I was just a boy who had taken his jacket to the ballpark one evening.  After all, all baseball pitchers needed a warm-up jacket.  What I didn’t expect is that after the game, I would forget the jacket and leave it in the park.  The realization of guilt that I had lost my school jacket haunted me.  The only thing I could do was to face the music and tell my mother.

       So, one night in the hallway by the closet, I told her. And she looked at me and her only words were, “That’s alright. We’ll get you another one.”  And in one sentence grace entered in and the disgrace of losing my jacket and the condemnation I feared because of it was removed.

       We don’t often see our disgrace the same way that others see it.  Our disgrace leads us to feeling unaccepted and unacceptable to the ones we desire it from the most.  A part of that comes from our need to be loved.  It’s not until someone gives birth to the love of God in them and extends it to us that we’re able to experience God’s grace and forgiveness in a way that takes away our disgrace.  Giving birth to God’s love in us enables others to experience God’s love present in the world.  It might also just have to ability to take away their disgrace.

• Have you ever been guilty of anything, and with one swift act of forgiveness the sin of which you were guilty was laid to rest?
• What does it feel like to have your disgrace taken away?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, I thank you for all those who have given birth to Your love inside them and removed the disgrace of those who needed Your love. Empower me to give birth to Your love inside of me that others’ disgrace may be removed.

       Elizabeth has conceived out of God’s faithful promise to Zechariah.  She has been the reproach of her people because she could not fulfill a woman’s expectation to be fruitful and to bring forth life.  Before, she could add nothing to her family’s legacy.  She was the fruit bearer who could not produce.  Modern science nor the cultural norms of her day would point the finger at Zechariah.  Zechariah  was the victim and Elizabeth was the disgraced embarrassment.  But now, Elizabeth is pregnant and waiting to give birth to the love of God inside of her.

       But now the angel Gabriel is visiting Mary.  His proclamation: “The Lord is with you!”  The Lord is with you.  It’s a part of our liturgy each Sunday when we take communion.  We offer it as a comforting good‑bye when leaving friends.  It’s what we wish for those who are going through stressful times, or those who are facing uncertainty and doubt.  But what does it mean?  In some ways it is wishing the blessings of God upon our friends and neighbors.  But in another sense, it is an invitation to acknowledge the presence of our God’s love within us.  And if it’s within us, it’s there waiting to be delivered to the world.  For those of us who believe, it is the acceptance that we live each day pregnant with the love of God inside of us — a love that is waiting to be born.

• Have there been times when you’ve given birth to the love of God inside of you?
• Have there been times when you’ve missed the opportunity to give birth to the love of God in you to the community, friends, or family?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to acknowledge the truth that Your love is always present in me. Empower me to be always willing to give birth to Your love in me that others might know Your love.

Messiah, the idea that he had come was not wasted on John the Baptist.  And while we may want to project our anticipation forward to end our waiting, it is, in fact, the waiting that drives us to premature conclusions.  This is perhaps as true today as we try to read present day conflicts and realities interpreting them as the signs of the second coming of Christ.  We really want to know without having to walk by faith.  And yet, this season we are invited to wait in faith not having to rely on signs and wonders as proof that God’s love is coming.  We’re invited to wait in faith for the love of God to come and to not look for some external evidence that God is faithful.  There may be premature signs that the love of God is on the way and is eminent, but faith prohibits us from rushing to judgment.  We can look to God’s past faithfulness that God will continue to be faithful to God’s promises.

• What signs might there be in this time of waiting and preparations that God’s faithfulness has already made good on His promise?
• What actions can we take to keep from getting ahead of ourselves and put our trust in God while we wait?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to find patience in my times of waiting. Let my patience become evidence that I continue to trust in Your promises, even though I may not speak about my faith.

       Promises that speak of a future for us always cause us to ask the question, “How will I know?”  At the heart of our question is our insecurity and fear that the future will turn out as we envision it.  Also mixed into the midst of our question is our doubt and distrust that the future will come to past.  And along with that question is our inward need for assurance?  We’d like to see some evidence that what we’ve been promised is really going to come to pass.  And yet, even though we can be given the assurance, there will be the waiting.  And waiting for something that is coming but is not yet due and is outside of our immediate vision can require a great deal of patience and a greater amount of faith.  We will need faith not to lose heart and wander into disbelief.  We’ll need patience to live non-anxiously while the promise we’ve been given unfolds.  Times of waiting can be times of great anxiety for us all.  It is usually the not knowing that is so frustrating for us.  The questions are:

• What can we do in the “in between times” of waiting for the love of God (Christmas) and its arrival?
• How can we grow in our assurance that the promises of God are really true?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Eternal God, open my heart to hear Your promises and accept them, living without the insecurities that come from a lack of faith. Help me to hear Your voice when mine is silenced by doubt.

       Many of us don’t realize that our lives are lived out in relation to our calling.  Before we were born, we were consecrated and preordained to fulfill a certain role in the life of this world.  Some of us have clearly heard, know, and have responded to what we have been consecrated (set apart) by God to do. Others of us have remained unaware, denied, or been doubtful of God’s call upon our lives, or of our purpose for living to honor God.  Some of us live waiting; we’re waiting to fulfill, or to have fulfilled in us our life’s purpose.  And yet, even in a holy calling consecrated from the womb represents a time of waiting.  There is the wait to be born.  There is the wait to mature.  There is the wait for just the right time.  Then there is our waiting for God to fulfill the promise made — to realize the appearance of God’s love right before our eyes.

• Have you ever considered that your life has been ordained by God to do something significant in life?
• Does it seem improbable that you’ve been in a “waiting period” to discern what God has consecrated you to do?
• How can we remain productively faithful while waiting for God to reveal God’s call upon us?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to remain patient and faithful as I wait for You to fulfill Your purpose in my life.

       Our lives are steeped in tradition.  And it doesn’t matter if that tradition orders a special place for us or places us among the ordinary.  Some of the traditions are family traditions which invite us to carry on the traditions no matter what.  Each year, some family waits for tradition to unfold.  Carving the turkey at Thanksgiving; even saying grace over the meal at certain family events can set a family’s tradition forever.  For those who undertake the responsibility, waiting for your opportunity to carry out the rites of the family can be significant.  It can also seem like they’re taking forever to come to fruition where the mantle is finally passed on to the one who’s been anxiously waiting for it.

       Zechariah was a PK (preacher’s kid), not unlike his father before him, and his before him.  It was a tradition of their faith.  And because he was not the only one in the family, he had to wait his turn to enter the temple. 

• What are some of the traditions of your family or church that you feel are important enough to wait for?
• Can you recall when the tradition practiced in your family or church was first established?
• Who’s next in line to carry out the tradition? Are they waiting for it?  Are you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, in this season of waiting for Your love to come, give me patience to be chosen to do what You have promised I could do.

       Waiting is an unavoidable part of life.  We all do it.  We all have to.  Zechariah and Elizabeth have been waiting for a child for what seems like forever.  They’ve waited past the time of all but the impossible.  Now, The dreams of his heart are finally going to come true because of God’s promises.  But his waiting is not over.  And the people have to wait as well.  Zechariah has been in the temple longer than usual.  What could be keeping him?  And when he does exit the temple, none of the questions they have can be answered because Zechariah can’t speak.  He can’t tell anyone about the joy that is bursting inside of him.  And so, he must wait with quiet, animated frustration.  And his wife must wait in ignorance of what is about to happen.  The waiting seems to begin all over again.

• In this season of waiting, what are you waiting for? Is it Christmas?  Family to arrive?  A special gift?  The unexpected?
• Have you ever waited for something that you couldn’t tell anyone about?
• How can you use this time of waiting to grow in your faith in God’s faithfulness?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, as I wait for Your love to reveal itself to make my faith sight, enable me to not lose heart, or the believe that with You, all things are possible.

       We’ve heard of it happening before.  The little boy is given a seed to plant and he is promised that if he plants and nurtures that seed, it will grow.  But before it is able to bear fruit, he digs it up to see what is happening to it.  His waiting is interrupted by his curiosity and lack of faith because what he wants from the promise  seems like it’s never going to happen?

       We’re often impatient as we wait for someone’s promises to be fulfilled.  After so long, we lose both heart and faith, that the promise will ever be fulfilled, and we adopt an “I’ll believe it when I see it!”, attitude.  People have waited lifetimes for things to happen and they never did.  That’s especially true where God’s promises are concerned.  We seem to wait forever for God to act.  And then, God steps in.

       Zechariah and Elizabeth were not the first barren couple who waited of God’s love to reveal itself.  Abram and Sara come to mind.   And then there is Manoah, the father of Samson.  There are times when our waiting is pregnant with promise — and the promise is pregnant with hope, and all of our waiting is waiting for the love of God to manifest itself in our lives.

• Was there ever a time when you waited for something that seemed impossible, or that it was taking forever?
• Have you ever waited for God to do something you’ve prayed about?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, help me to move past my doubts of Your faithfulness as I wait for Your faithfulness and Your love to come.

       This day in Zechariah’s life, like most days for us, started out very normally.  A humble priest was going about his priestly duties like so many other priests before him and on so many days before this one.  And yet this day would be so different; different for many reasons.  Among the many prayers that Zechariah had been lifting up was a prayer for a child for himself and his wife Elizabeth.  On this day, God would finally break God’s silence and answer Zechariah’s prayer.  And this day Zechariah would find himself doubting the promises of the God he believed in after all this time, and ultimately left speechless because of his doubt.

       Like so many of us whose days begin routinely, we sometimes find ourselves caught in a situation where we find ourselves speechless because of our doubt.  Sometimes it’s because we can’t find the words to say.  What we think and what we want to say don’t find themselves meeting in agreement and so we say nothing.  Trauma can do that to you.  But also, there can be specific moments of salvation when God has intervened in a special way and we are silenced by our doubt and uncertainty.  We find ourselves humbled by God rather than elated by the coming fulfillment of God’s promise to us.  Zechariah could tell us what it was like for him if only he could have spoken.

• Have there been days when things started out routinely for you and God added a special, unexpected blessing to your day?
• Have you ever been told to wait for something that you couldn’t speak about?
• Have you ever had to wait for something you never thought you’d get and found your doubts cautioning you to be quiet about it.
• What do you think it might be like to be unable to talk about something that you had been praying for and was now coming to you as a blessing.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me in those moments of doubts and lack of faith in Your promises. Enable me to rejoice in the promise of Your salvation and wait for Your love to be revealed rather than question Your faithfulness.

       It is sometimes difficult for us to get past our disappointments and frustrations with each other and move forward becoming the people God calls us to be.  There is a hymn which uses the term “fightings without and fears within” to indicate the nature of who we are as the body of Christ.  And yet, this is not God’s intention for us.  God’s intention is that since we have received the perfect gift in Jesus Christ, that we become a gift — a blessing — to each other, encouraging each other to become and develop into the people God created us to be.

• Have you ever become so disappointed with life in the church that it angered you, making you speak negatively about what was going on?
• What might have changed if you had chosen to be encouraging in order to benefit everyone involved?
• What changes would you have had to make in your life to make that happen?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me to develop Your grace in me so that I may — as a holy member of Your family — encourage and benefit others in Your name.

       It’s very difficult for us to put aside our frustrations with others when they fail to meet our standards and expectations.  And yet, if we examine the life of Christ and who he was to us, it’s not hard to realize that God’s grace is (in some real ways) putting up with the failings of the weak (each other) for our benefit.  This is essentially how we use our God given strengths and gifts to build up, not only each other, but the church of our Christ.  It’s far more beneficial to everyone if we build each other up rather than tear each other down.

• Have you ever put aside your frustrations with someone less competent than you in order to build them up and encourage them in the life of the church?
• How do you think that the process of building up those who were weak can work to strengthen and benefit the entire church?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, empower me to adopt the attitude of Christ, building others up to benefit everyone when they fail to reach my standards or don’t meet my expectations.

       God’s gifts to us are most prevalent and reach their greatest magnitude when we come together and are able to share those gifts with each other.  Their perfection is realized in the midst of community.  It is in that context of community that the entire Spirit of God is present.  This is the time when we are most capable of using those gifts to build each other up through teaching, understanding, worshiping God through music, and other ways.  This is essentially how and why God’s gifts to us are so diverse.  It’s so that no one will be omitted from building up the church, not even the artists and musicians.

• In what ways do you use God’s gift in you to build up and benefit the church?
• How might you leverage God’s gift in you to reach more people while encouraging others to also use their gifts?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Generous God, empower me to use my gift in the body of the church that others may be built up and You may be glorified and praised.

       God’s divine plan for us is not laid out randomly.  God has a plan for us with purpose.  That God would give each of us different gifts is an indication that we are not to exist independently of each other. We are to use these various and different gifts to benefit everyone.  It’s not easy work trying to discover and implement each gift in a way that enables us to reach out and achieve the church’s maximum potential.  But reaching the church’s maximum potential is God’s plan.  It’s also God’s plan that we develop God’s gift to us and in us in order to reach our maximum potential in Christ.  It’ not work that happens in a vacuum.  It's done through a process of encouragement and engagement of our gifts so that we can benefit the entire community.

• As an opportunity to reflect on our gifts, give some time to think about your gift and how it might be used to benefit and encourage someone else.
• How might you use your gift in the larger context of the church to build up someone so that they reach their full potential in Christ?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to utilize Your gifts in me so that I may encourage others so that we may all reach our full potential as children of God.

       We often speak of exercising our faith.  And yet, exercising our faith is more than going through the rituals and traditions of going to church, Sunday school, and bible study.  Exercising our faith is actually growing in the development and use of God’s Spiritual gifts within us.  If the old adage is true — that practice makes perfect — then we should be diligently practicing the use of God’s gifts to us in order to excel in them, but to also to excel in them so that the church is built up for Christ.

• In what ways have you worked to discover God’s gift in you and then worked on developing God’s gift so that you excel in it?
• How might you develop a plan, or seek opportunities to further develop God’s gift within you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, give me a Spirit of discipline that I may strive to excel in the gift You have given me so that Your church may be built up.

