LENTEN
DEVOTIONS – 2010
University
United Methodist Church
940 E.
Colton Avenue
Redlands,
CA 92373
Our church is proud to
publish these Lenten devotionals every year because they enhance the study of
Christian disciples. One of the fundamental
disciplines of a Christian life is the study of scripture. Therefore, these devotionals are written
every year to help us have the mind of Jesus Christ
So I strongly encourage
you to pick up this book every day during the Lenten season; pray, read the
scriptures, pray, and read the devotional carefully written by a member of our
church. I guarantee you will grow closer
to God and know Jesus more.
Finally, some
acknowledgements: A big thank you to all
of you who submitted articles and to Rev. Don Miller who pushed us each Sunday
to get these devotions turned in. Most
importantly, my deepest thanks go to our Secretary, Liz Roark, who published
this devotion and put up with our procrastination. May God bless us as we read and reflect upon
the Holy Scriptures.. Amen
Grace and Peace
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
Click link to go to a specific date
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February 17 Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18 (NRSV)
Ash
Wednesday
1“Beware of practicing your piety before
others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your
Father in heaven. 2“So
whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward. 3But when you give
alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so
that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will
reward you. 5“And whenever
you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the
synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward. 6But whenever you
pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
16“And whenever you fast, do not look
dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show
others that they are fasting. Truly I
tell you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, put oil on
your head and wash your face, 18so that your fasting may be seen not
by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in
secret will reward you.
Today
is the first day of Lent where we have ashes put on our forehead, which marks a
change in our communal church season and our individual focus. I’ve always wondered what to do with the black
mark on my forehead after church. In
light of this scripture, do I rub it off or do I keep it to remind others of
the importance of this day? Sometimes I
rub it off and keep my focus of prayer and fasting secret from others. On the other hand, sometimes I keep the
smudged ashes to remind myself and it puts a question into the minds of others
so I can tell them why this focus on Christ for 40 days is so important to me. Whether or not I have palm ashes on my
forehead, I always remember the attitude change that Jesus is commanding his
disciples to follow. Jesus effectively
says, “Do not be superior to others, but love God and other people with
humility and kindness.”
This Lenten
season is all about sharpening our Focus, increasing our Passion for Christ’s
Way of Life, and using our Disciplines to keep us on the path of grace. LIFT Ministries has these three words as their
motto, and I am using them this Lenten season as tools for Christian growth. Fasting, prayer, and giving to the poor help
sharpen my focus, increase my passion for Christ, and are good disciplines to
use.
A word about
fasting: Fasting is usually about food, abstaining for a meal in order to
sharpen your focus on God. If you choose
to fast from food, please consult your doctor before doing so. However, fasting can be choosing to abstain
from anything that distracts us from our love for God and others: television,
computers, movies, cell phones, poor relationships, compulsive shopping,
etc… Fasting connected with prayer are
excellent tools to sharpen your focus on God, and I recommend it over this
Lenten season as disciplines to explore.
May God grow us in our faith this Lenten Season.
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
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February 18 Luke
9:22-25
Letting Go
Luke 9:23
states if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross.
This passage
means to me self sacrifice in order to serve others. In the words of my paternal grandmother, a
lifelong Methodist, “Always put the other person first.” She was the salt of the earth from a small
farm town in Iowa. She was a long time
Psych-Tec at Norwalk state Hospital. The
mother of four children.
For me, self
denial means working while in pain as a food service worker at the V.A. Medical
Center, Loma Linda, due to short staffing.
Reaching out to show Christ and love to others who are hostile towards
me. I feel more productive at the V.A.
than working towards a high prestigious position as a Draftsman at the Pacific
Missile Test Center at Point Mugu.
Serving the sick is one of the main whys I know of serving Christ.
Leonard
Goldman
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February 19 Isaiah
58:1-9
Give
It Up
Fasting is something
we know about but it may not be something we discuss often. Yet, there are times we struggle in our walk
with Christ and need another perspective.
When we seek God’s help and look to Him for direction, we are reminded
in this text to seek in a way that is genuine.
After all, God knows us better than we know ourselves and as such, knows
if we really intend to follow His directions.
So, when we seek His help, are we satisfying the moment or do our
lifestyles demonstrate a lifelong pursuit for justice? Are we ready to offer help to the poor? Does someone else suffer because we “have it
together” at their expense?
We are reminded
that if we seek God’s way of life, He will in turn bless our lives. In other words, God must be first, as in
loving Him with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our
strength. In fasting, we setting aside
our physical needs, within reason, in order to allow our spiritual needs to be
more richly fulfilled. Think of it as a
feast for our souls.
Bert
Roark (taken from Lenten book 2009)
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February 20 Luke 5:27-32 (NIV)
The Calling of Levi (Matthew)
27After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector
by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.
"Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28and Levi got up,
left everything and followed him.
29Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his
house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
30But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged
to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with
tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
31Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. 32I
have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he called Levi to follow
him. He chose a tax collector, someone
that he knew would be despised by the Pharisees. Then when he was confronted, Jesus' example
made it very clear to them: someone who is healthy does not need a doctor. This man is a sinner, and he is one who needs
the ultimate physician for his healing.
The Pharisees did not see that their 'religion' was not intended for
those who needed the greatest care.
They, in fact, neglected the people who needed the greatest care.
When you think of yourself and where you are spiritually, do you
support or neglect people who need the greatest care? Are you in need of spiritual care? Remember, Jesus came to call sinners, not
those who are righteous. Have you taken
the time to accept the mercy and kindness of Jesus? Now is the time.
"Lord
Jesus, our Savior, let us now come to you: Our hearts are cold; Lord, warm them
with your selfless love. Our hearts are
sinful; cleanse them with your precious blood. Our hearts are weak; strengthen them with your
joyous Spirit. Our hearts are empty;
fill them with your divine presence. Lord Jesus, our hearts are yours; possess them
always and only for yourself." (Prayer
of Augustine, 354-430)
Jackie Hoskins
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February
21 Romans
10:8-13
Listen
Jesus speaks the truth in our hearts. Let us respond to it in word and deed.
Listen! Do you hear them? Way off in the distance, do you hear? Listen!
The hammers, do you hear them? Do
you hear the hammers upon the nails? The
nails piercing the wood, piercing the flesh?
Listen!
I am writing this during Advent, waiting for the coming of a baby, a
very special baby, the Savior of the world.
The excitement of waiting, the anticipation of birth. So why the distant, far-off sound of hammers,
of nails being pounded into wood?
This is a time of expectation, but along with the expectation, the joy
of birth, comes the sound of the hammers.
To be sure, the sound is very, very faint. Faint enough to make you question the sound. To wonder if you are just imagining it. But yes, as become quieter, as you listen
more intently, you can hear the hammers, and then the voices. Voices raised in derision and scorn. Words of contempt and ridicule. What is that they are saying? You can barely make out the words. But listen!
I know now what they are saying – “Crucify! Crucify!” But why? Why crucify?
That must be the reason for the sound of the hammers. The sound seems to be louder now. That baby that was anticipated was born and
received with joy. He has grown to
manhood and now they want to crucify him. Why?
Who is this baby, who is this man who is about to be crucified? Listen to his story, listen to his words, for
his words are Spirit and they are Truth.
Yes, it is appropriate to think about the Lenten season during
Advent. For without the cradle, we
wouldn’t have the cross, and without the cross, we wouldn’t have
Christmas. So with the joy of Christmas
comes the cross so that we might say with the centurion who stood at the foot
of the cross, “Truly this is the Son of God!”
Listen – listen to the story, come to the foot of the cross and be
ready for Easter. . . Listen!
Barbara Graham
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February
22 Matthew
16:13-19
With Experience
God reveals
Himself in relationship, not in duty or rumor
“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.” Jesus
replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you
by man, but by my Father in heaven. And
I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of Hades will not overcome it. I
will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven.”
I chose this particular devotion to write
because I liked the contrast between relationship and duty or honor in the
topic description. I had had the card
for a few weeks before getting around to actually writing my devotion. I knew that I needed to write it this morning
when The Upper Room devotional had this same scripture for the reading. The author of The Upper Room meditation
focused on the importance of each of us deciding for our selves who Christ is
rather than relying on what other people say.
While there is nothing wrong with listening
to other Christians; as we grow and mature in our faith we all come to a point
where we have to make decisions for ourselves about what we believe. It is easy, perhaps especially for long time
Christians or leaders in the church, to allow our faith to become routine. Weekly worship, Sunday school, Bible study,
committee work, or even service activities may become more of a duty. But others are not drawn to learn more about
what we have and we do not continue to grow in faith when our participation is
based on a sense of duty.
God sent his son to earth to draw us into
relationship. When our faith is not
based on rumors of what Jesus is like, or a sense of duty to God, but rather
based on personal relationship with the Lord then it is strong and
dynamic. Just as being in a relationship
with others changes the depth of you interaction, so relationship with Christ
helps our faith continue to grow.
Prayer: Lord
we thank you for loving us so much that you continue to pursue relationships
with us all. Help us to make an effort
to keep up our end of the relationship with You and to reach out in
relationship to others. Amen.
Kristin Wintergerst
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February
23 Matthew
6:7-15
The Spirit
Speaks
When I read
the title, “The Spirit Speaks”, I thought the verse would be the one from
Romans: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but
the Sprit himself intercedes for us; with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind
of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with
God’s will” (Romans 8:26-27). I thought
I could write on this, because I frequently have the experience of not knowing
what to pray for in words.
But, the verse
turned out to be words that are very familiar, the “Lord’s Prayer” that we say
every Sunday and sometimes more often.
As given in Matthew, it’s part of the Sermon on the Mount, that was
spoken to crowds. The surrounding
context has much on the theme of doing good in secret. “Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:4b)
When the
Lord’s Prayer appears in Luke, it’s just after Jesus finished his prayer
time. He’s been by Himself, with only
the disciples near by. One of disciples
says to Him “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke
11:1b).
Prayer is one
of the hardest disciplines for me. My
mind wanders. To help with that, some
time ago, when we were living in Forest Falls, I got a book “Lord, Teach Me to
Pray in 28 Days.” I went through it with
a friend of mine, as prayer partners. We
weren’t as consistent as doing a chapter a day, but we did complete it within a
couple months. Occasionally, I think
about going through it again, but it seemed to have disappeared. Until today (the day this devotion was due),
when it showed up with some other books I’d put in a bag near my bed.
The author,
Kay Arthur, says the Lord’s prayer was intended as a model of what topics to
include in our own prayers. The first
lines “Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name” says to begin prayer
by remembering the presence of God. When
Jesus did this, he separated Himself from others, to have a time between just
Him and His Father, often in a garden-like setting. When I did this today, before writing this
devotion, I took a walk in the sunshine, that reminded me other scripture says
“God is Light”. He’s as around us as Sun
Light, whether we’re aware of it or not.
Sometimes we need to separate ourselves to get in the light and remember
that. That’s all I have to say for
now. The “Teach Me to Pray” book has one
lesson per day. I’ll only pray for now
that I’ll be more consistent this time than the last.
Respectfully
submitted,
Janice
Moody.
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February
24 Psalm 51
A Clean
Heart
Psalms 51:1-19 ( NRSV ) 1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your
abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3For
I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4Against
you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you
are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5Indeed, I was born guilty, a
sinner when my mother conceived me. 6
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my
secret heart. 7Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness; let
the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and
blot out all my iniquities. 10Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11Do not cast me away from your
presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your
salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. 13Then I will teach transgressors
your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 15O Lord, open my lips, and my
mouth will declare your praise. 16For
you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would
not be pleased. 17The
sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O
God, you will not despise. 18Do
good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 19then
you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt
offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
This scripture is the key Lenten scripture of the
entire season for me. “Create in me a clean heart, O God” is one of my favorite
scriptures in the Bible because I pray that prayer many times … especially over
Lent. The LIFT ministries logo has
“Focus, Passion, Discipline” as the key words of their ministry. Those are the three words I use in my Lenten
prayers to God, “Give me focus to achieve your calling in my life, give me the
passion to see it through, and the discipline to use the tools you have given
me.”
The Psalm obviously comes from King David and his
confession of killing the husband of a woman he wanted to marry. This was the turning point in David’s entire
reign of Israel … for the consequences of murder and adultery are severe. His focus was taken off God, his passion for
women consumed him, and he left his discipline behind. Yet, this Psalm also reflects David’s greatest
triumph, because he actually cared about his relationship with God, and felt
that God would forgive his sin and restore his focus, true passion, and
discipline.
