Look to Abraham

FAITH IN ACTION:
LIVING AS FAITHFUL PEOPLE
God's Covenant
A Blessing for All Nations

Isaiah 51:1-6

The Message

Committed to Seeking God

 ^1-3 "Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God.
Ponder the rock from which you were cut,
   the quarry from which you were dug.
Yes, ponder Abraham, your father,
   and Sarah, who bore you.
Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,
   but once I blessed him, he multiplied.
Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,
   comfort all her mounds of ruins.
I'll transform her dead ground into Eden,
   her moonscape into the garden of God,
A place filled with exuberance and laughter,
   thankful voices and melodic songs. ^4-6"Pay attention, my people.
   Listen to me, nations.
Revelation flows from me.
   My decisions light up the world.
My deliverance arrives on the run,
   my salvation right on time.
   I'll bring justice to the peoples.
Even faraway islands will look to me
   and take hope in my saving power.
Look up at the skies,
   ponder the earth under your feet.
The skies will fade out like smoke,
   the earth will wear out like work pants,
   and the people will die off like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
   my setting-things-right will never be obsolete.

For Reflection
"Ponder the rock from which you were cut."  Listen to God.  Climb onto the wagon of His revelation to you.  Set things right,  Hope for justice and He will lead you into it.

Pray
earnestly looking for the Holy Spirit who abides in you.  Pray for the courage to follow the God whispers. Pray for faith in the outcomes of God's kingdom.

The Lord Heard Our Voice

FAITH IN ACTION:
LIVING AS FAITHFUL PEOPLE
God's Covenant
A Blessing for All Nations

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Message

 ^1-5 Once you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance and take it over and settle down, you are to take some of all the firstfruits of what you grow in the land that God, your God, is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place God, your God, sets apart for you to worship him. At that time, go to the priest who is there and say, "I announce to God, your God, today that I have entered the land that God promised our ancestors that he'd give to us." The priest will take the basket from you and place it on the Altar of God, your God. And there in the Presence of God, your God, you will recite:

    ^5-10 A wandering Aramean was my father,
      he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,
      he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon
      they became a great nation, mighty and many.
      The Egyptians abused and battered us,
      in a cruel and savage slavery.
      We cried out to God, the God-of-Our-Fathers:
      He listened to our voice, he saw
      our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.
      And God took us out of Egypt
      with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,
      with signs and miracle-wonders.
      And he brought us to this place,
      gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
      So here I am. I've brought the firstfruits
      of what I've grown on this ground you gave me, O God. ^10-11 Then place it in the Presence of God, your God. Prostrate yourselves in the Presence of God, your God. And rejoice! Celebrate all the good things that God, your God, has given you and your family; you and the Levite and the foreigner who lives with you.

For Reflection
Scripture gives us a history of God's faithfulness and of His people's faithful response.  God said go and His people went!  As a result of a relationship of trust in their God and faith in His intent, God's people stepped into a smokey future in full confidence that God would provide a safe passage and a bountiful life.  Reciting the litany of their faithful journey, God's people remembered and celebrated their relationship to God.  How do you remember and celebrate God's faithful presence in your life?

Pray
celebrating all the good things that God has given you.  Recite the signs and miracle-wonders of Gods presence in your life.  Offer to God the first fruits of He has given to you.

Give Your Worries to God

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Facing Life Without Worry

1 Peter 5:6-11

The Message

 ^6-7So 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

 ^8-11Keep 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
Live a care free life, but, with your guard up.  Be alert for fear to rise and corrupt your confidence in God.  Suffering is a human condition.  Suffering is eased by the hand of God which is always laid on your shoulder.  Let the Lord carry your burden.  Live care free.

Pray
Lay your concerns at the foot of God's throne.  Confess your fears.  Pray for God to remove your fear.  Pray that you feel Christ's presence walking beside you. 

The Spirit as Our Resource

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Facing Life Without Worry

Matthew 10:16-20

The Message

 ¹⁶"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.
 ^17-20"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

For Reflection
Accepting Christianity is easy.  Practicing Christianity is not.  Putting your faith into action may lead you to walk against the wind; at times a howling wind.

Reflecting the love of Christ will result in the same misunderstanding and threat that Jesus faced when confronting the Pharisees.  While the institutional Pharisee has not appeared since the destruction of Jerusalem, the essence of the Pharisee lives on in corruption, self-righteousness, self-defense and fear motivated treachery.  The Pharisees knew the rules, indeed, wrote them.  They attempted to follow the rules and coerce others into earning blessings by following the rules.  However, in living a rule-centered existence, they neglected to adhere to the intent of the law.