       It’s clear that we have all been given a gift from God to use for the benefit of everyone.  It’s also clear that some of us seem to be more advanced in the development of that gift than others.  Paul seems to suggest that we’ve been given the gift in proportion to our faith (our awareness of the presence of God). It seems then that our development is twofold: to develop a greater awareness of God’s presence in us and to develop the perfect gift that God have given to us.  To that end, knowing what our gift is, being passionate and willing to use it according to our faith.  Drawing closer to God in faith can only serve to make our gifts stronger, while building up the community of faith where we worship.

• In what ways can you become more aware of the Spiritual gift God has given you and become more aware of God’s presence ( your faith) so that your Spiritual gifts may become stronger?
• How do you understand the relationship between your faith and God’s gift to you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, empower me to increase, both my awareness of Your presence (my faith) and Your spiritual gift to me that I may use it to honor You and Your church.

       The idea that we have a gift from the Spirit of God sometimes goes over our head.  Perhaps it’s because when we think of receiving a gift, it’s typically a gift for us.  It’s given to us for our own personal enjoyment — to satisfy our personal passions, needs, or wants.  Additionally, when we think of the gifts we receive, we don’t often think of them as something we share with others, or something that’s been given to us to benefit anyone but ourselves.  We might share them with others, if it’s that kind of gift, but often we hold it close and cherish it as something just for us.  We sometimes forget that Christ is changing the world, but he’s doing it through us.  It makes sense, then, that the gifts we have received from the Holy Spirit are not for us but are for the benefit of others in the community of faith.  And that they are given specifically with us in mind means that God took great care to think not just of us, but of the community that we make up.  So, the gifts we give are not only perfect, but they are also there for us to use to encourage one another, to build up one another; to celebrate one another so that the church may become strong and affirming.  We sometimes forget that we have received God’s gift as a compliment to God’s perfect gift to the world, Jesus Christ.  But before that can happen, we must first give our gift to each other so that we and the entire world can benefit.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, empower and encourage me to know and understand Your perfect Spiritual gift in me, and your Spiritual presence with me so that Your church may prosper, and Your Kingdom may become a visible reality on earth.

       We live in an age of consumerism.  It’s a concept that we don’t often think of as anything that would have a negative impact on our lives, but it is something that invites us to have more than we need and to keep more than we will use.  When we move into the space where God is understood as our provider, we should also begin to understand that God will provide our needs.  That may mean accepting that we will always have only as much as we need despite a culture that tells us to consume.  It’s living with the tension between what we need over and against our fear of not having what we want that prevents us from trusting that God will provide what we need and no more.  God will always provide our daily bread from heaven that we may learn to trust God to provide.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to realize that my anxieties about not having enough are relieved when I acknowledge that You provide exactly what I need — my daily bread.

       Our eagerness to give is often shadowed by our fear of not having enough.  We have — somewhere along life’s journey — convinced ourselves that there is a scarcity of resources available to us.  And it’s our fear of scarcity that then drives our lack of eagerness to give as well as our limits of generosity.  That leads us to wrongly presume that our generosity and our eagerness to give added to our fear of scarcity are not connected.  And yet, as people of faith our fear of scarcity prevents us from understanding that our God — the same God that has provided we’ve had, all that we have, and all that we will ever have — is the same God that “is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”  It’s always God’s intention to let those of us who are eager to give blessings to others, to also be abundantly blessed so that we will have all that we need.  That requires a shift in our understanding.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d have to admit that our lack of generosity is driven by our fear of scarcity and the fear of not having what we want, and not having what we need.  Therein lies the difference between being eager to give and fearful of giving.  Believing and trusting that God’s desire to bless us is tied to our desire to bless others frees us to be willing to give eagerly.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, grow within me the Spirit of generosity as someone eager to give and live without the fear of going without, so that others may be blessed to have what you’ve provided to me — the things we need.

       Giving to God’s work through our offerings to the church is not a contest.  The wealthy and the poor are neither celebrated nor reprimanded for their faithfulness in giving their gift.  Jesus does, however, make a sharp and insightful observation about the gift of the widow.  It appears that the one with the least was neither reluctant nor fearful of giving all she had to give.  Her eagerness to give shown in her willingness to trust God to provide whatever she needed.  Her gift was a gift of true sacrifice.  If there is a motivating factor for giving, perhaps it is found in our eagerness to sacrifice all we have and give, eagerly trusting God to provide all our needs.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, increase my eagerness to trust You enough to give everything I have believing that You will provide for my every need, so that I may grow in my eagerness to give.

       We’ve all heard the story of the pig and the chicken who discovered a poor and hungry person sleeping in the hay on a farm where they lived.  And the story goes that they decided to feed the man themselves.  The chicken said, “I’ll give up two eggs if you’ll give up some ham,” to which the pig replied: “That’s good for you.  For you it’s a donation.  For me it’s a sacrifice!”

       There are times when we fail to equate what we say and do as a way of giving praise to God.  When we speak about the goodness of God with our lips, but then our actions of giving don’t match the words we say, then our praise is somewhat suspect.  Sharing with others is a form of sacrifice.  But there’s something more to sacrificing than just saying the word.  To give without having to give up something of ourselves is not sacrifice.  It’s more like a donation.  To sacrifice is to give up something that is important to us.  It is God’s invitation and desire for us to put the needs of others before our own wants and needs first, and then give eagerly so that other’s needs will be met.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to grow in my spirit of stewardship so that I am willing to make an eager a sacrifice of praise in my giving to others.

       If we enter into our relationship with God in truth, then we will eventually come to realize that we can never give it all for God.  God has already given everything for us.  So it is that what we do, we do as an act of service to God.  Even our giving is nothing more than a reflection of all that God has already given to us.  The image of “being a slave” is used as a metaphor for becoming eager to serve and please God, just as Christ came to eagerly serve and please God.  When Christ came, he came to eagerly give his all to please and serve his God  as a slave so that we could be the benefactors of God’s generous gift of grace and love.  And when we give to others — for others, we should also give of ourselves eagerly so others may experience the generosity that God has given to us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, empower my every act of stewardship to be an expression of my eagerness to give to others in the same way You have given to me.

       When we think of someone being eager, our thoughts immediately run to the person who is not only excited about doing what they do, but they seem to be in an urgency to get it accomplished.  They are not easily swayed by distractions and consider those distractions more of a nuisance than anything else.  We might even refer to those persons as driven.  They seem to be motivated by a force, power, or energy that appears to be unstoppable.  It’s easy for us to see that image when we think of a person working or trying to accomplish some noble purpose.  Something changes, though, when we try to imagine someone who is eager to give.  That may be true about their willingness to give their service.  And as importantly, it may be true when a person is eager to give of their financial resources.  When a person is eager to give, the amount they give is not nearly as important as the fact that they really want to give it.  They will make the extra effort to give, no matter what it takes.  That eagerness, or willingness and urgency to give comes from a place within the giver that represents the very Spirit of God — a Spirit that goes beyond duty but springs forth from a spirit of love.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, because of Your generosity to me, empower me by Your grace to be as eager, excited, ready, and willing to give as I am often eager, excited, ready, and willing to receive.

       We sometimes get caught up in the trends of our culture allowing the culture to define and tell us what real life is.  We’re led to believe that real life is defined by the trappings of financial success — what we wear, where we live, the size and expense of our toys and how much we spent on them.  We might even forget that God is the source of our wealth, and the One who provides so that we might have those creature comforts.  So, we should not bemoan those who have received the blessings from God.  However, receiving those blessings is not a pass on being eager to give, both out of the wealth of our financial resources and being generous in giving in good works.   Giving in this life through our generosity and willingness to be eager to give or ourselves builds on our eternal treasure where life — real life — really happens.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to see the wealth of all Your provisions to me as an opportunity to be generous in my sharing that I may take hold of real life.

       We get so caught up in the complexities of our life and world that we seldom allow ourselves to remember the days when things were simpler and less complicated.  When it comes to a relationship with God, we can be overwhelmed by all of the dos and don’ts tied to the law of righteousness.  What we really long for is a freedom from the restrictions that bind us.  And yet, it is God present in Jesus Christ that we receive the freedom that only grace provides.  Going back spiritually means giving up a part of life that prevented us from knowing God personally and life in its fullness.  Christ has resolved that with his gift of life that set us free to truly live and fully live.  It is because of Christ’s presence that it’s truly a great day to be alive.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, enable me to rejoice that this day is a day in which I can enjoy the abundance of life You have prepared for me, and celebrate that today is a great day to be alive.

       One would think it impossible to do greater things than Jesus.  And to be honest, it boggles the mind to even consider it knowing all the things that Christ has accomplished.  And yet, the fact that Jesus has proclaimed we would do greater things than he has done makes it a great day for the living.  Because we’re able to share our story of our encounter and relationship with the risen Christ makes it a great day for all who are living; us because we can witness to the truth about Jesus Christ – others because they can come to know God’s tremendous love for them through our witness.  We can perform tremendous acts of love born out of our faith that Christ has been resurrected from the dead.  Our witness is a witness that speaks to faith that could only have happened after his death and resurrection, making it a great day for the living.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, enable me to celebrate that it’s a great day for the living because I can be a faithful witness to the story of Your life and resurrection.

       Each day we awaken to life, we awaken to life anew.  Each day we are given is a day to hone our skills in becoming better and more effective Christians.  That God’ provides us an opportunity to accomplish something eternal in the time we have on earth is a tremendous responsibility.  It’s also a wonderful gift.  It’s a great day for the living if for no other reason than it’s a day we’ve been given to accomplish something that has eternal significance.  That makes this day and every day we’re alive a day of true significance, and a great day for the living.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to embrace this day as a great day for living that all that I accomplish in Your name might strengthen my witness to Christ.

       We have to admit that more than anything else the blessing of our faith is that our God is a God of many chances.  Those who have died no longer have an opportunity to practice what they had learned, nor or they burdened with having to war within themselves against those things that are at their very core unspiritual.  That we are alive to continue to grow in Christ and to be renewed and transformed by Christ’s Spirit makes this a great day for the living.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving Christ, join me in celebration that this day is a great day for those who can once again experience Your grace and clothe ourselves in You.

       Death, while not a daily experience for all of us, has a profound impact on our outlook on life when it comes.  It can certainly darken the days of life in ways that make life or light all but impossible.  The dead no longer worry about the things of our lives. They have experienced the transition to new life eternal that we all hope for.  But those of us who have encountered the God of resurrection through Jesus Christ don’t grieve as those who think that this life is the only life there is.  if there were no tomorrow.  Life may come.  We may grieve.  But our hope remains steadfast in the God who rose up out of death to new life — a life that is alive in us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me to recognize that because of Christ, today is a great day for the living because we can now live with the hope of eternal life.

       For the most part, we are so wrapped up in our current reality that we often fail to recognize the gift we have a hold of that points to our future.  We live each day in faith, not considering the whole of the life’s existence — both spiritual and human.  We experience life in a way that some are unable to relate to.  For those of us who have heard of and acknowledge Christ, today becomes a great day for all of the living — both those who know the story and those who don’t.  For those of us who know and believe, it’s another great day to be alive looking forward with hope.  For those who don’t know Christ, It’s a great day to be alive because it’s another day of opportunity for the to know. the fullness of God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, empower me to use this great day of my life as a witness to Your life in me, and Your promised blessings of things eternal to those who don’t know you.

       We are not easily persuaded that death points to a better life.  After all, we don’t really know much about what happens to us after we die.  We rely on the stories of those who have had NDE’s (“near death experiences”) to inspire and perhaps to inform us, but for the most part, we simply speculate and live with a mixture of fear of the unknown result of our life, or the hope that life after death will be better.  We place our hopes on our faith in the certainty of God’s promises and the penetrating words of Jesus that foretell us that he has “gone to prepare a place for us that where he is, we may be also.”  But each day we awaken in faith that God is God yet without the ability to speak from a practical understanding of eternity beyond our hope of life after death.  We speak from a place of hope that rests on Jesus our hope’s foundation.  And yet it is from that place of hope that the light of a very bright day shines on us.  It turns what would be a day of worry and fear into a day of anticipation and rejoicing.  It is a great day for the living, if for no other reason than God has allowed us to know that our faith story follows others of faith who never experienced the risen Christ, but now see and experience what we continually hope for.  It’s a great day for the living — those of us who are here and looking forward to an eternity with Christ and those who have transitioned, whose faith has become sight.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, allow me to rejoice that today is a great day to be alive! Empower me to live today so that my life will continue to build on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ by all the saints of the past, and for all the saints of the future.

       If you’ve ever lost your confidence before, then you know it can have a devastating impact on every part of our lives.  It can affect our ability to complete projects.  It can impact our desire to go on past our disappointments and the feelings of just giving up.  To be honest, a loss of confidence also has a profound impact on any hopes we have for our future.  Losing our confidence is a dream stealer and a hope killer.  That’s indicative of what can happen when we place all of our trust in ourselves and we depend on that trust to keep our hopes alive.  And that’s why it’s critical for us to place our hopes in One who cannot and will not disappoint us.  It’s why we are encouraged to continue to hold on to our hope in God, trusting in God’s faithfulness to keep us strong enough to endure whatever challenges and insecurities we face.  That’s how we fulfill God’s hope in us.  God’s hope in us is God’s belief in our faithfulness to trust in God’s strength to uphold us and get us through life’s trials.  If we simply hold on to God’s hope, the fullness of God’s promises await us.  God will be faithful to that.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, build my faith and strengthen my trust in Your faithfulness. Allow my confidence to remain strong that I may accomplish Your will and inherit Your promise to me.

