The second of the three great Lenten practices is fasting. A few weeks ago IWS Director of Outreach Maureen Roe wrote an article that called us to the Lenten discipline of increased prayer, prayer that forms us into Christlikeness and increases our own compassion for the corporal and spiritual needs of those we encounter. This...Read More
To help with the seemingly never-ending task of putting song sets together, we’ve rounded nine more songs — some familiar and some new — for you worship leaders to use in your Easter Sunday worship service! Two weeks ago we shared Ten Songs for Easter Sunday Worship. As Easter Sunday quickly approaches, we know that...Read More
Life is complicated and sometimes we need simple directions — even when it comes to prayer. When asked how to improve one’s prayer time, Thomas Merton is said to have responded, “Take the time. Simply take the time to pray regularly, and you will become more prayerful.” I appreciate how direct and simply put Merton’s...Read More
To help with the seemingly never-ending task of putting song sets together, we’ve rounded up ten songs — some familiar and some new — for you worship leaders to use in your Easter Sunday worship service! We know that coming up with a list of songs for Sunday worship that is more than just a...Read More
All of us are called to a beautiful existence, being priests of, and evangelists to, the created order through Jesus Christ our Lord. A life of beauty is alluring and winsome to our world that is so devoid of such beauty, and living lives of beauty, goodness and truth is truly the hope for our...Read More
“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.” Luke 22:44, RSV Over the years, as I have read or listened to this passage in the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the extreme anguish that our Lord...Read More
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he...Read More
I have prepared a daily devotional guide for use during the season of Lent. This year’s guide contains all new material, and references John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. You can learn more about the book and purchase it at the website of the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.Read More
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent. Lent is forty-seven days set aside for letting God renew us through self-denial and self-examination, casting off those habits and practices which lead to less than favorable results, and taking on those habits and practices that contribute to our spiritual, social and even physical...Read More
