Thursday, May 31, 2018

The Father and I Are Working


God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

John 5:9-18 The Message

8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”
11 But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”
12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.
14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”
15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus defended himself. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”
18 That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God.

For Reflection

This story illustrates not only the uselessness of the Sabbath rules it points out that the healed man was not only physically healed but spiritually healed as well. The warning that something unpleasant would happen was not that God would deliver death blows if the man returned to a life that separated him from God. It was that unpleasantness would be a natural result of beliefs or actions which were inconsistent with a loving relationship with God. 

It was not only from his physical infirmity that the man suffered and was healed.  He was also healed from his spiritual blindness. His infirmity was a part of his human condition. His spiritual infirmity resulted from his inability to see beyond his circumstance into God's intent for his life, his purpose for being. Jesus warns that the results of disturbing a right relationship with God are far more harmful than physical sufferings.

Pray

Pray so that you will be able to see beyond your corporeal existence into God's will for you in God's kingdom.


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

The Sabbath is for Merciful Acts

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Luke 14:1-6 The Message

14 1-3 One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move. Right before him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars and Pharisees present, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?”
4-6 They were silent. So he took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then he said, “Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath?” They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.

For Reflection

God created the Sabbath so that the people of God would rest from their physical labors and become refreshed.  It was a time for reflecting on the gifts of God, worship, and contemplation.  It was the one time in a busy schedule where believers could study, discuss, and listen for the Word.
Institutionalizing the practice brought various rules on how Sabbath activity was to be conducted.  These rules refocused the believers on the ritual of the Sabbath and bled attention from the intent of Sabbath.  One can follow the rules without thought and think that their righteous behavior guaranteed entry into God's Kingdom. This outcome is another example of how rules create an empty relationship with God, doing all the right stuff for the wrong reason.

Pray

Pray not out of fear but out of love.  Pray with your action. As you give to others, your also give to God.


Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Plucking Grain


God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Deuteronomy 23:25 The Message

24-25 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want until you’re full, but you may not put any in your bucket or bag. And when you walk through the ripe grain of your neighbor, you may pick the heads of grain, but you may not swing your sickle there.

For Reflection

Following the law is often difficult.  Neither our laws nor the Mosaic law could fit every emerging circumstance.  The Scripture illustrates one of those "exceptions" to the Sabbath law. However, no matter how many rules we devise we cannot possibly foresee all circumstances which would challenge the veracity of the law.

That's why when asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, love. Acting out of the quality of love God shows to us, perfects us. Acing out of love gives us freedom from the letter of the law to follow the intent of God's law. When acting out of love without an expectation of a return, we give to others, and we give to God.

Pray

Pray to embrace God's love. Pray to extend that love to others. The act giving is a prayer to God.

Monday, May 28, 2018

The Lord Desires Mercy Not Sacrifice


God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Hosea 6:1-7 The Message

Gangs of Priests Assaulting Worshipers

6 1-3 “Come on, let’s go back to God.
    He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.
He hit us hard,
    but he’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
    By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new,
Alive and on our feet,
    fit to face him.
We’re ready to study God,
    eager for God-knowledge.
As sure as dawn breaks,
    so sure is his daily arrival.
He comes as rain comes,
    as spring rain refreshing the ground.”
4-7 “What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
    What do I make of you, Judah?
Your declarations of love last no longer
    than morning mist and predawn dew.
That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention,
    why my words cut you to the quick:
To wake you up to my judgment
    blazing like light.
I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.
    I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
You broke the covenant—just like Adam!
    You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches!

For Reflection

Like Adam, we broke our covenant with God. In doing so. We have difficulty seeing or knowing the will of God. We become so frustrated by a deep dissatisfaction with things as we think they are. It is then, with nothing satisfying to which to turn, we reach out to God.  God will then give us the opportunity to understand, to know the love, goodness, and mercy that is our God. Then we realize the suffering is of our own making and we begin to see beyond our human condition and into the will of God.

Pray

Pray prayers of confession. Ask God to ease your suffering and God will illuminate your path to salvation.  Pray and look for the opportunities God has given you and find in them the rest and peace that is yours.


Friday, May 25, 2018

Jesus, the People's High Priest Forever


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 7:18-28 The Message

15-19 But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life—he lives!—“priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.” The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside; the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.
20-22 The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise:
God gave his word;
    he won’t take it back:
“You’re the permanent priest.”
This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.
23-25 Earlier there were a lot of priests, for they died and had to be replaced. But Jesus’ priesthood is permanent. He’s there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.  Human priests were imperfect.  Christ has been perfected through his human existence so that we may have absolute confidence and trust in His priesthood.  Christ's authority extends from God to resolve the consequences of sin.

