The content is in three parts.
For prayers etc please see our
prayer
page
Ask the congregation What are the requirements to ......
Drive a car.....
Go abroad......
Join the cubs.....
Be a church member.....
Be a member of a family....
Be one of God's children....
Here is what Micah says
Read Micah
6:1-8
We are accepted as God's children through Jesus BUT this is what God requires of us as him children - act justly, walk humbly, show constant love.
What does that mean for our lives? See part 2..
Read Psalm 15
A picture of a righteous person.
Have a life size outline of a person on white paper.
Encourage congregation to make suggestions on what we need to be a righteous
person
e.g. big heart, kind hands, willing feet etc. etc.
Need to keep room for the Spirit flowing through!
Need God's help to act justly etc.
Don't always manage it...lead into prayer of confession
Beatitudes quiz.
How much do people really know
Either have sheets of paper with each blessing in two halves which
people have to match up - a team game?
Or have each first half written out and ask the congregation to finish
the beatitude.
NB only read out
Matthew
5:1-12 when people have had a go at the quiz!
What do the beatitudes tell us about acting justly, loving mercy and showing
constant love?
That it is difficult...And yet...
Jim and Shelley Douglass - tales of Mary's House - a kind of hospice.
Here are their thoughts on the Beatitudes
Alex came to Mary's House for two weeks. His caregiver was on vacation and he stayed with us during the hottest part of Alabama's summer, nurses attending him 24 hours a day. Alex is 9. He is a spina bifida child and cannot see or control his movements; he is fed through a tube, and he spends his days sitting in a wheelchair Before Alex arrived, I wondered how I would feel about him, how it would be to have someone so handicapped here at the house. As Alex stayed and we came to know him, I realised that here indeed was a lamb of God.
Alex's face would shine when he heard a familiar voice, felt a gentle touch. He loved music, and would be perfectly still for hours at a time listening to tapes. When he was unhappy or in pain Alex had a way of letting us know, with moans and cries that reminded me of the psalmists. When he was happy his face radiated his joy.
The most powerful life at Mary's House so far was one that ended here. Laura died just over a year ago, just after Christmas, in one of our upstairs rooms. In Laura these scriptures were lived out before my eyes each day, the weak and foolish becoming the strong and wise in the process of dying.
Laura came to us an angry street addict and prostitute, her face turned to the wall, her hand raised against everyone. No one, nothing, could please her. Laura was touched by God's saving power, by the love of community, and when she left us she was at home, at peace. In her life the mourner was indeed comforted, the thirst for righteousness began to be satisfied, the poor in spirit came into the kindom of heaven.
It was nothing we did. It was God's doing. God gave her to us, and God gave us eyes to see the gift and hearts to accept it joyfully.
When I read the beatitudes, or when I read these passages from Paul, I think of the hard and strange things God asks of us sometimes: going to jail, nursing someone with Alzheimer's or AIDS, accompanying people to court, changing diapers, and cooking meals and washing floors! I think of the blessings that are contained in these tasks, the transformation of suffering into joy, so that we embrace the odious gratefully, and wonder why people are surprised.
I think of Alex, of Laura, of myself, and realize that in our struggles and our sufferings we are somehow caught up in God's wisdom. We are indeed blessed.