Autumn Prayer Reflection

Autumn Prayer Reflection

Autumn is a time for deep reflection, introspection, thanksgiving, stillness, and harvest.

As the leaves have begun to display their mellow and rich hues of amber, orange, red, and sienna, they seem to suggest to each of us that the innocence of the season of spring and the boldness of the season of summer have acquiesced themselves to mellowness and kindly wisdom of the ages.

As we reflect upon our journey against the backdrop of the earlier part of the year, we do so in the spirit of relief and anticipation, in the spirit of challenge and triumph, in the spirit of solemnity and joy, in the spirit of weariness and rest, in the spirit of inertia and change, in the spirit of incredible gains and necessary losses, in the spirit of astonishment and enlightenment, in the spirit of planting and harvest, in the spirit of struggle and surrender, in the spirit of transformation and transcendence, and with the reflective awareness of our finiteness and infiniteness all being informed by gentle, yet rich wisdom.

God, we render to unto you thanksgiving for the lives by which we have been impacted and we thank you for the lives that have intertwined with our own lives. We render unto you thanksgiving for the lives of those whom we are given responsibility to co-journey in service, healing, friendship, affirmation, empowerment, struggle, empowerment, truth, and transformation!

God, we thank you for the lives of your beloved and resilient children, who forge the spiritual journey with a banner of faith, love, joy, and trust all informed by an intrinsic understanding that we serve each other in a spirit of love with no judgment. We thank you that we serve each other celebrating our unfathomable faith and strengths with the belief that eyes have not seen, neither have ears heard of their uncharted and unlimited possibilities.

God, during this season of harvest, we thank you for an overflowing cornucopia of love and hope, compassion and persistence, empathy and competence, tenacity and vision, gentleness and care, mission and creativity, blessed by the service, wisdom, and presence of your beloved, gifted, and talented people who serve in a plethora of capacities from leaders to visionaries, from teachers to artists, from receptionists to direct care persons, from outreach persons to those persons who are in the helping and healing professions, from environmental services persons to persons in finance, and from administrative support staff to management, (and endless list) etc. We thank you for each of them dear Lord! We thank you for those who are named as well as those who are unnamed. We are blessed by each other’s gifts and offerings in service. We thank you that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers and delight in and are humble by such a charge. We thank you for the opportunity to serve and to be transformed by having served.

We release, like fallen and ripened leaves into the Autumn winds, weights and burdens, misperceptions and deflated hopes, fears and doubts, worries and anxieties, hurts and wounds, and limitations and insufficiencies…shedding the aforementioned for a bountiful harvest of grace, patience, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, joy, mindfulness, kindness, rejuvenation, and a love that holds us in its grasp forever, while never letting us go.

God, we thank you for relationships, spiritual union, community, table fellowship, the unknown, and the opportunity to gather in a spirit of gratitude, thanksgiving, strength, camaraderie, celebration, humility, grace, and power. We render unto you these petitions, we pray. Yes, this is true, Let it be so, So be it, May it be so, Amen. Peace

Be Blessed

Reverend K. Mason

(c) 2017
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K.Mason (c) 2017

PASSION AND PRAISE: PALM SUNDAY REFLECTION

PASSION AND PRAISE

Passion is derived from the word that means “suffer.” As we reflect upon the significance of Palm Sunday during the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we do so with excitement, praise, anticipation, and renewed hope. While our hearts and minds are catapulted into spheres of joy, praise, and pregnant expectation, they must also be tempered by imminence of the clandestine presence of suffering that resides within the corridors and shadows of praise, not for the purpose of suppressing our joy, but to remind us that where there is no cross, there is no crown.

While the masses gathered to welcome Jesus, many had no inherent idea what he was really about. Many had hoped that he was the Messiah, which in their minds meant a political leader, who would bring salvation from political and societal oppression and debauchery, and overthrow the Roman aristocracy. After all, Jesus had raised the dead and performed many miracles recorded and not recorded, thus, the populous assumed that Jesus would restore the kingdom of David and free them from Roman rule.

While there was veracity in the hopes, expectations, and dreams of the masses, many had misunderstood, fallen short of comprehending, and recklessly overlooked that the necessity of the fulfillment of The Passion of Jesus Christ of which Psalm Sunday was the precursor; i.e., suffering would still unfold before authentic praise would be perfected and fulfilled. For we know that “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” and the word of God reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.

