Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Why Are You Silent?

Sustaining Hope
Dark Nights of the Soul


Rejoice Anyway

Habakkuk 1:12-17 The Message

12-13 God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you?
    Holy God, we aren’t going to die, are we?
God, you chose Babylonians for your judgment work?
    Rock-Solid God, you gave them the job of discipline?
But you can’t be serious!
    You can’t condone evil!
So why don’t you do something about this?
    Why are you silent now?
This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous
    and you stand around and watch!
14-16 You’re treating men and women
    as so many fish in the ocean,
Swimming without direction,
    swimming but not getting anywhere.
Then this evil Babylonian arrives and goes fishing.
    He pulls in a good catch.
He catches his limit and fills his creel—
    a good day of fishing! He’s happy!
He praises his rod and reel,
    piles his fishing gear on an altar and worships it!
It’s made his day,
    and he’s going to eat well tonight!
17 Are you going to let this go on and on?
    Will you let this Babylonian fisherman
Fish like a weekend angler,
    killing people as if they’re nothing but fish?
 
For Reflection
God is mysterious.  Humankind have a difficult time when their expectations for God's performance are measured in human terms.  God's time is not our time, God's methods are not human methods, God's expectations for humans are not derived from our humanity.

But God is compassionate,  God is just,  God is forgiving.  God manages God's creation so that Good triumphs over evil.  If we have patience, God's plan for God's kingdom will be realized.  God's plan for each of us will be fulfilled.
 
Pray
Rejoice in the living God.  Pray to the God of our salvation.  Pray for patience.  Pray for the wisdom to wait on the Lord.

Monday, September 29, 2014

How Long Shall I Cry Out?

Sustaining Hope
Dark Nights of the Soul

Rejoice Anyway

Habakkuk 1:1-11 The Message

Justice Is a Jok

1-4 The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:
God, how long do I have to cry out for help
    before you listen?
How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”
    before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
    stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
    quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
    Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous hamstrung
    and stand justice on its head.

God Says, “Look!”

5-11 “Look around at the godless nations.
    Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock.
Something’s about to take place
    and you’re going to find it hard to believe.
I’m about to raise up Babylonians to punish you,
    Babylonians, fierce and ferocious—
World-conquering Babylon,
    grabbing up nations right and left,
A dreadful and terrible people,
    making up its own rules as it goes.
Their horses run like the wind,
    attack like bloodthirsty wolves.
A stampede of galloping horses
    thunders out of nowhere.
They descend like vultures
    circling in on carrion.
They’re out to kill. Death is on their minds.
    They collect victims like squirrels gathering nuts.
They mock kings,
    poke fun at generals,
Spit on forts,
    and leave them in the dust.
They’ll all be blown away by the wind.
    Brazen in sin, they call strength their god.”

For Reflection
Have we lost the skill to look at the world through the eyes of God?  Have we no commonly acceptable method to see the hand of God in God's own Creation?  Think about the history of major justice issues.  How have they begun to resolve?  Couldn't you say at the beginning of justice movements, " Change is not impossible just improbable!"

God guides God's creation to a just resolution through the convergence of time and effort.  The improbable becomes realized and the Kingdom becomes more just, tolerant, compassionate and forgiving.
Pray
prayers of thanksgiving for those who act toward justice.  Pray prayers of thanksgiving for God's plan in the convergence of time, place and intent.  Pray so that you will be able to interpret the world from God's point of view.  Pray to find truth and hope in chaos.

Friday, September 26, 2014

The Lord Acts with Steadfast Love

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming


Improbable Possibilities

Jeremiah 9:17-24  The Message

A Life That Is All Outside but No Inside

17-19 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Look over the trouble we’re in and call for help.
    Send for some singers who can help us mourn our loss.
Tell them to hurry—
    to help us express our loss and lament,
Help us get our tears flowing,
    make tearful music of our crying.
Listen to it!
    Listen to that torrent of tears out of Zion:
‘We’re a ruined people,
    we’re a shamed people!
We’ve been driven from our homes
    and must leave our land!’”
20-21 Mourning women! Oh, listen to God’s Message!
    Open your ears. Take in what he says.
Teach your daughters songs for the dead
    and your friends the songs of heartbreak.
Death has climbed in through the window,
    broken into our bedrooms.
Children on the playgrounds drop dead,
    and young men and women collapse at their games.
22 Speak up! “God’s Message:
“‘Dead bodies everywhere, scattered at random
    like sheep and goat dung in the fields,
Like wheat cut down by reapers
    and left to rot where it falls.’”
23-24 God’s Message:
“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.
    Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.
    If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
    I’m God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what’s right and set things right and fair,
    and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks.”
    God’s Decree.