Christians are free to choose to follow the intent of God's law.  Christians follow a God-centered compass where the rules are few and love and justice are paramount.

As a Christian you do not travel this path alone.  The Holy Spirit lives inside you, guiding and comforting you -- whispering courses of thought and deed.  Can you walk confidently and fearlessly into the smoke, cloaked in God's armor?

Pray
Sit in silence.  Ask God to reveal Himself in you.  Wait,  Open your mind and listen.  God will answer in His time.  Pray for confidence.  Pray for courage.

Do Not Be Afraid

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Facing Life Without Worry

Matthew 10:24-31

The Message

 ^24-25"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn't make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, 'Dungface,' what can the workers expect?
 ^26-27"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now.
 ²⁸"Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Forget About Yourself

 ^29-31"What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.

For Reflection

Fear, Satan's strongest weapon! 

As I write today, the sex abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University is still unfolding.  Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach has been accused of sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period through a charity he founded for at-risk youth.  Joe Paterno, one of the most renown college football coaches and the president of the university have been fired.  The school’s Athletic Director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business, have also been charged with perjury and failing to notify authorities about the abuse.

Acting out of fear of the consequences, those that covered up the sexual perversion of one of the coaches and emeritus faculty member now suffer humiliation, and criminal charges.  They knew and said and did little to end coach Sandusky's exploitation.  In doing so they enabled  long term systematic sexual abuse of young at-risk boys, institutionalized and cloaked by Pennsylvania State University.

They responded to what was at stake -- millions of dollars in revenue from alumni, supporters of the football program and the revenue from the business of football.  At colleges and universities all over our nation out of control athletic programs have traded our sanctuaries of learning for enormously rich athletic programs.

Out of fear, we turn a blind eye to amoral, immoral, unethical and illegal behavior.  For the greater good of the university they trampled the greater good of saving hundreds of young boys from sexploitation.  Rather than being an example of strength of moral conviction they became, out of fear, an example of the most un-Godly behavior.  Of all places where justice and love should have been commonplace, greed and self-worship reigned.

 ^26-27"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now."

Pray
prayers for forgiveness. Pray for the reconciliation of this tragedy.  Pray that  people of influence choose to act boldly against fear and wear a cloak of righteousness. Pray that you will not be corrupted by the tyranny of fear.

Guard Against Worry

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Facing Life Without Worry

Luke 21:29-36

The Message

 ^29-33He told them a story. "Look at a fig tree. Any tree for that matter. When the leaves begin to show, one look tells you that summer is right around the corner. The same here—when you see these things happen, you know God's kingdom is about here. Don't brush this off: I'm not just saying this for some future generation, but for this one, too—these things will happen. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won't wear out.
 ^34-36"But be on your guard. Don't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it's going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don't go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that's coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.

For Reflection
The advance of science as a preferred thought process has improved the human condition.  God has provided a systematic way for us to discover more and more of his mystery.  However, the presumption for evidence has displaced the value of observing God's hand in action.  We have little written since Biblical times on a vernacular systematic method for observing God in action.  We have in many cases poo pooed the mystery of God because we can find little empirical evidence.

Jesus pointed to nature, the fig tree using one of the strongest methods of proof in his time --argument from sign.  The world is a sign of His mystery to be revealed to us in His Good Time.  Look for God's hand in your life and in the lives of others.  Look for God as life unfolds be fore you.  Embrace the mystery that is God.  All that needs to be revealed will appear clearly through the smoke of living.

Pray
to embrace the mystery that is God.  Pray to open your minds to alternative ways of looking for God in common places in your life.  Pray that you will see God in the life that unfolds around you.

Do Not Fret

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Facing Life Without Worry

Psalm 37:1-8

The Message

A David Psalm

 ^1-2 Don't bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
   In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings
      and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.

 ^3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
      settle down and stick to your last.
   Keep company with God,
      get in on the best.

 ^5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
      he'll do whatever needs to be done:
   He'll validate your life in the clear light of day
      and stamp you with approval at high noon.

 ⁷ Quiet down before God,
      be prayerful before him.
   Don't bother with those who climb the ladder,
      who elbow their way to the top.

 ^8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
      cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
   Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
      God-investors will soon own the store.

For Reflection
How much confidence do you have in your faith? Are you truly confident that God has your best interest as His first interest?

If so, why, then, do you fret?  The psalmist says God will do what ever needs to be done.  He will validate you and stamp you with his seal of approval.  Believe this deeply. Even though God's path may seem difficult, He will guide you.  Be quiet, Cool your pipes.  Pray and listen to Him.

Pray
that you will grow in confidence in the Lord's promise.  Pray, holding nothing back.  Pray quietly and listen for the Spirit to speak.