God is Our Shield

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Let Zion Rejoice

Genesis 15:1-6  The Message

15 After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

^2-3 Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”
⁴ Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”
⁵ Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”
⁶ And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”

 
For Reflection
Think of the blessings in your life.  remember those which were unexpected.  Remember those which at first glance did not appear as blessings.  Assign blessings to the hand of God.

Pray
thanking God for the blessings in your life.  Praise God for God' compassion and generosity. Pray so that you hold on to hope in God's promise.

The God of our Salvation

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Let Zion Rejoice

Psalm 85:1-7  The Message

A Korah Psalm

85 ^1-3 God, you smiled on your good earth!
    You brought good times back to Jacob!
You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people,
    you put their sins far out of sight.
You took back your sin-provoked threats,
    you cooled your hot, righteous anger.

^4-7 Help us again, God of our help;
    don’t hold a grudge against us forever.
You aren’t going to keep this up, are you?
    scowling and angry, year after year?
Why not help us make a fresh start—a resurrection life?
    Then your people will laugh and sing!
Show us how much you love us, God!
    Give us the salvation we need!

 
For Reflection
The Church stumbles and staggers in imperfect ways to foster the Kingdom of God.  But with each stumble, each faltering step, God ensures progress toward the Kingdom.

Pray
Pray for the Church.  Pray so that the Church invites a resurrection life.  Pray for church leaders so that they may heed the word of God and work for compassion, peace, justice and forgiveness as guiding principles for world governance.

Hope Set in the Living God

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Let Zion Rejoice

1 Timothy 4:4-14  The Message

Teach with Your Life

4 ^1-5 The Spirit makes it clear that as time goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional liars. These liars have lied so well and for so long that they’ve lost their capacity for truth. They will tell you not to get married. They’ll tell you not to eat this or that food—perfectly good food God created to be eaten heartily and with thanksgiving by believers who know better! Everything God created is good, and to be received with thanks. Nothing is to be sneered at and thrown out. God’s Word and our prayers make every item in creation holy.

^6-10 You’ve been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus there, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we’ve thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We’re banking on the living God, Savior of all men and women, especially believers.
^11-14 Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

 
For Reflection

People justify all kinds of injustices by citing the Bible and twisting the scripture to suit a particular point of view.  Remember Christ.  Remember what Jesus taught.  The greatest rule is the rule of love.  Measure you faith by applying the tests of forgiveness, compassion and peace.  Live for justice.  Live for an inclusive community of the faithful.  Live creatively. 

Pray

that you will live to lift people up.  Pray that you will practice Christian Hospitality and treat strangers equitably.  Pray for the day when the white dove of peace will fly unfettered in your midst.

Fear, Awe, and Praise

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Let Zion Rejoice

Psalm 33:1-9 The Message

33 ^1-3 Good people, cheer God!
    Right-living people sound best when praising.
Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!
    Play his praise on a grand piano!
Invent your own new song to him;
    give him a trumpet fanfare.

^4-5 For God’s Word is solid to the core;
    everything he makes is sound inside and out.
He loves it when everything fits,
    when his world is in plumb-line true.
Earth is drenched
    in God’s affectionate satisfaction.

^6-7 The skies were made by God’s command;
    he breathed the word and the stars popped out.
He scooped Sea into his jug,
    put Ocean in his keg.

^8-9 Earth-creatures, bow before God;
    world-dwellers—down on your knees!
Here’s why: he spoke and there it was,
    in place the moment he said so.

 
For Reflection

It doesn't matter how eloquently you pray.  It matters that you pray. Like prayer, it doesn't matter how well you sing. It matters that you sing!  Sing to the top of your voice.  Sing so that your world disappears in the cacophony.  Like hard rock, get lost in the raucous joy.   Sing to get lost in God's perfection.  God will sing with you.

Pray
your prayers in song.

Hope in God!

