Serving with Love on the Sabbath

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Called to Humility and Hospitality

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

There is a difference between acting in obedience to God and obedience to the institutional conventions and prohibitions of religion. Jesus answeres the question, "What should influence our choices when the rule of our religion contradicts the rule of our faith in the will of God?" Compassion and love for our brothers and sisters is the definitive motive that allows us to escape the conundrums of life.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to address the head-scratching issues which challenge your faith.

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A Life Worthy of God's Call

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Called to Humility and Hospitality

Ephesians 4:1-13 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.
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

For Reflection

What you say may be provocative. But what you do is profound.

Pray

Pray so that the Holy Spirit residing in your soul dominates your witness to the truth of God's will for humanity.  Pray so that your life emulates the life of Christ.

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Love and Pray for the Persecutor

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Called to Humility and Hospitality

Matthew 5:43-48 The Message

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

For Reflection

"Geez, I hate her.  What a pain! She dominates everything."

"Do you hate her? Or do you hate what she does?"

"Same thing!"

No, it's not. Denigrating her personhood is akin to murder, especially when you vocalize your judgment to others. At that point, the situation becomes about you not her. You have established yourself as her judge. If you wanted to face the truth about yourself, you would recognize that that emotion she has evoked in you reveals your lack of humility and compassion. When you see yourself as superior to her, you limit your capacity to be of any help at all.

God designed you to be able to find creative ways to express your love for her. Your willingness to accept her as she is may encourage her to become less defensive.

Pray

Pray so that you be more able to find a creative way to work with the people you perceive to be difficult.

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Treat the Poor and Rich Impartially

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Called to Humility and Hospitality

James 2:1-7 The Message

The Royal Rule of Love

2 1-4 My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?
5-7 Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name—“Christian”—used in your baptisms?

For Reflection

Yes, we are chosen by God.  Yes, we are set apart by our faith. Yes, we see our world in a different way than many others who do not accept God's will. Yes, we are called to spread the gospel and witness to the promise of God. But these things give us no right to elevate ourselves above others.  Being a child of God does not entitle us to boast.

Becoming a disciple of Christ means we make the best interest of others our first interest.  We honor God with our humility and our reverence for the sanctity of each human soul.

Pray

Pray so that you may walk humbly with God.

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Deliverance from Violent People

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Living with God's Loving Assurance

Psalm 91 The Message

91 1-13 You who sit down in the High God’s presence,
    spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow,
Say this: “God, you’re my refuge.
    I trust in you and I’m safe!”
That’s right—he rescues you from hidden traps,
    shields you from deadly hazards.
His huge outstretched arms protect you—
    under them you’re perfectly safe;
    his arms fend off all harm.
Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night,
    not flying arrows in the day,
Not disease that prowls through the darkness,
    not disaster that erupts at high noon.
Even though others succumb all around,
    drop like flies right and left,
    no harm will even graze you.
You’ll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance,
    watch the wicked turn into corpses.
Yes, because God’s your refuge,
    the High God your very own home,
Evil can’t get close to you,
    harm can’t get through the door.
He ordered his angels
    to guard you wherever you go.
If you stumble, they’ll catch you;
    their job is to keep you from falling.
You’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes,
    and kick young lions and serpents from the path.
14-16 “If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,
    “I’ll get you out of any trouble.
I’ll give you the best of care
    if you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;
    I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life,
    give you a long drink of salvation!”

For Reflection

We must live with this uncomfortable truth. We are human. Our current forms are not meant to be permanent. We are plagued by our frailty and in the end, we all die.  At times our lives feel neither fair nor easy. We pray to God, as Jesus did to take this cup from me.

But, there are other times when we are overwhelmed with joy. Our cups overflow with exhilaration and we sing and dance at the beauty of our human form.  It is our human condition to live with pain and pleasure.

So we go about our lives dreading pain and yearning pleasure. In some mysterious way, our lives are balanced and in harmony with Creation. Living in the hollow of God's hands is living with complete trust in God; living in God, not with God.

