The tradition declares that a man stood on a mountaintop, and God reached down and inscribed ten commandments into two stone tablets. The law of Moses, the Torah, has influenced believers for the past three thousand years. Do we find God’s law to be a blessing, or a burden? In worship we seek better to understand what God wants of us, and how we can respond to His law working in our lives. Therefore let us, with renewed confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
O Thou who hast created the universe, this planet, and everything in it, we thank Thee for the care Thou hast given to Thy creation from its beginning billions of years ago. We praise Thee for the exquisite patience Thou hast shown in the evolution of the continents and oceans, and all the fish and animals which inhabit the earth. Most of all, we thank Thee for Thy love in creating human beings, and for allowing us to experience Thee in our lives, however incompletely and obscurely that may be. Give us hearts always to sing Thy praises for all Thy blessings, and to reflect those blessings in how we choose to live our lives.
By words which have been written in the Bible, we trust that Thou hast intended humans to be the primary stewards of Thy creation of the earth and everything that is in it. Therefore we ask Thee to heighten our sense of responsibility for the earth and all its creatures. Keep us from focusing solely on ourselves and our own individual wants and desires. Inspire us with a vision of how we personally can bring benefit to every person and every creature, as well as to the earth itself, by becoming more concerned how each of us, especially through the political process, may enable the earth to be as productive as possible. Make our concern for the entire environment take precedence over our concern for our own individual environment. In so doing, may the environment of everyone and everything flourish more abundantly, and thus our own lives shall become more enriched.
We pray for all who currently see Thy law not to be an aid in their lives, but an impediment. Negate the guilt of the guilty, obliterate the fears of the fearful, and turn the dread of those who are terrified of Thee into a healthy and happy relationship. Grant recovery to the sick, hope to the downcast, faith to those who flounder, and trust to people who make skepticism their primary method of operation in life. All these things we ask in the name of Jesus, by whose life and ministry have we been brought into Thy family. Now we pray as he taught us, saying, Our Father….