Notice that this is about focusing on a journey with
God, passion for God alone, and discipline as the vehicle to get you to your
destination. David took another path away from God, and in this prayer, asked
to be brought back to the road. This
prayer is not about sinning, asking forgiveness, sinning, asking forgiveness,
and sinning again. I pray that you will
focus on God today as you meditate on this scripture, increase your passion for
Christ’s Way of life, and use the disciplines of prayer, study, worship,
accountability, and works of love to bring you closer to Christ.
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
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February 25 Matthew
7: 7-12
OUR MODEL
Ask-- It'll be
given to you; seek-- You'll find; knock-- It'll be opened to you.
Very
encouraging. Wise advice, as anyone can
see. A positive attitude goes a long way
toward your getting what you want. Of
course the worlds says, yes, as much as you can, if you deserve it, if you're
willing to pay the price-- and if you're lucky.
Besides, you're sure to get something, if not everything.
Then the
speaker goes way out on a limb, saying, Rest assured: everyone who asks
receives; everyone who seeks finds; and for the one who knocks it is
opened. Is this going too far? Has Jesus exaggerated? Who is this who never turns us down? Dare we take him seriously?
Are we to be
taken seriously? Does sincerity
matter? Does it depend on who he
is? Or what we ask for? Or whether he chooses to respond in exactly
the way expected? Can we trust him? How long?
How far?
Israel had
long assumed that we get what we deserve, and we deserve what we get. Prosperity was evidence of God's favor, and
suffering was evidence of God's displeasure over our sin? At least that's what the friends of Job
thought.
Those who turn
to God as if He were a vending machine, where one pays the designated price,
makes the selection, pulls the knob, and receives the goodie in the long run
must face the fact they're not in charge after all, for God doesn't work that
way. Nor does the scripture above--
unless taken out of context, suggest that He does. What in our experience approaches the
relationship presupposed here?
Then come two
rhetorical questions based on parent-child interaction. Is there anyone among you who, if your
child asks for bread, will give a stone?
Flat stones resemble flat bread.
Or if the child asks for fish, will give a snake? Little fish resemble little snakes. Of course not! The parent child relationship goes beyond
superficial appearances to dependable substance. If even less than ideal parents do at least
that much, How much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to
those who ask him!
And just as we
know better than to ask for a shotgun from an earthly father, just because he
cares, we're not surprised when he places in our hands something good for us
and those about us, not what we thought we ought to want. Jesus sums it up:
In everything
do to others, as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the
prophets. We call this
the "golden rule;" one form or another of it may be found within all
the world's religions -- or in secular terms, the rule of reciprocity.
What is not so
clearly understood is that we are called upon to Love our neighbors as
ourselves, the neighbor broadly defined as "anyone in need."
Moreover, to "love as we love ourselves." requires that we "love
ourselves." But surely selfishness is not self-love. He provides further guidance: Love one
another as He has loved you.
How much has
God loved us? He presented us with his
son. His son in turn followed through in
dying for you and for me. Hear the words
of Jesus (John 15: 13, 14) Greater love hath no man but this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends. You are
my friends if you do whatever I command you. Let this be the touchstone for all our giving
and receiving.
Don Miller
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February
26 Matthew 5: 20-26 and Micah 6: 6-8
WHAT
DOES HE ASK OF US?
On the human level, how often we've asked,
"What do you want from me?"
You've asked it. It has been
asked of you. Think of a relationship
which is important to you. Suppose the
other person had asked you, "What do you want from me?" How would you answer? Would you ask the other person, if you
thought you already knew the answer?
So why raise the question? To center your attention on your own personal
relationship with God. Do you seek out a
quiet place to pray? When you do, ask
the Lord, "What do you want from me?"
And then wait for an answer.
Sooner or later it will come.
Most readers have an ongoing relationship
with God. If you've joined the church,
you've already decided that walking with others is better than walking alone,
for you are part of a faith community and we are in this together. Together we live within a larger world, and
we all, for good or ill, have an effect on each other.
More than 500 years before Christ, the
prophetic age was drawing to a close in Israel, because of the difficulty the
Hebrews had in distinguishing between true prophets and false ones. From a practical point of view the
distinction depended on hindsight. Death
marked the close of a prophet's career. With
output finished, events shortly vindicated the prophetic word, or not; but if
the supposed prophet were still alive, and new futures were added to old
futures, how can anyone know who's who?
Jesus charged the nation's leadership with acting as if the only good
prophet were a dead one, who could worry them no longer. Not easy being a Hebrew prophet. Micah is a prophet we hear today, for his
word speaks to us too. We imagine a
courtroom, where the Lord is the plaintiff and the covenant people are
defendants. The jury is the personified
mountains and the foundation of the earth, for all creation is involved. The prophet speaks for God, who is deeply
offended. He asks the people he'd
chosen, "What have I done to you, that you treat me like this?" Then he reminds them that He delivered them
from slavery, called forth Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead them. He refers to specific incidents, which
brought them into the land of promise.
Now he turns the spotlight on their ritual
sacrifices. Whatever gave them the idea
this was what God wanted from them?
Moderns find it incredible that early religions all over the world have
taken for granted that sacrifice pleases God.
We understand offering food for festive occasions, even supporting a
priesthood, or a monarch, but God has no such need.
Primitive man imagined the immediate world
about him entirely in the hands of the gods, or of God. When disaster struck, whether fire, flood,
plague or other nations, it seemed obvious that God was angry with them and had
punished their disobedience. Sacrifice
offered an avenue toward setting matters straight, so they made a concerted
effort to please him. When the tide once
again turned in their favor, this showed that the sacrifices they'd offered had
pleased the gods.
We no longer practice ritual sacrifice,
but beginners in faith often imagine a petulant God, subject to unpredictable
moods, prompting punishment in the form of a terrible personal catastrophe. Certainly battered children have known adults
like this. For them God would be like
that, only more so. Or in contrast
consider the child whom life has pampered.
Wouldn't God build life around him, just as his parents had? At either extreme --- and in between, one's
only hope of forestalling disaster or recovering lost control required their
satisfying the cosmic tyrant. Given
their terror, no price was too high.
Micah cites examples: "Burnt
offerings." Only the wealthy could
afford to offer calves a year old, or perhaps the king could present thousands
of rams, but who might offer ten thousand rivers of oil? The Hebrews have a word for ten thousand,
which is as large a number as any ordinary person could imagine. But it doesn't stop there: If desperate enough, one may submit "my
first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul." This disgusts us, as indeed
it should, but the history of religion is replete with the evidence of
practices more recent than those Micah decries.
Isolated pockets in the world today follow secret rituals. This was never the will of the Lord God of
Christ.
Prophets opposed the sacrificial system,
and so should we. "He has shown
humankind what is good," and it isn't shooting yourself in the foot, as
with ethnic cleansing. Here's what it
is: "To do justly." Everyone
favors that in principle, but it is quite another matter when we get down to
specifics. Look beyond the deed to what
prompts it, as hate is behind murder. If
he hates you, and you despise him, isn't it ludicrous to come to the altar
offering a gift First reconcile with
your brother, and then offer your gift with the commandment fulfilled in
advance. Don't we know than an ounce of
preventions is worth a pound of cure?
God sees, and everyone benefits, in contrast with continuing to nourish
a heart full of hate. This is doing
justly through the love of mercy, and this is what it means to humbly walk with
God.
Don Miller
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February 27 Deuteronomy 26:16-19 (NIV)
A Holy People
16 The LORD your God commands
you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all
your heart and with all your soul. 17
You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in
his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will
obey him. 18 And the LORD has
declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he
promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will
set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and
that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.
This passage
calls us to follow God's commands and do as he asks us to. God makes it very clear that they are to walk
in His ways and obey His commands, and then we will be a treasured possession,
in fact, His treasured possession. He
promises to give great blessings to those who follow Him. As followers of Christ, we must do as He asks
and follow His commands to be blessed by Him.
Jackie Hoskins
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February 28 Philippians
3:17---4:1
Look Up
Recently at
one of my volunteer jobs, I was introduced to a new employer. She was well educated, gung-ho and a
personable personality.
The
organization I was volunteering for was getting ready for a fund raiser
event. Out of the blue, the new employee
informed us she and her husband were atheists.
On the other
hand, is my friend Lisa (therapy dog trainer).
Lisa’s mother took her life when Lisa was six years old. When Lisa was a teenager, her father took his
life along with his four year old daughter (Lisa’s sister) with him. Lisa could have denounced God. She could have taken drugs or alcohol to numb
the pain. Lisa found comfort in caring
for animals and saw the blessings that come from this. She also comforts people in crises. I have seen how a group will open up to her
as she is talking about caring for these special pets. Lisa also uses this opportunity to have the
children hear Bible stories while engaging with the animals.
These are two
different models of living, one with faith and one without.
Linda
Smith
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March 1 Luke 6:36-38
A Bargain
36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Judging Others
37“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together
and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you.”
Should there be a limit to our mercy?
Being
merciful and generous, to an extreme, has always been a source of anxiety for me.
It is hard to know how much generosity
should be extended and when it crosses the line to being taken advantage of. It was said by Jesus that the poor will always
be with us, Matthew 26:11, therefore if the poor cannot be eliminated from the
earth and I do not have unlimited resources, at what point are we supposed to
say no? It does not make sense to me
that we should never say no, e.g. the alcoholic who needs a drink should not be
someone you give money to. Similarly, I
do not think we should share our resources to the point we can no longer take
care of ourselves.
Likewise
we are not to judge. However do we not
judge people when we determine whether or not they are someone we should
befriend or spend time together. Is this
type of judging ok? As a parent, judging
the children our kids want to spend time with is very important. Although we may not say they cannot spend time
with a particular friend we are unsure of, it would be wise to at least pay
more attention to what they are doing when with this particular friend. Is this how we are supposed to behave? I think Pastor Bill Johnson said it best when
he said “What would Jesus have me do”. We
do not have the understanding Jesus has therefore cannot act perfectly as Jesus
does but hopefully we can determine what Jesus’ will is for us and act
accordingly.
I
know there are no simple answers to any of these issues which is why they are
areas I struggle with. The good news is
we have a God who gives us free will and loves and cares for us. I honestly believe that although I may
struggle with these issues, God will forgive my incorrect choices. It would be easier if everything where black
and white but it would probably be a much more boring place if it were.
Art Leon
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March 2 Matthew 23 1-12
Rabbi
The passage for this devotion is Matthew 23:1-12. Jesus tells both his disciples and a crowd
that they are to obey the Pharisees because they represent the authority of the
time, but they should “not do what they do, for they do not practice what they
preach.” (23:3) Ouch—I don’t know about
you, but I have to confess that there have been times when I could be accused
of that very thing. Those of us who are
parents need to be especially warned by this statement of Jesus. We are watched carefully by our children as
they mature. Anyone else need to be
careful to “practice what you preach?”
Jesus goes on to talk about the Pharisees’ motives for their
actions. “Everything they do is done for
men to see.” (23:5) We are called to act
as Christians not so we can receive accolades from others, but simply because
as followers of Christ we are doing what is right. Have you ever found yourself thinking—or even
saying—“Why didn’t I get credit for what I did?” When we find ourselves seeking credit we need
to rethink why we’re doing something.
Christ’s final statement from today’s reading says it all. “The greatest among you will be your
servant. For whoever exalts himself will
be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (23:11-12) True humility doesn’t come easy to me, but I
do want to follow Christ’s call to be a servant. How about you? Can we join in at least attempting to live up
to Christ’s call this Lenten season?
May God bless our efforts to be humble servants of Jesus Christ.
Bob Denham
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March 3 Matthew
20: 17-28
Divine
Sacrifice
17Now
as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said
to them, 18"We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man
will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19and
will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to
life!"
20Then
the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down,
asked a favor of him.
21"What
is it you want?" he asked.
She
said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and
the other at your left in your kingdom."
22"You
don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to
drink?" "We can," they
answered.
23Jesus
said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right
or left is not for me to grant. These
places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."
24When
the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25Jesus
called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among
you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — 28just
as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many."
The purpose of Jesus' life seems so clear
in this passage. We see it twice - once
in the beginning where he explains to the disciples what is going to happen in
Jerusalem and once again at the end when he talks about giving his life. I don't know if the disciples got it (probably
not until after his death and resurrection), but I know it is a disturbing
mission for me to focus on.