For Reflection
We strut around wearing the robes of righteousness but at times they just don't seem to fit. We admire the singers warbling empty lyrics.  We follow the crowd against the advise of our own beliefs.  We join the living dead, brag about false wisdom, and long to touch the heroes and the powerful and wealthy as though they had special properties that could rub off on us.

Wear the robes in humility and perfect confidence in the hope of God.  Live for the good in others.
Pray
prayers of thanksgiving for the perfect redemption in God.  Pray so that the the Holy Spirit will sustain you during good times and bad times.  Pray that you will adopt the magnificent love that God has gifted you and that God intends for you to use.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Hope of Israel

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming


Improbable Possibilities


Jeremiah 17:12-18  The Message

12-13 From early on your Sanctuary was set high,
    a throne of glory, exalted!
O God, you’re the hope of Israel.
    All who leave you end up as fools,
Deserters with nothing to show for their lives,
    who walk off from God, fountain of living waters—
    and wind up dead!
14-18 God, pick up the pieces.
    Put me back together again.
    You are my praise!
Listen to how they talk about me:
    “So where’s this ‘Word of God’?
    We’d like to see something happen!”
But it wasn’t my idea to call for Doomsday.
    I never wanted trouble.
You know what I’ve said.
    It’s all out in the open before you.
Don’t add to my troubles.
    Give me some relief!
Let those who harass me be harassed, not me.
    Let them be disgraced, not me.
Bring down upon them the day of doom.
    Lower the boom. Boom!

For Reflection
We all know people who we think need to feel the lowered "Boom!"  But, alas, it is not our right to judge who gets the "boom."  So we lament or whine to God to do something. 

We fail to recognize that God has already done something.  God has removed the threat of disgrace and the power of death.  Our complaints are a sure sign that we lack the confidence brought by placing our hope in the Holy Spirit.  Live as though you had perfect confidence in the Lord.  Live with the self-assured and God-assured promise of salvation.
Pray
prayers of thanksgiving.  Pray that you will recognize the relief that God has provided.  Pray that you will act in perfect confidence in the hope of God.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

I Will Heal Your Faithlessness

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Improbable Possibilities

Jeremiah 3:19-25  The Message

19-20 “I planned what I’d say if you returned to me:
    ‘Good! I’ll bring you back into the family.
I’ll give you choice land,
    land that the godless nations would die for.’
And I imagined that you would say, ‘Dear father!’
    and would never again go off and leave me.
But no luck. Like a false-hearted woman walking out on her husband,
    you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me.”
        God’s Decree.
21-22 The sound of voices comes drifting out of the hills,
    the unhappy sound of Israel’s crying,
Israel lamenting the wasted years,
    never once giving her God a thought.
“Come back, wandering children!
    I can heal your wanderlust!”
22-25 “We’re here! We’ve come back to you.
    You’re our own true God!
All that popular religion was a cheap lie,
    duped crowds buying up the latest in gods.
We’re back! Back to our true God,
    the salvation of Israel.
The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us
    of what our ancestors bequeathed us,
Gypped us out of our inheritance—
    God-blessed flocks and God-given children.
We made our bed and now lie in it,
    all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor.
All because we sinned against our God,
    we and our fathers and mothers.
From the time we took our first steps, said our first words,
    we’ve been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God.”

For Reflection
Over and over Biblical references to punishments related to separating one's-self from God are couched in human acts of defiance rather than in God's acts of retribution.  Does a God who suffers with us, or who hopes so deeply for our return to God's loving arms also strike out with switches of war and pestilence?