For Reflection

What is the blessing of having Jesus as the High Priest?  It means we have the most high-status representation of our humanity at the right hand of God. Christ intercedes for us. Because we are prone to sin, we can turn directly to Christ for forgiveness and the blessings of grace.

Pray

Confess your shortcomings to Jesus. Pray so that you will commit your life, sacrificially, to the will of God as revealed in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.


Thursday, May 24, 2018

Jesus Destroys the Devil's Power


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 2:14-18 The Message

14-15 Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18 It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.

For Reflection

I suppose that these passages beg for the definition of the Devil, or Satan.  In the earliest of Hebrew writings, neither God nor Satan were personified.  God was the symbol of the Creator and Satan was the symbol for the environmental seductions that appealed to the human egoism. As long as humans respond to the corporeal realities they interpret as truths, they will continue to box themselves into an existence of suffering at the hand of human folly and captives of human rationality.  Jesus has shown us that embracing the style and wisdom of God-centered living, frees humankind to make choices that are more in line with the will of God.

When one becomes frustrated with the consequences of one's life choices and perceives dissatisfaction in spite of the blessings one's choices have generated, that person will be ready for the God whispers that will free him or her. The idolatry of selfishness will die and in its place will be a reconciled soul-satisfying relationship with God.

Pray

Pray so that you will recognize the yearnings for satisfaction for what they are, a burning desire for a God-centered life.  Pray to find the opportunities to become a God collaborator.


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Salvation Through Suffering


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 2:10-13 The Message

10-13 It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.

For Reflection

What does it mean to be "perfected through suffering."  I suppose we could ask Job. What was it that Job understood after his suffering that he did not know before and with knowing, placed him at peace.
The short answer, but mysterious one, is that Job looked into the face of God and saw himself in a relationship with the Creation. Job may have understood that suffering is not penitence.

Quite the opposite, hard or easy sufferings spur our need to seek wisdom and understanding. Suffering is not bad but a natural phenomenon of living.  A man deeply suffers the loss of his wife who died after a long and painful illness. The man sees his own pain and wishes he would have died instead. If his wish to die before his wife were realized, his wish would transfer his suffering to his wife. Trading places does not free his wife from the pain of suffering his death. It merely ends the husband's pain.

God shows us the reality of the world in which we live and offers another perception. God asks us to set aside our negative opinion of suffering and instead look for the intent of God in the design of God's creation. Christ suffered a horrible death. But Christ yet lives. Where, indeed, is the sting of life and death.

Pray

Pray for those who suffer. Pray that they will be able to see past the human condition into God's intention that through suffering we grow into perfect harmony with God's creation.


Friday, May 18, 2018

Helping One Another Face Difficulties

Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy


Leviticus 25:35-38 Amplified Bible

Of Poor Countrymen

35 ‘Now if your fellow countryman becomes poor and his hand falters with you [that is, he has trouble repaying you for something], then you are to help and sustain him, [with courtesy and consideration] like [you would] a stranger or a temporary resident [without property], so that he may live among you. 36 Do not charge him usurious interest, but fear your God [with profound reverence], so your countryman may [continue to] live among you. 37 You shall not give him your money at interest, nor your food at a profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God

For Reflection

With today's high credit card debt and interest rates that for many people border on usury, the poor are subject to yet another inhibiting and debilitating burden.  We who are not jobless, living under the poverty line, or under the average wage only have a dim understanding of how burdensome and soul devouring poverty is. The key to escaping poverty is not just getting a job if the monetary return on working is too little to support oneself or family. Any little bump which for the majority of us would be ignored, at that lower level of wealth is a catastrophe and at times a matter of life and death.


We are no stronger as a community than the weakest among us. Poverty is not a punishment for life's untoward circumstances. Poverty is our opportunity to share. Impoverishment yields only elevated social, political, criminal, economic and spiritual poverty. Helping others survive is not an option. It is an investment in our collective survival!

Pray

Make your life a living prayer for those who suffer the results of impoverishment.


