Tending the Flock of God

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

1 Peter 5:1-11 The Message

He’ll Promote You at the Right Time

5 1-3 I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it’s like to be a leader, in on Christ’s sufferings as well as the coming glory. Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way.
4-5 When God, who is the best shepherd of all, comes out in the open with his rule, he’ll see that you’ve done it right and commend you lavishly. And you who are younger must follow your leaders. But all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other, for—
God has had it with the proud,
but takes delight in just plain people.
6-7 So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

He Gets the Last Word

8-11 Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does.

For Reflection

Both the Old and New Testaments, warn us about the dangers of false teaching. In the very beginning of the church, opinions about which teaching disciple should be prime, the humanity or deity of Christ, the demand for circumcision, and the inclusion of commonplace culture into the practice and beliefs of the new church abounded.

Today, various versions of Christianity have divided and fragmented the body.  It is sometimes difficult to see as Paul saw, that the body of the Church Universal has many functional parts.  Some are authentic; full of justice, forgiveness, freedom, and right living. Some are wolves in sheep's clothing; deceptive, seductive, and divisive, alluring with false promise.

We forget that God's hand is strong.  We forget that God is capable of judging the authenticity of those who claim Christ as their savior.  In God's own time God will judge.  It is God's right not ours.

Our commission is to love all people. Our commission is to act justly. Our commission is to forgive and to lift ourselves and others into a pattern of right living as exemplified by Christ. We will be known by the fruits of our faithfulness.

Pray

that you will keep your guard up. Pray that you will not be lead into the temptation of self-direction and fear.  Pray that you will seek God's green pastures and find rest among the still waters.  Pray that you will have the patience to trust in God and wait calmly through the suffering for God to make all things right.

Jesus Sacrifices for The Flock

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

John 10:11-18 The Message 

11-13 “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him.
14-18 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father.”

For Reflection

John quotes Christ, "I am the Good Shepherd." If we are to be saved from our human folly, we, the followers of Jesus, must sacrifice ourselves as Christ has sacrificed.  In doing so we deny self-interest, forsake commonplace rational for God-centered living,

Pray

that you will take up the cross of Christ and identify with His rejection, shame suffering, and death.  Pray that you will deny yourself and in the manner of Christ give yourself wholly to God.

The Lord Brings the People Home

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

Jeremiah 23:1-8 The Message

An Authentic David-Branch

23 1-4 “Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!” God’s Decree. “So here is what I, God, Israel’s God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: ‘You’ve scattered my sheep. You’ve driven them off. You haven’t kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I’m keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior. I’ll take over and gather what’s left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I’ve driven them. I’ll bring them back where they belong, and they’ll recover and flourish. I’ll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won’t live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!’ God’s Decree.”
5-6 “Time’s coming”—God’s Decree—
    “when I’ll establish a truly righteous David-Branch,
A ruler who knows how to rule justly.
    He’ll make sure of justice and keep people united.
In his time Judah will be secure again
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name they’ll give him:
    ‘God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.’
7-8 “So watch for this. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when no one will say, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ but, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the descendants of Israel back from the north country and from the other countries where he’d driven them, so that they can live on their own good earth.

For Reflection

The corrupting leaders God refers to are civic, not spiritual.  Here, God promises to establish leaders who will not deceive people and lure them away from their faith. In God's time and when God's people were receptive, God set a just king and restored God's people.  God's people are invited to be counted again among the household of God.

Pray

Thank God for the gift of the Prophets.  Pray for those who guide us in the manner of Christ.  Pray that you will not give into the seductions in the promises of false rewards.

God the True Shepherd

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

Ezekiel 34:11-16The Message

11-16 “‘God, the Master, says: From now on, I myself am the shepherd. I’m going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I’m going after my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all the places they’ve been scattered to in the storms. I’ll bring them back from foreign peoples, gather them from foreign countries, and bring them back to their home country. I’ll feed them on the mountains of Israel, along the streams, among their own people. I’ll lead them into lush pasture so they can roam the mountain pastures of Israel, graze at leisure, feed in the rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. And I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make sure they get plenty of rest. I’ll go after the lost, I’ll collect the strays, I’ll doctor the injured, I’ll build up the weak ones and oversee the strong ones so they’re not exploited.