Perhaps.  But far more often human troubles are of our one devising; not God's.  They are a result of our own un-Godly action.  We are constantly duped by our own self-interest.  We are seduced by commonplace easy answers.  In times of plenty, we are lulled into believing that we have no need for God. In times of trouble we are quick to blame God or at least criticize God for not jumping in like Mighty Mouse to save the day.
Pray
for the courage to live a God-centered life. God will provide opportunities to express the courage of your faith.  Pray for a just world.  God will provide opportunities to seek and practice justice.  Pray for forgiveness.  God has forgiven you and will provide opportunities for you to forgive others.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Where Are Your Gods?

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Improbable Possibilities

Jeremiah 2:26-32  The Message

26-28 “Just as a thief is chagrined, but only when caught,
    so the people of Israel are chagrined,
Caught along with their kings and princes,
    their priests and prophets.
They walk up to a tree and say, ‘My father!’
    They pick up a stone and say, ‘My mother! You bore me!’
All I ever see of them is their backsides.
    They never look me in the face.
But when things go badly, they don’t hesitate to come running,
    calling out, ‘Get a move on! Save us!’
Why not go to your handcrafted gods you’re so fond of?
    Rouse them. Let them save you from your bad times.
You’ve got more gods, Judah,
    than you know what to do with.

Trying Out Another Sin-Project

29-30 “What do you have against me,
    running off to assert your ‘independence’?”
        God’s Decree.
“I’ve wasted my time trying to train your children.
    They’ve paid no attention to me, ignored my discipline.
And you’ve gotten rid of your God-messengers,
    treating them like dirt and sweeping them away.
31-32 “What a generation you turned out to be!
    Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I warn you?
Have I let you down, Israel?
    Am I nothing but a dead-end street?
Why do my people say, ‘Good riddance!
    From now on we’re on our own’?
Young women don’t forget their jewelry, do they?
    Brides don’t show up without their veils, do they?
But my people forget me.
    Day after day after day they never give me a thought.
 
For Reflection
When you are caught others have found out what you already know.  You have drifted away from the only way to live a successful life.  You have forgotten God.  But, God has not forgotten you.  The God of second chances is waiting for your request for help.  How hard do you have to hit the ground before you give it up to God?
 
Pray
Kneel before God.  Pray prayers of confession, repentance, obedience, praise and thanksgiving.  Pray to serve God.

Monday, September 22, 2014

In Returning You Shall Be Saved

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Improbable Possibilities

Isaiah 30:9-17  The Message

This Is a Rebel Generation

8-11 So, go now and write all this down.
    Put it in a book
So that the record will be there
    to instruct the coming generations,
Because this is a rebel generation,
    a people who lie,
A people unwilling to listen
    to anything God tells them.
They tell their spiritual leaders,
    “Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”
They tell their preachers,
    “Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better.
    Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us.
    Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”
12-14 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:
    “Because you scorn this Message,
Preferring to live by injustice
    and shape your lives on lies,
This perverse way of life
    will be like a towering, badly built wall
That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,
    and then one day, without warning, collapses—
Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
    smashed beyond recognition or repair,
Useless, a pile of debris
    to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”

God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right

15-17 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
    has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
    and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
    in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
    you’ve been unwilling to do.
You’ve said, ‘Nothing doing! We’ll rush off on horseback!’
    You’ll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!
You’ve said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses!’
    Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?
Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.
    Before a mere five you’ll all run off.
There’ll be nothing left of you—
    a flagpole on a hill with no flag,
    a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off.”
 
For Reflection
So it all comes to this.  God sets humans in paradise. Humans forsake God, thus separating themselves from their origins.  God offers reconciliation.  Humans, for short periods in time return to obedience and then fail. God makes it right over and over and over again.  Justice is never out of style.  Compassion is never out-dated.  Peace is always illusive.

Human-kind makes a mess of what God has given.  Human-kind is rarely a good steward of God's creation.  Even so, and perhaps because humans are lured by self deception into believing they can survive without God, God remains faithful to God's promise of a life bathed in divine justice, compassion and forgiveness.
 