Thursday, May 17, 2018

Fairness in Buying and Selling


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy


Leviticus 25:13-17 Amplified Bible

13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his own [ancestral] property. 14 If you sell anything to your friend or buy from your friend, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall [a]buy from your friend. And he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops [which may be harvested before you must restore the property to him]. 16 If the years [until the next Jubilee] are many, you shall increase the price, but if the years remaining are few, you shall reduce the price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God [with profound reverence]; for I am the Lord your God.

For Reflection

The Year of Jubilee seems to be the Jewish reset button.  It recognizes, accepts, and confronts human error in the business dealings we have with each other.  With these passages, God wishes us to understand we do not own God's universe. We merely rent it!

How would following such a regulation in today's world change the way you deal with each other?

Pray

Pray so that all of your interactions with the people and the environment in which your life 1s based is the equitable distribution of all of God's largess.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Bear Each Other' Burdens


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy


Galatians 6:1-5 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Bear One Another’s Burdens

6 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well. 2 Carry one another’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the requirements of the law of Christ [that is, the law of Christian love]. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something [special] when [in fact] he is nothing [special except in his own eyes], he deceives himself. 4 But each one must carefully scrutinize his own work [examining his actions, attitudes, and behavior], and then he can have the personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable [a]without comparing himself to another. 5 For every person will have to bear [with patience] his own burden [of faults and shortcomings for which he alone is responsible].

For Reflection

Jesus repeats the commandment found in Leviticus.  Love your neighbor and your enemy as yourself. 
This commandment is a foundation of Jewish and Christian faith. We, who believe, are asked to carry the burdens of others as though we are burdened in the same way.  We are asked not to pity or merely empathize. We are asked not to be merciful, but to act in sincere communion with each other and with God. In this way, each of us is elevated to approach human perfection.

Pray

Pray so that you can see as God sees the burdens of others.  Pray so that you have the grace and wisdom to help carry each other's loads.  Pray that you will love as God loves and comfort as God comforts. 

Forward to a friend


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Share with All


Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy


Acts 4:32-37 Amplified Bible

Sharing among Believers

32 Now the company of believers was of one heart and soul, and not one [of them] claimed that anything belonging to him was [exclusively] his own, but everything was common property and for the use of all. 33 And with great ability and power the apostles were continuously testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace [God’s remarkable lovingkindness and favor and goodwill] rested richly upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them, and bringing the proceeds of the sales 35 and placing the money down at the apostles’ feet. Then it was distributed to each as anyone had need.
36 Now Joseph, a Levite and native of Cyprus, who was surnamed [a]Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), 37 sold a field belonging to him and brought the money and set it at the apostles’ feet.

For Reflection

The world seems to be dominated by the idea, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours." Even families seem to operate that way.

Many immigrants seeking freedom and security in the United States survive by living communally. They share a home, a car, income and food not only with each other but also with their families in their native lands. They seem to thrive on the premise, "What's yours is yours, and what's mine is also yours."

It seems to me that is also how God deals with us.  It all belongs to God, and God shares willingly and abundantly.  Couldn't we do the same with each other?

Pray

Pray to share our loving kindness and goodwill.  The shared burden of wellbeing will bring joy and peace to us all.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Keeping the Sabbath Yields Good Crops

Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy


Leviticus 26:3-6 Amplified Bible 
3 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and [obediently] do them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield her produce and the trees of the field bear their fruit. 5 And your threshing season will last until grape gathering and the grape gathering [time] will last until planting, and you will eat your bread and be filled and live securely in your land. 6 I will also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down and there will be no one to make you afraid. I will also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

For Reflection

God doesn't ask us to believe merely but to walk in God's statutes.  To integrate his laws into the depth of our souls so that we can not help but comply with the things which will perfect us.  It follows, then, that if we are obedient and trusting and walk the talk, our lives will be blessed. We will understand the world in which we live from a new perspective of love and fulfillment.

Pray

Pray so that you will embed the will of God deeply into your soul.


Thursday, May 10, 2018

Acceptable Offerings Are Without Blemish


Give Praise to God

Honor God with Your First Fruits

Leviticus 22:17-25 The Message

17-25 God spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons and all the People of Israel, Each and every one of you, whether native-born or foreigner, who presents a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God to fulfill a vow or as a Freewill-Offering, must make sure that it is a male without defect from cattle, sheep, or goats for it to be acceptable. Don’t try slipping in some creature that has a defect—it won’t be accepted. Whenever anyone brings an offering from cattle or sheep as a Peace-Offering to God to fulfill a vow or as a Freewill-Offering, it has to be perfect, without defect, to be acceptable. Don’t try giving God an animal that is blind, crippled, mutilated, an animal with running sores, a rash, or mange. Don’t place any of these on the Altar as a gift to God. You may, though, offer an ox or sheep that is deformed or stunted as a Freewill-Offering, but it is not acceptable in fulfilling a vow. Don’t offer to God an animal with bruised, crushed, torn, or cut-off testicles. Don’t do this in your own land but don’t accept them from foreigners and present them as food for your God either. Because of deformities and defects, they will not be acceptable.”

