2023 Ministry Update

My calling as a writer expanded in recent months, so it’s time for an update. It’s my hope the various links below connect you with the type of inspiration and resources that are most helpful to you. Thank you for the honor of encouraging you and supplying your ministry.

The journey to these milestones helped me clarify God’s calling as a writer. I provide Christian resources for prayer and pilgrimage to help persons encounter God. 

I have a calling as a writer, a pastor, a wife, a mother… we have many callings, dear ones, in God’s expanding plans for us.

May you know and embrace all your callings. We need you blossoming in each of them.

– Lisa <><

My longest-running writing project is my blog here on revlisad.com. Here you’ll find over twelve years of prayers, sermons, and guides to spiritual practices, plus new additions most weeks. This writing is born from my devotional practices and the resources I create for my congregation or by request.

You’re welcome to search the blog for what you need and use my work in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’ve found something helpful to use. Please ask permission to publish my work in a book, blog, etc.

When you subscribe, you’ll receive an email anytime I post. My blog is especially helpful for pastors and worship planners, but everyone’s welcome.

I also offer a weekly newsletter entitled Prayer & Practice. Here you’ll find my most personal writing – reflections, prayers, recommended resources, pictures of my grandbaby, etc.

This is also where you’ll find behind-the-scenes updates on my latest writing projects and invitations to provide feedback on projects before they make their way into the world. Click this link to subscribe to my newsletter.

In 2019, I began working on a spiritual journal for Christians taking a trip to the Holy Land. Folks helped me test prototype #1 on a trip in 2020 right before the pandemic. Another group helped me test prototype #2 in March of 2022.  

As I worked through rounds of revisions for the journal, an unexpected thing happened. I realized the journal was multiplying into several related resources.  

  • A smaller version of the journal
  • The version of the journal I would want to take to the Holy Land, what I now call the Dream Journal
  • A Holy Land Planning and Packing Guide
  • A Preparing for Pilgrimage Study Guide
  • A Sites and Scripture Reference Guide

This led to the creation of a small publishing company named Via Lexi. Via Lexi is Latin for Way of the Word

All but the dream journal are now complete. But they needed a place for people to find them. So I built a brand new website for them, www.vialexi.comConsider this your invitation to stop by and take a look around.   

For a little over a year, I’ve been a regular contributor to The Pastor’s Workshop, a terrific subscription site for worship and sermon resources. They organize their large collection by the lectionary and by topic, plus the site is searchable. If you decide to join, be sure to say hi to Stu, their founder and chief curator. He’s a really great human.

Like our sister Mary, an Affirmation of Faith for Advent and Christmas

mother-of-god-icon-l

Like our sister Mary, we say yes

Yes to your favor
Your presence
Your blessing

Yes that we are enough just as we are
Where we are

Yes to your calling
and the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon us to fulfill it

Yes to bearing and birthing
Your Word and your Promises and your Kingdom
in this time and place

Yes to all things being possible with you

Like our sister Mary we say
Here I am, the Lord’s humble servant
As you have said, let it be done to me
in me
through me

Like our sister Mary we sing and celebrate you
Our God, Our Liberator
For though we are your humble servants
You have noticed us

******************
This affirmation is offered for all, but especially for those who lead God’s people during the holy-days of Christmas. It can be an weary and stressful time. It’s easy to miss the wonder and grace of God’s intimate presence with so much responsibility. The stakes feel sky high. Breathe, trust, receive brothers and sisters. The promises are for you as well.

We use this as our Affirmation of Faith during Advent by adding the following
ONE:
God is calling, inviting. Christians, what is your answer?
ALL:
Like our sister Mary, we say yes…

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas! – Lisa <><

Like our Sister Mary © 2017 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in devotional settings with proper attribution.
by Lisa Degrenia (www.revlisad.com)
Please leave a comment for information/permission to publish this work in any form.

Based on Luke 1:26-48, The Voice translation

Testify to the Light- Prayers based on John 1.6-8

light of the world robbie quinn

You are the Light of the World by Robbie Quinn

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. – John 1:6-9

Prayer: Hallelujah! Help Us Shine!
Welcome Glorious One
Lord of Life and Light
Dawn in us your power and peacemaking
Hallelujah! Help us shine!

You bathe us in the light of your grace, that we may be grace
You fill us with the light of your truth, that we may be truth
You flood us with the light of your love, that we may be love
Hallelujah! Help us shine!

Sharing your light
Spreading your light
Beyond our imagining to your desiring
Hallelujah! Help us shine!

Unveiled, Bright, and True
A beam worthy of the stretch of your embrace
Hallelujah! Help us shine!