For Reflection

To Ezekiel God says, "I myself am the shepherd."  God's claim as a shepherd is not just a simple metaphor.  God was speaking about God's chosen people. But, remember, Christ has extended God's promise to shepherd to all.  With God as our shepherd, we have no want that cannot be satisfied by God. Hunger and fear are satisfied when we trust confidently in our creator.

Pray

Pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God who, as our shepherd, loves us. Pray that you will be confident that God will fulfill your needs. Pray that you will trust unreasonably in God.

God's People Seek a Resting Place

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God as Our Shepherd

Numbers 10:29-36 The Message

29 Moses said to his brother-in-law Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We’re marching to the place about which God promised, ‘I’ll give it to you.’ Come with us; we’ll treat you well. God has promised good things for Israel.”
30 But Hobab said, “I’m not coming; I’m going back home to my own country, to my own family.”
31-32 Moses countered, “Don’t leave us. You know all the best places to camp in the wilderness. We need your eyes. If you come with us, we’ll make sure that you share in all the good things Godwill do for us.”
33-36 And so off they marched. From the Mountain of God they marched three days with the Chest of the Covenant of God in the lead to scout out a campsite. The Cloud of God was above them by day when they marched from the camp. With the Chest leading the way, Moses would say,
Get up, God!
Put down your enemies!
Chase those who hate you to the hills!
And when the Chest was set down, he would say,
Rest with us, God,
Stay with the many,
Many thousands of Israel.

For Reflection

How many times have you asked God to rest with you?  How many times have you truly rested?  What is meant by "rest?"

Searching the Bible generated over 300 references to the term, rest. Perhaps it is God's will that we move from a state of unrest to a state of rest.  Unresting states are a result of little faith. Until we rest in God, we will search relentlessly and unsuccessfully to find rest in material things: money, power, stuff and more stuff. In spite of our searches for fulfillment in worldly collections and endeavors, our souls will not be satisfied, will not be at rest. Resting only results when we receive God's promise in faith. (Hebrews 4) Italians have a term, "dolce far niente" which means, "sweet doing nothing." Could it be that God wants us to rely on God so completely that our souls are fully satisfied through an intimate relationship with God?

Pray

Pray that you will find rest in God.  Pray that you find in your faith "dolce far niente." 

God Judges Nations

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Restores

Joel 3:1-3, 18-20 The Message

God Is a Safe Hiding Place

3 1-3 “In those days, yes, at that very time
    when I put life back together again for Judah and Jerusalem,
I’ll assemble all the godless nations.
    I’ll lead them down into Judgment Valley
And put them all on trial, and judge them one and all
    because of their treatment of my own people Israel.
They scattered my people all over the pagan world
    and grabbed my land for themselves.
They threw dice for my people
    and used them for barter.
They would trade a boy for a whore,
    sell a girl for a bottle of wine when they wanted a drink.

Milk Rivering Out of the Hills

18-21 “What a day!
    Wine streaming off the mountains,
Milk rivering out of the hills,
    water flowing everywhere in Judah,
A fountain pouring out of God’s Sanctuary,
    watering all the parks and gardens!
But Egypt will be reduced to weeds in a vacant lot,
    Edom turned into barren badlands,
All because of brutalities to the Judean people,
    the atrocities and murders of helpless innocents.
Meanwhile, Judah will be filled with people,
    Jerusalem inhabited forever.
The sins I haven’t already forgiven, I’ll forgive.”
    God has moved into Zion for good.

For Reflection

We are all subject to God's judgment. Those of us who reject God and become actors in the theater of ungodliness will, by their folly live in the weeds of a vacant lot, doomed to endure the brutalities of life.
But in spite of their rejection of the Way, they are still offered the redemptive grace of God.  No matter what we do in spite of God, God will always love us and welcome us and restore us to a right relationship in God's household.  God makes all things good.  All God asks is that we confess our self-interest and repent.