Trust God unreasonably.  Live in God and God will show you what Salvation really means.

Pray

Pray unceasingly. Pray with your body and soul. Pray so that you will develop unreasonable trust and God will teach you.

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God's Protection Through Openness

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Living with God's Loving Assurance

John 17:11-19 The Message (MSG)

6-12 I spelled out your character in detail
To the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
Then you gave them to me,
And they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for those you gave me,
For they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
And my life is on display in them.
For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;
They’ll continue in the world
While I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a night watch.
And not one of them got away,
Except for the rebel bent on destruction
(the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

For Reflection

Oh, how I wish that others would say of me that I was obedient to God's will. That I have fulfilled God's commission that I witness to the truth of the creator as Christ had. I am comforted by the promise that God will protect me as I pursue a path to be one heart and mind with God as Christ displayed

Pray

Pray so that you will grow in the grace that being in sync with God will bring.

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Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Living with God's Loving Assurance

Nahum 1:2-10 The Message

2-6 God is serious business.
    He won’t be trifled with.
He avenges his foes.
    He stands up against his enemies, fierce and raging.
But God doesn’t lose his temper.
    He’s powerful, but it’s a patient power.
Still, no one gets by with anything.
    Sooner or later, everyone pays.
Tornadoes and hurricanes
    are the wake of his passage,
Storm clouds are the dust
    he shakes off his feet.
He yells at the sea: It dries up.
    All the rivers run dry.
The Bashan and Carmel mountains shrivel,
    the Lebanon orchards shrivel.
Mountains quake in their roots,
    hills dissolve into mud flats.
Earth shakes in fear of God.
    The whole world’s in a panic.
Who can face such towering anger?
    Who can stand up to this fierce rage?
His anger spills out like a river of lava,
    his fury shatters boulders.
7-10 God is good,
    a hiding place in tough times.
He recognizes and welcomes
    anyone looking for help,
No matter how desperate the trouble.
    But cozy islands of escape
He wipes right off the map.
    No one gets away from God.
Why waste time conniving against God?
    He’s putting an end to all such scheming.
For troublemakers, no second chances.
    Like a pile of dry brush,
Soaked in oil,
    they’ll go up in flames.

For Reflection

We all know those who get by with all sorts of untoward action.  They never seem to get caught or suffer the consequences of the harm they cause. So, how are we to understand the remarks in Nahum? We all would like to see justice in these cases. But, are we asking God to satisfy our need for revenge? For vengeance?
Perhaps retributive justice is not what God has in mind.  Those who commit violations against others are perhaps already suffering. Perhaps it is the fear of unidentified loss or living without the privilege to trust others or the loneliness that is inevitable. Or the fear and resulting paranoia from the potential for being discovered for what one really is.  There truly no second chances for those who will not recognize their human vagaries.  A change toward the light is not what they perceive would end their longing. Their suffering will continue as a result of their spiritual blindness

But those who trust in the Lord do not seek revenge.  Those who trust in the Lord respond to God's goodness. Believers are at peace and rest in the knowledge that their days can be filled with joy in spite of life's troubling events.  They are comforted by praying for those whose lives are driven by hate and self-engrandizement at the expense of others and for greater confidence in the promise of God.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to withstand the storms or chaos which surround you.  Pray so that your anger drives your compassion

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The Lord Will Help You

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Praising God's Mighty Works

Isaiah 41:8-13 The Message (MSG)

8-10 “But you, Israel, are my servant.
    You’re Jacob, my first choice,
    descendants of my good friend Abraham.
I pulled you in from all over the world,
    called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side.
    I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’
Don’t panic. I’m with you.
    There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
    I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.
11-13 “Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you
    will end up out in the cold—
    real losers.
Those who worked against you
    will end up empty-handed—
    nothing to show for their lives.
When you go out looking for your old adversaries
    you won’t find them—
Not a trace of your old enemies,
    not even a memory.
That’s right. Because I, your God,
    have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.
I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.
    I’m right here to help you.’

