Offertory Prayer

May 26, 2013 – Trinity Sunday/First Sunday after Pentecost God of Love and grace, you created us at our birth, but you continue to create us in our living. Even in death, the journey will not be complete. As we share our gifts this morning, we strive to grow into sacrificial giving. It is when we are challenged that we are shaped, re-formed by you, into the disciples you long for us to be. May the gifts we give and the lives we live display to the world an endurance that produces character and character that produces hope. For we pray boldly, knowing hope that comes from the Holy Spirit never disappoints! In Christ, we pray. Amen. (Romans 5:1-5)

GBOD continues to deliver the full text of each month's offertory prayers via email. You may also find the Offertory Prayers online at www.GBOD.org



Written by Ken Sloane, Director of Stewardship for GBOD.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Cleansing, a Reflection on Malachi 3:1-4

Malachi asks who can endure the coming of the messenger. The messenger will get the people ready to receive the Lord. He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

Paul Stroble, in Advent 2009, Celebrate the Newborn Jesus, explains these terms:
Malachi uses two different images of refinement. The first is the image of fire that purifies gold and silver. Gold and silver are precious for their rarity, beauty, and malleability. Gold is durable and does not oxidize. When gold is heated, it melts and becomes better as the impurities are burned off. .... The second is the image of the preparation of newly woven cloth. A fuller was a person who prepared new cloth, and fullers' soap was a strong alkali that cleansed the cloth.
Stroble then asks, "What times in your life were refining?"
Posted by at
Reactions: 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)