Pray
to the God who never forsakes us.  Pray prayers of confession and repentance.  Pray so that your path will be righteous,

Friday, September 19, 2014

Set Up Road Markers

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Restoration

Jeremiah 31:18-25  The Message

18-19 “I’ve heard the contrition of Ephraim.
    Yes, I’ve heard it clearly, saying,
‘You trained me well.
    You broke me, a wild yearling horse, to the saddle.
Now put me, trained and obedient, to use.
    You are my God.
After those years of running loose, I repented.
    After you trained me to obedience,
I was ashamed of my past, my wild, unruly past.
    Humiliated, I beat on my chest.
Will I ever live this down?’
20 “Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son,
    my child in whom I take pleasure!
Every time I mention his name,
    my heart bursts with longing for him!
Everything in me cries out for him.
    Softly and tenderly I wait for him.” God’s Decree.
21-22 “Set up signposts to mark your trip home.
    Get a good map.
Study the road conditions.
    The road out is the road back.
Come back, dear virgin Israel,
    come back to your hometowns.
How long will you flit here and there, indecisive?
    How long before you make up your fickle mind?
God will create a new thing in this land:
    A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!”
23-24 A Message from Israel’s God-of-the-Angel-Armies: “When I’ve turned everything around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be heard on the streets: ‘God bless you!’ . . . ‘O True Home!’ . . . ‘O Holy Mountain!’ All Judah’s people, whether in town or country, will get along just fine with each other.
25 I’ll refresh tired bodies;
I’ll restore tired souls.
 
For Reflection
What are the sign posts on your road to righteousness?  What benchmarks your faith in God?  How do you know that you are on the right path?
 
Pray
that God will lead you in paths of righteousness.  Pray so that you can listen to God's directions.  Pray, asking directions in your God journey.  Pray for your return to your home in the hollows of God's hands.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Hope for Your Future

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Restoration

Jeremiah 31:15-17  The Message

15-17 Again, God’s Message:
“Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah,
    wild and bitter weeping.
It’s Rachel weeping for her children,
    Rachel refusing all solace.
Her children are gone,
    gone—long gone into exile.”
But God says, “Stop your incessant weeping,
    hold back your tears.
Collect wages from your grief work.” God’s Decree.
    “They’ll be coming back home!
There’s hope for your children.” God’s Decree.
 
For Reflection
We all yearn for what we have lost.  Many long for the "good old days."  Many long for the joy of childhood. Many long for lost companions.  Many long for the days of peace and justice they romanticize in memory.

But, God promises a return to the joy and hope not lost, just forgotten.  In our sorrow over present times we must not suffer in extreme nor must we mourn to the grave.  In God there is hope.  Even if current troubles are not resolved in our life times, God will bring forgiveness, justice and peace just as God always has.
 
Pray
for the courage to live hopeful lives in spite of sorrowful times.  Pray for those that hopelessly mourn that which they never had.  Pray for those who long for a future devoid of sorrow.  Pray for the peace which comes only from the promise of God.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

I Will Gather Them

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Restoration

Jeremiah 31:7-14 The Message

Oh yes, God says so:
“Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!
    Announce the good news to the number-one nation!
Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,
    God has saved his people,
    saved the core of Israel.’
“Watch what comes next:
“I’ll bring my people back
    from the north country
And gather them up from the ends of the earth,
    gather those who’ve gone blind
And those who are lame and limping,
    gather pregnant women,
Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,
    bring them all back, a huge crowd!
“Watch them come! They’ll come weeping for joy
    as I take their hands and lead them,
Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,
    lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
Yes, it’s because I’m Israel’s Father
    and Ephraim’s my firstborn son!
10-14 “Hear this, nations! God’s Message!
    Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, ‘The One who scattered Israel
    will gather them together again.
From now on he’ll keep a careful eye on them,
    like a shepherd with his flock.’
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;
    I’ll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zion’s slopes shouting with joy,
    their faces beaming because of God’s bounty—
Grain and wine and oil,
    flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,
    never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy,
    young men and old men will join in.
I’ll convert their weeping into laughter,
    lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
I’ll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day
    and that my people have more than enough.’” God’s Decree.
 