       We’ve probably lived in our relationship with Christ so long that we can’t remember what hopelessness feels like.  The thoughts of hopelessness are so far removed from who we are and our present circumstances that it’s senseless to go back and try to remember.  And yet, I believe there is something within us – the presence of God’s Holy Spirit – that serves as a constant reminder, not of our separation from God, but of our eternal connection to God.  I sense that it’s our connection to God that raises our relational antenna about what it was like to be alienated from God and what it was like to live without the knowledge of God’s hope for us.  If we’re honest, it’s the realization of God’s hope for us that we hang onto that gives us hope.  It also reminds us of God’s faithfulness and connects us to the eternal promises of God.  It’s these promises of God that inspire us to hold on to God’s hope for us as we continue to trust and hope in God’s faithfulness.  Holding on to God’s hope in and for us has powerful transformational power.

• When you think about your life before Christ, what did you hope for?
• How did your hopes change after you connected in relationship with Christ?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, continue to empower me to leave behind that life I lived separated from You. Inspire me to lean on my hope in You to give me hope for the future You’ve promised.

       People are notorious for laying out their personal plans with the idea that they are somehow in control of their outcome.  We envision our hopes and dreams, often living with the presumption that our plans and strategies will result in success.  We neglect to give adequate consideration to those life-events that can become stumbling blocks or blockades on the road to our success.  God’s hope  is foundational to any hope we have or plans we make for our lives.  To acknowledge God’s over-arching presence and power in our lives by accepting that anything we plan – whether today or tomorrow – is ultimately the result of God’s hope and will for our lives is our submission to God’s hope and plan for each of us.  Whatever we do, whatever we plan, whatever we hope will always be contingent on God’s permission to do it.  To acknowledge that we do what we do only if God is willing is to hold on to God’s hope, now and forever.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, teach me to trust and hold on to Your perfect hope and design for all I desire to do. Align my life with Your will that Your hopes for me will glorify your faithfulness.

       What we live for and look to receive (as believers) are the eternal promises of God.  Our hopes in life count on God’s faithfulness to cleanse us by our faith in Christ.  And our hopes become alive as we wait for these promises to become real.  Yet, it is holding on to God’s hope that we will learn to trust in God’s gift of salvation and Christ as mediator of God’s new covenant.  God’s faithfulness can then be proved by those who have held on to God’s hope and believe. God’s hope is foundational to God’s promise in order for God’s vision for the world to become a reality.  Our challenge is to not rely so heavily on the practice of ritualistic traditions of our faith, but to hold on to our hope in God which will deliver us into God’s promise based on our faith in Jesus Christ.  Holding on to God’s hope is our only way to inherit the promises of God, whether those promises are realized through God’s vision and mission for us, or whether they are fulfilled out of God’s eternal promises of faithfulness.

• How is your hope for the present affected when you consider that God’s hope is both a present and future reality?
• What do you expect to realize in your present reality that confirms God’s faithful hope in you?
• How do you experience God’s hope for you as you await God’s faithfulness to be revealed?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, enable me to hold on to Your hope for me that I may faithfully live into Your promises for me in this life and eternally.

       Life has a way of throwing us off of our game.  Frustrations, failures, disappointments, distractions, interruptions, lost initiative, or just being tired — all of these life-circumstances can lead to a loss of hope.  And yet, the truth is that when we count on our own inner hope, we are destined to come up short.  While we might be clear about our hopes and dreams, goals and strategies, one little life-size hiccup can throw all our plans and schemes and hopes and dreams off track.  It’s not unless and until we hold on to hopes that come from above that we can find our center of motivation.  It is, in fact God’s hope in us that ignites and confirms our faith, enabling us to place our hope in him.  It’s in God’s hope that we find new mercies, and God’s faithfulness to deliver on the promises of God’s mercy.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty and faithful God, may I aways be reminded of Your faithfulness so that in all of life’s situations, I will hold on to both Your hope for me and You as my hope.

       One of the most difficult things to do is to put yesterday behind us.  In some ways, if yesterday was good to us, we hang on to it for nostalgia’s sake.  We have within us a desire to remember the good and positive things while trying to dismiss the bad.  The danger in hanging on to the past is that it can act as a barrier to moving forward.  And of course, we can’t live yesterday over again.  Our past hopes are found in the presence of our dreams and successes left behind us.  And yet, God’s hope for us hinges on us always moving forward, working to achieve the ultimate hopes that God has for us.  Of course, hanging onto God’s hope isn’t always easy.  We are challenged by our failures and sometimes, a loss of faith.  But those are the things we are compelled to leave behind.  We must be resolved to let nothing get in the way of allowing God’s hope for us to becoming God’s reality for us.  Neither our failures nor or successes from yesterday should inhibit God’s hope for our lives.  Our mission is to hang on to God’s hope until we have achieved God’s promises for us — the goal to win the heavenly prize and we implement God’s faithful mission here below.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to hold on to Your hope for me that I may forget what’s behind me and strain forward to Your goal and promise for my life.

       It’s so easy for us to become trapped in the details of what it means to be Christian.  This is especially true in the institutional structure of the church.  There are so many things we have to know and believe.  Confirmation classes for young people coming of age abound each year to teach them what it means to live in relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  It’s important for them (and all other Christians) to understand the basics of what it means to belong to the body of Christ.  Fundamentals such as understanding baptism, covenant, faith, stewardship, discipleship, Holy Communion, grace, and any number of other things important to believing are taught with the confidence that those who undergo such training will become faithful citizens of God’s family through Jesus Christ.  But there is a distinction between faith and faithfulness.  Faith is what we believe and is driven by our hope which gives birth to our faithfulness. Hope is what we hold onto when doubt creeps into our faith — a hope first realized as hope that God has for us, and then acknowledged as the hope we have in God.  What we often miss is that willingness to cling to God’s hope for us and God’s hope for us often results in us being able to realize the truth of God’s faithfulness and promises.  Clinging to God’s hope for us also prevents us from falling away from our faith, thereby eliminating any possibility of our losing out on God’s promised future.

• What about God’s promises compels you to cling to God’s hope for you?
• Have you ever been doubtful about God’s promises of faith?
• What keeps you hanging on?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer
Loving God, strengthen my resolve to hold on to Your hope in me so that I may receive Your promises of faith. Then give me endurance in my faith so that I never grow weary waiting for Your hope in me to become a reality.

       When we think of God’s justice, we’re often consumed with what will happen to those who antagonize and aggravate us because of their evil practices of injustice.  We believe that our joy will come when those who have offended God will get what they deserve.  We too often forget that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  And perhaps we’ll all get what we deserve.  And yet, God’s justice for our time is not solely focused on the end for those who practice injustice.  It is equally focused on God’s promises for those who thirst for justice and are adversely affected by injustice in our world.  God’s justice for our time is present and alive in our time and overflowing with the hope of God’s promises finally being fulfilled.  To that end the promises of God would be meted out to the violators as well as the victims.  For the violators, a promise of eternal separation from God; for the victims, God promised blessings — that we will be filled with a joy that no one can take away.  Additionally, we would inherit the kingdom of heaven and earth, see God, be comforted, finally be satisfied in their thirst for righteousness, and be called children of God.  God’s justice for our time is a present justice of hope and of promises yet to be fulfilled.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, fill me with the hope and truth that Your justice for our time is alive with the promises of eternal joy and the fulfillment of Your justice for Your people.

       For the most part, we have made up our minds about what justice is.  While we are willing to acknowledge that “God causes the rain to fall on the good and the evil”, we see it from a perspective based on our human desire to have others experience our suffering the way we’ve experienced suffering.  However, justice as God interprets it, is a way to balance the experiences of life through eternity.  With that in mind, God’s justice for our time invites us to know that God’s plan is to repay our years of suffering with an eternity of blessing and fulfillment.  While we receive some of God’s blessings during our lives, God’s justice is meted out in a way that emphasizes the finality of God’s judgment.  While we all experience good and evil in life, God’s justice is designed to bring an end to the evil and to provide us with every good thing eternally, so that our humiliation and embarrassment for trusting in God, will be a reward for those times we stood for righteousness’ sake when it appeared that injustice and evil prevailed.  It’s then that God’s justice – equality, fairness, mercy, and grace will be experienced in their fullness.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Eternal God, strengthen me by Your Spirit in these days to live for the coming day when Your justice will prevail, and I will be rewarded for my faithfulness to You.

       We’ve often asked the question, “Why does evil persist, and why doesn’t God do something about it?”  And perhaps our questions actually overlook where God’s justice for our time might be found.  We know we have a strong desire to see evil quashed and those who practice it removed from our presence forever.  We are incensed when we hear of innocent children being killed, innocent lives being taken by gun violence, and the trafficking of individuals for labor and sex.  We believe – and perhaps rightly so – that those who do such things should face God’s justice.  It was certainly God’s plan for the city of Sodom.  And yet our story reveals something about our God and God’s justice that we may not be fully prepared to hear or live with, not just for our time — but for all time.

       As we review our Scripture for today, can it be that God’s justice for our time and all time is practiced in a way that spares the entire community for the sake of those who are righteous, despite the fact that evil persists.  Could it be that God’s grace is so much a part of God’s justice, that each day is another day that God has to show mercy and for us to tell people about God’s mercy and grace?

       Perhaps we will all have to wait to see just how God’s justice for eternity is revealed.  Maybe we’ll all be surprised at all who are spared.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to understand the wideness of Your mercy present within Your justice for our time.

       It is foolish for us to believe that evil and injustice will go on forever.  Every indication is that God’s justice will come and when it comes, there will be a price to pay by those who are evil and unbelieving in a way that leaves their lives in ruin.  The problem is that it’s easy for us to rejoice in the eventual coming of God’s final judgment and the suffering of those who will finally get their payback (at least as we think they should) because they have lived unjustly and practiced evil.  But God’s justice for our time is not a time for us to rejoice in the suffering of others.  The whole notion of rejoicing in the suffering others is antithetical to God’s justice.  We are reminded in Proverbs 24:17-18;

• “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, 18 or the LORD will see and disapprove …”.

       On the other hand, God’s justice in our time is a time for us to rejoice that we will finally be healed and be able to rejoice in God’s salvation.  Yes, God’s justice is balanced on two sides – one side with punishment, the other side with reward.  And perhaps that’s the entire truth of it.  God’s justice for our time is already here – a time for us to rejoice in the promises of God that God will save us and to do everything in our power to share that joy with others.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Help me live Your truth – that your justice for our time is a time of foreboding, but it is also a time of rejoicing for Your people.

       We are compelled to face the truth about our participation in God’s justice for our time.  The truth is that the world is unjust and unmerciful because we are.  It’s our individual treatment of one another that leads to individual and group suffering, and injustice for those who are victims of it.  And yet, there is a parallel truth operating alongside that reality.  That truth is that God’s justice for our time seems to maintain an account of life’s imbalances and adjusts the scales of justice in a way that impacts the other side of life.  What is imbalanced on this side of life will be balanced by God on the other side.  That indicates that there may be a reversal of fortunes for those who are victims of injustice as well as a forfeiture of mercy for those who are perpetrators of the same.  If we are to make any accurate assessment of God’s justice for our time, then we must realize that in God’s justice for our time, eternal life itself is hanging in the balance.  And whoever denies God’s justice and mercy in this life will apparently forfeit their right to it in the next.  What might God’s justice reveal from the other side if we were fairer and more equitable to each other in this life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, encourage me to do justice and love mercy in this lifetime, so that I may receive Your justice and mercy in life eternal.

       God’s justice for our time is not operating without a priority, or an end result in mind.  While we think of God’s justice as an end-time event, we miss what is inferred by the continued violence, injustice, and evil that is visible and apparent each day.  It compels us to ask the question, “Where is God in all this?  Why doesn’t God do something?”  What we fail to consider is that God’s patience is an active part of God’s justice.  It is God’s justice in our time operating thru God’s patience in our time provide those who have not turned from lives of evil to repent and find forgiveness.  God’s patience is so much a part of God’s justice for our day that it is an inseparable part of the whole.  We see the evil present in our time and want an end to it without considering the grace of God active and patiently waiting for those practitioners of injustice to repent and receive forgiveness for their sins.  Perhaps it all leads us back to God’s justice of mercy — a mercy which says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, forgive my unwillingness to include and understand your patience as a part of Your justice working through mercy for our time.

       Waiting for God to act against injustice is not on our agenda.  We’re disappointed, anxious, and impatient when expecting God’s justice to be done by God.  This is especially true when we think about God’s justice and the presence of injustice in our time.  We want what we want when we want it and not a second later.  And more, we want God’s justice to be meted out so that God’s wrath is poured out on those who practice injustice, and to see “the fire of God’s jealous anger avenge the oppressed according to the images of justice in our mind.  It’s only then that we want to experience what God’s justice has promised to those whom God has favored.  What we forget is that because of our refusal (at times) to be obedient, we stand in line to take a direct hit from God’s fierce anger.

       Or just maybe, God’s justice for all of us is restorative.  And yes, that means we will have to face God’s anger for our own injustices against each other, but perhaps it also means that God’s love for us will remove our shame for “all the wrongs we have done to God.”  Perhaps it means that we will all be humbled by God’s love for us and we will cease all of the things that have prevented a relationship that fully honors God.  Maybe it means that fear of God’s retribution will no longer be a part of our lives.  It could just be that God’s justice for our time, is the same as it has always been — a justice that is enveloped in unconditional love — that holds us accountable for our actions, while at the same time provides the grace which saves us, even when we don’t deserve it.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and gracious God, prepare me to receive Your justice in my time — a justice that requires my patience for Your justice to be fully revealed, restoring me by Your grace to remove my fears.

       One of the modern ways of making progress and being successful has at its foundation the idea to “begin with the end in mind.”  The long and short of it is that our work — whether it be for the world or for Christ, should be done with a long-range goal in mind.  It is the foundation of every class, every degree, every workday, every business, every life, and perhaps every person who begins a journey of faith.  We do so – primarily – because we have a goal we’re trying to reach, whether that goal is learning, work, or the achievement of something as simple as buying a new car.