I love to discuss the power of Jesus, the
grace he offers, and the support he brings. I often use his focus of bringing in the
outcasts and forgiving the sins of others. These topics fit well into my neat life of
teaching and parenting. The part I
struggle with is the fact that Jesus came specifically to give his life. It is hard for me to watch a service like Ash
Wednesday where Christians focus on the death of Christ - I would much rather
skip to the resurrection and celebrate. But
is Christ's willingness to serve, to give his life that needs to be the focus
now. While I may not often ask a question
like the mother in this passage, I do struggle with how much I am asked to
serve. Choosing to be a servant is not
easy, and there are days when I can't do what Christ asks of me. I choose instead to focus on my needs, or on
the easy way to share what I have. When
I'm convicted about my inability to be the least I find that it breaks me down,
and I often go a different path and find a different answer. Obviously God has a plan that comes to
fruition when I give up what I want for my life and offer it instead to Him.
I don't think I have to die for my
servant-hood (thank God); but when I allow the cluster ministry to be an
important part of my week or I say yes to helping extra time on a committee I
know that God is accepting that action as my offering to him. I am grateful to have the hard choices as
well as the joy and grace of Jesus. Becoming
a stronger servant of God allows all of us to celebrate even more on Easter
morning!
Heather Leon
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March
4 Luke
16:19-31
Charity
May
we share what we have with the poor and hungry, the sick and lonely.
Most of us have heard the story of Lazarus
and the rich man. But we tend to jump
right to the part about the rich man’s death and incarceration in hell. Is Jesus telling us that the rich are
destined to an eternity of suffering because they had riches and comforts in
life? Certainly there are several other
parables in the old and new testaments about the pitfalls of wealth, including “Indeed, it is
easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God." (Luke 18:25).
But let’s look carefully at verses 19-21 for some clues.
The rich man lived in affluent
luxury . . . Lazarus longed only to eat droppings from under the table. But it seems that he did not even have that
option, and his only company was the street dogs who licked at the oozing sores
on his body. I can imagine that the
servants hustled him away from the doorway (and not too gently either) any time
the rich man was going outside. Not one
person in the whole household had any compassion for the poor wretch who wasted
away inches away from their opulence!
What is the lesson here?
Those who have much are held accountable for the use of their
wealth! It is not sinful to have
riches! The real question is “How do you
use the wealth you have been given?” In
Sermon 50, The Use of Money, John Wesley said “1. We
ought to gain all we can gain but this it is certain we ought not to do; we
ought not to gain money at the expense of life, nor at the expense of our
health. 2. Do not throw the precious
talent into the sea. 3. Having, first,
gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, Then "give all you
can." Wesley counseled against extravagant, wasteful living, and he expected
Christians to use their personal talents and their wealth to meet the needs of
the community and the world.
Who
are the Lazarus people in your life this Lenten season? How can you minister to them in their
physical, spiritual or relationship poverty and need?
“'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40
Blessings,
Alan Graham
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March 5 Genesis
37:3-4, 12-28
Strength Under Adversity
Joseph
had a serious problem! One of the
youngest children of Jacob, he probably had the biggest mouth! His 10 older brothers called him “the
dreamer” because he kept telling them about his dreams; dreams that seemed to
say that they would be bowing down before him – as would Mom and Pop! To top it off, he was one of Dad’s favorites,
the eldest son of his favorite wife, Rachael (and he had a fancy cloak of
multicolored cloth to prove his status), while they were the sons of despised
Leah or maidservants (and they only had drab, home spun cloaks!). He was quick to run to Dad to tell him about
their misdeeds in the fields, and they were just sick and tired of having him
in their face all of the time. So, when
he showed up in the fields that fateful day, they decided to take care of him
for good!
Stripped
of his cloak and thrown into a pit, the brothers sold him to traders in a
traveling camel caravan. Joseph ended up
as a slave in an Egyptian official’s household.
Under the yoke of slavery, he finally gained control of his mouth and
his actions, and was a very successful manager for his master. He fought temptations of the flesh, and ended
up in prison for refusing the advances of his master’s wife. Left there with no advocate or possibility of
justice, he transitioned from being a “dreamer” to being an interpreter of
dreams. The jailed Pharaoh’s wine
steward, one of the beneficiaries of his jail house dream interpretations,
promised to him get released after he got back to the Pharaoh’s household. But time passed, and he was apparently
forgotten. It wasn’t until Pharaoh
himself had strange dreams that his interpreters could not unravel that the
wine steward remembered Joseph. The rest
of the story? Joseph rose to the highest
levels of Egyptian leadership, second only to Pharaoh! And indeed, his brothers ended up bowing
before him (not knowing who he was) when they came seeking food in a time of
great famine.
What
does all of this have to do with Lent?
Perhaps it is because it provides a faint foreshadowing of the things
that were to happen to Jesus. Betrayed
by a friend, he was imprisoned under false accusations. He was beaten and stripped of his clothing. Yet he did not raise his voice or strike out
against his accusers, and he suffered his unjust punishment without raising his
voice or his fists in anger. And the
story of Easter tells us that Jesus did overcome all adversity and has been
restored to full dominion over all, seated next to the Father on a throne in heaven. And eventually, “every knee will bow” before
him in recognition of who he was, is and will be forever.
Blessings,
Alan Graham
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March
6 Luke 15:1-3 & 11-32
Come Home
Much distracts
us from following God, but the lost may always return.
Many of us don't
know these verses off the top of our head, but once we start to read it we know
the story of the prodigal Son. I picked
this one not knowing what the verse was, when I started to read it I laughed,
for two reasons one because this story fits me to a tee, although my family was
not a religious one. My grandma
instilled God in me and I went to a Christian School from the 1st grade through
the 7th grade. But through Jr. High and
High school I strayed and was lost. It
wasn't until I was in my 30's did I come home to Jesus, it was because he sent
me an Angel that I ended up Marrying and I love very much to this day.
Michael
Fulton
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March 7 Luke
13:1-9
Gardening
Whenever I address the passages I have
been chosen to write about for Lent or Advent, I am often amazed on what they
mean to me. At first glance Luke 13:1-9 seems
all about “repentance”; however as one keeps on reading, you discover it is
about “MERCY” towards yourself and all of God’s children. I am reminded how utterly easy it is for one
to point at others and their sins. We
must work at understanding mercy is for all, not just me and mine.
Luke
13:1-9 (New International Version)
Repent or Perish
1Now there were some present at
that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with
their sacrifices. 2Jesus
answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all
the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
4Or those eighteen who died
when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than
all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I
tell you, no! But unless you repent, you
too will all perish."
6Then he told this parable:
"A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for
fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So
he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've
been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'
8" 'Sir,' the man replied,
'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine!
If not, then cut it down.' "
Conclusion
Written by Dr. William Long
The goal of the call to
discipleship is the bearing of fruit, fruit that abides. By couching the discussion in terms of
strict justice, the hearers not only would miss their own responsibility for
repentance, but they would be deaf to the startling mercy of God. By reframing their question, Jesus brings us
to the heart of God--a God who will judge, make no mistake about it, but one
who is persuaded to grant a little more time. Don't presume on the kindness; embrace the
mercy; wonder about the justice, but don't let it be an excuse for failing to
change our own hearts and embrace the surprising mercy of God.
Gerald Moody
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March 8 2
Kings 5:1-15
This Simple Thing
“Naaman was a highly
regarded man in the army, but he had leprosy.
At the suggestion of a captive Israelite girl, he went to the prophet
Elisha who told him through a messenger to dip seven times in the Jordan
River.]
But Naaman went away angry and said, “I
thought that the prophet would surely come out to me and stand and call on the
name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my
leprosy. Are not … the rivers of
Damascus better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in any of them and be
cleansed?” So he turned and went off in
a rage.
Naaman’s servants went to him and said,
“My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not
have done it? How much more, then, when
he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”
So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the
man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that
of a young boy.” 2
Kings 5:11-14
Naaman was a commander of a great
army—they often beat Israel in battle.
Yet here he was being brought low by a dreaded skin disease, having to
accept advice from an Israelite servant girl (v. 2-3), then being told by the
Israelite prophet to wash in a no-account river, and finally being reproached
by his other servants for refusing to do this simple thing. Naaman’s healing came ONLY after he humbled
himself before the Lord and dipped—not once but seven times—in that filthy
river.
I remember all too well what it took for
me to believe that God was more than an intellectual concept. It was the middle of the night, outside of
Macchu Piichu in the Andes Mountains, and our 5 year-old son was screaming in
pain from an earache and fever of 105 degrees.
I had tried everything in my power to ease his pain, but to no avail. Finally my child reminded me that people in a
book we had read had prayed and fasted to heal their child, and that if I would
do that, he would get well. I had never
prayed aloud, I had never kneeled to talk to God, and I was totally out of my
comfort zone! Because there was nothing
else I could do, and because my precious child believed that there really was a
God who would respond, I followed his simple 5 year-old directions based on his
memory of the picture in that book. I
knelt, I prayed (the shortest prayer on record!), and …when I opened my eyes,
my son was sound asleep and blessedly cool.
He was healed!
Such a simple thing—kneel and pray—but it
was not something I would have done on my own.
Jesus knows that the world is filled with stubborn, self-sufficient
people like Naaman and Stephanie. We
can’t heal ourselves—our sins and mistakes are beyond our powers to rectify. We
simply have to accept what Jesus has already done for us on the cross. Kneel … and pray … and accept God’s mercy
that comes instantly!
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus! You never intended for salvation to be as
complicated as I have made it. You have
done the hard part. All I have to do is
believe that You are the son of God and accept your magnificent gift of
forgiveness and grace. Thank you, so
much! Amen.
Stephanie Denham
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March 9 Matthew 18:21-35
Each and
Every Time
Parents, have you ever heard your little
one cry, “It's not fair?”
I know you have, and then you remembered how, when you were children,
you too, expected mom and dad to be fair. The upturned face implores, surely you
can do that much. Not so easy,
is it? Is it too much to ask that God be
fair? Whatever else God is, God is just.
That whatever else is part
of the problem, and the solution may be no easier for God than it is for
us. The book of Job asks is the
good God fair? The prologue puts
Job on trial, but somehow God becomes the real defendant. The more Job suffers the worse God
looks. Why? With Job and his friends, we suppose God can
do anything God wants to do. Can any
problem be too hard for God?
The friends of Job believed that the God
who makes everything happen gives us what we deserve. If Job were prosperous, he deserved
prosperity. Now that he is sorely afflicted, this is what he deserves. Doesn't the Hebrew scripture say that the
good prosper and the wicked suffer? So
the friends of Job blind themselves to the evidence of their own experience
that the wicked also prosper and the good also suffer. Has God been unfair all along and no one
noticed?
God himself declared Job good, and capable
of enduring afflictions. When put to the
test, God's confidence in Job would be vindicated. But the way the friends of Job read the
evidence, Job's behavior proved quite the opposite. They found Job deserving of his fate, and
pushed him to repent, so everything could return to normal. When Job balked, they concluded he's guilty
as charged. It never occurred to them
that one day they may suffer as Job has.
When at last God speaks through the
whirlwind, he ignores Job's 'wild accusations' against him. Rather he points to the wonders of creation
and asks, Can you do as much? Does
God mock Job? Certainly not. God cites the divine work in progress, and
treats Job as a member of the team. God
and Job are at peace with one another, though it has been a 'trying' experience
for both.
Job's friends drew the 'obvious'
conclusion, without all the facts before them. Nor did Job himself realize he was being
tested, yet he got what he wanted most of all, God's acceptance. Job's friends acted like oppressors, simply
because of their bad theology? No, because
they lacked compassion. If God were just
and fair, beyond all else, what hope have we?
Advent celebrates God's fulfilling our hope.
More than fair, God is merciful. Peter asks: 'Lord, how many times shall
my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
Until seven times? Jesus said to
him, 'Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.' (NRSV). Jesus' answer affirmed the principle that we
must be ever willing to forgive, no matter how often we've been offended. The Lord's Prayer concludes with the point
that If we forgive not men their trespasses, how shall our heavenly
father forgive us? If God has
been gracious with us, can we do less for others? This is why God's rule should be
compared to a secular ruler who decided to settle accounts with his
slaves.
The slaves here have been given awesome
responsibility, like Joseph had under the Egyptian pharaoh. Unlike the pharaoh, the ruler or land owner,
made the slaves personally responsible for a certain definite amount. When an unexpected accounting took place,
there was a possibility a shortage would be found. When the process began, this debtor was
brought to him who owed him ten million dollars, since he couldn't pay it back.
