Heavenly Father,
We thank and praise you for your good gift of creation. For your rivers, mountains, soils, skies and seas that sustain life, bring joy and heal. We marvel at the diversity and wondrous complexity of life you have called by name. The beauty of relationship between all you have made, designed to live and flourish together.
We thank you Father God for calling us into relationship with you, commissioned to care for your good creation. To nurture, protect and join with all creation in singing your praise.
We ask your forgiveness Lord for our failure to love your creation as you do. For our complicit actions and complacent hearts that have chosen profit over protection. For our desire for comfort over concern and compassion for others. For our refusal to heed the warnings given to us over and over again. For our failure to acknowledge our total dependence on you Lord. In a warming world, witness to floods, droughts, heat waves and fires we cry out Father God.
We seek your holy wisdom of a Jubilee for the Earth. For rest and renewal of the relationship between us and all your creation. For your land to be healed, balance returned and the precious diversity of your creation sustained. Lord, we ask you for courage to take up our cross and follow you.
We pray that we would not be overcome by a spirit of despair. That we would not grow weary or feel overwhelmed by the work ahead. Instead Father God we ask you to awaken your church with a spirit of hope, a spirit of courage and a spirit of love.
We pray you would embolden us to speak out for justice for our vulnerable neighbours, our children, future generations and all your creation.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-12)
An Easter Prayer Loving
Lord, today we remember the veil of darkness transforming to the brightest light. The most dreadful end becoming the most beautiful beginning.
We remember with trembling hearts the depths of despair fading to reveal hope everlasting. The curse of death defeated by eternal life.
Today we remember with thankfulness your willingness to be pierced for our sins.
We sing with abounding joy of your miraculous rise, from death’s tomb to resplendent life.
Thank you for the promise of heaven and your generous invitation of eternal life for all.
Amen.
Prayer for Good Friday
Suitable as a invocation prayer
Father, As we gather together today, we remember the supreme sacrifice of our beautiful King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Led like a lamb to the slaughter, clothed in humility and grace, he willing offered himself to death so that we might live forever.
We are truly thankful for the extent of his love, stretched out on a cruel wooden cross.
We dwell on the pain he bore for us and are truly grateful for the forgiveness that he offers.
As we worship and praise now, help us to live in the wonder of this goodness and marvel at his endless grace.
Amen.
The lorica of St Patrick
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven; Light of the sun, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of the wind, Depth of the sea, Stability of the earth, Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me; God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me Afar and anear, Alone or in a mulitude.
Christ shield me today Against wounding Christ with me,
Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through the mighty strength Of the Lord of creation. (St. Patrick, 387-461)
A Christmas Prayer
Jesus, the Light of the World, as we celebrate your birth, may we begin to see the world in the light of understanding you give us.
As you chose the lowly, the outcasts, and the poor to receive the greatest news the world had ever known, so may we worship you in meekness of heart.
May we also remember our brothers and sisters less fortunate than ourselves in this season of giving.
Amen. — Karen L. Oberst
The Joy of Generosity
Please pray for all those families in our local community receiving Christmas COG vouchers over recent days.
In the main single parent families who have made contact over some years, but many new to us in 2020.
We are so thrilled to prayerfully and practically offer assistance to a wide range of people in all kinds of circumstances.
What a great privilege to serve God in this way.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,
and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27
Never a waste of effort!
Praise God for a young mother of 3 that we are able to bless with a Christmas Cog voucher recently.
This family were just so overwhelmed that we as a church would help make this period of the year a little more special.
Why would we bother?
Well here's why! She responded by saying "please pass on our thanks, we just didn't have much of anything this year after I lost my job in the travel industry. It's been so hard and so long, this is going to help so much."
Sometimes we think acts of kindness are a bit wasted but let's remember that God uses it all express His love toward all people.
Thank you Tuggeranong Baptist Church for the difference you make in our community!
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58
A prayer of Saint Augustine
For your mercies' sake, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me.
Say to my soul: "I am your salvation."
So speak that I may hear, O Lord; my heart is listening; open it that it may hear you, and say to my soul: "I am your salvation."
After hearing this word, may I come in haste to take hold of you. Hide not your face from me. Let me see your face even if I die, lest I die with longing to see it.
The house of my soul is too small to receive you; let it be enlarged by you. It is all in ruins; do you repair it. There are things in it - I confess and I know - that must offend your sight.
But who shall cleanse it? Or to what others besides you shall I cry out?
From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from those of others spare your servant. Amen.
Prayers Of Thanksgiving
We are thankful to God for a successful four week trial in gathering on Sundays at Garratt St.
We pray for all those in our church community and trust in the Lord's direction and wisdom for our future together.
We are thankful for all those who do faithfully and effectively serve across the various ministries.
We are grateful for our reach as a church going far beyond our local community vis online worship services. We have so much to be thanks for!
Blessings Pastor Ian
God of all blessings, source of all life, giver of all grace:
We thank you for the gift of life: for the breath that sustains life, for the food of this earth that nurtures life, for the love of family and friends without which there would be no life.
We thank you for the mystery of creation: for the beauty that the eye can see, for the joy that the ear may hear, for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder, for the expanse of space that draws us beyond the definitions of our selves.
We thank you for setting us in communities: for families who nurture our becoming, for friends who love us by choice, for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks, for strangers who welcome us into their midst, for people from other lands who call us to grow in understanding, for children who lighten our moments with delight, for the unborn, who offer us hope for the future.
We thank you for this day: for life and one more day to love, for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace, for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom be loved, for your grace and one more experience of your presence, for your promise: to be with us, to be our God, and to give salvation.
For these, and all blessings, we give you thanks, eternal, loving God, through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Vienna Cobb Anderson