       The same is true about those issues of justice where God and others are concerned.  We begin by doing justice because it is foundational to who God is calling us to be.  But our goal, however blurry and disconnected the journey, is to glorify God.  Our “… end in mind” is that God may receive glory for the lives we’ve lived and that others may also give glory to God for the justice and mercy they’ve received because of our faith.  It’s not rocket science.  It is, however, a circular method of insuring that justice is done so that God may receive the glory in order for justice to prevail in the end.  The end goal is that we will all receive justice from God that restores us through God’s mercy because we’ve done justice on God’s behalf that’s been merciful and restored others.  That can’t happen unless we accept one another as Christ accepted us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and merciful God, guide me into a life where justice extends beyond doing justice and mercy are done for their sake alone, but that in the end when justice is done, we might all receive mercy that You will be glorified by all.

       We live in a world that is changing daily.  That’s not new.  What is different are the heightened sense of division that drives us and motivates us to act unjustly towards each other.  Each of us has been given the responsibility of caring for each other.  The question, “Am I my brother’s (or sister’s) keeper?”, has been asked and answered.  To that end we share a shepherding responsibility for someone.  Each of us is charged with the responsibility to care for someone.  It may be a parent, a child, even a pet.  In that regard, there is the expectation that we will act justly in our relationships with them so that they are able to find restoration.  Our job is to live as examples to others – offering justice through restored relationships  to show others how it’s done.  Many of us don’t like to be considered role models.  But the reality is we are called to be.  To that end, our care for others should be done – not out of duty – but out of our genuine desire to see them experience restorative justice.  That is an act of our humble walk with our God.  It’s in our willingness to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God as persons restored in our faith that God is glorified.

• How has your care of others been an example of your restored relationship with God thru Jesus Christ?
• In what ways are you continuing to care for others that they can be restored?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, enable me to humbly live caring for others as an example of a restored relationship with you, that they, too, might find You and be restored.

       At some point, justice becomes more than just a way to make sure that people pay for their wrongdoings.  There are times when we experience injustice in ways that breaks our hearts and our spirits.  It’s suffocating, at times, to feel as if you’re on your own.  It can be draining physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  Those are the times when we need to be refreshed – when we need a sense of renewal.  There are times when our only hope of finding peace comes when we have journeyed to a safe place, and we find ourselves in the company of family and friends.  It’s at that time that we experience a sense of refreshing – a time when the anxieties and discomfort of our situation is relieved and a load is literally and spiritually lifted off of us.  That’s what justice is supposed to feel like.  Justice is supposed to be restorative.  It’s supposed to offer a refreshing life where (if you have a healthy family relationship) feels like coming home again.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, in moments when I feel isolated and alone – when I feel unsupported and burdened, allow me to find refreshment and restoration in the company of family and true friends.

       It’s easy to get lost in the reasons we do things. To fulfill some social or moral code – to uphold law and order instead of practicing law and justice in some ways works contrary to the entire notion if restorative justice.  Restoration provides an atmosphere of cooperation and comradery.  When someone has consented to join in partnership with you, it is not only a sign of trust.  It is a sign of relationship.  This is especially true if our partnerships are initiated out of a sense of a just relationship that gives glory to Christ.  In the same way that Christ empowerment of us to be partners in ministry with him was a sign of a restored relationship and our membership in the family of God, so, too, our willingness to acknowledge others as partners with us indicates a restored relationship of trust with them.  To live in a restored relationship with others gives proof of our restored relationship with God and gives honor to our God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and just God, let my willingness to consider others as partners and fellow workers in Christ to be a sign of a restored relationship with others that it may give glory and honor to You.

       We’ve said from the beginning that true justice happens when we begin with the truth.  Without truth, justice is transformed into vigilante-ism in which people are wrongly accused and the whole idea of restoration gets lost in the lies that are being told.  If we are left to deal with differing and conflicting sides of the same complaint, then the door of restorative justice somehow never opens wide enough to allow anyone to enter.  There will always be one side that’s at enmity with the accused, preventing and denying the truth, while at the same time planting the seeds of brokenness and division.  Sometimes justice is best served when a person is in protective custody.  There is a sense of restoration when we are protected from possible lies being told, regardless of who is telling them.  At least it’s possible for an anxious soul to find peace within conflict and that in itself can be restorative.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to find the peace that restores my soul when I’m confident that I live beneath the protection of Your loving grace.

       For those of us who have children, we know that challenges and struggles of parenthood.  It’s probably in that relationship as a parent that we also acknowledge that no matter what our children do, we do everything in our power to treat them justly.  That act of loving care engages us in ways that at times, we are beholden to comfort them, to encourage them, and urging them to live lives worthy of the best they are.  It also involves holding them accountable and issuing just punishment when they’ve crossed those visible and invisible lines of relationship guardrails.  Yet no matter how unruly they become, we always love them.  We always ensure that our punishment isn’t harsh but guiding.  Our goal for them is to become their best selves, living their lives in a way that honors us as parents, and the God we pray they’ve grown to trust in.  And so, justice, at least as we mete it out, is a justice that is restorative.  It’s designed to maintain a family relationship, restoring the once, broken parts to wholeness again.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, enable me to do justice in ways that seek to restore and maintain the family relationship, as You have done for me.

       We don’t often ask all of the questions we need to ask about justice.  We want it.  There’s no question about it.  We need it.  There’s no question there, as well.  But we’re not certain of the boundaries — when it begins and when it ends, or even what its outcome should be.  For the sake of “not arguing”, let’s all agree that justice begins at the point of some violation of the law.  That’s when justice is due to both parties – those who were violated and the person or persons who violated them.  Let’s then presume that there is a process – one that includes fact finding and then holding the violator accountable, as well as ensuring that the injured parties are made whole.  Let’s then move a step further along and agree that the person deemed the violator meets with justice and is duly punished for their infraction of the law.  What then?  Is that the end of it?

      Paul’s letter to Philemon, and indeed the gospel of Jesus Christ, holds that justice doesn’t end there.  There is still another step to be taken, and that justice doesn’t end until everyone is made whole again.  That would mean that the persons who were violated are made whole and the person guilty of the violation is made whole.  For justice to be justice – for us to do justice, and for us to love mercy, while we walk humbly with our God, is to say that justice isn’t over until a person is made whole, considered a partner, and fully restored to the community or family of faith.  That’s true justice.  It’s what Christ did for us.  It was Paul’s plea for Onesimus.  It’s what we should do for each other.  That’s what makes justice a family affair – God’s family affair.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, empower me, as I walk humbly with You, to do true justice that offers mercy that restores all people to Your family of faith so that Your name will be praised.

       There is a relationship between how we relate to God and how we relate to each other.  God is due all honor and praise.  To that end we worship God, giving our offerings with praise and thanksgiving.  We live, often isolating what we do to worship God from how we relate to each other.  And while we like to point the finger at those with power as the cause of oppression in our lives, God’s instructions about how we are to honor God fully are directed at the masses.  Justice remains at the top of the list, regardless of what our oppressors are guilty of.  We still have a responsibility to show mercy and compassion to each other.  And then, along with that, to ensure that those who are oppressed – the widows and fatherless, the foreigner and the poor – don’t meet with an extra burden of injustice at our hands.  Fully honoring God is an instruction to do all the things related to our worship of God combined with all those things we can and should do to ensure justice, mercy, and compassion are done to one another, as well.  To do less is to miss the mark of what it means to fully honor God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to grow in my relationship with You where I fully honor You worshiping You with all that I have, while doing justice, mercy, and compassion to others with all that I am.

       While not found in the Bible anywhere, there is a statement that is quoted: “There are none so blind and those who will not see.”  And let’s be honest.  There are lots of things we don’t see.  Psychologists call them blind spots – areas in a person’s life that — while obvious to others — are not visible or knowledgeable to oneself.  When we find out things that are in our blind spot, then in some real ways, we can’t be held responsible for not knowing of them.  While the human law might operate by the principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, apparently that is not the principle of justice by which God operates.

       On the other hand, there is a different kind of blindness that points to our ability to know something and simply disregard it.  It’s what Jesus meant when he proclaimed to those Pharisees to whom he spoke that they were blind guides.  It’s not that they didn’t know what to do (to do justice, mercy, and faithfulness).  It’s that they chose to remain blind to the requirements and disregard them.  Blindness can be an event that we experience as act of ignorance of law, or where we choose to intentionally disregard what we know is right.  Fully honoring God doesn’t have a category or principle in which being intentionally unjust, merciless, and faithless fits within that profile.  Fully honoring God is an opportunity to see, know, and understand what it means to fully honor God by doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness to one another.  It’s impossible to fully honor God if we’ve simply chosen to disregard God’s expectations and remain blind, maintaining our guilt and corrupting justice. 

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, remove the issues of blindness from my spirit that I might fully honor You in my life.

       Many people revere and honor God as the God of power and might.  I’m sure there are reasons which point to God’s willingness and ability to have saved them from a time of trial.  Yet, God is also acknowledged as the source of our understanding of justice and righteousness.  They are the two principles on which God’s throne sits.  Our understanding is that “anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.”  Fully honoring God would imply that if we, as members of God’s family, have accepted that God is our God, then any vow we make as children of God we make by the God who is just and righteous and requires we put those principles of just and righteous living into practice.  This, of course, all points to our responsibility to love our neighbors by doing the just and right thing as extensions of God’s foundation and principles of justice and righteousness.  Fully honoring God invites and encourages us to include those acts of justice and righteousness in every other way we honor God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Righteous and just God, lead me into a relationship where I can fully honor you living by the principles of a just and right relationship with everyone.

       Sometimes our love of God and how we honor God is determined by how we live our lives within the tradition and structures of the church.  Some believe that if we attend worship and/or Sunday School, offer our financial gifts in the proportion we’ve chosen, pray, and share our lives of faith with others, we done our part in honoring God.  Those ways of honoring God could be interpreted in our contemporary culture as bringing our burnt offerings and sacrifices.  Yet, somehow, that part of honoring God leaves fully honoring God incomplete.  The other part — loving one’s neighbor as oneself – or doing the just and right thing within those neighborly relationships completes what it means to fully honor God.  Once we get past the “churchy stuff” and stop neglecting the integration of the important part of just, merciful, and faithful human relationships into it, then we’ll be able to say that God is fully honored.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, open my heart to understand that fully honoring You doesn’t happen until living in a just, merciful, and faithful relationship with all people is done.

       We can’t deny that offering our gifts back to God is one of the most powerful displays of faith and commitment to God.  We’re reminded of stories like the “widow’s mite” in which great respect was given to her for the way she honored God by her faithful trust in God to care for her.  We also remember the lack of judgment or criticism for those others who came and contributed out of their wealth.  Each were respected for honoring God with their gifts.  And yet Jesus says that while honoring God by giving our gifts is decent and honorable, there is another way to honor God.  Becoming reconciled in our relationships with each other is (in essence) the more important act of honoring God that combines doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  Perhaps we don’t see reconciliation as a part of fully honoring God.  But Jesus has made it obvious to any who dare to understand; If we wish to fully honor God, we can’t neglect the importance of doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness as a part of fully honoring our God. Acts of worship and generous giving are superseded by reconciliation.  Fully honoring God requires both parts of the equation.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to grow in my understanding that to fully honor You, doing justice through the act reconciliation is more important than bringing my gifts to your altar.

       It’s not unusual for us to become distracted.  Distractions take away our focus from what we should be doing.  It’s usually in our distractions that we lose sight of what’s really important and become focused on things that are less significant.  And those distractions, if they continue for a long enough period of time, can turn the important things into areas of neglect in our lives.  It’s easy for us to deceive ourselves into believing that what we do is the most important thing when in reality focusing too much and for too long on minor things can lead to a situation of neglect.  Things neglected long enough eventually become blind to us.  And so, in order for us to live a meaningful life — one in which we have chosen the better part by fully honoring God — we should not allow distractions to keep us from doing the most important things.  There is sacred work – important work – that honors God.  But there is other more important work to be done in God’s name that requires honoring God fully by doing justice, mercy, and living faithfully.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, strengthen me to remain focused on the truly important things when those less important things in life distract me and prevent me from fully honoring you.

       It’s very difficult to keep the main thing the main thing.  We’re often so impacted by life’s changes that we become distracted or lose track of what’s really important.  If we’re honest, the main thing – the important thing – is maintaining a relationship with God that totally honors God.  All the things we do to honor God – paying our tithes, giving faithful worship, even respecting the place where we worship – are all things that honor God.  But those things only represent a part of the whole.  Keeping that in perspective becomes a challenge once we separate them one from the other.  It’s when those things we do to honor God become our sole focus and we begin to diminish and neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness, pushing them to the back burner of our relationship with God and with each other.  That’s when our understanding of how to fully honor God becomes an issue.  Any relationship that fully honors God requires doing those things that honor God in worship, as well as doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness in our relationship with each other. 

       It’s important to honor God and keep our relationship with God sacred.  But keeping our relationship with God sacred doesn’t allow us permission to neglect living justly with each other, showing mercy to each other, nor actin in ways that show our faithlessness.  In fact, keeping our relationship with God sacred means accepting that our willingness to live in a just relationship with each other carries significant weight in honoring God.  Just as we wouldn’t dishonor God in other ways, we can ill afford to neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness as a part of the whole relationship.  Neglecting any part of doing justice, mercy, or practicing faithfulness fails to fully honor God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, lead me into a more committed life of fully honoring You in which doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness are as important — if not more important — than all the other things I do to honor You.

       There’s comedy routine, often done between siblings (at least played out by actors pretending to be siblings) where the point of the routine says, “Mother (or Father) like you best.”  The routine points to the inequity of special treatment by one parent toward that parent’s preferred child.  “Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.”  (Arthur E. Morgan)  Our need to feel special can sometimes lead us to thoughts of insecurity and exclusion.  We begin to believe that we aren’t important enough to be included.  Yet our God has made it clear that it is an injustice to exclude people.  If you choose to exclude yourself, that’s one thing.  But God’s invitation to experience justice extends beyond those we think of as family but reaches out to everyone.  God’s system of justice is non-negotiable and states that everyone is invited to be a recipient of God’s justice, mercy, and grace — even those who have previously been excluded by those who were considered inside.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, lead me to accept Your non-negotiable terms of justice where all are invited to experience Your grace and enter into Your kingdom.