For Reflection

There have been many times in my life when failure was inevitable. There were times when I and death were on close friendly terms. There were turning points in my life when I made poor choices.  There were times when people turned against me. 

But as I look back into all the things I faced from childhood, through adolescence, and into adulthood, there were unexplained resolutions that appeared out of no predictable circumstances.  There were people in my path that guided and comforted me. I now realize that the suffering that I survived prepared me to thrive in the confidence that God, in some mysteriously beautiful way makes all things work for good.

Pray

Pray so that you will recognize that God's creation is perfect and God's will is that each of us finds peace and comfort in the knowledge that we are moving in some inexplicable way, toward human perfection.  Pray so that when life seems messy, you have the confidence and courage to look through the chaos you perceive to find God lighting the way.

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Trust God, No Need to Fear

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Living With God's Mighty Asssurance

Psalm 121 The Message

A Pilgrim Song

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
    Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian,
    right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
    sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

For Reflection

So much talk today is aimed at our capacity to fear. The fear mongers are collecting souls to use for their nefarious and selfish advantage. They justify all kinds of evil with lies and exaggerated claims of harm.  All over the world, people are manipulated by appeals to fear.

I suppose it might make one question those who claim to be Christian and yet respond to such appeals or use fear to generate converts. Hasn't the Christ event shown us that trusting in God's promise of eternal life wipes away the fear, even of death?

If you believe in God, will you never suffer, or experience the threats imposed by everyday life?  Will you never be treated unjustly or live in poverty? NO! As a matter of fact, you may suffer because of your faith.

Do I fear? Yes, I do. Do I respond to fear by compromising my faith? Not often, but it has happened. So what is a Christian response to the use of fear for untoward ends? Look past the event into the potential for God's will to be realized. Embrace the trouble and live through it with the confidence that God, in the end, will make all things work for good.

Pray
Pray so that you will grow As a result of the conflicts you face. Pray so that you will be able to see God's will in everyday affairs.

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God's Grace for Hard Testing

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Praising God's Mighty Works

Psalm 66:10-15 The Message

8-12 Bless our God, O peoples!
    Give him a thunderous welcome!
Didn’t he set us on the road to life?
    Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch?
He trained us first,
    passed us like silver through refining fires,
Brought us into hardscrabble country,
    pushed us to our very limit,
Road-tested us inside and out,
    took us to hell and back;
Finally he brought us
    to this well-watered place.
13-15 I’m bringing my prizes and presents to your house.
    I’m doing what I said I’d do,
What I solemnly swore I’d do
    that day when I was in so much trouble:
The choicest cuts of meat
    for the sacrificial meal;
Even the fragrance
    of roasted lamb is like a meal!
Or make it an ox
    garnished with goat meat!

For Reflection

Think about your life. Remember the consequences of your experiences. God has placed you in the path of experience and influences that have brought you to grace.  Only one hitch. You had to choose to follow the path God had set for you.  If you ignored God's guidance, there was always the next opportunity to choose -- and the next and the next and the next...

Pray

Pray so that the choices you make are consistent with the will of God for you to grow in love and grace.

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Crossing the Jordan

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Praising God's Mighty Works

Joshua 4:19-24 The Message

19-22 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. They set up camp at The Gilgal (The Circle) to the east of Jericho. Joshua erected a monument at The Gilgal, using the twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan. And then he told the People of Israel, “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
23-24 “Yes, God, your God, dried up the Jordan’swaters for you until you had crossed, just as God, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always.”

For Reflection

God has always prepared the pathways to hope and reconciliation.  God will also prepare the way for our destiny as children of God.  

Pray

Pray so that the land you cross is firm and dry.  Pray so that you have confidence in God's preparation for your role in Creation.


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The Lord is Near in Suffering

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Praising God's Mighty Works

James 5:7-12 The Message (MSG)

7-8 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.
9 Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.
10-11 Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.
12 And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you.

