"I Was Glad"

On October 22nd of this year Eugene Petersen, a prolific Christian writer and a pastor to pastors, entered into glory. His death reminded me of a little devotional book he authored entitled Praying With The Psalms: A Year of Daily Prayers and Reflections on the Words of David. It is a lovely collection of very small messages that convey very big thoughts. Here is one that I recently found particularly encouraging:
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"I Was Glad"  Read Psalm 122:1-5

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"   Psalm 122:1

The Jerusalem temple in ancient times, and the local church in our times, alike gather and order a worshiping, praising people. Any road that leads to a congregation of God's people is traveled with a glad heart.

Prayer: I give you thanks, most gracious God, for the church in which I worship, the care with which it was built, the devotion with which it is maintained, the ministering uses to which it is put. For all this I thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen
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Candy's thoughts: I absolutely love the prayer that Petersen wrote concerning his own local church, and I will use it when I pray now and in the future for Exeter Presbyterian. I was also reminded of a passage in Hebrews:

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  

It seems fitting that this beloved man, Eugene Petersen, would write about "the road that leads to a congregation of God's people here on earth," and that nine days ago he himself took the road leading to the "congregation of God's people" gathered in heaven above.

I am thankful that Petersen finally has a perfectly 'glad heart.'  What a homecoming! What a God!