Probably they anticipated a shortage and
had the slave wait in prison. That's
where he'd be brought from. The amount
is incredibly high, greater than the total debt of several small nations. How he came to owe such a large sum is not
explained. The point seems to be there
is no hope of repayment. The comment,
"since he couldn't pay it back" was so absurd, it would surely strike
the listeners as humorous, till we come to this the ruler ordered him
sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, so that he could
recover his money.
Again, the absurdity would strike
listeners as humorous, were it not so tragic. All that the secular ruler could hope to raise
by this drastic method wouldn't make a dent in the debt. At this prospect the slave fell down and
groveled before him: 'Be patient ..., and I'll repay every cent. Under the pressure of the moment, the
slave may have meant this, but sober reflection shows that it would be utterly
impossible. The humor has become grim. Then comes the miracle. Because he was compassionate, the master of
the slave let him go and canceled the debt.
He was not returned to prison. As
soon as he got out, that same fellow collared one of his fellow slaves who owed
him a hundred dollars, and grabbed him by the neck and demanded: 'Pay back what
you owe!' His fellow slave fell down and
begged him: 'Be patient with me and I'll pay it all back.' This was word for word reminiscent of
what the first slave had said, but unlike that situation, the debt here was so
small that if the creditor were patient, he could collect every cent.
But he wasn't interested; instead, he went
out and threw him in prison until he paid the debt. Listeners
could hardly believe their ears that anyone could be so cold and merciless,
especially after having himself benefitted from the enormous compassion of his
creditor. One who received such great
compassion had not even a tiny amount available for a fellow slave. The more the slaves thought about it the
angrier they got. So it's no wonder that
when his fellow slaves realized what had happened, they were terribly
distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had taken
place. They knew what would
happen, and we sense their glee at seeing that the scoundrel got what he deserved.
Justice came swiftly. Let's listen in:
At that point the master summoned him:
'You wicked slave,' he says to him, 'I canceled your entire debt because you
begged me. Wasn't it only fair for you to treat your fellow slave with the same
consideration as I treated you? And the
master was so angry he handed him over to those in charge of punishment until
he paid back everything he owed. That level of payback requires more than a
lifetime, and that may be the point. The
storyteller's concern goes beyond this life. That's what my heavenly Father will do
to you, unless you find it in your heart to forgive each one of your brothers
and sisters.
The forgiveness must come from the heart. It must be freely given without reservation,
for that's the kind of forgiveness the grace of God has granted us when we
repented of sin far greater than the single hurt, painful as this may have
been, that someone inflicted on us. Grudges
which separate us have no place under the kingdom of God. If the Lord cancels our debt for us, should
he not expect us to do likewise for others? If we harden our hearts, what hope have we? Yet the grace of God is so vast, that even at
the last moment --- if we are fortunate enough, like the thief on the cross to
recognize it as the last moment, the Lord still has compassion on us repentant
sinners, and will cancel the whole debt.
As our Lord is, so must we be more than fair, we must be merciful, or
it's all for nothing. That's His
message.
Don Miller
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March
10 Matthew
5:17-19
He is Timeless
“In the beginning was the word, and
the word was with God, and the word was God.” John 1:1
“Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets. I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
Matthew 5:17
“Love beyond
love” was a phrase that Pastor Glenn used in a sermon several weeks ago, and it
has stuck with me ever since – “love beyond love.” For me, that was a powerful statement. As I contemplated the scripture for today, I
felt that when Jesus said, “I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill the
law” that he was saying “I have come to give you love beyond love.”
The Jews had been looking for their Messiah for
centuries, and here he was in the flesh.
But they did not see him for what he was, love incarnate, and their
savior-redeemer. Some accused him of
ignoring the law. Some just thought he
was arrogant, and others thought he was a liar.
But most didn’t know what to think – what to believe about this
Jesus.
The Jewish religious leaders were afraid of him, so
they accused him of trying to change their religious laws and to do away with
the commandments of God. But Jesus told
them he had not come to abolish, but to fulfill God’s law. He emphasized the importance of God’s word;
not one small letter or pen stroke will disappear from the law.
Jesus came to show us how much God loves us – with a
“love beyond love”; not by doing away with the law but by fulfilling the
law. By taking that love to the cross on
a hill, Jesus showed all of creation what real love is. It is not avoiding or throwing away things we
don’t like or are too hard for us, but knowing and doing all that God’s word
tells us to do. By introducing Jesus,
God’s perfection of “love beyond love” to others, we show God’s “love beyond
love”, perhaps “in a mirror darkly” (I Cor 13:12), but through that
introduction God’s blessing continues to flow over the face of creation to
bless that which he declared “Good.”
My prayer for today is that we would love with the
same kind of love God gave to us. The
same love led Christ to the cross; not because men put him on the cross, but
because he willing allowed himself to become the sacrifice for sin. With a “love beyond love”, he gave up his
life for us that we might live a life of love in him. I pray that we all would walk in the light
and knowledge of that love – today and always.
Thank you, Lord, for loving
me with your “love beyond love.”
Barbara
Graham
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March
11 Luke 11:14-23
More Powerful
Be not afraid the
Lord who casts away demons is our strength.
When I read this verse it reminds me of a day when I was afraid to say
No. The problem was what I was afraid to
say no to. I was scared that if I said no to peer pressure I would be rejected,
so I said Yes to all the wrong things and I felt like I was missing something. No matter what I did or tried or how many
"Friends" I had around me I felt alone and weak.
Now that I have allowed Jesus in my life, heart and soul I now know
what I was missing. I no longer feel
alone even when times are hard and things seem dark. Jesus is with me. He is My Strength and my Power. I will Never live without.
Michael Fulton
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March 12 Mark 12: 28-34
Priceless
This incident reported in the 12th chapter of Mark follows a discussion
between Jesus and his opponents on the resurrection. A certain lawyer was impressed, ready to
recognize Jesus as an authority. The
lawyer asked "What is the greatest commandment?" Jesus did not list the Ten Commandments, but
summed them up in two. The first had to
do with loving God, and the second is very striking. The KJV has "is like unto it," while
another translation in today's speech declares "The second is the same
thing," to love one's neighbor as oneself He already, it seems, knew the
answer, and on Jesus' request he was able to quote it." The lawyer did not hesitate to allow himself
to be identified with Jesus, but repeated those same words. Jesus said, Thou art not far from the kingdom
of God.
In the Gospel of Luke the same incident introduces the parable of the
Good Samaritan, giving another example of one who also was not far, because he
had compassion for the victim, in contrast to those who passed by on the other
side.
In contrast there was a rich, young ruler who came running to Jesus
asking, what must I do to inherit eternal life? As above, he referred them to the
law. Please notice that the thrust of
Jesus' interaction had to do with showing love to the loveless. The rich young rule balked at that. I don't think it was so much that he didn't
want to give up his goods, but that he didn't want to give of himself to the undeserving. He ended up worse off than he was before,
because he made the deliberate decision to withhold himself from those in need,
adding to the suffering of the Christ who died for all. The theme is the same, the sequence varies,
but the basic points remain.
See what Jesus did not do. He
did not encourage the rich young ruler's focusing upon himself personally, even
though that was uppermost in the minds of the disciples. He turned aside the polite, or was it
ingratiating? Address Good Master. There
is none good, but one, that is God. A
less intense person might've let this distract him, but the rich young ruler
pressed on: What good thing must I do to gain eternal life? He was in tune with the 8th century prophets,
like Micah and Hosea, who disdained ritual in favor of ethical behavior. Modern Christians may cringe at the reference
to good deeds, but Jesus saw him head and shoulders above most of his peers,
who were immersed in temple sacrifices.
If you would enter life, keep the commandments? The rich young ruler had expected Jesus to begin
there. Which? He
came back instantly. Jesus may have
thought, 'Another mark in his favor. The
man can prioritize, rather than sink out of sight with all 618 laws! So Jesus provided him with an abbreviated list
calculated to speak to his needs:
Don't murder, commit adultery, steal, or bear false witness. All these apply to visible externals, within
the easy reach of memory. The rich young
ruler would have no doubt he kept those. Next comes a positive, a good thing he should
do: Honor thy father and mother. This
is a commandment of mixed difficulty. My
parents made keeping it easy for me. I
suspect that was true of him too.
The last Jesus mentions is far sweeping, You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. Does the
pleasant feeling you have about your immediate neighbors let you off the hook
too soon? Jesus did not define the
neighbor by proximity, but in terms of need.
The Samaritan who showed mercy to the one who fell victim to thieves was
neighbor to him.
To love the neighbor as oneself takes for granted that one loves
oneself. When we don't like ourselves
very much, how can we give others what they need from us? Note that in Jesus' contact with the lawyer
he said that loving the neighbor is the same thing as loving God with all
our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
This is interesting. Jesus has
brought the commandments which refer to the relationship with God in through
the back door, as it were. The impact of
this list is to concentrate on the rich young ruler's relationship with his
fellow human beings. If the young man
was present for this, he took no exception, but pressed on.
All these I have kept from my youth up.
We must remember we're on Old Testament turf here. Unlike St. Paul and Martin Luther, they
believed one could actually keep the commandments. Restricting one's attention to externals made
it credible. The rich young ruler really
believed he had.
But he was not satisfied. Where
do I still fall short? This was the
moment of truth. Mark's gospel tells us,
Jesus looked straight at him; his heart warmed to him. Matthew has Jesus' reply If you wish to go the whole way, go, sell
your possessions, and give to the poor, and then you will have riches in
heaven; and come, follow me.' Mark
reflects the rich young rulers’ dismay: At these words his face fell and he
went away with a heavy heart. The
price tag for the priceless was too high.
Often he'd
been generous, but not with everything he had of course, Jesus was not thinking
in terms of how much he'd give, but to whom he'd make the enormous gift. I suspect Jesus was putting him to the test
as a candidate for discipleship. If he
was willing to let go of the past, mingle with the poor, and move about from
place to place as a disciple with Jesus such wealth would be an encumbrance and
an embarrassment. It would split the
group and drive away the poor who had been listening to Jesus gladly. A huge sacrifice and he couldn't make
it. No wonder the young man was so
disappointed. A priceless lifetime
opportunity and he missed it.
Don Miller
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March 13 Luke
18:9-14
Bowing
“To some who were confident of their own
righteousness and looked down on everybody else Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a
Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about
himself: god, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers,
adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I
get.
But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven, but
beat his breast and said,” God, have mercy on me, a sinner”
I tell you that this man, rather than the
other, went home justified before God. For
everyone who exalts he will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
I do not remember when I picked this
topic. But it perfectly fits the
experience I had during the first week of January. I had already shared this with two of our
church groups, but I think there is no harm to share with others.
On 30th December I came to know
about a famous preacher whom I known for a long time was visiting Loma Linda
from India. He was staying with a friend
of ours in Highland. He was scheduled to
give a sermon on January 1st sunrise service. This service was in my native language, Tamil.
The preacher was scheduled to stay until 6th of January. So the host family called me and asked me if
there is any way to organize a small short prayer meeting at my home sometime
before he leaves. I told him that my
house is a small house that does not have space for many people to assemble. But I assured him that I would find someone
who has a bigger home. I called my
friend in Corona who has a bigger home. She
agreed to have it in the evening on the first Sunday of the year. On Friday evening I called her and asked her
about the final arrangements so that I can call other friend to go to her home.
But what she told me was a shocker. On Friday she slipped and fell down at her
driveway and almost broke her back. She
was taken to hospital and released later in the evening. So she expressed her inability to host the
prayer meeting. I was very disappointed.
I called back my other friend and told
him that I could not organize the meeting because there wasn’t sufficient time.
So we decided to have it at his house in
Highland which is also a bigger house.
Because Mary and I knew the preacher very
well Mary suggested inviting him for a dinner. So I called him and arranged for a dinner. The problem was the only day he could be
available was on Sunday. The host family
then suggested having it on Sunday evening and that would be a small prayer
meeting too. I was thinking why it is
coming back to me again. Anyway I agreed
and we had the prayer meeting in my small living room. There were sixteen people for the prayer meeting
and God provided the space for everyone. I don’t know how. In the opening prayer tears shed down from my
eyes that I could not continue to finish the prayer.
I told everyone that my house was a small
house and it does not fit to hold a prayer meeting. While praying I realized that in God’s sight
nothing is impossible. In God’s sight
whatever we think small will become big. When I humbled myself to God, He raised me. When I told that my house is small, God did
not look at the worldly man made house, in stead, He looked at the heart. God did not come to this world in a big
mansion, but he chose to come in a manger.
As Jesus humbled himself to come to us, so
we must humbly approach our God. It is
my firm belief that we must always humble ourselves to God when we do serve
God. Then God will exalt us.