For Reflection

If God is waiting for us to mature, then it must be that as a human species we are still growing into spiritual grace. Perhaps that is one of Job's insights understood from his suffering. Job and we don't just put up with life's pain, we learn and grow both individually and as a species.  Maybe we are all moving toward spiritual perfection, but some of us who obedient to the word move a bit more quickly and with a feeling of peace and joy.

Pray

Pray so that can say, "Yes!" to God's overture to grow in grace.  Pray so that you can witness to the promise of Jesus Christ.

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Faith Tested by Fire

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

1 Peter 1:3-7 The Message

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

Our lives are a series of fires by which we are purified and refined. We do not suffer in vain or as punishment by an angry God.  

Pray

Pray so that you will be able to see past your difficulties into the will of God.  Pray so that you will understand and accept that God's creation is perfect and God's will is that all things will work for good.  

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God Listens to the Humble

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

Luke 18:9-14 The Message

The Story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee

9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’
13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”
14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

For Reflection

Pharisees were wealthy adherents to the Torah. They taught from the scriptures, but their lives were not always lived in ways consistent with their teaching.  They spoke well but stumbled when they walked the paths about which they taught. They were full of self-righteousness, arrogance, and conceit.
A taxman was loathed by many. A commoner, held in contempt, often inflated a person's tax and kept the excess for himself — a person who violated the Mosaic law frequently.

Both were strangers to themselves. Neither the Pharisee nor the tax collector understood that they both carried with them a point in their hearts, their souls, that would save them from acting in ways that they each perceived as a consequence of their birth.

Only the taxman responded to his soul and let the light of the Lord awaken the Holy Spirit within him.  The Pharisee, blinded by his inflated ego, held tight to his errant ways.  He remained critical of the commoner and gave no thought of reforming himself.

Pray

Pray so that you strengthen your relationship with God. Pray that you will be guided by the Holy Spirit that resides within your soul. Pray that you will be humbled by your faith.

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Build up Each Other in Worship

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

1 Corinthians 14:26-33 The Message

26-33 So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you’re also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.

For Reflection

Loving, sharing joy and suffering, accepting and forgiving, listening and understanding, learning from each other, addressing each other as equals in each other's search for meaning, providing counsel and quiet space is worshiping our living God.  When we have other's interest as our first interest, we worship God.  When we take responsibility for the impact of our own words, we worship God. When we are willing to comfort others and bring them peace at our own expense, we worship God.  When we recognize an others right to disagree, we worship God. When we live compassionately, love beauty and embrace justice, we worship God. 

Pray

Pray often about your relationship with God, Christ and those with whom you interact.

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Majesty of God's Rule

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

Psalm 93 The Message 

93 1-2 God is King, robed and ruling,
God is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm—you’re Eternal!
3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.
Stronger than wild sea storms,
Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
Mighty God rules from High Heaven.
5 What you say goes—it always has.
“Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time.

For Reflection

When we meditate on dark things, it is as though the troubles of life are as wild and as uncontrolled as the waves of a stormy sea.  And though we know that those things which seem irreconcilable with a just social, economic, and political global society frighten us the most.  

But God's universe is established.  The creation cannot be destroyed by natural convulsions or by the exercise of human will. Change is inevitable. God's order of all things will prevail.

Suddenly one realizes that God's creation is complete, perfect, and all things work for good.

Pray

Pray so that you will trust in God, who loves Creation and all that within it lies.  Pray so that you have confidence in the hope found in God's pledge that all things are under God's will and will be made right. 

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Grow into a Special Precious Spiritual House

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

1 Peter 2:1-8 The Message 

2 1-3 So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.

The Stone

4-8 Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. The Scriptures provide precedent:
Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion,
    a cornerstone in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation
    will never have cause to regret it.
To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,
The stone the workmen threw out
    is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting it’s
. . . a stone to trip over,
    a boulder blocking the way.
They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.