Draw us to your light
Draw all to your light
Hallelujah! Help us shine!

Prayer: For Yours Alone
Jesus, Messiah
True Light Came and Coming,
Your message is sacred
Holy, Set Apart, Treasured

Your message is eternal
Timeless, Lasting, a Firm Foundation

Your message is salvation
Deliverance, Wholeness, Grace

We bow before your commission to receive and bear your message into the world

Show us when to speak and give us the words
Never for our agenda, for yours alone

Show us what to do and give us the strength
Never for our achievement, for yours alone

Show others we are from you by your power at work through us
Never for our glory, for yours alone

Prayer: Open My Lips
Jesus
Light of Life, Light of Healing
Light of Relationship and Saving Love

Open my lips as you open my eyes
Open my lips as you open my ears
Open my lips to declare your praise
Your power
Your welcome
Your hope

Open my lips in all seasons
in all circumstances

You reveal, I receive
New life is born

You reveal, I reveal
Your Kingdom comes
Your family increases
as does the joy

Open my lips

***********
Hallelujah! Help us shine! © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
For Yours Alone © 2018 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Open My Lips © 2016 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution. (by Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, http://www.revlisad.com) Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Prepare the Way- Prayers based on Isaiah 40.3-5 and Mark 1.1-8

Sermon Series resilience plant 1110 x 624

Prayer: Shall, based on Isaiah 40:3-5
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The time is now, for you have called
The place is now, for you have spoken

Yes, it is a wilderness, a desert even
So dry, so rough
So uneven
Yes, the gap is so very wide between the high and the low

But, you have called
You have spoken
Not an if or when or maybe
Not even a try

You have spoken shall

Every valley shall be lifted
Every mountain shall be made low
The uneven shall be made level
The rough shall be made smooth

So we will persevere in this wilderness of preparing
We will not forge a path or blaze a trail but make a highway
A highway for your coming
For your glory, O God shall be revealed in this place
And all shall see it
All shall see it together

Prayer: Make Your Way, based on Mark 1:1-3
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'”

How do we prepare the way in this time and place?

I’ve witnessed the modern-day prophets
Dipping your two-edged sword in fear and hate
Divining pure from sin, saved from heretic
Confident in their judgments

There are others, too, who take a different path
Coating your sword with sugar and stories
Tickling our ears with prosperity and self-help

We’ve come so far from Brother John
Your blade in hand
Sharp yet washed in the wilderness of prayer
Dripping with Good News

This is Your Way
Repentance
Integrity
Compassion
Solidarity

Make your way in us, O God
Make your way in us

***********
Click Here for a powerful prayer by Steve Garnaas Holmes entitled The rough made smooth, also inspired by this passage.

Click here for Comfort Ye by Steve Garnaas Holmes, a word of encouragement to those experiencing horror and abuse and those striving to bring justice and healing.

Can you tell I’m a fan of Steve Garnaas Holmes? Here are two more jewels entitled

Be sure to also check out Rev. Magrey deVega’s stunning reflection on this passage in his blog post, Is God on your Christmas List?

Shall © 2018 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Make Your Way © 2013 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution. (by Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, http://www.revlisad.com) Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Like our sister Mary, an Affirmation of Faith for Advent and Christmas

mother-of-god-icon-l

Like our sister Mary, we say yes

Yes to your favor
Your presence
Your blessing

Yes that we are enough just as we are
Where we are

Yes to your calling
and the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon us to fulfill it

Yes to bearing and birthing
Your Word and your Promises and your Kingdom
in this time and place

Yes to all things being possible with you

Like our sister Mary we say
Here I am, the Lord’s humble servant
As you have said, let it be done to me
in me
through me

Like our sister Mary we sing and celebrate you
Our God, Our Liberator
For though we are your humble servants
You have noticed us

******************
This affirmation is offered for all, but especially for those who lead God’s people during the holy-days of Christmas. It can be an weary and stressful time. It’s easy to miss the wonder and grace of God’s intimate presence with so much responsibility. The stakes feel sky high. Breathe, trust, receive brothers and sisters. The promises are for you as well.

We use this as our Affirmation of Faith during Advent by adding the following
ONE:
God is calling, inviting. Christians, what is your answer?
ALL:
Like our sister Mary, we say yes…

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas! – Lisa <><

Like our Sister Mary © 2017 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in devotional settings with proper attribution.
by Lisa Degrenia (www.revlisad.com)
Please leave a comment for information/permission to publish this work in any form.

Based on Luke 1:26-48, The Voice translation