David
Nesamony
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March
14 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
The Best You Can Be
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a
new person. The old life is gone; a new
life has begun! 18 And all of
this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling
people to him. 19 For God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins
against them. And he gave us this
wonderful message of reconciliation. 20
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak
for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never
sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made
right with God through Christ.
In second
grade, you know how the teachers are always say, "You can do it!"
and, "Be the best you can be."
Well when scriptures talk about becoming a new person, it got me wondering
well what kind of person were we before we found God. What was the world like when we weren’t
talking about how he came to us? What
did this world have to offer?
Some people try
to excel at being the best worker, the best husband, the best jogger. Why do people have the urge to be the best? What pushes human to have the instinct?
Long ago when
the Lord was here he gave many messages, but one has been carried out for
years. To push people towards him. To seek out others needs and to give people an
understanding about the Lord. This was
the test, I think, that he put us through so we could say, "I love God and
I would like for you to be a part of the praise I share with thousands of
people." He wanted us to be the
best we could be and to share it with others.
When the passage says, "So we are Christ’s ambassadors and we speak
for Christ." To me that saying why
do we hide at work or at school our true selves? We never speak of our religion because we
might be teased or we might have rumors be spread about us. Well you know what I say if you really love
God then spread it. Go to that highest
mountain and sing that song, "Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ
is born!" We hide behind our fears
of others, but in reality, they have the same fear. Although if the teacher
said knock it off then you have to. That’s
why they invented passing period. So go
and tell it everywhere and allow the instinct kick in on full drive so you can
be the best you can be.
Sara
Hoskins
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March 15 Psalm
30
Story
Time
Every time the light changes green I
praise the Lord. “Please God, get me
there swiftly and safely!” is my prayer.
In the wee hours of the morning I find comfort in remembering the Lord’s
hands in my life. Do I really believe
that He is pulling strings to hasten me from the intersections, creeping cars
away from my lane with protective, perfect timing? Probably not.
It’s just nice to know the Lord is there with me, even before the sun
has risen. The Lord is my Helper!
Asking the Lord to remain active in your
life causes a shift in perspective I will admit. Saying, “Lord, let me be helpful and a
selfless servant” as I walk through my job’s double doors brings me joy. A sigh of relief escapes my lips even before
any fret arrives or those shellfish worries creep in. As the Lord helps you, He can turn you into a
helper too. A smile, beaming and
sincere, is as we all know, contagious.
I have the privilege of making others smile “before” they have had their
cup of coffee. You too can dance or sing
or smile --- whatever comes naturally --- in the knowledge that God wants to
have a relationship with Him rooted in love and commitment. He will help you cultivate this relationship
if you allow Him to.
These can be troubling times for
everyone. I pray that you will find your
joys and your comforts that God has given you.
May your load be lightened by our Gracious Redeemer! And feel free to pray on the road with me ---
it will make us all nicer drivers.
Elliot
Smith
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March
16 Ezekiel
47:1-9, 12
UNITY
All God’s
people come together under one baptism in the name of the Trinity.
Ezekiel, while
in exile in Babylon, was given a vision of the restoration of Israel and the
Temple of the Lord. In the vision he was
shown a stream of water flowing out from beneath the temple and south towards
the Dead Sea. In less than a mile, it
became a river of fresh, life-giving water, teeming with fishes, and with fruit
trees of all kinds on both banks – fruit to eat and leaves for healing. The Dead Sea had come alive again. The image is remarkably similar to the image
of the New Jerusalem and the River of Life in Revelation 21 and 22.
What are we to
make of all this? Clearly there seems to
be a promise that Eden will be restored.
Ezekiel still carries the preincarnation imagery of sacrificial worship
of the Lord, but the river, teeming with life and the revitalization of the
Dead Sea is clearly a restoration message.
What had been denied to mankind, through sin, was reopened. Land, long lost to Persian, Babylonian and
other invaders, was restored to the Chosen People of God. All was right with the world with the Lord
God on his throne in the new city of “God is There” (Yaweh-Shammah).
Where does that
leave us, today, in Redlands, CA. All is
clearly not right with our world. We are
surrounded by hungry people – those who are near and those who are far away. Some are hungry for physical food, others for
meaningful relationships with other people, and with God. Some have no physical place to call
home. Others have a physical place that
is emotionally and spiritually NOT a home.
And we watch them pass through our lives without allowing a ripple in
our pitifully placid stream of personal comfort. God calls us to be a partner in his
restoration; a part of a mighty river flowing from his throne. We are called to be the hands, the feet, and
the heart of Jesus, witnessing to God’s Love and Grace for all who will answer
his offer of unity under Christ.
A
RIVER OF JOY
Alan Graham - 1989
I stand at the river's edge, Afraid
because of my sin. I fear it's too swift, too deep, too cold, for me to enter
in.
The water beckons me, "Come. Be refreshed and be satisfied. I well up from the Throne of God. Come drink, and be filled with my joy."
I seek your presence, oh my Lord, Head
bowed in anguish and pain. My world is
crumbling away, my tears flowing, falling like rain.
The water beckons me, "Come, be
refreshed and be satisfied. I well up
from the Throne of God. Come drink, and
be filled with my joy."
The Word of God calls: "Come on
home! I shed my blood for you too. I reconcile you to the Lord, Recreating,
making everything new.
The water beckons me, "Come, be
refreshed and be satisfied. I well up
from the Throne of God. Come drink, and
be filled with my joy."
My Savior King is beside me, to rescue me
from all harm. I lift my hands in surrender, and willingly run to his arms.
The water beckons me, "Come, be
refreshed and be satisfied. I well up
from the Throne of God. Come drink, and
be filled with my joy."
Though oceans may roar, mountains tremble,
and crumble into the sea, I'm walking on water with Jesus; That's right where
he wants me to be!
The water beckons me, "Come, be
refreshed and be satisfied. I well up
from the Throne of God. Come drink, and
be filled with my joy."
Blessings,
Alan Graham
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March 17 John 5:17-30 (NIV)
Salvation
Appearing
When
we reflect on Jesus' resurrection, his divinity is clear.
17Jesus said
to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am
working." 18For this reason the
Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath,
but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19Jesus gave
them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does. 20For the
Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even
greater things than these. 21For just as
the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to
whom he is pleased to give it. 22Moreover,
the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all
may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor
the Father, who sent him.
24"I
tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to
life. 25I tell you the truth, a time is
coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and
those who hear will live. 26For as the
Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in
himself. 27And he has given him
authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28"Do
not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves
will hear his voice 29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live,
and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as
I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who
sent me.
If Jesus’ healing on
the Sabbath evoked the wrath of the Jewish religious leaders, His claim to
equality with God earned Him their charge of blasphemy, and its necessary death
sentence. From this point on, Jesus was
on a collision course with the authorities. Jesus in no way acted independently of the
Father. On the contrary, He understood
that He and the Father were one so He did only what His Father showed Him. Jesus’ authority then, was not usurped, but
derived from the Fathers authority. Conversely, one cannot honor the Father apart
from honoring the Son. Jesus addresses
the entire discourse of His relationship to the Father to those who accused Him
of blasphemy. In the discourse, Jesus’
love, seen for His enemies, is made crystal clear. While His desire is for them to be saved,
their problem is not that they cannot believe, but that they are unwilling to
accept His offer for life.
As for me personally,
I can do NOTHING without Christ. The
life that is in me does the work. Every
healing, every miracle, every word I get for others, is done by God through
Christ. I am but a vessel. I love this chapter because the scripture
shows us that we are one with Him. NOTHING we can do is of ourselves, and God no
longer judges us, Christ does it. We
must not seek things without seeking Him first on it. We must pray, and then wait for an answer. We are here on earth to please HIM, not
ourselves. That is hard to do every day.
That is where the deep prayer comes in
and shows Him we are faithful to His word.
Lynda
Floyd
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March 18 Please
read John 5: 31-47
Local Witnesses
My card for today’s devotional introduces
the poem that I found very well. The
card reads as follows: “May our small acts of penitence testify to the truth of
God’s mercy.” The poem illustrates how
God’s witnesses can be found in all walks of life and that nobody is above
being humble before God. Read on and see
what you think.
The Fool’s Prayer
By Edward Roland Sill
(1841-1887)
The royal feast was done;
the King
Sought some new sport to
banish care,
And to his jester cried:
“Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us
a prayer!”
The jester doffed his cap
and bells,
And stood the mocking court
before;
They could not see the
bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he
wore.
He bowed his head, and bent
his knee
Upon the Monarch’s silken
stool;
His pleading voice arose:
“O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
“No pity, Lord, could
change the heart
From red with wrong to
white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin:
but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
“‘T is not by guilt the
onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord,
we stay;
‘T is by our follies that
so long
We hold the earth from
heaven away.
“These clumsy feet, still
in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms
without end;
These hard, well-meaning
hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of
a friend.
“The ill-timed truth we
might have kept --
Who knows how sharp it
pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense
to say --
Who knows how grandly it
had rung!
“Our faults no tenderness
should ask.
The chastening stripes must
cleanse them all;
But for our blunders -- oh,
in shame
Before the eyes of heaven
we fall.
“Earth bears no balsam for
mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and
scourge the tool
That did his will; but
Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!”
The room was hushed; in
silence rose
The King, and sought his
gardens cool,
And walked apart, and
murmured low,
“Be merciful to me, a
fool!”
(“The Fool’s Prayer” is
reprinted from
The Little Book of
American Poets: 1787-1900.
Ed. Jessie B. Rittenhouse.
Cambridge:
Riverside Press, 1815.)
Cindy
Rechelluul-Grossman
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March
19 John 7:1-2,
10, 25-30
Our Shield
"You
never need to fear speaking the truth; the Spirit that sends you will protect
you.
Truth is truth; whether it is the Word of
God, or just stating the facts. Lying is
never acceptable. However, there are
times when speaking the truth can cause harm. Jesus had God the Father to protect him as he
spoke the Truth across Israel. But even
Jesus knew when NOT to speak the Truth. There are places in Israel that would not
accept Jesus' speaking the Truth and he either avoided them or just didn't
announce to anyone who he was. Was this
lying? Jesus never lied. He just didn't always speak the Truth. Silence is not lying, but it isn't telling the
truth, either. Silence or the selective
telling of the Truth or truths seemed to be acceptable, even to Jesus. The associated passages tell of Jesus being
wanted by Jewish authorities in Judea. Jesus entered Judea secretly. Jesu had avoided telling the truth by not
announcing who he was.
Before retiring a few years ago, I was a
chief train dispatcher for the BNSF Railway. My territory stretched from Barstow to
Richmond, California; with a branch between Keddie, California, and Klamath
Falls, Oregon. At the end of my 12 hour
shift, I had to report on the condition of the railroad and quickly summarize
any problems I had over the last 12 hours via phone mail. Any railroad supervisor, including the
president and CEO, could, and often did, access this phone mail. My immediate supervisor had instructed all us
chiefs to "paint a rosy picture" of the condition of the railroad, no
matter how bad it really was. We weren't
to lie. We just had to tell the truth
"selectively" with a positive tone. Lack of truth protected our jobs.
Such is the
case of anyone who has been put on the spot by being asked: "do you like
dinner (present, clothes, hair, ___________, etc)?" You fill in the blank. To lie might be taking the safe course, but
would be improper. Lies tend to come
back to haunt. Truth can hurt someone's
feelings. So could silence. Skirting the facts or selectively telling the
truth is the only solution.
Being mere
mortals, we often fear speaking the truth; but speaking the "spirit of the
truth" may protect you. God's Truth
is always there as a backup and will protect you if all else fails.
Richard Radford
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March
20 John 7: 40-53 and Psalm 90
VIEWPOINT vs STANDPOINT
The words viewpoint
and standpoint are interchangeable in common use, but let me urge
this distinction: viewpoint is a place from which things are seen,
whereas standpoint is the place I take as mine. Psalm 90 marks a transition from the former
to the latter in three situations: 1) an old year ends. A new one begins. 2) A life ends. We wonder what lies beyond. 3) A change has been thrust upon us. Oppose it or go with the flow?
The psalmist
presents 3 viewpoints: 1) The merely human, caught up in the appearance of
things, 2) the Divine, in whose presence the flow continues, 3) the psalmist's,
as he struggles to move from the human to the divine perspective, confronting
the flow, not in despair, but in hope. Lord, thou hast been our refuge, age
after age.