       We do God an injustice when we make the presumption that people who haven’t shared our specific human experiences are somehow excluded from God’s demand that they receive justice.  Justice — if practiced as God intends — is an inclusionary principle of hospitality.  That principle — justice through hospitality — is an open invitation to anyone who is willing to not just be a part of the just kingdom of God, but also opens the door of opportunity to witness and to share God’s goodness by inviting others.  It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from.  The offer of God’s justice, equality, fairness, and mercy are all non-negotiable terms of God’s kingdom.  God’s justice is attractive primarily because God’s justice is open and inclusive.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, in a world where justice escapes certain people, and injustice is familiar territory, thank you for embracing outsiders with the non-negotiable hospitality of Your grace.

       It would seem that those who have been in hostile relationships with God’s people would be the last to be included as the people of God.  In fact, when we think of implementing justice, we typically think of justice as a means of taking away something from someone, or even excluding them from the community.  But, if maintaining justice – doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God –is not a smorgasbord where we can pick and choose which parts are acceptable to us, then why would we deceive ourselves into believing that God would be exclusive when offering mercy to God’s own creation.  It then seems that justice — the whole of it (including mercy) is at its core non-negotiable as it should be practiced.  If God does it, are we not obligated to follow God’s lead by offering mercy as a non-negotiable discipline of doing justice.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, open my eyes that I may understand inclusiveness as a non-negotiable and vital part of justice in Your eyes.

       We all live with limitations in our lives.  There are some things which, for reasons of moral, ethical and/or a personal decision, we simply choose not to do.  At other times those limitations are placed upon us by authorities outside of our personal preferences.  It is believed that to cross those lines and to engage in activities prohibited by traditions or law dishonors the authorities and is a violation of those laws set in place to ensure that people are held in check.  But what happens when the laws themselves stand between what’s right and fair and another person’s ability to receive justice?  I would hate to think that if I were seeking mercy, a law or tradition designed to honor God would pervert justice and dishonor God by prohibiting mercy from being done.  It appears to me that Jesus has done something that (in God’s wisdom) seeks to insure that obeying the Sabbath and loving mercy are not mutually exclusive.  Honoring God is doing justice and loving mercy in a way that insures that the non-negotiable act of God’s justice prevails.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Wise and loving God, help me to always do justice in ways that include loving mercy as a non-negotiable part of the justice I do to honor You.

       There is a song that was popular in the previous century, but whose words are indicative of a current reality.

“There is a blue one who can't accept

The green one for living with

A fat one tryin' to be a skinny one

Different strokes for different folks

And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby

We got to live together.

I am no better and neither are you

We're all the same, whatever we do.” (Sylvester Stone)

       Those lyrics were written by Sylvester Stone of Sly and the Family Stone.  And while they are decades old, they were sung as an acknowledgment that while there are differences between us, acceptance of each other can go a long way toward achieving justice in our world.  That’s where justice begins.

       God authorized this scripture in Deuteronomy long before “Sly Stone” penned those words in his song.  God encourages us to see that we all have something in common with each other, and that acknowledging our similarities will do much to ensure that hospitality and justice as God envisions it will become a non-negotiable reality in our world.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to look beyond the differences of those around me. Let me look to our similarities and our mutual need for Your non-negotiable offer of justice.

       There is an old saying which says, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”  It’s a phrase typically used when a child begins to act and live in ways that mimic their parents.  The context of that statement can be a two-edged sword.  If a person’s life is being lived honorably, then it suggests that the parent’s life has been lived honorably.  However, if the parent’s life has been lived in dishonor, then the child’s life will be symptomatic of the life of that parent.

       God’s relationship with justice and those who practice it is clear:  God loves justice and values those who practice is as a spiritual discipline in their lives.  If the apple has not fallen far from the tree, then the children will also love and value justice as a discipline of their life.  At the same time, God’s word comes to us as a word of justice to ensure us that everyone who has practices justice will be rewarded with a blessing and an everlasting covenant in which justice will become a legacy that extends to generations of our families that come after us.  The apple will continually fall close to the tree from which it was birthed and justice will become a non-negotiable presence in our lives.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, bless me and fill me with Your spirit and Your love of justice that it may become a basic part of my life as a sign that I have not fallen ‘far’ from You.

       The dictionary offers several definitions of the word maintain.  The word can mean to ‘keep in an existing state – to prevent from failure or decline’.  It also means to ‘sustain from opposition or to uphold or to defend it’.  It can also mean ‘ to continue on – to support or provide for’.  It can mean ‘to not become less or to assert’, as well as ‘to uphold as true, right, just, or reasonable’.  Or perhaps when God decrees that justice should be maintained” it implies all of the above and more.  It states without ambiguity that to maintain justice is to hold it as sacred.  We are to ensure its continuation as a Godly practice because it is something that God does for us.  The statement instructs us to keep it as a moral and ethical value. It implies that we should hold it as an expectation that we do for each other as witnesses to God’s justice present in our world.  It states that justice is a means of inclusion— and more — a spiritual practice that extends to every person as evidence of God’s welcome mat.  It extends to those who are excluded, those not a part of the traditional community, those who lack other family ties and connections, as well as those who have been omitted for any other reason of exclusion.  Maintaining justice then becomes a practice of life – a spiritual obligation that invites everyone to enter into relationship with God.  It asserts that all people should experience and expect justice as a means of knowing God’s fairness and hospitality in the world.  There isn’t any wiggle room.  In short, it is a non-negotiable principle of inclusion inviting all into relationship with God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, enable me to value and practice Your way of doing justice as non-negotiable a way of honoring You, revealing Your hospitality, and inviting all people into an accepting and welcoming relationship with You.

       Jesus begins the story in this text explaining why the disciples should pray and never give up praying.  But there is also a story beneath the story revealed in this parable.  That truth shows that receiving justice from those in power never comes easily.  It must be pursued aggressively with dogged determination.  Why it must be that way lies in the heart of those who hold such power to invoke justice as a rule of thumb.  It was once said by abolitionist Frederick Douglas that “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”  To that end, those of us who are committed to doing justice must realize that we can’t stop banging on the door of those who hold the power of injustice and expect justice to be meted out to those who are entitled to it.  Doing justice is simple.  In the words of Nike: “Just do it!”

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of grace and God of glory, empower me with courage enough to continually demand the justice You have declared we are entitled to.

       Somehow, we’ve understood God’s will to include a number of things.  At times, we’ve considered the conclusion of events that happen outside of our control as God’s will.  We’ve also attributed obedience to a laundry list of “dos and don’ts” as falling within the framework of God’s will.  And yet, when Jesus says he has come to do God’s will, it comes with a different connotation.  We’ve somehow missed connecting Jesus’ desire to God’s will as an act of justice in our world.  We forget that Jesus is the “… atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  In that regard he has become God’s justice for all humanity, fulfilling both God’s judgment and justice for humankind.  In short, God has done for us in Jesus Christ what God is asking us to do — imitate Christ by doing justice.  That is God’s will for us.  It’s as simple as that.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, grant that by doing justice I may imitate You in following God’s will. Please accept my just and right acts as an acceptable offering of faith.

       We (members of the human family) tend to overly complicate things.  It’s not new for us.  God gave Moses ten commandments to issue to his people upon descending down Mt. Sinai.  God’s people converted those ten commandments into over 600 other additions, amendments, and clarifications.  We seem to be unimpressed with the simplicity of things, and so we add what we think are modifiers and clarifiers in an effort to account for every possible situation that may come up.  It’s almost as if “simple” isn’t good enough for us.  The truth is it’s not rocket science.  God’s edict to do or maintain justice is uncomplicated and simple enough to hear and understand.  “Maintain justice and do what is right and avoid doing evil.”  Any more than that is overcomplication.  Any less than that insufficient.  Maintaining justice ensures that justice is being effected continually among all people.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to make doing justice and avoiding evil a continual part of my relationship with all people in obedience to You.

       It’s difficult for us to believe that as much time as we in the church spend creating a meaningful and sacred worship event and focusing on in-house-ministries’, that there is a more acceptable way of honoring God.  It would seem that God’s desire for justice is greater than all of our designs and plans for worship.  We create elaborate plans for worship choosing our songs carefully, ensuring that are musicians bring the necessary gifts to fill the sanctuary with praise.  We bring our gifts to support the ministries we value.  We’ve historically thrown delicious dinners, sacrificing the sacred cow, pig, and poultry, all in the name of Christian fellowship.  But all of our displays of faithfulness fall short of glorifying God when justice is absent from our life’s agenda.  When it comes to following the simple rules of relationship where God is concerned, justice is more important than all of the sacred gymnastics we do to appease God.  Doing justice and allowing it to flow freely available to everyone is a simple rule that becomes truly meaningful worship and sacrifice to God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, instill in me the desire to do justice as my acceptable offering so that my offerings of worship through gift and song are acceptable to You.

       Our God doesn’t seem to offer us a passive role in seeking justice as a way to live our lives.  It appears that in almost every situation where injustice exists and the oppressed are forced to live with the weight of their oppressors on their necks, our instruction is “TO DO SOMETHING.”  The suggestion isn’t made that we should somehow approach releasing them from their oppression by means of violence.  But it is clear that we are commanded “TO DO JUSTICE”.  It would seem, then, that abolitionist Frederick Douglas was on the right track when he stated: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”  But, to even make a demand is to do something.  Other actions and strategies will often follow, but we are required to do something, especially if injustice is considered evil.  If we don’t do something, we’re destined to allow the words of Irish philosopher Edmond Burke to become true which tells us, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (people) to do nothing.”  Or even more importantly, it makes the word of God prophetically true which tells us, “In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.” James 4:17).  Doing justice is not just a simple rule, it is the first rule of action.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, give me the courage to take action to do justice as my role in following your simple rules of justice.

       When we think about sacrifices and offerings, we typically point to those things we give up (either willingly or unwillingly) to benefit ourselves or someone else.  We might think of making a sacrifice of time or money, in order to achieve a personal goal.  Or maybe we think of sacrifice in terms of doing something to help someone else.  Sacrifice takes on another meaning when God enters into the equation and we enter the life of the church.  It’s then that we’re led to consider those things that have caused us to sin —(living a life separated from God) — and what sacrifice we then might make in an effort to offer restitution for our actions.  What we fail to recognize is that in Jesus Christ, God has already made the perfect sacrifice.  So, sacrifice in that respect is no longer warranted.  What is necessary is a just and right response to God’s gift of grace.  Doing God’s will — choosing to live in a just and right relationship with God and each other, properly motivated by just and right intentions from our heart is all that God now requires.  It’s a simple rule that moves us closer to making justice a reality in our lives.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to trust that accepting Your sacrifice in Christ Jesus is the only sacrifice I need, then guide the intentions of my heart to do the just and right thing in keeping with your will.

       Any time we come before our God we should come with all of the humility we can muster.  And perhaps that is umbrella under which the three simple rules of justice begin.  Not with the first instructive requirement to do justice.  That is certainly an imperative of our relationship with God and each other where justice is the goal.  But every act of approaching God should be couched in humility if our subsequent actions are to have true value.  Therefore, coming before our God begins with assuming a position of humility.  It’s in that attitude of humility that we honor God as we do justice in relationship to one another.  Everything else we do is located beneath the tent of humility.  It is in that role of humility that we recognize our similarity to our brothers and sisters.  And with that comes our human responsibility as brothers and sisters — to treat one another as equals before God and one another — in effect — to do justice.  That is the all-encompassing simple rule of being in relationship with God and each other.  We are required to do justice with each other and for each other as we walk humbly with our God.  It’s in doing justice that our acts of mercy are born and we seek in every way to do the just and right thing as we take care of each other.  When we can do that, then we can walk humbly in our relationship with God and in our relationship with each other, and justice becomes our single highest priority.  To do anything less is to do an injustice to God and each other, making God’s simple rules — to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God — unreachable.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, humble me that I might be enabled and empowered to do justice as a response of humility to you as I live in relationship with you and all people.

      We desire to live our lives with a clear conscience.  And because having a clear conscience is the soft place to land, we will often do what we have to do — even to the point of convincing ourselves that we’ve done the right thing.  But convincing ourselves could be nothing more than self-deception.  More importantly, trying to assess and blame others when things go wrong, or giving too much credit when things go right to us, leaves us living with a false sense of reality.  It also presupposes that we know God’s will in all things.  The truth is, as a rule, we struggle to know the will of God, because we are driven by how we receive and review the actions of ourselves and others.  We don’t consider that our discomfort may be an opportunity to learn suffering.  Nor do we consider that the outcome of any situation may not be what was intended.  What we can know for certain is that God wants us all to know the truth — those times when our motives weren’t as pure as we thought they were for which we receive grace, as well as those times when our motives were right and just and we receive praise from God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, enable me to live with the uncertainty of my true motives, trusting You to provide what you want for me — praise from you because my motives were right and just.

       We’re very good at telling ourselves that we’re doing the right thing.  When we go to church (whether in person or remotely) we convince ourselves that we’re doing the right thing.  If we serve, we tell ourselves that we’re doing what we can.  If we bring our tithe (what we have determined is our tithe and not the whole tithe as scripture dictates [Malachi 3:8]) then we believe we’ve done our part in being faithful to God.  We count our sacrifices of time, talent, gifts, service, and witness as an adequate sacrifice to God.  But in reality, we’ve deceived ourselves into believing that we’ve done enough.  While these acts of faithfulness are helpful to others and the church and should be done, they fall short of what God wants for us.  Often what we do is because of what we believe God wants from us with little thought about what God wants for us.  What God wants for us is to learn to do right, being fair and just in our actions. God encourages us, even demands that we seek justice  — that we seek those places where the oppressed and fatherless exists and do the just thing that justice might flourish.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, grant me the courage that I might do right and seek justice so that the oppressed, and the ignored around me may know what you want for us all.

