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.

Forward to a friend

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.

Forward to a friend

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.

Forward to a friend

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.

Forward to a friend

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.

Forward to a friend

 

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.

Forward to a friend

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

Forward to a friend