For Reflection

The stone of our Christian foundation is Christ.  It is he upon which our faith is built.  It is Christ who provides us with a way of being that is consistent with the will of God. 

This stone which is our foundation is the stone which trips those on a secular path.  This stone is an impediment which blocks their godless ambitions, and their success is short-lived.  They never reach a state of peace.

Pray

Pray so that you develop an intimate relationship with the living stone.

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I Am the Lord

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

Ezekiel 39:7-10 The Message

7 “I’ll reveal my holy name among my people Israel. Never again will I let my holy name be dragged in the mud. Then the nations will realize that I, God, am The Holy in Israel.
8 “It’s coming! Yes, it will happen! This is the day I’ve been telling you about.
9-10 “People will come out of the cities of Israel and make a huge bonfire of the weapons of war, piling on shields large and small, bows and arrows, clubs and spears, a fire they’ll keep going for seven years. They won’t need to go into the woods to get fuel for the fire. There’ll be plenty of weapons to keep it going. They’ll strip those who stripped them. They’ll rob those who robbed them. Decree of God, the Master.
7 “I’ll reveal my holy name among my people Israel. Never again will I let my holy name be dragged in the mud. Then the nations will realize that I, God, am The Holy in Israel.
8 “It’s coming! Yes, it will happen! This is the day I’ve been telling you about.
9-10 “People will come out of the cities of Israel and make a huge bonfire of the weapons of war, piling on shields large and small, bows and arrows, clubs and spears, a fire they’ll keep going for seven years. They won’t need to go into the woods to get fuel for the fire. There’ll be plenty of weapons to keep it going. They’ll strip those who stripped them. They’ll rob those who robbed them. Decree of God, the Master.

For Reflection

In the mid 6th century (BCE), Babalon teemed with many different ethnic groups, religions, cults, and, of course, Gods.  The Jews' faith was weakened by the social pressure to worship many gods.  God punishes the Jews and those who worship false gods.
However, later on, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy hope in the day when reconciliation will bring peace and the Jews would have a home. God would reveal to all nation what God is and the principles upon which God operates.

Later in Jerimiah God says that God's righteous word will be written on the hearts of all people.  Each person will be responsible and accountable for his or her action.

Pray

Pray so that you will be moved by the power of God to make things right.  Pray so what God has written upon your soul will respond to Gods principles of love, forgiveness, and justice.

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Son Of the Living God

Our Love for God

Love Songs That Glorify God

Pondering God's Steadfast Love

Matthew 16:13-20 The Message

Son of Man, Son of God

13 When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
15 He pressed them, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17-18 Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.
19 “And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”
20 He swore the disciples to secrecy. He made them promise they would tell no one that he was the Messiah.

For Reflection

God is a mystery. There are things that we know about God and many more things about which we know very little. 
But God is not unknowable.  Over thousands of years.  God has revealed God's identity slowly. No longer is God unknowable.  In Jesus, the Christ, we see God and God's will for humankind. Because Christ lived, we have proof that we humans can approximate the life of Jesus.  Such spiritual ambition is achievable. The promise in the birth, experience, and resurrection of Christ is our salvation from the perversions of humanity and the attainment of God's will for human perfection.

Pray

Pray so that you come to know God through Jesus.  Pray so that you can attain God's will for peace in the midst of human chaos.

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Guard You Heart and Mind

Our Love for God

Loving God by Trusting Christ

Renounce Everything for Christ

Philippians 4:2-9 The Message

Pray About Everything

2 I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
3 And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life.
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

For Reflection

Celebrate God every day. Don't fret of worry.
Shape your worries into prayers.
Don't hold back with God.

Fill your minds with things, true.
Fill your minds with things noble.
Fill your minds with things reputable.
Fill your minds with things authentic.
Fill your minds with things gracious.
Fill your minds with things beautiful.

Spend time with God.
Shrink the distance between you and God.

God will displace worry.
God will bring you wholeness.
God will bring you to rest.

Pray

Pray about all things.
Just pray.
It's about you and God together.

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