard did you study for that test? Harder than for any other test on your life? You knew you needed the freedom of your license, so maybe you locked those rules into your heart and mind, and you still use them every day, if you still drive. Think for a moment about the word of God, and God’s law? Do you find it easy or hard to study and put into your mind and your heart?  
 
In a way, similar to driving, if you have God’s laws locked away in your heart and your mind, you can learn to just let go and drive. When you really know God’s laws you have the freedom to let go and be yourself, because you know the laws you’ve memorized are there to keep you on the road. As you listen to the passage again, think of the freedoms that come with really knowing God’s laws. Do you find yourself rejoicing in it?  

As you go through you day, pay attention to times you can naturally do the right thing at the same time letting go of the pressure to always be right, because you have rules memorized well enough to keep you on the path to Christ.  
  
Music: "All Things Rise" - Vineyard Soul 
ALL THINGS RISE [Lyric Video] | Vineyard Soul [feat. Tina Colón Williams | Vineyard Worship

Today is October 16 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.   
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
  
Today’s reading is from 1 John, chapter 4.   
  
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.   
 
As we come to prayer, think about how often you do things with love. How much of your day do you spend filled with the love of the Holy Spirit, spreading it to those around you. Do you show love while you're working, in the Starbucks line, or in traffic? Sometimes it's difficult to be loving. How do you make the love that is flowing through you obvious to others? 
 
It’s easier to love someone when you see the best side of them, but not everyone is always at their best, including you. That’s what God does – he sees us through Jesus. What do you see when you look at people? Listen again.  
 
How can you focus on the positives of everyone you meet today? Can you recognize others through the grace of Christ… Can you show God’s love to all of his creations?  
  
 Music: "All The Same" - Vineyard Worship 
ALL THE SAME | Live from Anchour Studio feat. Joshua Miller | Vineyard Worship

Today is October 15.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you.

Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today’s reading is from the book of Revelation, chapter 8.


1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.


This passage from Revelation describes the kind of worship that is happening in heaven. I love how it begins… there was a silence in heaven for about half an hour. In our noise filled world, we usually think of worship as something full of sounds—voices and choirs, instruments and melodies, building into a crescendo. But here worship is silence … for 30 minutes. Let’s take just 30 seconds right now and be silent.

What do you notice when you are silent? Maybe you notice the noise around you. Maybe you notice the noise within you. The distractions. The pull to today’s to dos. It takes practice to learn how to worship God through silence. Because we are first learning to quiet the noise within our own soul. After you hear the passage again, I want to again pause for thirty seconds, and this time I want you to pay attention to the noise within your soul, and try to put a name on what that noise is.

What did you notice? Could you put a name to it? A lot of times it feels frustrating that there is so much noise in our soul. But instead of being frustrated by it, just quietly bring that noise to God and ask God to quiet that noise with his peace. As you continue through your day, could you take one or two more moments of silence: bring noise of your soul to God, and to ask him to meet you there.

Music: All For You Jesus - Vineyard Worship - (YouTube)

Today is October 14.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today’s reading is from the book of Job, chapter 26.


Then Job replied…: 7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. 8 He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. 9 He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. 10 He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke. 12 By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent. 14 And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?


Job is meditating on the transcendence God through the vastness and power of the natural world. Can you recall the times when you gazed out into the immense beauty of a sunset, or looked upon the magnificent face of mountains, or surveyed the endless sea of stars in the sky? Have you looked out into the ocean in a terrifying storm to be reminded of our utter small-ness? Call to mind the last time you sensed or were interrupted by God’s presence through the natural world.

Job has experienced immense pain and utter loss. In the midst of his suffering, he stops to consider the vastness of the universe and endless stories of the past in a way that seems to create perspective… but he does not shrink from the reality of His suffering. Instead, he allows himself to experience his real suffering alongside the truth that there is so much he cannot understand about the character and power and way of God. Job allows two things to exist at the same time: the unimaginable power of God, and his own unimaginable suffering. This is a hard thing for me to hold… as you listen again, allow yourself to respond honestly and freely to God…

My friend, there are things of God that are so difficult for us to hold, and impossible for us to understand. Scripture tells us that God pursues us with ‘hesed’ – his loving kindness that endures forever… and also that in this world we will have trouble. We know we are to set our eyes to eternity, and to the fulfillment of God’s perfect kingdom come. And yet: There is so much we do not understand. Do you know you can bring that disorientation to God? He is our maker, and we are the made. Talk to the Lord as we end about whatever feelings have come up for you.

Music: They Are Yours - Vineyard Worship (YouTube)

This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.

1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.

Today is October 11
  
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit.    
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
   
Today’s reading is from the book of Jude, chapter 1, read from the MSG version.   
  
17 –19      But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: “In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts.” These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!  
20–21       But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!  
22–23       Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin.   

Think about how you act toward people who sin. Everyone is a sinner, we simply sin in different ways. Are you tender with everyone when they sin? Do you extend the love and mercy of Christ to sinners around you? What about you? Are you tender toward yourself when you sin? Because this verse says you're supposed to be. "Be tender with sinners," also applies to you, if you're a sinner. Are you harder on yourself than you are on others?  Or, do you allow God’s mercy and love to fill you? 

Jude wrote to be tender with sinners, but not the sins themselves. We aren't supposed to take sin lightly, but we aren't supposed to live in condemnation, either. The people who sat above everyone and judged them, because they believed they were so holy, were the people Jesus called out. Jesus is the only one who can condemn us, and in giving up his life as a sacrifice for all of our sins, he showed us that he chooses not to. Listen again, and think about how God’s arms are outstretched toward you today.   

How do we go about living without condemnation and avoid being soft on sin? We try. That's all. We try as hard as we can to live like Jesus, but we let go when we don't measure up, because it's impossible to be perfect. But if our constant goal is to be as much like Jesus as we can, we can rest assured that his grace is sufficient. Today, try to focus on doing things the way Jesus would do them, instead of on doing everything right, and see if it shifts your perspective, and be tender toward yourself when you fall short.  

Music: "Abounding Grace" - Vineyard Soul 
Abounding Grace (feat. Alicia Shepherd & Dee Wilson)

Today is October 10  

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you.   
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
  
Today’s reading is from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 26.  
   
69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.   
70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.   
71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”   
72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”   
73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”   
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”   
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.  
 
Everyone seemed to know who Peter was. Everyone but Peter. Jesus had caused quite a stir among the people, especially the ones of a lower social class. He was so famous that even his entourage got noticed. Peter had no idea what to do, and yet he undoubtedly thought he should be doing something to help Jesus. Have you ever felt completely helpless, alone, and at a loss for what to do? How long did you search for the solution by yourself before asking for help from Jesus?  
  
In this scripture, Peter is fulfilling the prophecy that he would deny Jesus three times before the morning. Immediately, after his third denial of Jesus, he heard a rooster crow, and he realized in that moment, that everything Jesus had ever said was true. Again. Even Peter lost himself for a while here, yet the church is built on him. As you listen again, consider what it means for you that Peter saw miracle after miracle, and stood in the actual presence of Jesus, but he still spent time helpless, cursing and denying that he even knew Him? 
   
Why was it so difficult for any of the twelve to remember all the promise of what was to come. How difficult is it for you to remember? As you go through your day, pay attention to the times you forget that everything Jesus has ever said is true. Notice the times when you are not living that truth, and allow Him to show you how.  
 
Music: "Wear the Crown" - Vineyard Worship 
WEAR THE CROWN [Lyric Video] | Vineyard Worship