In essence, the plan of God was operative on a higher plane not yet understood by the hearts of men and women. Regarding the manifestation of perfected praise, perfected praise is a profoundly deeply-rooted honor and reverence of thanksgiving that Believers lift up to God, who has saved and blessed them by his grace through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perfected praise is also birthed by purification through the fire of trials where joy and peace are the Believers’ companion where hopelessness and despair should otherwise reside.  

Thus, while Believers, Witness Bearers of The Faith, must approach Palm Sunday with joy and shouting “Hosanna,” which means “save now,” we must also do so with a sober reverence to God because within “The Cup” that overflowed with praises bestowed upon Jesus, were bitter dregs of suffering of which Jesus was aware. In essence, while the focus of the masses was on the material world, the focus of Jesus was on a mission of a higher call and vastly more enormous than one place and one time, for it was a mission that would transform all that was, all that is, and all that shall be! Glory to God in The Highest!!! God is the Alpha and the Omega and within the Passion of Jesus, “the Beginning and the End” were reconciling themselves that the excellency of Christ would be made manifest!

Importantly and ironically, the masses who shouted Hosanna during the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, were comprised of the same masses who displayed the fickleness of the human heart just a few days later in their angry and insulting vulgarities and chants requests to Pilate to “Crucify Him!” This dynamic causes the Believer to keep ever present the question that Jesus proposed when he stated, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36. Place not your hope and faith in accolades of men and women, but God Almighty Beloved of God! An important point to mention here to us as believers is that we must resist the temptation to place God in a box as well! The Lord is doing a new thing!!! Just as Jesus was not finished with the plan of God during his triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, God is not finished with you yet nor his plans for your life Beloved of God! Keep the Faith and continue to press forward to the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ!

While our eyes are fixed on Easter morning and the joyous outpouring of grace and gratitude that was is manifested through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us not forget the rough and rocky precipice that Jesus took and that we must take to get there. Christian Lyric Writer, Jennie E. Hussey, echoed these sentiments in a hymn that she penned in 1921, “Lead Me To Calvary.”

Lead Me To Calvary

King of my life, I crown Thee now,         Thine shall the glory be;         Lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow,         Lead me to Calvary. Refrain: Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid, Tenderly mourned and wept; Angels in robes of light arrayed Guarded Thee whilst Thou slept. Let me like Mary, through the gloom, Come with a gift to Thee; Show to me now the empty tomb, Lead me to Calvary. May I be willing, Lord, to bear Daily my cross for Thee; Even Thy cup of grief to share, Thou hast borne all for me.

Be Blessed

Reverend K. Mason

(c) 2017
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K.Mason (c) 2017

THE HIGH CALLING

The High Calling

If God has called you to be really like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put on you such demands of obedience that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers, who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull strings, and work schemes to carry out their plans. But you cannot do such things. You will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely patient.

Others can brag on themselves, on their work, on their successes, on their workings/writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will succeed in making great sums of money, having a legacy left to them, or having luxuries. However, God may supply you daily, because He wants you to have something far better than gold that is helpless dependence on Him. That He may have the privilege of providing your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, but keep you hid away in obscurity. He does this to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be grown in the shade. He may let others be great but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without letting you have any knowledge of how much you are doing. Then to make you still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work you have done. This will make your reward ten times greater when Jesus returns.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you with jealous love. He will rebuke you for little words or feelings, or for wasting time, things that other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has the right to do as He pleases with his own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things, which may puzzle your reasoning in His dealing with you. God will take you at your work. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love. He will let other people say and do things that you cannot say or do.

Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit. He alone has the privilege of tying your tongue, chaining your hands and closing your eyes in ways that others are not dealt with. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and life, you will have the vestibule of heaven.    