       While cultures and world communities vary, in every culture or community I can think of, money is often the determining factor that indicates who has power and control.  And in every culture and world community, it seems that money has control over those individuals.  I don’t think it’s ever been any different.  For years, money has been the counterweight against true justice and equality.  People have often denied doing the right thing if the price was right.  It just took 30 pieces of silver to get Judas to turn on God and Christ to prevent what God wanted for humanity.  It seems that we each have a responsibility to make the right decision when determining what’s most important to us.  If we’re tempted, we’ll deceive ourselves into believing that money is more powerful than the God we serve.  Our choice is simple — justifying ourselves and getting what we want irrespective of obedience to God, selling ourselves out for the sake of money — or getting what God wants for us — to live right and just lives so that what we value does not appear detestable in God’s sight.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to live free from self-deception and the power of money to control my faithfulness to you and what you want for me — the just and right life of your favor.

       Several years ago, the popular comedian named Flip Wilson coined a comedic phrase on his television show denying responsibility for mistakes he made in his tv life.  After making what we’d experience as a comedic, but human error of ethics or morality, he’d say, “… the devil made me do it.”  It was funny because everyone watching realized that the mistake was made out of his free choice or will.  That he deceived himself by not accepting responsibility for his actions meant that he was willing to live comfortably with the lie he was telling himself.  It also confirmed that he wasn’t tempted by God.

The greatest hindrance to receiving what God wants for us rests in our ability to deceive ourselves and our inability to accept God’s truth.  Denying God’s truth is an invitation to deny justice to ourselves and everything God wants for us.  When we live in and with the hope of God’s planned future for us, we willingly accept God’s truth and our decisions, as such, become just in fulfillment of that plan.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, empower me to avoid deceiving myself and live with the hope of receiving every good and perfect gift from above, as you want for me.

       Arrogance is defined as “… an attitude of superiority shown by an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions”.  That attitude can be reflected in a feeling that whatever we do for God should be “good enough” for God, whether or not it’s done in concert with God’s will for us or not.  To presume that we know better and more than God, and to act in a way that dismisses God’s plan for our lives is the ultimate act of both arrogance and injustice that denies any chance for true justice.  In short, placing ourselves above God is the ultimate rebellion and idolatry in which we become the god of our own making.  Only by being obedient to God can we receive justice and get what God really wants for us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, humble me in mind and spirit that my arrogance neither prevents your justice from being applied, nor exalts me above you and what you want for my life.

       It’s been said before: “Pride goes before the fall…”.  We’ve seen it played out in our lives in real time as we’ve watched those filled with their own sense of pride fall and bring everyone and everything down around them — Richard Milhouse Nixon comes to mind.  We’ve seen it occur in the biblical story as Goliath stood before David in all of his pride; as Naaman questioned why Elisha wouldn’t even come out of his tent to honor him, and there are others in the biblical story that indicate how pride can either get in the way of God’s justice or become an example of the self-deception we sometimes practice that inhibits what God wants for us.  In our day and time our pride may well be a reflection of our unwillingness to do what God is calling us to do — the new thing, the just thing and the right thing — whether it’s to do justice by protecting the poor, the widows, the foreigner, the innocent, and the marginalized, or whether it's just letting go of our arrogance and pride long enough for us to receive what God wants for us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to be mindful of myself and others when pride and arrogance stand in the way of what you want for me and your world.

       Humans — above all creation — have the inherent ability to deceive ourselves.  We create situations in our minds where we tell ourselves that what we do, we do for the right reasons.  Our error occurs by how we determine whether or not we’ve been right or just in our actions.  If we’re honest, that error is based on whether or not we’ve gotten what we want for ourselves, or if we’ve gotten what God wants for us.  If we achieve our intended outcome, then we justify our motivations as being just and right even if they’re not.  That proverb credited to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux which states: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, may well be true if our intentions, however good they might be, are based on selfishness and the lies we tell ourselves that motivate us.  Because we tend to be self-assertive and self-protective, it could just be that no matter how well intended our actions are, the outcome may end badly for us.

       And yet, God has determined that there is one thing that’s more important than all the others.  It’s more important than the ritualistic sacrifices (tithes, offerings, and service) we offer that we think honors God and wins God’s approval.  It’s more important even than the outcome of the decisions we make in our efforts to help people.  God sees justice being done when we’re motivated by our desire to do the just thing and the right thing in every situation.  God sees the underlying motivations of our hearts to do the right and just thing as actions which are acceptable to God.  So “the road to hell may well be paved with good intentions …” if those intentions come because we have deceived ourselves.  But the road to God’s heart is paved with the honorable intention and desire to do the right thing and the just thing.  Taking that road will get us everything God wants for us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, thank you for seeing beyond the outcome my actions and decisions have on others into the motivations of my heart. Enable me to always be motivated by the desire to do the just and right things that my life will be acceptable to you.

       Fairness and equity are important if true justice is to be practiced, valued, and respected.  When our decisions are guided by unwarranted and unmerited favoritism or the influence of money, there is every likelihood that true justice is thrown out the window and discrimination, bias, and unfairness are brought into the equation.  This is not the brand of justice that our God wants us to apply in our relationships with one another.  For true justice to be applied to all equally, every precaution and measure must be taken to insure that God’s desire for justice is being implemented in the world.  Anything less than an impartial decision leads to injustice – a false, distorted, and twisted imitation of the true justice that is seen through God’s eyes.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Eternal God may my decisions and judgments always be made, absent the bias and undue influence of money to alter my sense of fairness and true justice in my life.

       It’s not enough for God’s people to only be aware that injustice exists.  Nor is it enough to know that those who make, interpret, and carry out unjust laws which victimize the poor and perpetrate “uncivilized evil” in the communities are able to do so with impunity.  Knowledge that it exists is one of many steps to insure “true” justice.  God’s people are instructed to seek justice.  That requires a vigilance that guards against all kinds of deceit and trickery that unfairly tilts the scales of justice in favor of the rich and powerful.  There is an overt warning that those with power will tend to take care of their own, reaping the rewards of their deceit.  And there seems to be a warning to the oppressed that those who would perpetrate injustices against them are living among them, such that unjust laws that take advantage of the poor should come as no surprise to us.  God’s two edge sword proclaiming the absence of a just world comes both as a warning for those who practice injustice.  It encourages those who are victims of injustice to proactively seek justice and do it.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, grant me the power, wisdom, courage, and endurance to seek your justice such that all who are adversely impacted by injustice may come to know that your justice – true justice – exists in the world.

       God’s sensitivity to the issues and dynamics of power that create systems of injustice is keen.  That we exist in this world of God’s creation and especially as we exist in the relationship between the human constituents of the world is one in which God wants to insure fairness, equity, and justice.  There is a directive in God’s mandate for true justice that warns those with power against using abusive and oppressive laws against to deprive the vulnerable of their rights.  God’s willingness to protect the vulnerable and those often pushed to the margins of life is both righteous and compassionate.  And perhaps that is what “true” justice really is.  In the eyes of God, it is a justice that ensures fair treatment for the oppressed, the orphans and the widows.  True justice seeks to make laws and decrees that don’t unfairly make them the target of powerful people.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Righteous God, guide my actions toward doing your justice. Make me aware of those laws and systems that unfairly target those who have been marginalized by unjust laws that I may take action.

       If we’re honest with ourselves, no one ever benefits when injustice is widespread.  People who suffer injustice are forced to live knowing (or at least believing) that they’ve been treated unfairly.  And whether those who wield the power to make judgement decisions against someone else acknowledge it or not, those with power are aware when their decisions have been weighted too heavily on the side of unfairness and inequality.  But our role as God’s people when injustice has occurred is to give aid and comfort to those who are victims and to discourage them from being vengeful.  It’s important to remember that true justice serves to avoid violent and what might be an unequal retribution against the offender while providing care and assurance for injustice’s victims.  That is true justice – justice clothed in understanding and compassion, and not draped with spite and vengeance.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to always seek true justice by working to comfort victims of injustice while building community and relationship with all persons.

       Things would be much simpler for us all if we could/would just follow God’s instructions.  Our human attempt to achieve fairness and equity through justice are noble, and often set with good intentions.  But in reality, our integrity (and sometimes) our human weakness in our judgement to be fair causes us to act and make decisions based on social, cultural, and societal norms that interfere with true justice.  One’s biased opinion toward justice may influence whether healthcare, housing, and a minimum wage are rights deserved, or privileges given.  It can also impact whether we believe justice is served when a person “deserves what they get”, or justice is meted out fairly when a person “gets what they deserve” according to our personal biases.  The practice of true justice would then depend on whether discrimination based on race, age, gender and sexual orientation, religion and a host of other factors could be eliminated.  True justice brings with it the fair and unbiased evaluation of a situation regardless of social, cultural, or societal norms and tries to see justice through God’s eyes.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Righteous God, enable me to see situations of injustice with your eyes so that true justice can become the standard operating procedure in my life.

       It’s not very often we come across what appear to be contradictions in holy Scripture.  On one hand when a lie is perpetrated against another person, there is the word which demands an “eye for an eye,”.  The old adage “what comes around goes around” seems to be the rule of the day.  On the other hand, Jesus compels us to examine another approach that takes us in a different direction.  Jesus invites us to consider compassion as an answer to dishonesty and evil.  They seem contradictory on the surface.  And yet, we should hold dear to our hearts another scripture that balances the scales of justice for these two seemingly contradictory texts: “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, …” (Deut. 32:25a) and “Indeed the LORD will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants, …” (Deut. 32:26a-b).

       On the surface it seems that the idea of true justice is in conflict and contradiction with itself.  And yet, foundational to both scriptures is God’s desire for true justice and not a distorted justice based on vengeance or revenge.  True justice comes when people are judged rightly with compassion; not when our actions are reactive; not when we seek to balance the scales of justice without compassion or understanding of one another.  God’s justice – true justice – vindicates all parties, rewarding those who are victims while holding accountable those who act unjustly.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, embolden me to act with compassion and understanding toward others, allowing your vindication to be the true justice that resolves all actions which seem unjust.

       The cries for real and true justice flourish amidst the apparent indifference to what true justice is in the world.  Daily reports reflect the injustices throughout the world as justice is either denied or perverted in favor of the rich and powerful.  Persons are imprisoned and detained under false pretenses without even so much as a fair trial or viable witnesses.  Paul Whelan, a former Marine  and Evan Gershkovich are both arrested and held in a Russian prison under the pretense of espionage.  Cameron Lamb, an unarmed man is shot and killed by a police officer without the benefit of a trial by jury while sitting in his truck on his property.  Women summarily lose the right to have autonomy of their own bodies, even after they vote to do so.  In the meantime, those of powerful political persuasion use their finances and paid legal teams to play legal gymnastics with the courts to pervert justice, avoid justice, promote lies and falsehoods to escape justice in an effort to avoid true justice, while the poor and marginalized are at the mercy of those willing to distort the truth, or punish them for being poor.  That’s not to say that if the poor have violated society’s codes of ethics or morality, they shouldn’t be held accountable.  But when they are found guilty of the same crimes as the rich and powerful, but the accountability standards are different, justice is perverted and often denied.  When true justice — God’s justice — is in play, whether globally or locally, everyone is seen as equal.  Lies and false accusations are replaced by truth.  Truth is the primary standard for true justice for everyone.  True justice brings with it God’s Truth and a healthy dose of grace and accountability.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, enable and empower me to always use Your truth as the standard for my decisions. Lead me into making right and fair decisions in my relationship with everyone so that true justice may always win out.

       God’s laws are clear and succinct about those things we (as humans) are most likely to do in our efforts to pervert justice.  And while these laws are good for cultures and peoples of every persuasion in every age, these words are specifically targeted toward God’s people, while at the same time also defines those elements of justice that we may overlook.  We have to acknowledge that somewhere, someone behind the scenes is able to put their finger on the scales of justice in an effort to deny justice to the poor.  It additionally identifies those who are most likely to be or become victims of injustice in the world— the innocent who are falsely imprisoned, as well as those who see money as a valid reason to pervert justice.  Since our directive is to keep religion real, we have an obligation to avoid our participation in devious schemes that seek to pervert justice, as well as working in the ways God has called us to intervene when justice is being perverted.  Keeping religion real is a two-edge sword that is both proactive and preventative.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to act both proactively and in a preventive manner when justice is being perverted so that I may keep religion real in my life.

       There is no doubt that there is a connection between our faith and our works.  We often see those acts of mercy — feeding the hungry, providing clothes for those who are naked — as things necessary to show God’s love in the world.  They are a real and necessary part of our ministry in the name of Jesus.  What we sometimes miss is the component of injustice that has allowed systems of local, regional, national, and global enterprises to create the needs that we undertake to provide for.  Our efforts to provide mercy ministries is a much-needed response to those systems of injustice.  But they are also acts of justice to the marginalized that fill the gap created by those systems of injustice.  We have a responsibility to keep religion real by making a stronger connection to these ministries as God’s justice in a way  that reminds us that our religion is real and authentic.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to connect the ministries of mercy to acts of justice that others might know and understand that through meeting their primary needs I am keeping my religion real.

       We never think of encountering Jesus Christ in the real sense of the word.  Our visions of him are often other-worldly.  And yet, it is our scripture that invites us to have a living and real experience with Jesus Christ by acts of caring and justice towards others that take us away from the church and out into the lives of those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned.  For Jesus, that is where real justice is done and where real religion takes place.  And for us, doing justice and caring for others is where we can encounter Jesus in the here and now present reality.  It’s also the only way to practice doing justice and keep religion real.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, open my heart, mind, spirit, hands, and feet to the opportunities to do justice and keep religion real by being involved in ministries involving care to others.

       Those of us born into faith beneath the umbrella of grace often give little thought to keeping God’s law as it’s understood in Hebrew Scriptures.  We forget that Jesus said, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” (Matt. 5:19)  Even beneath the umbrella of grace, we will always live in a relationship with God where obedience is a mandatory requirement.  Yet, in our practice of religion we have neglected the primary understanding of Law and grace.  It was never a demand that we be faithful.  Being faithful is an expectation of our relationship with God.  But doing justice — that thing that God’s word says will make us happy — is primary to establishing a relationship with others that gets to the heart of God’s law.  Doing always supersedes hearing only and makes religion real.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to be as faithful to the laws of Your word thru grace that moves me from hearing Your word only, to keeping religion real by doing justice as Your will .

