The Garland of Prayer – 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther – Day 4 – Purity
1277
Purity 1277 02/17/2024 Purity 1277 Podcast
Purity 1277 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a twisted tree in the midst of man-made
mist, ghostly lanterns, and unsuspecting strangers in Mickey or Minnie Mouse
ears comes to us from yours truly as I captured this haunting scene while on
line to get a fright at the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Attraction at Disney’s
Hollywood Studios in Orlando Florida yesterday.
Well, It’s Saturday if you can imagine it, my Friday
began with silent stillness and an inch or two of snow on the ground at my
countryside home in Easton and ended with a truly spectacular fire, water, and light-fueled
extravaganza of dazzling Disney delights, watching the “Sorcerer Mickey”
Imagined show “Fantasmisc” and enjoying temperatures in the 60’s as I traveled
over 1240 miles to take a break from my normal routine on vacation in Disney
World.
Well, just because I have taken a departure from my
normal routine and any semblance of maintaining my keto food plan and will be
giving up giving up anything in these early days of the Lenten season, I am not
giving up on my relationship with the Lord and am going to draw close to God in
the wee hours of the morning before another day of vacation in the Magic Kingdom
begins. In life, we set our priorities on what’s important to us and after
being pulled out of the darkness of a life of sin, sadness, and addiction, I try
to put God first and am doing that this Lenten season by going through the 40
Day Journey with Martin Luther.
It’s the fourth day of Lent and so we continue my
personal walkthrough of Gracia Grindal’s 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther
to observe and celebrate the Lenten season.
In this walkthrough Grindal’s devotional, it is our hope that we will get to know
Martin Luther a little better as we seek to draw closer to the Lord on our
journey to Resurrection Sunday – Easter.
And so we continue.
“Journey
Day 4
If I
have had time and opportunity to go through the Lord’s prayer, I do the same
with the Ten Commandments. I take one part after another and free myself as
much as possible from distractions in order to pray. I divide each commandment
into four parts, thereby fashioning a garland of four strands. That is, I think
of each commandment as, first, instruction, which is really what it is intended
to be, and consider what the Lord God demands of me so earnestly. Second, I
turn it into a Thanksgiving; third, a confession; fourth, a prayer.
Biblical Wisdom
Do
not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write
them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the
sight of God and of people. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not
rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make
straight your paths. Proverbs 3:3-6
Silence for Meditation.
Questions to Ponder
· Note
the order of the four strands in the garland of prayer that recommends. Why do
you think they come in that order?
Martin
Luther’s garland of prayer makes sense and may have been taught to him by
saints in his life who had gone before him or something he developed as a monk
of seminary professor. Luther’s garland of prayer is logical and orderly, and
it makes sense that they would flow in the following order:
1.
Instruction – to meditate on something we have to ponder
what it means. What does this passage of scripture, commandment, or portion of
the Lord’s prayer tell us? What does it tell us about God and what does it tell
us to do, or what does it tell us not to do?
What does it teach us?
2.
Thanksgiving – Pondering the scripture before us, we are
naturally drawn to thank God for his wisdom, for His revealing it to us, and
how it has benefitted us in our lives. We meditate on scripture and thank God
for what He has done and for who He is – good, holy, loving, and just.
3.
Confession – We learn from the scripture that we have not
always followed God’s word and we continue to fall short of following it faithfully. So we confess.
4.
Pray – and then we pray about that portion of scripture specifically
– Lord help me, guide me, and strengthen me in this specific area of our faith,
and help others who struggle with this area as well.
· Why
do you think Luther understands the garland of prayer as a response to the word
of God?
As I just explained the garland of prayer that Luther talks
about describes His relationship with the Lord and how He responds dynamically to
the word of God that He encounters. Seeking to understand, to thank God for, to
confess- or to agree with, and to pray over the Ten Commandments or Lord’s prayer
– which are the word of God – is a response to the word of God.
· How
might your community of faith use the garland of prayer in public worship?
The garland of prayer can easily be brought to the corporate
body through having the pastor or “Celebrant” direct the group’s attention to a
particular portion of scripture by reciting it and then asking them to
prayerfully consider: what it teaches us, how we should be thankful for it, how
we can confess our failures in obeying it, and then to pray to follow it.