Pray

Pray that you will not be tempted to reject God.  Pray that you, like God, will love all people unconditionally.  Pray for those who reject God and act out their lives in selfish abandon.  Pray for those who would seduce you into transgressions.  Pray for those who confuse hate with love. Pray for those who have been lured into a fearful existence and given into a false hope of salvation.

The Day of The Lord at Pentecost

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Restores

Acts 2:14-21 The Message

Peter Speaks Up

14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:
“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
    on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
    also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
    your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
    I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
    and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
    and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
    the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
    the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
    to me, God, will be saved.”

For Reflection

Some contend the last days began with the Resurrection. That being the case, then God has blessed us, and we are part of God's holy mission.  We, who believe, have been commissioned to collaborate with God to bring people to God's Kingdom.

Pray

Pray that you will honor God by your commitment God's will and obedience to the Way.

God Restores Land and People

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Restores

Joel 2:20-27. The Message

18-20 At that, God went into action to get his land back.
    He took pity on his people.
God answered and spoke to his people,
    “Look, listen—I’m sending a gift:
Grain and wine and olive oil.
    The fast is over—eat your fill!
I won’t expose you any longer
    to contempt among the pagans.
I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north
    and dump them in a wasteland.
Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea,
    the other half in the Mediterranean.
There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven.
    The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!”

The Trees Are Bearing Fruit Again

21-24 Fear not, Earth! Be glad and celebrate!
    God has done great things.
Fear not, wild animals!
    The fields and meadows are greening up.
The trees are bearing fruit again:
    a bumper crop of fig trees and vines!
Children of Zion, celebrate!
    Be glad in your God.
He’s giving you a teacher
    to train you how to live right—
Teaching, like rain out of heaven, showers of words
    to refresh and nourish your soul, just as he used to do.
And plenty of food for your body—silos full of grain,
    casks of wine and barrels of olive oil.
25-27 “I’ll make up for the years of the locust,
    the great locust devastation—
Locusts savage, locusts deadly,
    fierce locusts, locusts of doom,
That great locust invasion
    I sent your way.
You’ll eat your fill of good food.
    You’ll be full of praises to your God,
The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder.
    Never again will my people be despised.
You’ll know without question
    that I’m in the thick of life with Israel,
That I’m your God, yes, your God,
    the one and only real God.
Never again will my people be despised.

For Reflection

These passages speak a marvelously poetic vision of the grace and mercy of God.  In this scripture, we see a loving God, an assuring God who comforts and is willing to meet the physical and spiritual needs of God's chosen people. Remember that because God gave us Jesus, we too are chosen.

Pray

Pray, praising the Living God. Ask God to lead you into trials so that you might strengthen your understanding of what it means to be part of the Household of God. Pray, thanking God for God's grace and mercy.  Pray, making your action one of worship.

The People Called to Repent

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Restores

Joel 2:15-17. The Message

15-17 Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
    Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day.
Call a public meeting.
    Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation.
Make sure the elders come,
    but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies,
Even men and women on their honeymoon—
    interrupt them and get them there.
Between Sanctuary entrance and altar,
    let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance.
Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people!
    Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt.
Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them
    and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’”

For Reflection

God continually offers to reconcile God's people. God wants us all to participate fully as members of God's household. God knows the risk we take in choosing to become citizens of the Kingdom is to be declared social and political deviants by those who reject God's sovereignty. God councils us not to abandon our heritage and inheritance to the seductions of the commonplace.

Pray

Pray that you recognize the value of living in God's Household.  Pray that you will acknowledge the attraction and seduction of the pressure to conform to the material world.  Pray to have confidence that God will never abandon you.  Pray for the courage to strengthen your faith in times of temptation.  Pray, "Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. Preserve my soul."