For Reflection

The guidelines Moses gave to the people of God is worth remembering.  Of course, we no longer offer burnt offerings. We submit ourselves to the service of God.  That offering is as essential to our contemporary lives as it was to those in Moses' age. So, it should be given freely with no hidden agenda for reward or even response. The gift of grace should be shared humbly and without reticence.

Pray

Prayers are sacred.  They should be made sincerely without selfish motive. Pray so that you strengthen your relationship with God.  Pray by action as a child of God. 


Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Gifts, a Pleasing Sacrifice to God


Give Praise to God

Honor God with Your First Fruits


Philippians 4:15-20 The Message (MSG)

15-17 You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I’ll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out—and not only once, but twice. Not that I’m looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.
18-20 And now I have it all—and keep getting more! The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.

For Reflection

One person giving - yields one church giving - yields a community of givers.  A community of prayer, walking in the belief in the Savior, Jesus Christ. What a powerful blessing to those in physical and spiritual need.  In giving without expectation for a return, we become humble servants of the Word.

Pray

Pray for humility and the capacity for grace and God will provide the opportunity and confidence to participate as a partner in freeing the world's darkest captives.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Martyrs, First Fruits for God


Give Praise to God

Honor God with Your First Fruits

Revelation 14:1-5 The Message (MSG)

A Perfect Offering

14 1-2 I saw—it took my breath away!—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, 144,000 standing there with him, his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads. And I heard a voice out of Heaven, the sound like a cataract, like the crash of thunder.
2-5 And then I heard music, harp music andthe harpists singing a new song before the Throne and the Four Animals and the Elders. Only the 144,000 could learn to sing the song. They were bought from earth, lived without compromise, virgin-fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed. They were bought from humankind, firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb. Not a false word in their mouths. A perfect offering.

For Reflection

If you have died to your former self and been resurrected into a person transformed by your dedication to God, you are a martyr. As one who trusts in the Lord you have a special knowledge, a God-centered point of view about the world and your role in it. You have gained a perspective that encourages you to interact with the world in ways that are unanticipated by those who do not walk in the light of  The Word. The name of God written in your soul and visible to all you encounter will spark joy in some and fear in others. Some will be attracted.  Others out of ignorance and fear will strengthen themselves in the security of old accepted (but not effective) patterns.  Be assured that in God's time all will rest in Grace.

Pray

Pray for those who fear the light of  The Word so that you will be reminded to walk in the confidence of the Lord. Pray for those who suffer for The Word so that they will be bolstered by your abiding Grace.

Monday, May 7, 2018

Honor God with Your First Fruits


Give Praise to God

Honor God with Your First Fruits


Proverbs 3:1-12 The Message

Don’t Assume You Know It All
3 1-2 Good friend, don’t forget all I’ve taught you;
    take to heart my commands.
They’ll help you live a long, long time,
    a long life lived full and well.
3-4 Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty.
    Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.
Earn a reputation for living well
    in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people.
5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
    Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
    your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
    give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
    your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
    don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
    a father’s delight is behind all this.

For Reflection

What are you providing to enlarge the Kingdom of God? Are you giving what is left over after all of your obligations are met, or do you first give to God's work and then contribute the rest of your time, talent, and resources to your pursuits?

Perhaps such giving, before or after your priorities is a sign of the strength of your belief and trust in God. Maybe it is not practical to give God priority to monetary gifts. Money is not the most potent gift anyone rich or poor possesses anyway.

The most precious and intimate gift you have to contribute is your time and talent. In short, the first fruits of your existence are lodged in the essence of who you think your self to be.  Have you given your self entirely to God? Your commitment to living the way Christ has shown us to live is the only tribute that delights God.

Pray

Walking in the way of the Lord in the care and guidance of the Holy Spirit is the only prayer that matters.

