Orphir and Stenness Church

"God will be present," a Latin proverb teaches, "whether asked or not." 

God does not "find" me.  God is with me already.  It is a matter of my becoming conscious of the God who has already found me. 

— Joan Chittister, The Ten Commandments

God is Love: 

Love is what God is, love is why Jesus came, and love is why he continues to come, year after year to person after person… May you experience this vast, expansive, infinitely indestructible love that has been yours all along.  May you discover that this love is as wide as the sky and as small as the cracks in your heart that no one else knows about, and may you know, deep in your bones, that love wins. 

 - Rob Bell (American author, speaker and former pastor)

Prayer to the Creator of the Universe 

Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you open our heart and open our eyes so we can enjoy all of your creations and live in eternal love with you.  Help us to see you in everything we perceive with our eyes, with our ears, with our heart, with all our senses.  Let us perceive with eyes of love so that we find you wherever we go and see you in everything you create.  Let us see you in every cell of our body, in every emotion of our mind, in every dream, in every flower, in every person we meet.  You cannot hide from us because you are everywhere, and we are one with you.  Let us be aware of this truth. 

 - Don Miguel Ruiz

Spiritual Blessings in Christ 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 

Ephesians 1:3-10;  New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Brush up on your Bible: it prevents truth decay. 

Jesus loves me: 

Karl Barth (1886–1968) was a Swiss Reformed theologian who is often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. 

When asked in 1962 (on his one visit to America) how he would summarize the essence of the millions of words he had published, he replied: 

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." 

 - Christian History Online:

Gratitude: 

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. 

 - G. K. Chesterton

The Bible: 

Christ is the norm, the criterion, the purpose, and the meaning of the book. [The Bible].  The book points to Christ; Christ does not point to the book.  We are not the People of the Book; we are the People with the Book.  The Gospel of John does not say, “God so loved the world that he gave us” a book (3:16).  The Revelation of John does not say that we are saved “by the ink of the Lamb” (12:11).  For over a hundred years Christians have asked - What Would Jesus Do? and not - What Would the Bible Say?.  If Christ is the norm of the gospel, then he is also the norm of the New Testament, and of the entire Christian Bible.  That, of course, is why we are called Christ-ians and not Bible-ians.” 

― John Dominic Crossan: The Greatest Prayer: A Revolutionary Manifesto and Hymn of Hope 

Bless to us, O God, 

the earth beneath our feet. 

Bless to us , O God, 

the path whereon we tread. 

Bless to us, O God, 

the people whom we meet. 

 - Celtic Blessing.

The harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. 

 - Galatians 5:22-23; REB.

Comic Wisdom: When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, I used everything you gave me. 

— Erma Bombeck, American humourist