Prophesied Day of the Lord

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Restores

Joel 2:1-11. The Message

The Locust Army

2 1-3 Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
    Trumpet the alarm on my holy mountain!
Shake the country up!
    God’s Judgment’s on its way—the Day’s almost here!
A black day! A Doomsday!
    Clouds with no silver lining!
Like dawn light moving over the mountains,
    a huge army is coming.
There’s never been anything like it
    and never will be again.
Wildfire burns everything before this army
    and fire licks up everything in its wake.
Before it arrives, the country is like the Garden of Eden.
    When it leaves, it is Death Valley.
    Nothing escapes unscathed.
4-6 The locust army seems all horses—
    galloping horses, an army of horses.
It sounds like thunder
    leaping on mountain ridges,
Or like the roar of wildfire
    through grass and brush,
Or like an invincible army shouting for blood,
    ready to fight, straining at the bit.
At the sight of this army,
    the people panic, faces white with terror.
7-11 The invaders charge.
    They climb barricades. Nothing stops them.
Each soldier does what he’s told,
    so disciplined, so determined.
They don’t get in each other’s way.
    Each one knows his job and does it.
Undaunted and fearless,
    unswerving, unstoppable.
They storm the city,
    swarm its defenses,
Loot the houses,
    breaking down doors, smashing windows.
They arrive like an earthquake,
    sweep through like a tornado.
Sun and moon turn out their lights,
    stars black out.
God himself bellows in thunder
    as he commands his forces.
Look at the size of that army!
    And the strength of those who obey him!
God’s Judgment Day—great and terrible.
    Who can possibly survive this?

For Reflection

BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!  Fear is a strong motive. Fear is a built in warning system that animates self-protection. It was God's challenge to shake God's people out of their complacency.

As one who has been on the same job too long, the people of God had become mechanical.  They were wearing the robes, going through the motion, but their hearts were not in it.  They grew distant, not attentive.  Their lives became bland and routine.

Those who's heart animated their action would not be troubled by God's apparent threat. Because these people were obedient and God-centered, they did not fear the wrath of God.  The faithful understood what the others did not.  God does not threaten to punish without also offering a path to repentance and reconciliation. The "Day of the Lord" marks the beginning of life, not the end!

Pray

Pray that when God puts trouble in your way, you will not fear retributiion, but welcome the shepherding, repent, and return to a God-centered existence.

Abiding in God's Love

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Manifested

1 John 4:16-19. The Message

13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

For Reflection

How wonderful it feels, to be engrossed in the love of God, to be encapsulated in God's devotion.  We are transformed when God abides in us, and we abide in God.  Embraced in the household of God, we are free from worry, relieved from the threat and burden of fear.

What could we possibly give in return for this blessing?  We give the only thing that is ours to give.  We give ourselves to God and our love to all with whom we touch.

Pray

Pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God who gave his son so that we might know God more fully.  Pray that your will offer your life to God as a holy sacrifice in service to God and the reconciliation of all humankind.

Self-discipline for Holy living

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Manifested

1 Peter 1:13-21. The Message 

A Future in God

13-16 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
17 You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.
18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

For Reflection

It is easy to find one's self "slip slidin' away" from the call of God. Losing one's focus on God is not what one wants to do, but rather, a slow, subtle process of seduction into a commonplace existance.

The solution is to repent and ask forgiveness.  Confess not only to God but also yourself, acknowledging your waywardness so that you can return to your God-centered self.  In God, there is no retribution for those who, like the prodigal son, return to God's household.

Pray

Pray prayers of confession, recognize your erring ways and be re-committed to God's service.

Becoming One in Christ

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Manifested

Ephesians 2:11-22. The Message

11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

For Reflection

God has always used human lives to advance God's Kingdom.  It is no different now.  God has chosen you, and you have chosen God.  Now you act as God's collaborator.  Your original commission is to spread the good news. You are to accomplish this mission, not by tearing down others, but rather, by lifting up everyone, friends and enemies. Your task is to offer God's overture of forgiveness, love, and grace. You are not God's Holy Gotcha! As the host at God's reconciliation celebration, you are to offer Christian hospitality to all who attend.

Pray

Pray that you will practice the grace of a hospitable Christian host. Pray for those who attend to the Gospel and begin their walk with God. Pray for the church to be filled with the Holy Spirit and work for the common good of all people.

Walking in Truth and Love

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Manifested

2 John 4-11. The Message

4-6 I can’t tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.

