Inspiration Organization

Purpose
Since we live in an era where time is at a premium and schedules complex, we offer a daily Inspiration as a compact (7 minutes or less) and spiritually-focused reading, intent on prioritizing the day. A large portion of the population allocates 10 minutes at the beginning of every day to a shower, ensuring their hygiene is at its best. Likewise, most people start the day with nutritional input, from the minimum cup of coffee or glass of juice, to a variety of breakfast choices. Yet, very few of us regularly take that same few minutes to start the day with spiritually-sustaining input, or cleansing our soul's hygiene, while we know the soul is eternal and the body temporal.

Format of the Daily Inspiration
There are 5 parts to the Daily Inspiration: (1)a greeting and introduction, (2)scripture reading and commentary, (3)a daily proverb, (4)a piece of spiritual fruit, and (5)a prayer. The largest portion, by far, is the scripture and commentary. The typical daily devotional is single scripture verse, whereas Morning by Morning seeks to pick out a theme from an average of 10 verses of scripture in modern English.

Scripture Source Organization
There are several ways to organize the choosing of each day's scripture: (1)consecutively, today's reading begins where yesterday's finished; (2)a common theme, for example "grace," for a number of days; (3)book by book; (4)theological concepts, good for thorough study; (5)historical chronology; and several others.

Several months, in 2003, were spent analyzing these distinct presentations of scripture for the best fit for Morning by Morning, with the discovery of a combination of #1 and #2 ultimately selected. There are more than 20 denominations which use an organized rotation of scripture readings, called a lectionary, as a basis. Its design allows parishioners to cover the entire Bible over the process of 3 years of Sunday services. During the decade of the 1970s, thousands of hours were spent by representatives of these groups to combine differing methods in use by individual denominations, resulting in the Revised Common Lectionary, with the official version maintained by Vanderbuilt University, and has access at this link in their web site: http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary/

The Revised Common Lectionary
This common lectionary, first, builds on the church calendar, so that the scripture on Easter will be about the resurrection, and at Christmas, the scriptures deal with the baby in a manger, which will not often happen in a selection of scripture that is consecutively based. Secondly, there are 4 scripture readings for a typical Sunday service: an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a selection from a New Testament Epistle, and preeminently, a Gospel reading. These weekly readings are in a 3-year cycle, based on the 3 Gospels that are semi-chronological: Matthew (2005), Mark (2006) and Luke (2004, and again in 2007). The Gospel of John is mixed in when events and writings correspond with the others, but especially with Mark, since it is the shortest Gospel.

Weekly Design of Daily Inspirations
The 4 scripture sections listed above are the basis for the 7 Morning by Morning Inspirations for each week, with the theme drawn from the Gospel selection. Typically the Gospel opens the week on Monday, and culminates the theme on the next Sunday. (For example, in preparation for Pentecost Sunday, the scriptures introduce that subject on the Monday prior, and conclude the topic on Pentecost Sunday.) Tuesday is usually the Old Testament reading, Wednesday is the Psalm, and Friday and Saturday are grounded in the New Testament Epistle. Thursday is variable, basing on the Old Testament or the Psalm, depending on the writer's preference for the week.

If one happens to attend a church which uses the lectionary, especially the Revised Common Lectionary, they will have the enjoyment of familiar verses in their Sunday services, for they will be reviews of the daily Inspirations from Morning by Morning for the week leading up to that service. Feedback from those in this situation has been most positive this past year.