       There are times when we’d like nothing more than to separate the law of God from how we respond to each other’s needs.  We’d like to hold on to our traditions, obeying the rules and ordinances of our church, all in an effort to keep our religion pure and undefiled.  But it is impossible.  Caring for one another by performing acts of justice despite the written rules and ordinances of the is a vital and connecting link in our relationship with God.  They are two sides of the same coin.  To love God is to have the freedom to love others and to do justice.  To love others is to take upon ourselves the act of loving God by doing justice or securing justice for others.  There is no separation between our love of God and caring of one another.  And if we’re honest with ourselves, we can’t honestly state that we love God, or our neighbor without seeking justice for them regardless of our written church rules and ordinances. To deny justice based on the appearance of being true to God’s word perverts true justice and prevents us from keeping religion real.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, create in me a connectional spirit that enables me to do caring acts of justice for those who seek it. Allow my efforts to work and secure justice for others as an effort to keep religion real as an expression of my love for and them.

       We live with the ongoing tension between receiving the grace of Jesus Christ and doing or practicing our religion in the world.  Our fear of turning grace into a faith based on our actions, keeps the war raging.  The questions about our actions becoming works-based righteousness (efforts to win God’s approval by what we do) and grace (knowing we are loved without having done anything to earn it)are always at the forefront.  But it’s not supposed to be a polarizing either grace, or actions.  It’s supposed to be a combination of the two.  Others can’t experience Christ’s love of them unless and until justice through religion becomes real for us and we implement those acts of justice by doing caring actions as expressions of God’s grace.  Our blessings come from doing acts of justice that show God’s mercy and care.  That’s what Jesus did for us — served us, and in the end gave us both grace and justice that exonerated us all.  We would be blessed if we did the same for others by making religion real and initiating just acts for them.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower my acts of caring connected to justice as evidence that I keep religion real and end the war of tension between grace only or works only as true religion.

       For many people the idea of being religious is all about believing in God and going to church.  If the subject of going to church becomes a topic of conversation, the most likely response from those who don’t attend is, “Well, I’m not religious.”  However, if we take seriously what it means to believe in God, to have faith in Jesus Christ, and to have heard God’s word to us, then what it means to be religious is more than going to church on Sunday.  It would suggest that hearing — while a vital part of religious life — somehow makes the practice of religion incomplete unless and until we move from hearing to keeping religion real by doing justice for those whom God deems important.  To be pure and undefiled before God would involve connecting God’s word across the centuries and finding that link that makes religion real throughout eternity.  If it’s true that God’s earlier warning — “cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ (Deut. 27:19), is in any way connected to [pure and undefiled religion before God],— “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”, then  real religion is transporting God’s desire for justice out of our hearing in the pews and moving it into the lives of those who are God’s targets for real justice (the orphans or fatherless, and the widow) — and making justice and religion real in our life and theirs.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, transform me from someone who only hears Your word into someone who does Your word so others may know Your love and mercy as true justice that keeps religion real.

       The light of God’s Spirit is captured in prayer.  Prayer is needed even more when we assume a role that places us in the position of speaking on behalf of someone else.  The idea of being an ambassador for Christ — speaking on behalf of Him who came that we might be reconciled to God — is not an easy task.  Knowing just what to say, how to present what we say while representing ourselves as messengers of Christ requires understanding what it means to be reconciled to God.  Praying for the wisdom to carry out that work engages us with the Spirit of Christ and becomes a powerful work of grace.  It also becomes vital to the ministry of reconciliation because not everyone is open to the idea of being reconciled.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, empower me to be the person through whom Your message of reconciliation becomes a clear and understandable message of grace to others.

       We get it that Jesus died for us, and we believe it.  It is a vital and essential part of our relationship to God.  But we sometimes remove from his sacrificial death the idea of atonement — making us one again (at-one/atone) with God.  It is that act of making us one with God that is at the very heart of Christ’s ministry in the world.  We are only able to be in a relationship with God because of that atonement — that act in which we were reconciled to God and brought back into relationship with our Creator.  That is the nature of Christ’s ministry in the world — reconciliation.  And Christ has bequeathed that relationship of ministry to us, that Christ’s ministry to the world and our ministry in Jesus’ name become one.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, help me to experience what it means to be reconciled to God, and empower me to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with others.

       At a time when God’s people believed in a wrathful God, to hear Isaiah writing of a God who is desperately seeking to restore a broken relationship and offer the blessing of reconciliation between God and God’s people might be new.  But God’s efforts to forgive us and reconcile the relationship between us and God are not new.  Throughout the history of human experience with God, the olive branch of a restored relationship to God has been and is primary to the very nature of God.  It began from the moment Adam and Eve broke covenant with God and has transcended down through the ages and was revealed as the true ministry of Christ.  Now that Christ has fulfilled his covenant with God, the ministry of reconciliation — Christ’s purpose and ministry has now been given to us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to live in such a way that Your desire to live in a reconciled relationship with all people becomes my message of faith for everyone I encounter.

       The church has long been accused of always wanting money.  But while money is necessary in our culture to efficiently, and effectively do ministry in our communities, collecting money is not our main priority.  That’s especially understandable if and when we come to realize that most important where God is concerned (and more important than giving money to the church is the restoration and reconciliation of our relationship with each other.  Perhaps we’ve gotten it backwards.  We’ve become so anxious and enthusiastic about doing ministry, that we’ve placed more value on money than on the value of restored and reconciled relationships.  But Christ’s idea of an appropriate relationship with God and each other clearly values reconciliation above money.  Reconciliation is the foundation of every ministry we do in the name of Christ.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, teach me how to set my priorities in order. Teach me to place the value of a restored relationship with you and others before the value of any gift I give to You.

       The lengths to which God has gone to extend to us the ministry of reconciliation has been amazing.  It wasn’t just that God offered the life of Christ as a gift in order to save us.  It’s that in that offering God has placed an eternal claim upon our lives so that we no longer belong to ourselves, but to the God that saved us.  And it’s in that precious offering that God claims our lives in and through the ministry of Christ.  It’s claim extends to and from those who had lived and died before Christ was present.  That claim now extends to those of us who believe today  How much more then can we believe that Christ’s ministry of reconciliation extends to those yet unborn?  And how much more importantly does that make our responsibility as ambassadors of the message of reconciliation to tell the story?  The question is not  then, “Are you saved?”  The real question is, “Do you know you have been saved?”  Everything after that is your response to who a person lives for — the Lord, themselves, or some other god.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to understand the breadth, depth, and expanse of Your ministry of reconciliation so I may continue as an ambassador of Your grace.

       Reconciliation is the proof  and the outcome of God’s love for us.  It justifies us and puts us in a right relationship with God.  It’s not just that God’s love has justified us and put us in a right relationship with God.  It’s that because of that right relationship, our own lives have been transformed into a reflection of that reconciliation — the freedom we have to live in and by grace; knowing that God has loved us, forgiven us, and saved us to and for something greater than we could have imagined.  And in that relationship, God has also embraced us and holds us as sacred.  It’s not outside of the relationship that we know God.  It’s inside of the relationship — one that has been restored by Christ and has opened the door of invitation for us to enter into the family of our God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me to express our reconciled relationship as the true ministry of Christ. Let others experience reconciliation through me.

       We often speak of the forgiveness of God, especially as we experience God’s forgiveness in the light of our own shortcomings.  It is central to who we are and what we believe as people who confess and profess Jesus Christ as our Savior.  But forgiveness, as important as it is, is only one part of God’s equation of reestablishing relationships.  To forgive and end our relationships with forgiveness doesn’t quite get at what it means to have a whole relationship with God or each other.   A large part of the equation on what it means to be Christian focuses on the requirements necessary to fulfill our participation in the true ministry of Christ.  Forgiveness is one part.  Reconciliation completes the process.  Without reconciliation — without coming together, restoring what it means to be in relationship, we have essentially aborted the true ministry of Christ and our participation in it.  Forgiveness allows the brokenness of relationships to be cleansed.  Reconciliation allows the cleansed relationship to be reconnected.  That is the true ministry of Christ — a reconnected relationship with God and each other.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, let Your compassion be reflected in my words so others may know Your forgiveness. Enable me to listen so others may know Your care. Work in me and through me that I may experience a forgiven and reconciled relationship with others and with You.

       We have, by our own assent and permission, given ourselves over to the ardent and persistent worship of things. And if we’re honest, today’s gadgets come with no other purpose than to distract us away from those things and relationships that should be given priority over everything.  Yet we continually relegate what should be primary to secondary status.  Yet, the truth is, those things have commanded and demanded our attention, yet they have no life of their own other than the life we give them.  They have no honor beyond the honor we give them, yet, we have come to worship them day and night.  We use them to wake us up and the thought of going without them drives us into panic mode.  And yet, when trouble comes, we don’t reach for our devices, we reach and cry out to the living God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, free my entire being from its prison to the present-day trinkets and shiny gods. Create a panic in me to honor You that is greater than a forgotten cell phone.

       There is a sharp contrast made between the true God who created us and those that are created by us.  The understanding derives primarily from the essence of who God is and who we are.  Are we humans who live and have a spiritual experience, or are we Spiritual people, born of God who are living and having a human experience?  The answer to that question may give us personal insight to who and what it is we worship.  If are answer is that we are humans who live and have a spiritual experience, then any god of our choosing can motivate us to honor it, whether it be gold, silver, iron, wood, or clay.  But, if our answer is that we are spiritual people, whose life is born of the God who created us, then it is the God of our creation who deserves glory, honor and first place in our lives and idols have no place in our lives at all.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to be mindful of who I am and whose I am so that my worship is directed to the true and real source of my being and not some thing that has been created by human hands.

       I’m always curious when I see religious “art”.  Even statues and images of Christ, however inaccurate they might be, arouse my curiosity to some extent.  Whenever I see those images of Christ, I’m always reminded that he lived in history but that he also is alive today within me.  He was real, not just for me, but for historians and theologians all over the world.  There is a different curiosity when I see other images of wood, silver, and gold that have somehow been given the same or more significant honor than Christ.  I have never seen, nor heard of a tree coming back to life once it was struck down or a statue reconstructing itself after having encountered the smelter’s fire.  And while there are stories of a Phoenix rising from the ashes, that story is categorized in its writing as myth.  The story of our God and Christ has real historical and spiritual significance.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, continue to affirm in me the truth that the God that deserves first place honor in my life is the true God of spiritual power and life.

       That God would speak to us in words that we could understand and would write down is transformational.  It’s not the tools used to record what was said, nor is it the fact that we have them that’s important.  What’s important is that a living presence spoke to them, giving life to them just as surely as life was present in the One who spoke to them.  The transformation occurs when we recognize that these thoughts didn’t come from some inanimate object but spoke to us about them when the converse isn’t true.  Idols can’t and don’t speak to us about our God.  That gives our God a higher honor and place than any idol we might allow to take the place above our God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to always give You first place over any object that is a creation of human hands and ingenuity.

       We are a nation of people who are accustomed to tests.  We run tests for everything — to see which car drives the best; to see which food tastes the best.  There is an entire industry set up to compare and tests similar products, everything from electronics to the smallest insignificant gadget.  Ironically, we are the only ones able to do a comparison test between God and gods to see which of them is truly outstanding.  If we run our tests, we would discover that the gods we choose always leave us unable to accomplish or even draw close to being an Award winner.  Only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — our God — will stand out in first place.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to see without a comparison test that You are the only God and that the gods of our own making can never compare to You.

       It’s difficult for us to see clearly when our eyes and other senses are distracted by events and things and tools of their various capacities.  It’s hard for us to see exactly how the constant distractions that we invite into our lives each day actually come between us and God.  Those distractions can become very disrespectful to God.  But for a moment, imagine yourself speaking to someone when, without warning, they suddenly direct their attention to something that has nothing to do with you.  It’s the same situation that occurs when we’re supposed to be acknowledging God as the Award winner, but we get distracted by something else and the distracted thing makes God our 2nd priority.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, cleanse me from the present-day distractions that display an open disrespect of my relationship with You. Help me to award You my full attention.

       We live in a world where, for the most part, we are consumers.  We use all of our senses to experience our world.  We see with our eyes, smell with our noses, touch with our hands, sense the smoothness or texture of something with our skin, hear with our ears, and taste with our mouths and tongues.  All of this sensory data reaches into our life experiences, and, from our very human perspective, affects or desire, inviting us to crave more and more of those things which become an attraction to us — everything from the sweet creamy taste of our favorite ice cream, or the emotional attraction we feel when we see our favorite color, the gloss or glint of gold or silver that hits our eyes, the smell of bacon frying or coffee brewing in the morning — all of those things hit our senses with a power too wonderful to ignore, inviting us — no, luring us — to give more and more of our attention to them.  The truth is that they enter our lives with such a harmless appearance that they subtly, but powerfully command a place in our lives, often consuming us and becoming our god — that thing we worship, pushing out the One who should be first in everything and overtaking our loyalties.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of all creation, help me to see more clearly those gods of all kinds that come between me and full worship of You. Strengthen me so that I can remove any and all barriers that get between me worshiping You with all that I am and all that I have.

       There is a great relief in all things —big and small — if we know in our hearts and minds that we have peace with God.  Somehow, that puts everything else in its proper perspective.  If we can live in a perpetual state of peace with God, then in reality, nothing else should be able to upset the apple cart of our life.  Any and everything else becomes a mere inconvenience — a distraction of suffering in some regards — to remove us from that place of peace.  But living with the truth that we are justified by our God (free to live beneath the umbrella of God’s grace) — then peace with God becomes and is an unmovable and unstoppable force of calm and endurance in our lives.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, empower me to find Your peace, even amid those distractions in life that cause suffering, but build character and allow peace.