Out of the
burning bush, Moses heard: Take off your shoes; the place on which you stand
is holy ground. The place where you
take a stand is holy ground, for unless you take a stand, it is as if you'd
never been there. When you've taken a
stand in His presence, you've consecrated your ground.
The viewpoint of
the young can no longer serve the psalmist, for he knows that he, too, is in
what he sees. Creation includes him, and
he must turn back to dust. The
patient asks his doctor, “How much longer do I have?” The psalmist writes: “Teach us to
count how few days we have, and so gain wisdom of heart.” There comes an end.
Jesus faced what
the psalmist faced, and what Moses faced, but left us with more, for through
Jesus, God knew not only a father's pain, but the son's as well. Knowing through the Son is no Olympian
viewpoint from afar, but God taking a human standpoint, the stand-point of
Jesus, of you, and of me.
Therefore we do
well to hear the writer to the Hebrews (12:18): Remember where you
stand. We are no more strangers
or passing travelers on earth, but having taken our stand as Christians, we
find our Lord Jesus Christ to be the same, yesterday, today and forever. But those who fail to take a stand, who
look upon faith as if it were a matter of personal taste or convenience, live
and die without ever having been alive.
Theirs is a viewpoint which leaves Christ -- and themselves -- out.
The passage in
John speaks of a collision of viewpoints.
It is not enough to take a stand, though that is to be much preferred
above merely holding opinions, because taking a stand opens the door to
discovery, something which passive observers ever fail to notice. But suppose one takes a stand on a viewpoint
without a solid foundation, like the one of whom Jesus spoke as he who built
his house on shifting sand. When the
rain descended and the winds came and beat upon the house, the house fell,
whereas the house built on a rock survived storm and flood. In the presence of Jesus the common people
found the solidity they sought, whereas the Pharisees reinforced one another’s
prejudices rather than follow the advice of Nicodemus to hear what Jesus had to
say.
Our Lord has
taken a stand. Well wishes and good
intentions are as far from a stand as an opinion is from a commitment. If you've yet to acknowledge his stand for
you in taking your stand for Him, now's a good time!
Don Miller
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March
21 John 8:1-11
REPENT
1But Jesus went
to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he
appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him,
and he sat down to teach them. 3The
teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said
to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such
women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in
order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent
down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let
him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those
who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only
Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her,
"Woman, where are they? Has no one
condemned you?"
11"No one,
sir," she said. "Then neither
do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
The card prompt
reads, "Surrounded by critics? Turn
from sin, and Jesus will restore our dignity." Ok, my apologies to the person who came up
with that prompt, but if you are surrounded by critics, turning from sin isn't
going to help you with them. Critics are
just that. Look at the scripture again. This woman was surrounded by critics. With stones. Stones big enough to kill. It wasn't a matter of her turning away from
sin; they were out to kill, and to test Jesus. He was also surrounded by critics.
Growing up a Southern
Baptist, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a pastor say, “Repent or
burn in hell!” But it seems that those
pastors and people in general, don’t understand what repenting really means. Many pastors, that I have heard, drum into our
heads that we need to repent, which is true, but the rest of the world waits
for it to be done publicly. But
repentance isn’t a public event. It’s
between us and God.
“But Berta, “I
hear some people say, “God sees everything we do. If he knows what we have done, why do we need
to repent?” Well, repenting is
communicating. It’s not revealing to God
that we have sinned; it’s letting Him know that we know it, and asking Him not
only for forgiveness, but guidance to help us not do it again.
Knowing that
this is between us and God; can I ask why it is so important to the world to
hear the repentance publicly? Personally,
I don’t want to know everything about everybody. I don’t need to know the things that get
thrown in my face every time I walk through the checkout line at the
supermarket. Why can't we as a society
realize that repenting doesn’t mean shouting it from the mountain top? Why do we feel the need to stick our noses in
God's job? God knows us, and He knows
our hearts. And He knows how humans are.
It’s why He sent His son. He is the one that is going to give us the
full forgiveness we need from him. And
when the rest of the world looks at us and demands that God brings down justice
upon us, He will bend down, draw in the sand, look up and say, "If any one
of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone."
Father thank you for listening and
forgiving us for the choices we make. Thank you also for protecting us from the
stones of condemnation of others, even if we can’t feel it sometimes. And Lord, when another person has done wrong,
remind me not to pick up a stone to throw. Amen.
Berta Rickman
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March 22 Psalm
23
THE
WORD OF GOD
The Twenty-Third Psalm has always been my
favorite Scripture. It was one of the
first Scriptures I memorized as a child.
When I have faced situations or circumstances in my life that seem
insurmountable at the time, I have gone to this Scripture for comfort. For, example, I can remember praying this
Scripture when my oldest child was diagnosed with a life threatening childhood
disease at three years of age or during the sickness and death of both of my
parents. These situations were some of
my darkest hours. I have also prayed
this Psalm in more “tight” situations, then I care to remember. In each circumstance, I have found comfort,
peace and an assurance that God would take me through “the valley of the shadow
of death.” The Twenty-third Psalm makes
a declaration that I hold firmly to: “The Lord is my Shepherd ….” In this Psalm, King David, makes a comparison
of God to a Shepherd. The readers of his
day could identify with the reference to God being like a Shepherd, because
they could understand the responsibility a Shepherd had to his sheep. (In the New Testament Christ refers to His
people as “sheep”.) The Shepherd had the
awesome task of caring for the sheep while they were in the pasture. Often times the Shepherd had to travel long
distances to find pastures that could sustain the sheep before the sheep were
even moved from their home position. He
made an assessment of the pastures taking out of the things that could prove to
be dangerous to the sheep. He took the
sheep to graze in green lush pastures; making sure there would be plenty of
water for them to drink.
The Shepherd was also equipped with a tool
called his staff. The staff was designed
in a way that it could be used as a weapon to provide protection to the sheep
and also to be used if he had to rescue a wandering sheep that might get caught
on a cliff ledge. The crook of the staff
could be used to pull the sheep to safety.
He could also use the staff as a weapon to beat back predators, such as
wild animals that might try to attack the sheep.
The sheep trusted the Shepherd and followed him wherever he led
them. The Shepherd also knew his
sheep. He had a personal relationship
with each one of them. He knew sheep
were afraid of moving water, so he would make a dam so the water would be still
while the sheep drink. The sheep did not
have any worries because they knew that the Shepherd was their protector.
The power of this Scripture and other
Scriptures, relies upon the believer’s faith and trust in God’s Word. If you believe God’s Word to be true, then
you can get assurance from the Twenty-third Psalm.
The 23rd Psalm
He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name'
sake.
Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou
annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in
the House of the Lord forever. -- KJV
Marilyn M. Johnson
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March 23 John
8: 21-30
Declaring to All
Jesus is predicting
his departure from the Earth in these verses and is warning the Pharisees and
the people in the temple that they will not be able to go where He is going and
that they will die in their sins because they are of this Earth while he is not
of this Earth. Jesus tells them that if
they do not believe in Him as the Son of God then they will surely die in their
sins. Jesus had just come from the Mount
of Olives and had forgiven the adulteress woman whom the Pharisees had wanted
stoned, but Jesus said “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone
at her first.” Jesus has told them
that they judge in the flesh and that he is here to judge no one. He lets them know that He does nothing of
Himself, only those things that the Father has taught Him to do and that His
Father has never left Him alone for He always does the things that please the
Father. As He spoke these words many of
the people believed in what he was saying to them. He goes on in later verses to tell the people
that Truth will set them free.
Many of the
people that were listening to Jesus that day took everything He was saying
literally and therefore could not understand what He was talking about. They asked him who His Father was not
realizing that he was speaking of God, the Father of us all and that the Truth
that would set them free was not a truth of this Earth but of Heaven, telling
them that they had to believe in Him to gain everlasting life and not die in
their sins, but many in the end believed in what He was saying and understood
what he was trying to get them to understand. In a way we are actually more fortunate than
those people of old because we have the Bible to read and we are able to
understand the message through it. They
were so involved in their daily lives that they couldn’t see the forest for the
trees and get past the literal meaning of His messages. We have to be careful and not get so involved
in our own daily lives that we lose sight of His messages too. We need to take the time to pray and read our
Bible and keep those messages of old in front of our faces on a daily basis. We need to keep our life goals in focus and in
line with Jesus and God and what they want for us and to keep the Truth in
front of us so that we don’t lose our way and “die in our sins.” The only way our sins will be forgiven us is
to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and that he is the only way to
everlasting life. We have to be the ones
to understand His messages and to believe in Him and to help spread the Word of
God to others who are searching for the Truth also.
I have started
taking the time that I am under the radiation machine to pray every day. I’m just laying there so I make that time
useful and pray to my God. Sometimes I
only say the Lord’s Prayer and sometimes I have my own prayer for what is going
on that day, for my insecurities, or for the many other people in my life and
in this world who need prayer everyday. I
found it very comforting to notice the very first time that I had radiation
that there is a “cross” in the ceiling above the radiation table. It’s only an opening in the ceiling that has a
beam coming through it but to me it is a noticeable feeling that God is with me
every time I lay down on that table for a treatment and that will take care of
me and make sure that all is well with me and that He is listening to my
prayers while I am there and always no matter where I am.
Prayer; God
our Father, help us to slow down enough everyday to take the time to commune
with Jesus and God so that we may not die in our sins but have everlasting life
in Jesus. Give us all a noticeable sign
ever day that you are with us and care about us and help us to understand your
messages to us and not to be so literal in our lives that we cannot hear Your
voice when You speak.
Carole Kline
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March
24 John 8:31-42
Cheer:
"The
Father smiles when we yearn to please Him with love and obedience."
Part I
Have you
ever been asked to do something that was outside your comfort zone? I have. In the past, I made a commitment to assist
with the feeding the hungry program. I
did and do care about the project, and the people who are served, but I have
not been as faithful in serving as I should have. Granted, life gets busy, not just for me, but
for everyone else as well. This year has
been especially chaotic, but none of these excuses are adequate. I have been afraid. It is not the people we serve that frightens
me, but myself. I will gladly do
everything I am asked to do to prepare meals, to provide groceries, whatever is
needed as I am available; but in serving the meals, I hesitate. It's part of my "Martha" self-image.
It's not that I don't believe, I do,
wholeheartedly. It's not that I feel the
people who come to eat are unworthy of my time, or are scary in some way, they
are not. It is just that I have a really
hard time expressing myself when talking about my faith. I am scared to death that someone will ask
questions I would find hard to answer. I
know the answers. At least, I think I do.
I'm concerned that if I don't express
myself in the right terms, I will turn them off, instead of turning them on to
God. The most important part of John
8:31-42, for me, is "the truth will
make you free." If I am speaking
the truth, as painful, embarrassing, and exposing as it is, I pray that in
doing so, the shackles of self-doubt I feel will be broken and I will be able
to serve more fully.
Part II
My
revelation has been all well and good, but, with the changes that have come
about with so many churches now involved in the program, my opportunities for
"mending my ways" are to be few and far between. So what can I learn from realizing too late my
self-doubt and hesitation? I know that I
still must give voice to my fears and feelings of inadequacy, and, with God's
help, thereby conquering them, sooner rather than later. I do not want to miss any more opportunities
to serve God joyfully. I want to be involved and connected. I want to be ready, honest and forthright in
response to the roles God offers me, including willingly discussing my faith
and God's presence in my life. I am a child
of God. To the best of my ability, I
answer His call. I try to obey his
commands, and now I won't let myself hold me back.
Lord,
please hear me. Free me for joyful obedience.
Please help me close the door on my
self-doubt, and open the door to be joyfully involved in spreading Your Word,
so that I might make You smile. Amen.
Carole
Radford
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March 25 Genesis
17:3-9 (Amplified Bible)
A
Blessed Name
3Then Abram fell on his face,
and God said to him, 4as for me, behold, my covenant (Solemn pledge) is
with you, and you shall be the father of many nations. 5Nor shall your name any longer be
Abram [high, exalted father]; but your name shall be Abraham [father of a
multitude], for I have made you the father of many nations. 6And I will make you exceedingly
fruitful and I will make nations of you, and [a]kings
will come from you. 7And I will
establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting, solemn pledge, to be a God to
you and to your posterity after you. 8And
I will give to you and to your posterity after you the land in which you are a
stranger [going from place to place], all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9And God said to Abraham, as for you,
you shall therefore keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you
throughout their generations.
My card says,
“In God, our identity is one of an adopted child, a chosen love.” When I read the scripture I thought, “what
does God’s covenant with Abraham have to do with identity and adoption?” Then I read the amplified version and it all
became clear.