For Reflection
We are a scattered people, separated by distance, race, sex and culture.  We are separated from each other and from God.

But, hear the good news.  God wants us together, united in God's love for us, united in our love of God.  It is a time of hope.  It is a time of celebration.  It is a time of rejoicing.
 
Pray
Sing songs of hope.  Sing songs of triumph. Sing songs of praise.  Sing! Sing! Sing!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Ministers of a New Covenant

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Restoration

2 Corinthians 3:4-11  The Message

4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!

Lifting the Veil

7-8 The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses’ face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun. How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?
9-11 If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?

For Reflection
Are we not all, in some sense, caught up in governments of death?  I am not anti-government.  That would be senseless.  What is Caesar's is Caesar's.

But governments, even those who strive for justice, can never be just, never compassionate enough, never righteousness.  Only a God-centered government can be righteous.    Live in the kingdom of God.  Live righteous lives, filling the gaps in a secular culture, righting the wrongs in a inevitably imperfect society.
Pray
for strength and courage to live in the Kingdom of God.  Pray for the strong hands in god's angel armies to pave the way for righteous alternatives.  Pray for justice, forgiveness and peace.

Monday, September 15, 2014

A Better Covenant

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

Restoration

Hebrews 8:1, 7-13 The Message

A New Plan with Israel

1-2 In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.
6-13 But Jesus’ priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he’s working from a far better plan. If the first plan—the old covenant—had worked out, a second wouldn’t have been needed. But we know the first was found wanting, because God said,
Heads up! The days are coming
    when I’ll set up a new plan
    for dealing with Israel and Judah.
I’ll throw out the old plan
    I set up with their ancestors
    when I led them by the hand out of Egypt.
They didn’t keep their part of the bargain,
    so I looked away and let it go.
This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I’ll be their God,
    they’ll be my people.
They won’t go to school to learn about me,
    or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They’ll all get to know me firsthand,
    the little and the big, the small and the great.
They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
    with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.
By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.
 
For Reflection
God's promise of the developing Kingdom of God never changes.  God's promise is just expanded to include all of humankind.  God is not about changing the other guy.  God is about changing you.  Accept God's overture for peace and justice.  Change your perception of yourself as a victim of your culture.  While there is little you can do about the other guy, there is great peace and satisfaction in changing your own perceptions.  Let God deal with others who are in conflict with you.  God is good at that.
 
Pray
Kneel before God.  Pray prayers of confession, repentance, obedience, praise and thanksgiving.  Pray to serve God.

Friday, September 12, 2014

The Future is Now!

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

A New Future

Jeremiah 30:1-3, 18-22  The Message

30 1-2 This is the Message Jeremiah received from God: “God’s Message, the God of Israel: ‘Write everything I tell you in a book.
“‘Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people, both Israel and Judah. I, God, say so. I’ll bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors, and they’ll take up ownership again.’”
18-21 “Again, God’s Message:
“‘I’ll turn things around for Jacob.
    I’ll compassionately come in and rebuild homes.
The town will be rebuilt on its old foundations;
    the mansions will be splendid again.
Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows;
    laughter will spill through the doors.
Things will get better and better.
    Depression days are over.
They’ll thrive, they’ll flourish.
    The days of contempt will be over.
They’ll look forward to having children again,
    to being a community in which I take pride.
I’ll punish anyone who hurts them,
    and their prince will come from their own ranks.
One of their own people shall be their leader.
    Their ruler will come from their own ranks.
I’ll grant him free and easy access to me.
    Would anyone dare to do that on his own,
    to enter my presence uninvited?’ God’s Decree.
22 “‘And that’s it: You’ll be my very own people,
    I’ll be your very own God.’”
 
For Reflection
Friday is a time for grieving.  Friday is a time for lamentations.  Friday is the day when one realizes loss.  Friday is the day in which one is closest to hopelessness.  Friday is the day for crying.  Friday is the day for feeling alone.  Friday is depressing.