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Let Zion Rejoice

Psalm 42:5-11  The Message

⁵ Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
    Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
    soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
    He’s my God.

^6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
    everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
    including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
    to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
    crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
    sing songs all through the night!
    My life is God’s prayer.

^9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
    “Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
    harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
    tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
    “Where is this God of yours?”

¹¹ Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
    Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
    soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
    He’s my God.

 
For Reflection

Life isn't always caviar and ice cream. Life sometime serves moldy bread and brackish water.  At both extremes, life pushes our faith.  When times are good we take them for granted.  When times are troublesome our faith falters.  It is good to have a faith partner who lifts the mirror of out lives to show us that God is standing by us supporting and guiding us, comforting us and sustaining us. 

Just where is this God of ours?  Sit quietly and listen.  God is inside you and surrounds you with compassion. 

Pray

for God to lift you out of Chaos.  Pray prayers of thanksgiving.  Pray prayers of praise.  Sing songs of triumph. Pray so that you escape yourself and fall into the loving arms of the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.

All Who Believed Were Together

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Transformation Continued

Acts 2:37-47  The Message

³⁷ Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?”
^38-39 Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”
⁴⁰ He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”
^41-42 That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

^43-45 Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

^46-47 They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

 
For Reflection
Maybe its my age, but, the older I get the more I realize the insanity of our world cultures.  How can we continue the same paths over and over while all the time expecting different results.  The new path is in front of us. Christ has shown us the Way.  Baptized in the truth of justice, compassion and peace, we, God's angel army are an exuberant and joyful celebration of the Kingdom of God. The world transformed, one person at a time.

Pray
for the realization of the Kingdom of God.  Pray for the revitalization of the church universal.  Pray for the unity of the Christian communities.  Pray for the people of God.

A New Birth, A Living Hope

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Transformation Continued

1 Peter 1:1-7  The Message

1 ^1-2 I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!

A New Life

^3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

^6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

 
For Reflection
To be born again!  What a declaration! A new start, the wish of all people, granted by the Holy Spirit.  Not just once, but, over and over again, God gives us life, a pathway out of death, a rebirth into righteousness.  Praise be the Lord, the life-giver.

Pray
prayers of thanksgiving for the living God.  Sing praises to the name of God.  Pray so that you can live a transforming life.

New Mercies Every Morning

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Transformation Continued

Lamentations 3:19-27  The Message

It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God

^19-21 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
    the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
    the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

^22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left.

^25-27 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
    to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
    quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
    to stick it out through the hard times.

For Reflection
What keeps Christians faithful? Christians have a strong grip on hope.  Each day lived in Christ is a new day.  Mercy abounds.  Forgiveness reigns.  Abiding love never gives out.  In the face of all troubles, Christians forge a new path built on hope and the promise of the Kingdom of God.  Christians face all tomorrows with confidence in God.

Pray
that you will wait quietly on hope.  Pray that you will wait passionately on God's call.  Pray so that you will be at the ready to create new mornings.

A New Song, A New Way

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Transformation Continued

Isaiah 42:10-16  The Message

^10-16 Sing to God a brand-new song,
    sing his praises all over the world!
Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
    with all the far-flung islands joining in.
Let the desert and its camps raise a tune,
    calling the Kedar nomads to join in.
Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir
    and perform from the tops of the mountains.
Make God’s glory resound;
    echo his praises from coast to coast.
God steps out like he means business.
    You can see he’s primed for action.
He shouts, announcing his arrival;
    he takes charge and his enemies fall into line:

“I’ve been quiet long enough.
    I’ve held back, biting my tongue.
But now I’m letting loose, letting go,
    like a woman who’s having a baby—
Stripping the hills bare,
    withering the wildflowers,
Drying up the rivers,
    turning lakes into mudflats.
But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way,
    who can’t see where they’re going.
I’ll be a personal guide to them,
    directing them through unknown country.
I’ll be right there to show them what roads to take,
    make sure they don’t fall into the ditch.
These are the things I’ll be doing for them—
    sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute.”

