Jesus, Enter this Dark World again

December 31, 2025December 26, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Massacre of the Innocents, Giotto, via Wikimedia Commons

Dear Jesus,

It’s a good thing you were born at night.

This world sure seems dark.

I have a good eye for silver linings.

But they seem dimmer lately.

These killings, Lord.

These children, Lord.

Innocence violated.

Raw evil demonstrated.

The whole world seems on edge.

Trigger-happy. Ticked off.

We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs.

Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas.

But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night.

The shepherds were nightshift workers.

The Wise Men followed a star.

Your first cries were heard in the shadows.

To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame.

It was dark.

Dark with Herod’s jealousy.

Dark with Roman oppression.

Dark with poverty.

Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies.

Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt.

You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day.

Won’t you enter ours?

We are weary of bloodshed.

We, like the wise men, are looking for a star.

We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children

Max Lucado, 1955-, Texas pastor and author, written after the Sandy Hook shootings, 2012
source: Christian Post

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Matthew 2:16-18

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
who were two years old and under,

in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

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Where is a dark place in your world where Jesus needs to enter anew?

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protect my heart

October 23, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image by Annija U via Pexels

I give you my heart,

and I humbly pray that you would always keep it in your hands,

since it is so unfaithful in loving what is good.

When it is in my control,

it is prone to follow all sorts of evils.

Oh Father,

keep my heart steadfast and unalterable in your ways.

Let it not be inclined to any evil thing

nor lean toward any of my former vanities.

Keep my eyes from looking upon and my ears from listening

to any sort of wickedness.

Do not let my lips utter anything that is ungodly

or my feet move even a step in any of the paths of death,

but hold my whole spirit, soul, and body in a righteous fear of you.

Keep me comfortable in the hope of your favor,

through Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and only Savior.

Amen.

John Kettlewell, 1653-1695, English clergyman and devotional writer

Cloud of Witnesses

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1 Thessolonians 5:23-24

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body

be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

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you have forgiven me such great sins

August 31, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Conversion of St. Augustine by Fra Angelico, via Wikimedia Commons

What return shall I make to the Lord

for my ability to recall these things with no fear in my soul?

I will love you, Lord, and thank you, and praise your name,

because you have forgiven me such great sins and such wicked deeds.

I acknowledge that it was by your grace and mercy

that you melted away my sins like ice.

I acknowledge, too, that by your grace

I was preserved from whatever sins I did not commit,
for there was no knowing what I might have done,

since I loved evil even if it served no purpose.

I avow that you have forgiven me all,
both the sins which I committed of my own accord

and those which by your guidance I was spared from committing.

What man who reflects upon his own weakness

can dare to claim that his own efforts have made him chaste and free from sin,

as though this entitled him to love you the less,

on the ground that he had less need of the mercy

by which you forgive the sins of the penitent?

There are some who have been called by you

and because they have listened to your voice

they have avoided the sins which I here record and confess for them to read.

But let them not deride me for having been cured by the same Doctor

who preserved them from sickness,

or at least from such grave sickness as mine.

Let them love you just as much, or even more, than I do,

for they can see that the same healing hand

which rid me of the great fever of my sins

protects them from falling sick of the same disease.

St. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430

Confessions Book II, Section 7 online source

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Psalm 116:1-9

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

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Separate us from forgiven sins

July 25, 2024July 24, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image, Steve F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Father, when You forgive sins,

You separate them as far from us as the east is from the west

Bury them in the bottom of the deepest sea

and put up a sign for the devil that says,

NO FISHING.

Corrie Ten Boom, 1892-1983, Dutch Holocaust Survivor and author

Prayers for Today

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Psalm 103:11-12

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

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Forgive our sin, O Lamb of God

February 2, 2024February 1, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Lamb of God, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED

The sins of the world,

such dreadful sins.

not just the personal sins

but the solidarity of sin

greater than the total

of individual sin

nuclear evil in endless fission,

O Lamb of God.

The sin of racial pride

that sees not the faith

that all men are divinely made

nor the riches of pigment

in portrait faces,

the same psychology

and religious search,

that each is the sibling

for whom Christ died.

The burgeoning greed

that never heeds the needs of others

involved in a merciless system,

looking only at profit and dividend,

the last of possessions

that cannot accompany us

at our last migration:

Take away these sins,

O Lamb of God.

The massive sin of war,

millions of lives impersonally destroyed,

billions of pounds wasted

on weapons, bombs,

truth enslaved,

the hungry still unfed,

grief stalking unnumbered homes:

Weep over us,

O Lamb of God.

The sin of the world,

alienation from thee

not just weakness

but evil intention,

organized and unrestrained

with its own momentum

leading to death:

O Lamb of God,

take away this sin.

Begin with me,

O Lamb of God,

forgive my sins,

cleanse my heart,

disarm my will

and let me fight

armed with thy truth, righteousness and love

with thy cross of love

incised upon my heart,

O Lamb of God.

George Appleton, 1902-1993, Anglican Bishop in England and Jerusalem

The Oxford Book of Prayer

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John 1:29

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

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expel the devil from this man

October 31, 2023October 30, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

O Lord, holy Father,

almighty and eternal God,

expel the devil

and the paganism from this man,

from his head, from his hair,

from his brain, from his back,

from his front, from his eyes,

from his ears, from his nostrils,

from his lips, from his mouth,

from his tongue, from under his tongue,

from his jaws, from his throat,

from his neck, from his heart,

from his whole body, from all of his members,

from inside and the outside of him,

from his bones, from his veins,

from his nerves, from his blood,

from his senses, from his thoughts,

from his words, from all his works,

from his strength,

from all manner of conversation,

for this, and in the life to come,.

But may the power of Christ, our mediator,

work in you, that we may attain life eternal,

through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, Amen.

Antiphonary of Bangor, Prayer over a Person who has a Devil, #96

Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church

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Matthew 10:1

And he called to him his twelve disciples

and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,

and to heal every disease and every affliction.

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reveal your divine authority in Palestine

October 28, 2023October 28, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

near the Erez Crossing Gaza Strip by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

O rulers be prudent, O judges be disciplined.

Lord, many enemies desire to terminate the people of God in the Middle East.

They throw bombs at churches and blast our holy sites.

Their leaders are like Cain, Ahab, and Herod

because they unhesitatingly seek to kill their brothers and sisters.

Mercy has become extinct, and there is no compassion in their hearts.

They destroy unity and make smiling illegal.

All the refugees and the weak ones are crying out.

O Lord, your helpless boys and abandoned girls are suffering.

They have been slaughtered like sheep.

Didn’t you promise to build your church?

Why don’t you listen?

Palestine, Syria, Egypt and the Arab world are crying out to you.

Please take away this cup.

Speak to the kings and make them reconsider.

Convince them to fear your anger and stop exterminating your people.

O Lord, give us great leaders.

Where is the wise Solomon? Where is David, the man after your own heart?

Where are Cyrus and Daniel who spread justice and peace?

O Lord, declare your holy anger against evil systems

that champion murder and defilement.

Have mercy on sinners but eradicate evil systems.

Deliver sinners but destroy oppressive systems.

Please annihilate slavery, bigotry, colonialism, neo-colonialism,

Nazism and dictatorships!

Please destroy every system that is rooted in sin.

Why don’t you reveal your divine authority

and destroy wickedness in every evil system?

May your people everywhere be able to live lives of quietness and tranquility?

You are the best judge!

Yohanna Katanacho, 1967 – , Palestinian Israeli evangelical theologian

Praying through the Psalms

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Psalm 2

Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

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