Psalm Fragment
You
who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the
Almighty, will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I
trust.” Psalm 91:1-4
Journal Reflections
· Reflect
on your own method of meditating on Scripture. Have you ever used Luther’s
method? If so, describe its effect on you. If not, why not try it?
You know, I never really thought about my process of
meditation but as I have examined Luther’s method I see in it that those four
garlands of prayer are not strange to me.
The four garlands are rightly called a response to God’s word – man must
consider it to understand it and if we understand it naturally causes us to
thanksgiving, confession, and prayer. So
I didn’t know Martin Luther wrote about this, but I can say that I have tried
this method myself in a sense and it has had a profound effect on me as it
formed the basis of my relationship to God and His word and has guided me to a transformed
life.
· Write
about how you might begin to make the garland of prayer a regular habit in your
faith life.
Well, it’s very simple – we just do it. Follow the
outline that Luther writes about by asking God and yourself those questions. What
does this mean? What does God want to teach me? How or why should I be thankful
for this? Do I agree with this, or have
I failed to obey this? How should I pray
about this? Our responses to these aspects of our faith and these questions can
easily make this a regular habit in our lives.
· Practice
this garland of prayer using the Psalm Fragment.
Our psalm
Fragment, Psalm 91:1-4 , tells us: “You
who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the
Almighty, will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I
trust.”
Okay. The Psalm Fragment teaches us that – God the
Almighty is a fortress, a refuge, and that we should trust Him and abide in his
“shelter”. It also teaches us to confess these things verbally to the Lord. It causes us to give thanks for His goodness
and His protection of us. It reminds me
of all the times I walked independently away from God and how I suffered. It causes me to pray to be able to trust God
more and to always abide with Him to experience Him as a refuge, fortress, and shelter.
Prayers for the Life of Faith
Pray
that you will learn to follow the garland of prayer method in both your reading
of Scripture and your response in prayer to what you read.
Lord, help me to use Luther’s garland of prayer to
respond fully to what your word tells me and to draw me closer to You. In Jesus’
name, Amen.
Prayer for Today
Gracious
God, open my mind and heart to your word
as I mine your word for its depths and riches.
Amen!
(Gracia M. Grindal. 40-day
Journey With Martin Luther. Kindle Edition.)
(We encourage you to purchase Grindal’s book and
take the 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther for yourself by purchasing Grindal’s
book wherever books are sold. You can find it online at many different sites
and purchase it new, used – paper or electronic for less than $15.00).
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Communication, Gossip, and
Lying.
Proverbs 13:3 (NLT2)
3 Those who control their
tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.
Today’s
verse falls under the fourteenth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Communication, Gossip, and Lying.
14. Be careful. Don’t
speak rashly.
Today’s
verse reminds me to keep the peace with the words I say. Hey I am on vacation
and the best way to keep the good times rolling is to do our best to be kind to
one another and to not complain about how we may be getting on one another’s nerves
words as we examine other people we are traveling with or in passing and consider
how what they are saying or doing doesn’t line up perfectly with how we would
do things. While we could speak out
complaints and rebukes in reactivity, rashly.
If we hold on to silence until we can craft a caring and compassionate
response, we can keep the peace and help to make everyone’s experience a
positive one. So control your tongue, because sometimes opening your mouth rashly
can ruin everything.
———————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: MARK 9
“Only Jesus.” – Mark 9:8
Had it been “only Moses,” they would have had to face the
severe demands of the law. Had it been “only Elias,” they would have had to
suffer the righteous demands of severe judgment. But it was “Only Jesus!”
Blessed be His Name! “Only Jesus,” who not only fulfilled the law but also bore
the judgment due to mankind, that as “The Only Savior” He might bring “grace
and truth” (John 1:14, 17) to men and women. Had only Moses and Elias come
down, they would have brought law and judgment. But in that “Only Jesus” came
down, He brought truth (fulfilled law) and grace (satisfied judgment). Praise
God for “Only Jesus!”
Jesus is All the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall.4
“Only Jesus” (Mark 9:8).[1]
—————————more
tomorrow————————
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional
Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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