But wait!  As one talented minister put it,  "Its Friday, but, Sunday's a-comin."  Hope arrives on Sunday.  Peace is heralded on Sunday.  Justice rides on angel armies on Sunday.  Death is defeated on Sunday.  Righteousness reigns on Sunday.  Forgiveness and Grace mark our lives on Sunday.  Sunday is the day for singing praises to the God who died and has risen in glory.  The Kingdom of God arrives on Sunday.  Hallelujah!
 
Pray
Sing songs of praises to the living God.  Give thanks to the God that defies death.  Rejoice in hope that resides in a life centered in the loving hands of God.  Amen and Amen!

Surely God Is My Salvation

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

A New Future

Isaiah 12 The Message

My Strength and Song

12 And you will say in that day,
    “I thank you, God.
You were angry
    but your anger wasn’t forever.
You withdrew your anger
    and moved in and comforted me.
“Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.
    I trust, I won’t be afraid.
God—yes God!—is my strength and song,
    best of all, my salvation!”
3-4 Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water
    from the wells of salvation.
And as you do it, you’ll say,
    “Give thanks to God.
Call out his name.
    Ask him anything!
Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done,
    spread the news of his great reputation!
5-6 “Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all!
    Let the whole earth know what he’s done!
Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion!
    The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.”
 
For Reflection
What joy is found living in the hollow of God's hand!  Sing away your fear.  God is your God of salvation and sure defense and Christ is your savior.  Yes! Yes and Yes!
 
Pray
Sing, praising the living Lord.  Make joyful noises this day and every day.  Let your soul soar with your heart. 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Wolf and Lamb Live Together

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

A New Future

Isaiah 11:6-10  The Message

A Living Knowledge of God

6-9 The wolf will romp with the lamb,
    the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
    and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
    their calves and cubs grow up together,
    and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
    the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
    on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
    a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.
10 On that day, Jesse’s Root will be raised high, posted as a rallying banner for the peoples. The nations will all come to him. His headquarters will be glorious.

For Reflection
These and the un-cited passages which precede and supersede them are prophesies of the first and second coming of Jesus.  It is through Christ that we know God.  It is through Christ that God's will for human kind is demonstrated.  It is through Christ that the hope of salvation from the constrictions of this world is realized.  It is through Christ that God will be victorious.
Pray
Praise God for his compassionate grace.  Praise God for the gift of Christ.  Praise God for the power of reconciliation.  Praise God for the gates of God's Kingdom are open to all.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

I Will Surely Gather Them

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming

A New Future

Jeremiah 32:36-44  The Message

36 “But there is also this Message from me, the God of Israel, to this city of which you have said, ‘In killing and starvation and disease this city will be delivered up to the king of Babylon’:
37-40 “‘Watch for this! I will collect them from all the countries to which I will have driven them in my anger and rage and indignation. Yes, I’ll bring them all back to this place and let them live here in peace. They will be my people, I will be their God. I’ll make them of one mind and heart, always honoring me, so that they can live good and whole lives, they and their children after them. What’s more, I’ll make a covenant with them that will last forever, a covenant to stick with them no matter what, and work for their good. I’ll fill their hearts with a deep respect for me so they’ll not even think of turning away from me.
41 “‘Oh how I’ll rejoice in them! Oh how I’ll delight in doing good things for them! Heart and soul, I’ll plant them in this country and keep them here!’
42-44 “Yes, this is God’s Message: ‘I will certainly bring this huge catastrophe on this people, but I will also usher in a wonderful life of prosperity. I promise. Fields are going to be bought here again, yes, in this very country that you assume is going to end up desolate—gone to the dogs, unlivable, wrecked by the Babylonians. Yes, people will buy farms again, and legally, with deeds of purchase, sealed documents, proper witnesses—and right here in the territory of Benjamin, and in the area around Jerusalem, around the villages of Judah and the hill country, the Shephelah and the Negev. I will restore everything that was lost.’ God’s Decree.”
 
For Reflection
Reconciliation is the way of God.  God has made a one way covenant with the human race.  It is a covenant intended to bring peace and prosperous living to God's creation.  God delights in human righteousness.
 
Pray
for righteous living.  Pray that you will be ever-thankful to the living God for the gift of reconciliation which you have accepted. Pray that God's faith in you will never be returned to God by your unfaithful action.