                                                                                          Anonymous

Be Blessed

K. Mason

(c) 2015
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K.Mason (c) 2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

Season's Greetings & A Holiday Reflection

As you embrace the dawning of the New Year 2015 and the twilight of the Present Year 2014,

 

May you be gifted by the wonder and the bliss of excited expectation for dreams yet to come,

 

May you be greeted with a banner of peace and songs of joy,

 

May you be enraptured by the warmth of being loved,

 

May you be courageous enough to embrace the strength of your weakness,

 

And humble enough to embrace the weakness of your strength,

May you risk to set the world aflame with love, joy, benevolence, and peace,

 

May the lantern of your heart burn passionately and brightly

that others will see its light and be inspired,

 

May you be renewed, enlightened, and affirmed that you are beautiful and gifted,

 

May you be catapulted to greater heights of imagination, inspiration, potential, and creativity,

 

May you know how special you are and because of your presence, the world in a better place,

 

May your bounty for the New Year overflow in grace, prosperity, goodness,

 joy, love, and glad tidings of peace,

 

Now, during this season, and throughout the year to come!

Blessings For A Wonderful New Year

Be Blessed

K. Mason

(c) 2014
For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.
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K.Mason (c) 2014

ACCEPTANCE AT GOD'S TABLE

THE  LORD'S SUPPER:
THE COMMUNION TABLE OF GOD


"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the LORD'S death until HE comes." 1 Corinthians 11:26


Have you been rejected, shut out, forgotten, victimized, misrepresented, shamed, oppressed, depressed, mishandled, scorned, rebuffed, or harshly criticized? If you have, there is good news for you!

The Good News: Beloved there is always room at God’s Table for You! At God’s table you are always welcomed, loved, accepted, affirmed, encouraged, and embraced, because God loved and loves you so much that even before you were formed in your mother’s womb, that He sent His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to take the weight and die on The Cross for the remission of humanity’s sin!

Be encouraged Beloved of The Most High! God has prepared a royal destiny for you because God loves you, yes you, so much and even more profoundly that we are capable of comprehending, that he welcomes you at His Table. Jesus reminded his disciples at The Communion Table, Last Supper, of the reality of God’s love before He departed from them and ascended to Heaven, while imparting The Holy Spirit, The Comforter, to keep and minister to us until His glorious return!

You are loved! There is hope! You have a future! Do not give up!


“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future!” Jeremiah 29:11

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

(c) 2014
For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.
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Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.
Blessings
Plethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries

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K.Mason (c) 2009

Immortal Invisible

Immortal Invisible

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the in habitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord

Joel 1:14

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God.

Joel 2:21-23a

That which lives forever is immortal and that which we cannot see is invisible like the air that we breathe.

In our present time we are beset by an array of challenges that summon both our time and our attention. While life often presents us with the challenge to resolve urgent presenting issues immediately, we become simultaneously inundated or even avalanched by a cascade of more pressing issues subsequent to the issue that we are in the midst of remedying. We ponder and muse to ourselves that we are at the brink of breaking-point; i.e., the point of no return. Sometimes it appears that we are gasping for air, yet feel suffocated by the circumstances that beset us with little to no relief on the horizon. Sometimes those moments that we must gasp for air are further intensified and evident when our marriages fail, when our children go astray, when we are betrayed by those whom we trust, when our friends take a hiatus during the times we need them most, when years of dedicated service result in months of unemployment, when we lose our homes, when our finances are depleted, when sickness brings life as we  once celebrated it to a halt, when the shadow of death claims the lives of those whom we love, when parents place their children on psychological probation, when the good that we exemplify is spoken of as evil, when shame and slander are the news of the day, when doors of opportunity are slammed shut, when our brothers and sisters find shelter on the streets, when food is discarded in large quantities daily, yet far too families are left to starve while they bear witness to their children who fall prey to the disease of malnutrition, when we as members of this great nation, resort to internal fighting and conflict due to our own fears, biases, idiosyncrasies, and insecurities, while forgetting those things that unify us as one in the bond of love of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. It appears that we have forgotten the unity that bonded us when our fathers, mothers, brother, sisters, and other beloved had returned home from world wars and civil wars as well as those times when collective medical efforts conquered disease. It seems that we have forgotten the sacrifices of those who paved the way before us who traversed rocky precipices in hues of Black, Red, White, Yellow, and Brown. It seems that we have forgotten those types of adversities that have changed our lives as we once knew it such as the horror of 911 and the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina all of which caused us to reckon with the reality that we are all in this thing called “life” together. What does this apathy that we, at present, experience mean we ponder? How did we veer off-track we muse? Is all lost? Is there anything reconcilable we ask ourselves even as we pray with heavy hearts and troubled minds? What does God require of us in such challenging times? What must we require of one another?