 
For Reflection
Transformation takes time.  Life is a new song in a new place.  It requires living in the world you knew so well and is now foreign.  Any other time this would be frightening.  But God is with you. God will comfort you.  God will lead you. God will walk by your side in holy counsel.

Pray
that you will grow into grace listening to God whispers.  Pray that you will listen for God's instruction.  Pray to feel God's abiding presence.  Pray for courage.

God Declares New Things

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

Transformation Continued

Isaiah 42:5-9  The Message

The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life

^5-9 God’s Message,
    the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
    laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
    makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
    I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
    and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
    opening blind eyes,
    releasing prisoners from dungeons,
    emptying the dark prisons.
I am God. That’s my name.
    I don’t franchise my glory,
    don’t endorse the no-god idols.
Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.
    I’m announcing the new salvation work.
Before it bursts on the scene,
    I’m telling you all about it.”

 
For Reflection
We are called, by God, to live right and well.  God has taken responsibility for us.  God will keep us safe and will support and direct our living.  All God asks is that we be a beacon of hope for the world, that we exemplify the potential of living in the hollow of God's hands.

Pray
that you will live up to God's expectations.  Pray for the wisdom to meet God's opportunities for you to practice compassion, forgiveness and work for justice in an unjust world.

Planted by Streams of Water

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

A Transforming Stream

Psalm 1 The Message

1 How well God must like you—
    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

^2-3 Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
    you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
    bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
    always in blossom.

^4-5 You’re not at all like the wicked,
    who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
    unfit company for innocent people.

⁶ God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

 
For Reflection
God is charting the road you take.  You, having accepted Christ into your life, are a child of God.  You accept the mystery of life.  You deliver blossoms.  You wipe the dust from the righteous core which resides in all people.  You are a beacon lighting the way to righteousness. 

Pray
that you will have strength of conviction in the promise of God.  Pray that your life will influence the realization of compassionate, forgiving and just relationships.  Pray for the courage to abide with God and serve in God's angel army.  Pray that you will listen to God, whispering encouragement and direction.

Guided to the Water of Life

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

A Transforming Stream

Revelation 7:13-17  The Message

^13-14 Just then one of the Elders addressed me: “Who are these dressed in white robes, and where did they come from?” Taken aback, I said, “O Sir, I have no idea—but you must know.”

^14-17 Then he told me, “These are those who come from the great tribulation, and they’ve washed their robes, scrubbed them clean in the blood of the Lamb. That’s why they’re standing before God’s Throne. They serve him day and night in his Temple. The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes.”

 
For Reflection
Have you escaped the tribulations of your life?  Are you wearing the white robes of redemption.  Do others see you standing apart from the crowd, practicing forgiveness, compassion, and justice?  That is the Christian imperative.  That is what Jesus exemplifies.  That is the life of a Christian.

Pray
that you will continue to serve the Lord.  Pray that through the Holy Spirit, you will lead others to the spring waters of Life.

Let the Thirsty Come to Me

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

A Transforming Stream

John 7:37-44 The Message

^37-39 On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)
^40-44 Those in the crowd who heard these words were saying, “This has to be the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah!” But others were saying, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Don’t the Scriptures tell us that the Messiah comes from David’s line and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” So there was a split in the crowd over him. Some went so far as wanting to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

For Reflection
What was it that the people of Jesus time thirsted for?  The pain and suffering of the masses of people under the pressures of daily life were enormous. A new way of living that had the potential for relief from the prison of impoverishment, domination, and control.  The waters around which they lived were not their waters.  They were as children permitted only to look but not touch.  Rather, they lived or died at the pleasure of those who had control.