Several years
ago, I had a friend go through classes to adopt a child. She was telling me that when adopting an older
child, or even a younger one who has been named, it is best to change their
name. This symbolizes going into a new
life with a new family. It’s kinda cool
when you think about it.
I think we all
do this to each other too. Isn’t that
what nick names are in a way? I met my
friend Lynda almost three years ago. We
became friends the second we met. A
couple of months later, she stated that I was closer to her than her friends. She adopted me as the little sister that she
never had. I went from being Berta, her
friend, to Mooshka, her sister. And yes,
she got her own nick name. To me she
will always be Sorella Bella. Those nick
names sealed the fact that we were family.
In this
scripture, God changed Abram’s name from Abram to Abraham. Seems like such a little change, but in that
moment, Abram went from being Abram, a high, exalted father, to Abraham, father
of a multitude. God chose Abraham for
this special position, adopted him into His close knit family, and gave Abraham
a new name to remind him of what God had done. Awesome! Have you heard the song, “I will change your
name?” He does that with each of us. He has given us each a name that is different
than the one we are born with. Our
parents give us our names that symbolize that we are in their families, and God
gives us one that symbolizes the adoption in to His.
Some people have
asked my why the word Khara is in my e-mail. Well, about 13 years ago, I was at an Ashram,
and my friends were praying over me. Both of them, without talking with each other,
told me that the name the Lord had for me was Khara, which means, “Beloved”. That was what God wanted me to know. That I was beloved in His eyes. At that moment I knew in my heart, not just my
head, that I was not just one of God’s children, but that I was created, chosen
and adopted into His arms.
What name does
God have for you? How does He show you
in day to day events that you are His. Created, chosen, and adopted into His arms?
PRAYER: Father, thank you for creating,
choosing, and adopting us. Remind us day
to day through gentle breezes, smiles from strangers, and other ways that you
are always there with us. Amen
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March
26 Jeremiah
20-10-13
Definition
As I read through these Bible verses there
were two that stood out for me and made me think. They are The
Lord is with me as a mighty awesome One and Sing to the Lord! Praise the
Lord! For He has delivered the life of
the poor From the hands of the evildoers.
As last year
closed and 2010 began I was always telling people that 2010 is going to be a
much better year than 2009 was. By that
I was meaning that 2009 had been a pretty bad year for me and my family and
that 2010 was going to be a better year as far as health and wealth were
concerned. I was conveying this image to
a friend of mine one day and he had some definite things to say about my
attitude. He told me that actually 2009
had been a very GREAT year for me and my family. That Mike had had his hip fixed and had come
out of the surgery far better than he had going into it so the year had done
great things for him and his physical well being. He also told me that I had been very fortunate
that my cancer had been detected early enough to have had something done about
it; that I had come through surgery and chemo with flying colors and was 75% of
the way through my treatments and only had radiation left to go – only 6 more
weeks. He said it was fantastic that my
cancer was not detected anywhere else and that I have a lot to be thankful for;
for a long and future life. He told me
that I had the love of family, friends, church members and social systems that
have helped me through the emotional and financial challenges that we have been
having. That we have been more than
fortunate to have had enough to eat and never gone hungry, that we have a home
to live in and keep our heads dry and warm in times of cold and wet, and that
we have seen God’s handy work around us in all of those people who love us.
Needless to say that he changed my attitude
for the good that day and made me feel quite ashamed of myself for doubting
God’s love and caring for us. God is
truly an awesome One and never lets us down in what we may see as trying times
so I do say Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! My evildoers were actually my own feelings
and the way I looked at the year 2009. I
will always be very grateful to this friend for setting my eyes and my heart on
the path to truth and for speaking God’s words and love to me as a human being
who set my attitude on the right path.
Prayer: Lord
our Father, when we see our lives has tragic and beyond hope, thinking that we
can’t take another thing on, allow us to see the silver lining in those clouds
of dark despair and count the blessings that have come to us through our
trials. Allow us to bring the right attitude to life and to love and to those
who share it with us.
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March
27 John 11:45-56
Ultimate Sacrifice
Caiaphas said, "From the death of one man, all are united in God’s
name".
Caiaphas was afraid that Jesus would have more power and knowledge than
him. This is why he was having him
Killed. Caiaphas was not ready to
sacrifice is way of living.
That is what is wrong with a lot of the world today. Many of us let our pride get in the way of letting
Jesus in our lives. We know that he will
instill changes to us that we may not be ready to face (we don't like change). Because of this reason too many people let the
good life pass them by. It would be a sacrifice,
for many people an ultimate sacrifice, it would change everything about them,
who they hung around with, how they acted and in some cases even where they
lived. Are we making a Sacrifice?
Pamela Fulton
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March 28 Philippians
2:1-11
Palm
Sunday
Death is
the destiny of every living creature.
Our impulse is to back off, and thrust it from our thoughts, before
anxiety overwhelms us. As its full force
hits, we cast about for a way to take the edge off. Here is a handy metaphor through which we
speak of dying out to self. That's
a wee bit better. It lets us catch our
breath, but if that metaphor is to serve its purpose we must linger with its
literal sense long enough to grasp what such dying is all about: not someone
else's death -- which is bad enough, but my own death, an end to life as I've
known it. Let us not take flight into
our belief in immortality, not that the belief is false, but how can we be
absolutely sure it is so? Unbidden, the
doubts come, when we find ourselves balanced precariously at the precipice,
staring deep into the abyss, the bottomless pit from which there is no escape. This is the human condition.
Are we to assume that the Jesus of ancient
Galilee was relieved of this experience?
Not if we believe the agony he suffered in Gethsemane, as he made the
choice which doomed him to the cross.
Christians have always insisted on the humanity of Jesus, and have
disdained philosophical notions which would rob him of it, such as the
absurdity that physically he was man, but mentally and spiritually he was
God. If in his human life, Jesus knew
all that God knows, he was not human at all.
He had the same access to knowledge of God as we have, by faith. If he seemed to know so much more, it was
that he acted in accord with his faith.
I am well aware that Philippians 2:6-8 is
as powerful, provocative and profound a statement as Paul ever made. It stands out an Everest peak of the New Testament,
and invites us to let all else disappear into the mist, as we focus completely
on what it says about the relationship between the Father and the Son. What does it bring to your mind? An event in eternity through which the Father
calls upon the Son before Jesus to take on one particular human life with not
only the normal risks but with the certainty of living through a specific dying
process to suffer betrayal, public execution, humiliation and death on a cross
for sake of his creation. Nothing has
been said here, however, about a pre-existent Christ. The reader has imported the idea from the
prologue to John's gospel, which speaks of the logos, or the Word. Hebrew writings used exactly the same
language to refer to wisdom, which they also personified. We believe that the word was made flesh and
dwelled among us, and the word was Jesus.
Pre-existent as wisdom, yes, but not as
Jesus. Christians have never been
willing to conceive of Jesus in the same terms as the gods of Olympus, who
ventured into human form for a time without relinquishing their divine
prerogatives. Their humanity was a
sham. Jesus' was real, with all the
human limitations. Does God mock us in
calling us to imitate him, if the possibility of our doing so on the same terms
as he experienced did not exist?
Let us slip down from the peak to the vast
earth which supports it. These words are
part of the message of Paul to the church he founded in Philippi. He addressed the conflict, strife,
self-seeking and disunity which threatened its very survival. He called upon his people to relate with one
another, as Christ Jesus had related with disciples in Galilee, and as the
present spirit of Christ was reaching out to disciples in Philippi. This is what it is, in King James language,
to Look not on every man on his own things, but every man also on the things
of others. Let his mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. Paul
challenged them to relate with one another under God the Father as Jesus had
done.
Genesis tells us He created us in his
image, after this likeness. Thus the
option of intoxication with divine image exists for us too, and we manifest
this tendency when we claim complete control, serving our own interests first
and foremost. Jesus relinquished control
over his destiny to his father, setting aside his reputation or whatever
material he might possess, following the path before him, though it led to
certain death -- for the sake of the world he loved and the father he trusted.
Sometimes our language misleads us. The plain truth is that we must not hang on
to special privileges at anyone else's expense, but let them go. We do not seek to be waited on, but to serve,
not to receive, but to give. This does
not mean that we must surgically excise a part of ourselves and throw it
away. As Jesus himself said to the rich
young ruler, If you wish to go the whole way, leave self behind (Matthew
19:16-22; 16:24-28). Or as Paul wrote to
the Romans (11:25-12:10, 17-21): I implore you by God's mercy to offer your
very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance,
the worship offered by mind and heart. God
does not call upon me to debase or vilify myself, but to consecrate all of me
and in faith place myself in his hands.
This means giving up my various idolatries in favor of giving him first
place in my life as Jesus did before me.
Don Miller
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March 29 Psalm
27:1-3, 13-14
Have
Courage
Have you ever had one of those days when
the world is out to get you? No matter
where you go or who you talk to, nothing goes right. Everyone hates you, out to get you, and there
is no where to run. The writer/s of the
Psalms felt like this, Job felt like this, I know I have. In this Psalm David is saying, "Wait on
the Lord, He's got your back."
This past year has been so hard for me. Loosing a job is hard. Trying to survive while you are trying to find
a job is harder. Getting caught up with
life when you finally get a job is frustrating! There have been so many times when I have felt
like giving up, when it was hard to leave my apartment or answer my phone
because I knew something bad was going to happen. Many times I felt like Dorothy in "The
Wizard of OZ" when she was crossing the poppy field. She gets within two feet from the edge and the
poison over comes her. Then, Glenda
makes it snow and she is able to continue. I have had so many "Glendas" in my
life this year that God has placed there. When ever I am at my lowest, God is there with
a word from a friend, or extra money to get me through a little longer. When I felt like I wasn't good enough, He sent
people that reminded me that I was.
This year has taught me that God is always
there protecting me, and loving me. It
can be hard to remember sometimes, especially when I am in the midst of
trouble, and there is no end in sight. If
you have a hard time remembering, I would encourage you to create or find
something to help you remember. I myself
designed a quilt. I had my friends
donate fabric and I chose a block called "Yellow Brick Road" that
reminds me of my OZ story. When I am
finished, this quilt will be a tangible reminder that I am loved and protected
by God, my friends, and my loved ones. I
now also have this devotion to be another reminder.
Dear Lord, Thank you for always looking
out for us. Thank you for sending
friends and people like David to remind us.
Help us hold on to your promises, even through the hard times. Amen.
Berta
Rickman (taken from Lenten book 2007)
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March 30 John
13:21-38
Contrite Hearts
*My friend Lynda and I began to have an interesting conversation about
Judas a few months ago. It was such an
interesting discussion, when the devotions came out, we took the two that had
to do with Judas, and thought it would be fun to continue the conversation to
share with you. I don’t know what the
answer is to all this. Was Judas called,
or did he choose? No one but God and
Judas knows for sure. But here is the
conversation as it happened. I’ll leave
it to you to decide. *
John 13:21-38 (New International Version)
21After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in
spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray
me."
22His
disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23One of them, the disciple whom Jesus
loved, was reclining next to him. 24Simon
Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he
means."
25Leaning
back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
26Jesus
answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I
have dipped it in the dish." Then,
dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan
entered into him.
"What you are about to do, do quickly,"
Jesus told him, 28but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this
to him. 29Since Judas had charge
of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the
Feast, or to give something to the poor.
30As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
31When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son
of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.
32If God is glorified in him,[a] God will glorify the Son
in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33"My children, I will be with you only a little
longer. You will look for me, and just
as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34"A
new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you
are my disciples, if you love one another."
36Simon
Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot
follow now, but you will follow later."
37Peter
asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you."
38Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay
down your life for me? I tell you the
truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Show us how we
betrayed you Lord so we can admit our guilt.
Berta: OK, so
here is one of the cards that we got. Notice the prompt, and how it asks us for God
to show us how we betrayed him. But in
both instances in the scripture, they were told what was coming, and made their
choices anyway. The difference is that
Peter repented and really pulled it together for Christ later. Judas let his guilt literally kill him. So how do we know if we are just being sinful,
or if we are doing something that needs to be done for Christ? Interesting thought.
