"Be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God.” Joel 2:23
I drew this Watchword for myself for 2010:
"Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life." John 8:12
The process of Watchwords (Losungen in German) began with Count Zinzendorf in 1727. He drew verses for each day and delivered them to homes to give them a verse of Scripture to guide their thoughts and provide a verse to meditate on and pray with. The town grew and Moravians began missions in various parts of the world. Therefore they ended up drawing a year's verses at a time and publishing them into a book. We call this the Daily Text, and this practice still continues today. It's published now in 50+ languages and is used around the world. The Moravian Church's website (http://www.moravian.org/daily_texts/) says,
"First published in 1731 in Saxony, this little book grew out of a spiritual renewal of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) that dates back to August 13, 1727. In those days, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf handed out a Losung, or "watchword," for the next day to each member of the Moravian congregation at Herrnhut, Saxony (now Germany). Thereafter one or more persons in the congregation went daily to each of the thirty-two houses in Herrnhut to bring them the watchword for the day."
At RMC, a volunteer cuts up old Daily Texts, pastes the verses on index cards and pass them out in baskets to the congregation during worship. Everyone is invited to draw a card to serve as their Watchword for the year. These are not fortunes or predictive, but are instead available to help guide our prayers and meditations throughout the year.
If you're interested in receiving the Daily Text via email, check out the website link above for the Daily Texts, and you can sign up there to get them in your inbox each morning. Happy 2010!
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