Don’t Walk Out on God

7 There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!
8-9 And be very careful around them so you don’t lose out on what we’ve worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you. Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.
10-11 If anyone shows up who doesn’t hold to this teaching, don’t invite him in and give him the run of the place. That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner.

For Reflection

Many times we are reminded in the New Testament, that there are those who would pervert the gospel. During the early development of Christianity, one of the perversions arose out of the misunderstanding of Christ's divinity and humanity.  To understand Christ as either divine or human, but not both, is to neutralize the meaning of God's sacrifice for our sake.

Only through the study of Christ can we understand our salvation as God has intended. Study and prayer in the fellowship of authentic Christians is an effective way of warding off the seduction of those who preach the Antichrist.

Pray

Pray that you will be diligent in your study and prayer life so that you may be able to arm yourself with the truth.

Love, a New Commandment

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Love Manifested

John 13:31-35. The Message

A New Command

31-32 When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!
33 “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’
34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

For Reflection

As important to the Christian community as it is, the Easter season is not just a ritualized celebration of the death and resurrection. Easter is a time to renew one's commitment to Christ and reflect on the nature of God as represented in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Christ's ministry was short, but its impact has provided a divine moral compass and guided millions of believers for over two thousand years.

More than the suffering of Christ on the cross, Easter is also the celebration of our rebirth in Christ and is filled with hope and God's promise for us to live free in a corrupting world by being obedient to God. The first act of obedience is to love as God loves.

Pray

Thank God for the life of God's Son, Jesus.  Pray that you will give time to the study and reflection on how the resurrected Christ has changed your life.  Pray for the courage and wisdom to practice The Way of Jesus.  Pray that your action will reveal God's love.

Live Worthy of Your Calling

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Overflowing Love

Ephesians 4:1-6. The Message

To Be Mature

4 1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

For Reflection

You have been called by God.  God has blessed you with certain talents that are intended to be used in fulfillment of God's will for your life.  You are yoked to God's team. You are one with God, holy and commissioned to fulfill your purpose.

Pray

Thank God for the blessing of your talents. Pray that you will strive to achieve God's will for your life.

Know the Love of Christ

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Overflowing Love

Ephesians 3:14-19. The Message

14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

For Reflection

The strength to do the will of God resides within you.   All you have to do is open yourself to the messages from God and go forth boldly with the confidence that all will be made right. Take the plunge into the grace that God offers you.

Pray

Pray as Paul prayed and ask for strength and plant yourself firmly in the hands of God.

Raised With Christ

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Overflowing Love

1 Corinthians 15:12-28. The Message

12-15 Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.
16-20 If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.
21-28 There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, “He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them.” When Scripture says that “he walked all over them,” it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on. When everything and everyone is finally under God’s rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending!

For Reflection

By the sacrificial death of Christ, God puts everything right.  As important as the crucifixion is, without rising from the dead, Christ would be no more important that any other zealous reformer -- truthful, but without lasting impact.

We are all a part of Christ's resurrection.  Because Jesus rose from death, we, too, can transcend our common lives to become uncommonly righteous, free to live as God intended us to live, as a member of God's household.

Pray

Thank God for the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.  Pray that your life will be animated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Praise God for all blessings.  Pray that others will recognize God in you.

Justified by Faith

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

God's Overflowing Love

Romans 3:21-31. The Message

God Has Set Things Right

21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.
27-28 So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counterclaims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we’ve learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.
29-30 And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion.
31 But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don’t we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

For Reflection

In the act of miraculous divine forgiveness, God has set things right between God and us.  Taking the initiative, God reveals God's self through Jesus and offers reconciliation, a "pure gift."
But this transformation does not happen instantly as if after a snap of God's fingers.  From a human point of view, reconciliation is a process or growing into God's grace.  It is a matter of declaring one's allegiance to God and responding obediently to God's will.  God offers us a faith and hope, not a religion.  Forgiveness is freely given and when this gift is freely accepted we enter a new unconditional relationship with God that God will never abandon.

Pray

Pray prayers of thanksgiving for the living God. Pray that you will never abandon God's will for your life.  Pray that you will respond to the Holy Spirit that resides in your soul with acts of kindness, justice, and forgiveness.