Jesus said if you can't drink from the waters which surround you drink the living waters of the Spirit.  Fill yourself with hope and adopt a new way of life.  Christ offered a way out of the bondage of political and religious empirical domination. Christ reminds them of the prophetic faith that sustained them in the past and calls for a renewed trust in who they were, God's chosen people.  Christ's call to return to hope that can be achieved only in service to God and the realization of God's Kingdom.

Pray
for all who suffer in the captivity of poverty and domination.  Pray for the Spirit to enter their lives and give them the hope brought by the living waters.  Pray for the triumph of good over evil.  Pray so that you escape the prison of a Godless world and find freedom in the Holy Spirit.

Forsaking the Living Water

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

A Transformed Stream

Jeremiah 2:5-13  The Message

^4-6 Hear God’s Message, House of Jacob!
    Yes, you—House of Israel!
God’s Message: “What did your ancestors find fault with in me
    that they drifted so far from me,
Took up with Sir Windbag
    and turned into windbags themselves?

It never occurred to them to say, ‘Where’s God,
    the God who got us out of Egypt,
Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble
    wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys,
A land that no one who enters comes out of,
    a cruel, inhospitable land?’

^7-8 “I brought you to a garden land
    where you could eat lush fruit.
But you barged in and polluted my land,
    trashed and defiled my dear land.
The priests never thought to ask, ‘Where’s God?’
    The religion experts knew nothing of me.
The rulers defied me.
    The prophets preached god Baal
And chased empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.

^9-11 “Because of all this, I’m bringing charges against you”
        —God’s Decree—
    “charging you and your children and your grandchildren.
Look around. Have you ever seen anything quite like this?
    Sail to the western islands and look.
Travel to the Kedar wilderness and look.
    Look closely. Has this ever happened before,
That a nation has traded in its gods
    for gods that aren’t even close to gods?
But my people have traded my Glory
    for empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.

^12-13 “Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see!
    Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!”
        God’s Decree.
“My people have committed a compound sin:
    they’ve walked out on me, the fountain
Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—
    cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.

 
For Reflection
Take time to think long and hard about your beliefs in and about God.  Is it possible that you in some instances have "traded God's glory for empty god-dreams and silly god dreams?"  Can you cite Biblical references to your beliefs?  What have you read that will validate your beliefs in and about God?  Having done this several times myself, I can tell you that engaging in this act of questioning my beliefs has resulted in some remarkable findings.  The explorations have made my faith stronger.  Any time is a good time to plug up the holes in your cistern of beliefs.

Pray
that you will always grow in faith.  Pray for the wisdom to discern authentic paths to righteousness.  Pray so that God will guide you through your fearsome journey out of self-deception.  Pray so that you will challenge your system of beliefs in an act of worship and renewal.

I Will Accept You

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

The Alter, A Sign of Hope

Psalm 71:1-11  The Message

71 ^1-3 I run for dear life to God,
    I’ll never live to regret it.
Do what you do so well:
    get me out of this mess and up on my feet.
Put your ear to the ground and listen,
    give me space for salvation.
Be a guest room where I can retreat;
    you said your door was always open!
You’re my salvation—my vast, granite fortress.

^4-7 My God, free me from the grip of Wicked,
    from the clutch of Bad and Bully.
You keep me going when times are tough—
    my bedrock, God, since my childhood.
I’ve hung on you from the day of my birth,
    the day you took me from the cradle;
    I’ll never run out of praise.
Many gasp in alarm when they see me,
    but you take me in stride.

^8-11 Just as each day brims with your beauty,
    my mouth brims with praise.
But don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old
    or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight.
My enemies are talking behind my back,
    watching for their chance to knife me.
The gossip is: “God has abandoned him.
    Pounce on him now; no one will help him.”

For Reflection

God accepts you as you are, warts and all. What could be a blessing any greater than this?  Be grateful every day for God's gifts.  Be thankful for God's guiding hand.  Reject a life bullied by the commonplace.  Embrace your creative ability to live in Christ. 