LYNDA: Very
interesting thought, I believe we betray Him every day of our lives just by
sin, sins we commit and some we don't even know we have done, some are
thoughts, some are just out of the blue reacting to something or someone. But with His mercy and grace and taking it all
to the cross we are forgiven, but I do believe we have to repent especially to
the ones we know we did, I always ask Him to forgive me for all the things I
have done plus the ones I don't even know about. As for Judas when he took the bread Satan went
into him, for some reason I never saw that part before, see I always have felt
that someone had to be the one, and he was chosen for that reason, I know you
don't believe that, but it’s just how I feel. Like our Lord He had a part and the love the
Father has for us He took and paid the cost for all. It was His chosen part; He was born for that
reason. I know you’re going to say you
don't believe in predestine but I just have that feeling. Nothing wrong with either one of us, it’s just
a matter of opinion.
Berta: I am
with you on this. I don't believe in
being a frozen chosen. But I do believe
we are chosen to do certain things. Things
we are called to do. I just also believe
we have a choice in the matter. Other
wise there isn't free will. Like us. Let's say we are called and chosen to do
TCC. We have had the dream. We have had the discussions. We have started over again and again. But, what if the other people who have been
chosen to help us are not following their part?
I do believe that God creates people to do certain things, but that
they aren't forced to do them. Does that
make sense? I believe both are true. Because if complete and total predestination
were true, then that means that your grandfather and my father were created to
do what they did to us. Why? What purpose does it serve to create people
that will hurt others?
I do believe that Judas had a part in God's plan, and that God knew
that it was going to happen in the way that it did. I believe that God knew Judas' heart and knew
he would react to situations exactly the way he did. But, I also believe that if something happened
differently, and Judas didn't do what he did, God would have found another way.
I think we are agreeing, but just
looking at things differently.
The interesting thing is that Judas really let his guilt kill him. I wish that he knew before he died that he had
a part in saving all of us by what he did.
LYNDA: At the
end, my opinion stands. Judas was
predestined to do his part, born for this reason. As for asking for forgiveness, face to face
with Jesus, he did not have the time. He
saw what they were doing to him and there was no way he wanted that to happen. He could not live with what had taken place,
for this was not the agreement. This
weekend I got into this conversation with my son. He is taking a class at Valley College and has
the book of Judas. There is a 3 day
conversation between Jesus and Judas. I
am going to order this book. It was not
put in the bible like other books, but it does show in there that Judas was chosen
for this cause. The more I pray and
search it out, I know within my spirit he was chosen and I also know in my
spirit he was forgiven. He had no clue
that they were going to kill Christ. When
I asked this question to other people, it makes them stop and think, and that
is what it is designed to do. Think
about why Christ came, what was His calling, and what was it all for.
*The end of
the first part and it comes down to this for me. Judas and Peter both betrayed Christ. Peter asked for forgiveness and went on to
great things. The Bible portrays Judas
letting his guilt kill him. As we go
through our days, and we make choices that betray Christ’s love for us, you
gotta ask yourself this. Will you
realize what you have done and ask for forgiveness, or will you let your guilt
take over your life? As Lynda says,
Judas was forgiven, but I want to know if he accepted the forgiveness offered
to him. I pray he did.*
To be continued.
. .
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March 31 Matthew
26:14-25
A
Bitter Cup
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
14Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas
Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15and asked, "What are you
willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver
coins. 16From then on Judas
watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
The Lord's Supper
17On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make
preparations for you to eat the Passover?"
18He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell
him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the
Passover with my disciples at your house.'" 19So the disciples did as Jesus had
directed them and prepared the Passover.
20When
evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21And while they were eating, he said,
"I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
22They
were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I,
Lord?"
23Jesus
replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will
betray me. 24The Son of Man will
go just as it is written about him. But
woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been
born."
25Then
Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I,
Rabbi?"
Jesus answered, "Yes, it is
you."[a]
26While
they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to
his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Jesus'
suffering began with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. One of his own.
Berta: Ok, so
here is the next card. It is pretty much
the same section of scripture; except a different gospel. But here it starts with the initial betrayal
and leaves out Peter's betrayal. But
here is my question. Is Jesus' pain
caused by the betrayal itself or the fact that it actually came to pass? Like knowing it will happen, and actually
experiencing it are two different things? Interesting.
LYNDA: He
knows the time is coming for Him to suffer a death like no other, He says His
time is not much longer. It’s like ok
here we go, He knows His future and the knowing He would be separated from the
Father how horrible.
Berta: Interesting,
so are you saying the pain isn't in Judas' actions, but knowing that this was
the start of pain to come? I see that.
LYNDA: It’s
like the question I have asked so many people, was Judas sent to hell or did
the Lord forgive him??? I know I have
asked you this before, but it never leaves my mind. I taught on it and got lots of weird looks. But in reality the truth be heard, he was
forgiven and God knew his heart and when Christ died He died for all. Not just the Christians.
Berta: You
know, I have problems with people wanting Judas not to be forgiven. The judgment on him is cruel sometimes. But it's the same mentality seen over and over
for those sentenced to death row. Yeah,
what they did was pretty bad to get there, and I know that. But if God comes to them in a real way, and
they truly accept Him as their Lord and Savior, who are we to not want that? For me it brings hope. There are things I have done in my past that
are not so good. But I am grateful for
the fact that through prevenient grace I am forgiven no matter what I do. And am I better than the person on death
row? Bible says that sin is sin. So if I don't want the death row guy
forgiven, then I should kiss my forgiveness good-bye, right? Right. So
yeah, can you imagine the day that Charles Manson becomes an evangelist? That would be weird, but who is to say God
couldn't do it? Funny thing is that
Satan does it too. He takes the good and
flips it to his use. So we have a fine
line to walk. There are no guarantees,
only choices that we make.
LYNDA: Ok so
here is a thought, when Jesus was on the cross and He yelled out Father forgive
them for they know not what they do, He did right. Judas also was in the same boat can we say Jesus
meant him to?? Just a thought, if Charles
Manson accepted Christ and really repented with all his heart, yes he is
forgiven by God but not by men. I know
that is hard to accept for lots of people, but the word says and the word is
true.
Berta: Another
thought to throw at you. If God knew what
was coming, and He knows our hearts, then Jesus knew why Judas was doing what
he was doing. He could have told Judas
what would happen if he went to the soldiers. He could have told Judas that they would kill
him. He could have made him understand,
but He didn't. He knew that it had to
happen in order for Him to save us.
LYNDA: Yes he
could have but it had to take place.
Berta: I know,
that's what I'm saying. So many times it
could have been stopped. Judas was his
friend, I know he didn't want him to be killed. So I don't see how Judas can be punished. Know what I mean? And did Judas really betray him or was he
doing what he was called to do?
LYNDA: I
believe Judas was chosen for that very part, he did not know they were going to
kill him, he loved Jesus but he was also betrayed. I always go back to the
cross, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. I would say that means everyone, from
betrayed, beating, nailing, spitting, totally deforming his image, Father
forgive them for they know not what they do.
Berta: And as
I said before, it’s not a matter of if God forgave them, but if they accepted
the forgiveness. Only God and they know
if that happened or not. So, the choice
is still ours. Accept the forgiveness or
not. I believe that is the true pain of
betrayal. To give that forgiveness
freely, and watch the ones you love turn their backs on it, or think they
aren’t worthy of it. Ouch!
* So there you have it, the E-conversations Lynda and I have been
having. I re-read this and think that
there is so much to think about. The
story of Judas is one that is debated over and over. My prayer is that you see Judas’ story in this
way. He created the opportunity for
Jesus to take on the sins of the world and save us from death. His story continues to create opportunity for
us to learn from him, ponder our place in God’s plan, and accept the
forgiveness God is freely handing us for the mistakes we have, or think we have
made. This Lent season, how does Judas’
life affect yours? How does it give you
hope? How does it make you think about
your choices? *
Father, help
us not to get bogged down in Judas' story, but to use it to learn from and to
take the opportunity to be the people you have created us to be - and to reach
out to you when things get tough. ~ Amen
Lynda Floyd and Berta Rickman
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April
1 1
Corinthians 11:23-26
Maundy Thursday
Join in the Banquet
23“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things
build up. 24Do not seek your
own advantage, but that of the other. 25Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any
question on the ground of conscience, 26for “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.”
1
Corinthians 10:23-26 (NRSV)
This
scripture seems to be a Christian reaction to Jewish dietary laws that in the
early church caused many problems as Gentiles began eating and living around
Jewish Christians. Meat is particularly
problematic since one does not know the source or cleanliness of the food … that’s
why our USDA was created. Therefore,
Jews typically cited religious reasons for not eating with Gentiles, and in the
case of the Corinthians felt superior to Gentiles because they refrained from
eating meat from the market. It is this
attitude of superiority and exclusive behavior that Paul is addressing in his
letter.
This
attitude is completely opposite of Jesus’ example given on this night where he
gave himself up for all. When we break
the bread and drink the cup, we remember this night that Christ did not
consider superior to others, but took the form of a slave, giving himself for
others out of love. This is the mind of
Christ that Paul points to in his letter to the Corinthians. It is the mind of Christ that we must have in
order to offer salvation to all.
Why?
Because no one likes to be around a
Christian who acts superior to others and has an attitude like “I’m saved and
going to heaven, you need what I’ve got or you will burn.” But most people love Christians who “do not
seek their own advantage, but that of others.”
Christians helping in Haiti come to mind, people who give themselves for
others in order to show them the love of God in Christ Jesus.
On
this Holy Thursday, let us remember the mind of Christ, his example of servant
hood and love, and follow him all the way to the cross and resurrection.
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
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April
2 John 18:1-19:42
Good Friday
On
this Good Friday, the Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus betrayal by
Judas, Simon Peter’s denial, and Jesus’ trial and execution. This story has been told for thousands of
years and is completely ingrained into our culture. Countless books, movies, and songs have been
written about the last hours of Jesus, and everyone immediately recognizes bits
and pieces, if not all, of this scripture.
So why tell it
again? Because it is the heart of our
faith.
Every individual
Christian has this story at the
center of their spiritual life no matter what theological or political
viewpoint he or she may have on other days.
Every Christian community: traditional or contemporary, Catholic or
Protestant, mega-church or small group, this
is the story that connects us
all. In Christ’s death, we are all
forgiven by God, and given new life because of his sacrifice on the cross.
I pray that as
you read this scripture, reflect on it, and hear it read in your church today …
you will be connected with the entire body of Christ present and throughout the
ages. For it is by grace we have been
saved, and that not of ourselves or by some church or anything but Christ’s
death upon the cross for our sin.
Remember your baptism today, dying with Christ, and be thankful to God
alone. Amen.
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
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But on the
first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices
that they had prepared. 2They
found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in,
they did not find the body. 4While
they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood
beside them. 5The women were
terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why
do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he
was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to
sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8Then they remembered his words, 9and
returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this
to the apostles. 11But these
words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the
tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he
went home, amazed at what had happened.
Being prepared for the impossible can be hard sometimes. Not know if it is real or just your imagination
playing tricks on you. When you lose
someone so special to your heart that is the moment that you realize that you
should have done a specific thing with that person. For example when I lost a dear friend of mine
I always think every day I should have been with her and why did I say no to
that. People always regret after losing
a friend, loved one, or that person who sat next to you and sharpened their
pencils all day. Personally, I think
that is one of the tests that God puts us through every day.
When the women went to the tomb on that day they were amazed. I think part of that is they didn’t believe as
I do. I believe that God can work in all
ways and his hand is in everything. He
is the one that decides whether or not we die today, tomorrow, this very
moment, or even next week. When seeing
that tomb I think that they found out about the true faith that we all should
have. I know there is always hope. Hope and faith to me are always hand in hand
working together. They are the earth's
survival balance. Without them, the
human race would be completely different. Our world would not be in wars or rescuing
people for Hati, we would just be a race with no drive, no saying, "We
will make a difference."
In the years that have past, the nation was always in need of hope. Even now in present day, people are struggling
and in need of hope and faith. I think we should all be Disciples of Christ, go
out to the world, and lend a hand. Help
people with their needs. The world is
full of people with needs. Every year
when Christmas comes most school clubs, churches, or many other places will
give gifts. When someone gives a gift
then they get joy no matter how small or inexpensive it is. After joy comes hope then faith. Helping people with holiday gifts is great,
but problems always happen all year.
Faith and hope have brought many people together. I know how much I try to get people to come to
church. Every day I bug my friend so do
you want to come to church yet? Of
course, she does not, and it is her choice so I don’t press too much, but if
she does then she can tell another person, and then that person will tell
others and others and so forth there is a chain reaction. By one person having faith they have changed
at least a million lives. Having faith
is the best thing you could ever get. So
always have faith and take life to the fullest through Christ.
Sara Hoskins
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He is not
here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He
has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will
see him.' Now I have told you." Matthew
28:6-7