Friday, May 4, 2018

Gifts for the Tabernacle

Acknowledging God

Give from a Generous Heart

Exodus 35:10-19 The Message

10-19 “Come—all of you who have skills—come and make everything that God has commanded: The Dwelling with its tent and cover, its hooks, frames, crossbars, posts, and bases; the Chest with its poles, the Atonement-Cover and veiling curtain; the Table with its poles and implements and the Bread of the Presence; the Lampstand for giving light with its furnishings and lamps and the oil for lighting; the Altar of Incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense; the screen for the door at the entrance to The Dwelling; the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering with its bronze grate and poles and all its implements; the Washbasin with its base; the tapestry hangings for the Courtyard with the posts and bases, the screen for the Courtyard gate; the pegs for The Dwelling, the pegs for the Courtyard with their cords; the official vestments for ministering in the Holy Place, the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest and for his sons serving as priests.”

For Reflection

Each of God's flock had been on the receiving end.  In their gratitude, they gave to the glory of the Giver. They gave their talents, the best of their goods, everything from bowls to balusters, from tapestries to vestments.

Today our gifts to God are sometimes less personal, less identified with who we are.  We give money and buy glorious edifices and worship places. One could conclude that because our gifts are predominately monitory, we are less invested.  Well, perhaps some are, but many give beyond their money, giving time and talent sacrificially.

Pray

Pray that your contribution to the church and its mission reflects an intimate relationship with God.

Forward to a friend
 

Thursday, May 3, 2018

All Tithes Are Holy

Acknowledging God

Give from a Generous Heart

Leviticus 27:30-33 The Message

30-33 “A tenth of the land’s produce, whether grain from the ground or fruit from the trees, is God’s. It is holy to God. If a man buys back any of the tenth he has given, he must add twenty percent to it. A tenth of the entire herd and flock, every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod, is holy to God. He is not permitted to pick out the good from the bad or make a substitution. If he dishonestly makes a substitution, both animals, the original and the substitute, become the possession of the Sanctuary and cannot be redeemed.”

For Reflection

The Tithe, one-tenth of the harvest, rent paid to the landowner, God.
To what extent do we, today, act as though God owns it all? If we did, how would our attitudes toward ourselves, each other and the Earth be different?

Pray

Pray so that you can become one of God's stewards, protecting and caring for all of God's creation; human, beast, and soil.

Forward to a friend

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Gather Together Your Bountiful Gift

Acknowledging God

Give from a Generous Heart

2 Corinthians 9:1-5 The Message

9 1-2 If I wrote any more on this relief offering for the poor Christians, I’d be repeating myself. I know you’re on board and ready to go. I’ve been bragging about you all through Macedonia province, telling them, “Achaia province has been ready to go on this since last year.” Your enthusiasm by now has spread to most of them.
3-5 Now I’m sending the brothers to make sure you’re ready, as I said you would be, so my bragging won’t turn out to be just so much hot air. If some Macedonians and I happened to drop in on you and found you weren’t prepared, we’d all be pretty red-faced—you and us—for acting so sure of ourselves. So to make sure there will be no slip up, I’ve recruited these brothers as an advance team to get you and your promised offering all ready before I get there. I want you to have all the time you need to make this offering in your own way. I don’t want anything forced or hurried at the last minute.

For Reflection


I have just finished working where almost all of the production people were immigrants; Nigeria, Burma, Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, and others.  Interesting that most were Christians who were brave enough to trust God to find safety and a new life in the United States.

They tend to live in communal groups, sharing transportation, shelter, and food.  They survive on faith and a culture of sharing for the common good. Poor, but not impoverished, they are filled with hope and determined to thrive. They are prepared materially and spiritually. They are prepared and willing to sacrifice personal security for the security of the group.

I like to think that this is similar to the way the first groups of Christians survived and grew in spirit and number.

Pray

Pray for those who sacrifice all to grow into the plan God has set for them.  Pray that when faced with an insurmountable risk you will have the confidence in God to step off the ledge of security and into the Grace of God.

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Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Give Alms Quietly

Acknowledging God

Give from a Generous Heart

Matthew 6:1-4 The Message

The World Is Not a Stage

6 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

For Reflection

When we give, alms or spiritual guidance, we should do it in Christian humility. We should not expect a return on our gifts. We should give unconditionally. Such quiet giving encourages freedom to accept which is a significant characteristic of God's bestowal.

Pray

Pray so that you will be increasingly aware of the needs of others.  Pray so that you can give and preserve the dignity of all who receive.
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