Pray

for the courage to live a life full of the confidence in tomorrow that your faith promises.  Pray prayers of thanksgiving and  praise for God hand in your life.

Hope in the Lord for Evermore

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

The Alter, A Sign of Hope

Psalm 130-131  The Message

A Pilgrim Song

130 ^1-2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
    Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
    Listen to my cries for mercy.

^3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
    who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
    and that’s why you’re worshiped.

^5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
    and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
    waiting and watching till morning,
    waiting and watching till morning.

^7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
    with God’s arrival comes love,
    with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,
    buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

A Pilgrim Song

131 God, I’m not trying to rule the roost,
    I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business
    or fantasized grandiose plans.

² I’ve kept my feet on the ground,
    I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,
    my soul is a baby content.

³ Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope.
    Hope now; hope always!

 
For Reflection
The god worshiped by the psalmist is a forgiving god.  God is not the holy gotcha!  God does not conduct surveillance, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce at every person who commits an unrighteous act or thinks an unrighteous thought.  God lives inside each of us and whispers into our consciousness. God is the reason we know right from wrong.  God encourages right and forgives wrong.

Pray
to listen to God whispers.  Follow your conscience. Pray so that you grow into grace.

A Costly Altar and Sacrifice

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

The Alter, a Sign of Hope

2 Samuel 24:17-25  The Message

¹⁷ When David saw the angel about to destroy the people, he prayed, “Please! I’m the one who sinned; I, the shepherd, did the wrong. But these sheep, what did they do wrong? Punish me and my family, not them.”
^18-19 That same day Gad came to David and said, “Go and build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” David did what Gad told him, what God commanded.
^20-21 Araunah looked up and saw David and his men coming his way; he met them, bowing deeply, honoring the king and saying, “Why has my master the king come to see me?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” said David, “so I can build an altar to God here and put an end to this disaster.”
^22-23 “Oh,” said Araunah, “let my master the king take and sacrifice whatever he wants. Look, here’s an ox for the burnt offering and threshing paddles and ox-yokes for fuel—Araunah gives it all to the king! And may God, your God, act in your favor.”
^24-25 But the king said to Araunah, “No. I’ve got to buy it from you for a good price; I’m not going to offer God, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifice.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the ox, paying out fifty shekels of silver. He built an altar to God there and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. God was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster.

 
For Reflection
Araunuh was eager to serve David, his God chosen king.  Araunuh was willing to give up his means of livelihood and reduce himself to destitution. Araunuh was willing to give all.

David's sacrifice or Araunuh's gift was not David's sacrifice.  The sacrifices we make as Christians are personal and selfless in thanksgiving for God's blessings.

Pray
Pray that the sacrifices you make in the name of your faith are a worthy gift to God.

Pulling Down False Altars

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

The Alter, A Sign of Hope

Judges 6:24-32  The Message

²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
^25-26 That night this happened. God said to him, “Take your father’s best seven-year-old bull, the prime one. Tear down your father’s Baal altar and chop down the Asherah fertility pole beside it. Then build an altar to God, your God, on the top of this hill. Take the prime bull and present it as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, using firewood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”
²⁷ Gideon selected ten men from his servants and did exactly what God had told him. But because of his family and the people in the neighborhood, he was afraid to do it openly, so he did it that night.
²⁸ Early in the morning, the people in town were shocked to find Baal’s altar torn down, the Asherah pole beside it chopped down, and the prime bull burning away on the altar that had been built.
²⁹ They kept asking, “Who did this?”
Questions and more questions, and then the answer: “Gideon son of Joash did it.”
³⁰ The men of the town demanded of Joash: “Bring out your son! He must die! Why, he tore down the Baal altar and chopped down the Asherah tree!”
³¹ But Joash stood up to the crowd pressing in on him, “Are you going to fight Baal’s battles for him? Are you going to save him? Anyone who takes Baal’s side will be dead by morning. If Baal is a god in fact, let him fight his own battles and defend his own altar.”
³² They nicknamed Gideon that day Jerub-Baal because after he had torn down the Baal altar, he had said, “Let Baal fight his own battles.”