The Prophet, Joel, considered a minor prophet, yet with a major proclamation, petitions and reminds us that HOPE in God is still very much alive and that we must reconcile ourselves to God through our faith in Jesus Christ, whom redeems us. Joel reminds us that we must assemble and humble ourselves before God and petition his grace and mercy with the aid of our elders in a posture of submission coupled with the relinquishment of our self-righteousness and pompousness. When we place ourselves before the presence of God our Holy Father at the base of the Mercy Seat in an authentic and self-revelatory manner, fear, shame, doubt, desolation, brokenness, exclusion, and apathy can no longer lay claim to our destiny, our faith, and our royal priesthood because God our Father, who is the Ancient of Days is still on the throne! Because God is sovereign, trees will bear fruit, fountains will flow with living water, pastures will become green, and we as the sheep of his pasture will be enveloped in the presence of the Immortal Invisible, yet Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Be Blessed,
K. Mason
(c) 2012

For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.

All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed!

Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.

Blessings

Plethora Ministries

Plethora Ministries
Click here for Web log Page[contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice
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Plethora Ministries

Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly (Forthcoming in a new book format in Fall 2012...stay tuned),please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD."Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

K.Mason (c) 2012

WORD FOR THE NEW YEAR: TRUST GOD

TRUST GOD

1 CHRONICLES 5:20

They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

Beloved, GOD KNOWS ALL ABOUT IT! Yes, in life some rain must fall, some leaves must wither and die, and some flowers must fade. However, subsequent to the dark is the approach of light; a brand new day!
    

Relationships, marriages, occupations, the faith community have, on many levels, invited each of us to love more freely and to trust more deeply. However, human frailty often takes the center stage and causes TRUST to go into seclusion as trust becomes hurt.
   

Many of us have been bruised, hurt, and/or betrayed, not necessarily by those who are arms distance away, instead, by many of those who are the most intimate with us. While our concerns, challenges, aspirations, and those things that we hold most sacred may not rank as a priority on the minds and hearts of some of those with whom we are connected; nonetheless, they are, however, on the heart and mind of GOD! David tells us that GOD saves even our tears in a bottle. He reminds us to trust the LORD [Psalm 56: 3-4] "When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?"
    

On any given day, we are inundated with an array of instances where TRUST has turned to mistrust. Despite this type of information, as a believer in he who is able to bless us beyond that which we could ever ask or imagine, we must and are required to TRUST GOD!
    

The spiritual journey is one that requires that we shed the garments of mistrust daily to allow ourselves the blessed opportunity to deepen our capacity to TRUST each new day! TRUST is anchored in faith! It would become increasingly difficult to develop spiritually without TRUST.


Thus, the question that might arise is: "What is trust?" TRUST is one's ability to take full assurance and confidence in the fact that because GOD is for you, who can be against you! TRUST is knowing that in both life and death, that GOD reigns and that his love consumes all! TRUST is acknowledging that despite the fact that numerous obstacles are distributed along your path and that you cannot see your way through, that GOD has the final answer which is your liberation, elevation, and victory! TRUST requires that you let go and that you allow yourself to fall into the loving hands of GOD who will always catch you! TRUST is triumph over experience!


TRUST is the triumphant revelation of understanding our spiritual transformation through JESUS CHRIST!

Triumphant

Revelation

Understanding

Spiritual

Transformation




This Blog Reflection is dedicated to the memory and legacy of  3 phenomenal Clergymen of God who were Bulwarks of The Gospel Truth and Integrity and who exemplified what it met TRUST GOD no matter what the price!


The Late Dr. Reverend Vernon Nathaniel Dobson
The Late Dr. Reverend Richard Ishmael McKinney
The Late Reverend David Major

K. Mason
(c) 2005 (c) 2015   

For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below. All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed! Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.


Blessings
Plethora Ministries

Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log Page [contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures]Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi

plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries

Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD." Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

K.Mason (c) 2005
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