 
For Reflection
It seems to me that this is a perfect metaphor of life in the hollow of God's hand,  We accept The Way and move away from the alters of our former lives and sacrifice our selves on the alter of God.  In doing so, we are becoming a child of God, transformed from our former selves into our righteous selves.  The transformation is noticeable.  So much so, that old friends and acquaintances, even family, may be critical of our new selves.  It is hard to face the battles waged by those common place assumptions.  Rest assured, God will fight your battles.

Pray
for strength when your faith shields you from the swords of the common place.  Pray for those who can not see the value of the transforming power in standing with God.  Pray that God will guide you and shield you so that you can bring light into the darkness of the common place.

Quest for a True Alter

Sustaining Hope
Visions of Grandeur

God's Divine Glory Returns

Joshua 22:21-34  The Message

^21-22 The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the tribes of Israel:

The God of Gods is God,
The God of Gods is God!

^22-23 “He knows and he’ll let Israel know if this is a rebellious betrayal of God. And if it is, don’t bother saving us. If we built ourselves an altar in rebellion against God, if we did it to present on it Whole-Burnt-Offerings or Grain-Offerings or to enact there sacrificial Peace-Offerings, let God decide.

^24-25 “But that’s not it. We did it because we cared. We were anxious lest someday your children should say to our children, ‘You’re not connected with God, the God of Israel! God made the Jordan a boundary between us and you. You Reubenites and Gadites have no part in God.’ And then your children might cause our children to quit worshiping God.
²⁶ “So we said to ourselves, ‘Let’s do something. Let’s build an altar—but not for Whole-Burnt-Offerings, not for sacrifices.’
²⁷ “We built this altar as a witness between us and you and our children coming after us, a witness to the Altar where we worship God in his Sacred Dwelling with our Whole-Burnt-Offerings and our sacrifices and our Peace-Offerings.
“This way, your children won’t be able to say to our children in the future, ‘You have no part in God.’
²⁸ “We said to ourselves, ‘If anyone speaks disparagingly to us or to our children in the future, we’ll say: Look at this model of God’s Altar which our ancestors made. It’s not for Whole-Burnt-Offerings, not for sacrifices. It’s a witness connecting us with you.’
²⁹ “Rebelling against or turning our backs on God is the last thing on our minds right now. We never dreamed of building an altar for Whole-Burnt-Offerings or Grain-Offerings to rival the Altar of our God in front of his Sacred Dwelling.”
³⁰ Phinehas the priest, all the heads of the congregation, and the heads of the military divisions of Israel who were also with him heard what the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had to say. They were satisfied.
³¹ Priest Phinehas son of Eleazar said to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “Now we’re convinced that God is present with us since you haven’t been disloyal to God in this matter. You saved the People of Israel from God’s discipline.”
^32-33 Then Priest Phinehas son of Eleazar left the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (from Gilead) and, with the chiefs, returned to the land of Canaan to the People of Israel and gave a full report. They were pleased with the report. The People of Israel blessed God—there was no more talk of attacking and destroying the land in which the Reubenites and Gadites were living.
³⁴ Reuben and Gad named the altar:

A Witness Between Us.
God Alone Is God.

 
For Reflection
So why is it that people argue and fight, even go to war over misunderstandings and mis-perceptions of another's action?  Here, a righteous deed is misinterpreted as blasphemy.  At least the side that felt wronged had the courage and sense to confront the other.  War was avoided because each party was open to hearing explanations from the other.  How often do we feel wronged and then expect those who we think have wronged us to act first.  Let our attempts at reconciliation be a witness of God between us, a sign of the presence of God.

Pray
for those in turmoil.  Pray that human conflict can end in reconciliation.  Pray for the reconciliation of the world.