       Finding peace in the world comes with some basics, especially if we have an engaged and active relationship with God and Christ.  Of necessity, it means that we will be at war with various enemies of God that creep into our lives.  But what a peace we discover when we find that we’ve submitted and held on to God’s truth, our faith, our knowledge of salvation and the presence of Christ’s spirit to protect us.  And what a “peace” we find when we realize that the gospel of peace (that which offers the contentment of Christ to the lives of people) can actually free them to discover a peace that they had not known before.  There can truly be no greater peace than to live within the shelter of God’s protective grace and truth.  That is a peace that passes all understanding.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, enable and empower me to always find peace living within the context of Your truth, my faith, Your Spirit, and salvation.

       Life’s situations and challenges seem to have the unique ability to take us off our game.  All the peace we know and experience seems to evaporate when death, or some other crisis, or major unplanned even enters into our lives. Finding peace in God (or God’s peace) takes us away from the distractions and events of life that take us off of our game and become game (life) changers for us.  The peace that God gives to us gives us new eyes and a new mind to understand — or at the very least, to accept life’s disappointments in order to find and know God’s peace.  The blessing is that Christ has already deposited that peace with us.  The difficulty comes in trying to embrace that peace on a daily, or continual basis.  When we come to the reality that life’s situations are temporary, it becomes easier to “let go and let God”.  It’s in the release that we learn to trust God and achieve the peace that we so often seek to embrace.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to find Your peace in the world — a peace that enables me to be unmoved by the disappointments and crises of life.

       Perhaps our greatest difficulty in life is getting rid of the things that cause worry and fear preventing God’s power and authority to take control, giving us assurance and peace.  When we’re troubled and anxious — worried about any and everything, it’s difficult for us to be thankful.  It then becomes that much more difficult to focus on God’s word to instruct us, while reminding each other that there is a way  —  a process to follow so that we can experience God’s peace in our lives.  Once we find that peace, it’s normal to break out in songs of praise.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to find that peace of Christ that takes away all of my worries and allows me to break out in songs of praise to You.

       If we were to make a list of the things that destroy our sense of peace, there’s no telling how long that list would be.  And yet there’s a word of wisdom from someone who discovered how to live without being overwhelmed by the circumstances of life.  She said, “I you can control your problems, there’s no need to worry, because you can control them.  If you can’t control them, there’s no need to worry, because you can’t control them.”  How much easier it is to find peace knowing that God is faithful to care for our needs and is always in control, even when we’re not.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to experience the peace of heart, mind, Spirit, and soul that comes from knowing that you have all things under control.

       Finding peace is a fairly simple recipe of life.  There are certain things that should become a part of our daily ritual — our life’s discipline — that not only allows us to find peace in the world, but to live in a state of continual peace.  Does that mean that we won’t experience trials or challenges in life?  NO!  Absolutely not!!  But following the recipe will invite us into that relationship with God where God can do what God says God will do.  If we continually find joy, pray with thanksgiving allowing God’s Spirit to reign, and abstain from evil, God’s peace will make us holy.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable and empower me to follow the simple recipe for finding peace so that my life will be holy and sanctified and acceptable to You.

       Peace is a long sought after, difficult thing to find.  And people have tried to find peace in various ways.  Too often we have believed that peace was achieved when conflict was avoided.  And so, in our efforts to achieve what we believed to be peace, we sought to avoid situations which lead to conflict, believing that if we avoid the situation, peace could be real for us.  Yet, while the immediate situation was avoided, the underlying, inner tension did not create an environment of peace.  But peace is more than the absence of conflict.  And, if we find ourselves thinking about the situation (or person) responsible for the chaos in our lives, the idea of peace still remains far from us.  There are several places, people, and organizations that promise to deliver on the idea of peace.  And I suppose that it’s possible to go to anyone of them to see if their claims to deliver on their promises are true.  On the other hand, there is someone who can lead us to real peace.  And that One not only tells us exactly how and where to find it.  They deliver it and the result is a peace that defies our understanding — and is able to exist even in the midst of personal or global tension, chaos, and the other unsettling events of life.  And if the truth is told, finding it is easier than we think, but it involves a shift in how we go about finding it.  Finding peace invites us to use our heart, mind, and spirit by concentrating on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.  Or concentrate on God the things of God to find peace in the world.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me by Your Spirit to embrace those things that lead to Your peace within my heart, mind, and spirit. Let me be the presence of Your peace in the world so that others may find Your peace through me.

       It’s not often that we see ourselves as wealthy — as people who live in luxury and pleasure.  And yet, there are those who make a pretty healthy living off of migrant farm workers, undocumented aliens, and others.  The lives of luxury that have come from those who make their profit is but one side of the coin of our relationship with the poor.  The other side displays those of us who benefit from their labor but refuse to stand in support of those who have been victimized by our desire to have cheap labor and cheap prices.  That is not pleasing to God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
Gracious Creator, convict me of my responsibility to help those at my doorstep and empower me to become more sensitive to the needs of the poor.

       It’s difficult for us to think of being generous to the extent that we would give to everyone who begs from us.  That idea flies in the face of a mindset that says a person should be willing to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  It is an easy platitude to reach for as long as the person doing the reaching also has some boots to reach for.  But all too often we see only from the perspective from which our own eyes can see, when the question really is, “What would I have them do to me?”  Perhaps if we saw ourselves as God saw us, we’d realize that we are all beggars in some ways.

• What feelings arise when you hear the words of Christ say, “Give to everyone who begs from you;”?
• How do you respond to these words when you see someone begging on the street?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
Loving God, enable me to see those in need as I would see myself in need and empower me to give what is asked for knowing that only by Your grace can I supply their needs.

       A healthy relationship with the poor has often been strained by our need to characterize them as unwelcome and undesirable.  There are those who capitalize off of the poor because the poor seem to have no voice of power to speak on their behalf.  But that is a terrible accident of thought.  God speaks for them.  It’s not so much that we insult the poor as we insult the God of the poor.  It’s difficult to justify insulting God when all that’s necessary to honor God is to perform those random acts of kindness and respect toward those who are, though poor, children of God in every way. 

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
God of mercy and love, give me the wisdom to honor You by showing kindness to those who live in poverty.

       There are so many crumbs that fall from our tables.  There are even scraps of food that we throw away and waste and let spoil.  I wonder if we ever consider our waste when it comes time to offer something for the poor.  A “Business Week” magazine article estimated that the average household throws away 20 pounds of food each week and American restaurants throw away 6000 tons of food a year.  Those scraps that fall from our tables could feed a lot of poor people — if we would just see them or even consider that they are as worthy of God’s bread as we are.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
Gracious God, enable me to be convinced that the poor who are on my doorstep just outside the gate are worthy of the scraps that fall from my table.

       The Jewish Study Bible uses the term kinsman instead of neighbor, meaning one who is related to you.  The New Revised Standard Version broadens the understanding from kinsman to neighbor – one who is in your community.  For Christians, this is an opportunity to move beyond the boundaries of a tribal – relationship understanding and opens us up to define all humanity as “neighbor”, or of being related to one another.  But we also live in a culture that often has a particularly negative view of the needy.  They are often considered to be leeches and parasites upon society and culture.  The question is does our Christian faith shape our relationship to the poor through God’s view of the world, or have we adopted an un-Christian relationship to the poor by accepting a worldly and cultural understanding of the poor and poverty?

• What sources of information shape and define your views and relationship to the poor?
• On the poor and poverty?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
Loving God, enable me to clearly see my participation in systems of injustice that create poverty. Help me to become an advocate of Your justice.

       In some ways, we are invited to see those who are poor as victims of a system of injustice.  There are times when our political affiliations and loyalties invite us to see poverty and those who are poor as disinterested and lazy, slothful, and unambitious.  And yet, God, who sees all truth in a much more comprehensive way, understands that poverty doesn’t just happen.  God has provided enough for everyone to have if we share.  There is a system that gets in the way of our sharing that promotes, rather than inhibits justice.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
God of Wisdom, allow me to be young and wise enough in heart, mind, spirit, and strength to see the wisdom Your Holy Spirit reveals to the world.

       The Social Principles of our United Methodist Church offer us this understanding about the poor of our world, but specifically our immediate community:

“Because we recognize that the long-term reduction of poverty must move beyond services to and employment for the poor, which can be taken away, we emphasize measures that build and maintain the wealth of poor people, including asset-building strategies such as individual development savings accounts, micro-enterprise development programs, programs enabling home ownership, and financial management training and counseling.  We call upon churches to develop these and other ministries that promote asset-building among the poor.  We are especially mindful of the Global South, where investment and micro-enterprise are especially needed.  We urge support for policies that will encourage equitable economic growth in the Global South and around the world, providing a just opportunity for all.”

• How do we address this issue of poverty and the poor as an act of faithfulness and loyalty to God in a world where God has considerable concern for the poor?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer –
Gracious God, open my heart that I may be as much a helper and protector of the poor as You are. Humble me that I may see them, not because of their poverty, but because they are valuable and precious children of Yours.

       When everything seems to be going all wrong and there’s no logic or reason to explain it, we usually look to our own human understanding of how things should be or should have been.  If everything operated off of a cause-and-effect relationship, we could order our world the way we wanted.  But, the reality is that we can’t.  A lot of things don’t happen because one thing doesn’t ordinarily lead to another.  Things begun with good intentions turn out horribly wrong, and things that look inordinately bad turn out just fine.  Because there is a God who loves us, it’s important for us to be reminded that everything is not always as it appears.  God is in control and is often working out life’s difficulties for our benefit, whether we can see it or not.  Our objective is to learn to trust in the Lord.

• Have you ever been concerned that things were not working out in your best interest only to discover a reversal of fotune at the end?
• How does that inform your faith that “all things work together for good ...”?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, empower me to grow in my trust of You and your faithfulness. Help my belief that You are always working things out for my better good.

       One of the greatest challenges we face in life is understanding suffering.  And the type of suffering is irrelevant.  It could be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.  Suffering, whenever it happens, is both difficult to understand and to endure.  But suffering becomes manageable when we realize that the One we have trusted to brings us through times of suffering is faithful and true.  When our confidence is secured in knowing that our God is faithful and that we can trust in God, we can find peace in knowing that God will come through for us.

• Have there been times when you’ve doubted God’s presence or whether God really cared for you?
• How do you understand your suffering to be connected to your trust in Christ’s faithfulness and ability to save?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, in the midst of life’s difficulties, empower me to trust in Your power to save me from harm. Strengthen my belief in Your faithfulness.

       There are no words any truer than those that remind us that, “God is a mystery.”  And so, it’s difficult for us to fully understand how God works.  It’s also true that when our lives are in distress, it’s difficult to for us to see things clearly.  Our thoughts are typically clouded and darkened by our inability to see our way out of our circumstances.  It is then that we are compelled to reach out for someone who can bring enlightenment to our situation.  Those of us who are among the believers in God turn to God with prayers hoping to bring light into the darkness of our world.  It is trying to see the world through God’s eyes with God’s understanding that the door of hope is then, opened and we learn that we can trust in God.

• Has a lack of clarity about a difficult situation ever caused you to feel hopeless?
• How does having a spiritual (God’s) perspective bring new hope to that situation and teach you that God can be trusted?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, enable me to have a more God-like understanding of life’s situations. Empower me to see clearly that my trust God fully so that my hope may endure.

       When life is going sideways, the most difficult thing to do is to wait for God.  It’s difficult for many reasons.  We have short term memory about how God has been there for us before.  We feel the anxiety and pressure of our circumstances.  But it’s difficult mostly because we’re never aware of how God is working things out.  We don’t get emails, text messages, or find God connection to us on God’s personal social media platform.  Our only recourse is to go to God in prayer and hope that God’s ears are open to our petitions.  But it is God’s silence that discomforts and disturbs us.  It is God’s silence and the waiting for God to act that works against us, making us doubt God’s trustworthiness.  We often fill as though while we’re waiting on God, that we don’t mount up on wings like eagles, but flop around like chickens with their heads cut off.

• Today, reflect on those times when it seemed like God was silent and that your prayers were not getting through.
• What feelings does that generate in you? How does waiting affect your faith that God can be trusted?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, grant me the strength to endure life’s challenges until I know You’ve heard my pleas and have come to save me. Help me to wait patiently and trust in You.

       I would imagine that it’s pretty easy to feel forgotten or ignored when our prayers seem to go unanswered.  It may even lead us to believe that we’ve fallen out of favor with God — that perhaps we’ve done something that angered God — something to cause God not to respond.  We may even begin to believe that the weight of our sin so angered God that there was no way back to that relationship.  But it seems we have short-term memories.  We often forget that God has a reputation for being merciful.  Also, God has said He would never leave us or forsake us, and that God’s love for us is unbreakable.  What a comfort it would be to think on those things that remind us of times when we questioned God’s faithfulness and yet, afterward knew God could be trusted.

• Have you ever felt that God had forgotten you, or was ignoring your prayers?
• Does recalling God’s promises of faithfulness provide comfort in those times and remind you that God can be trusted?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to remember your faithfulness when I am in distress. Enable Your faithfulness to be my salvation and teach me to trust in You through every trial.

       Waiting for God is the most difficult thing to do.  And we don’t wait alone.  Accordingly, all creation longs to be restored to healing and wholeness.  And if Paul is right, there is a futility about it — about our lives, our prayers, and how God responds in that time of our waiting while everything is made right.  The waiting, however, is not as futile as we think because we wait in hope.  We wait in hope for the one who is our savior who has, can, will, and does save us.  We trust with the past knowledge that our Savior will come and be there when we need our Savior most.  God can be trusted.

• Have there been times when your prayers and times of distress seemed to be wrapped in futility?
• If so, in what ways? If not, what keeps you living with confidence?
• What have you learned about your ability to trust in the Lord when it appears that all hope is lost?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, teach me to wait in patience and faith, trusting in Your faithfulness to save me and all creation from their distresses.

       There are times when there don’t seem to be any answers to life’s challenges.  It’s not unusual at those times that we turn to God.  When the world is closing in on us and there doesn’t seem to be an escape route, we look to God to come to the rescue.  And usually what we’re looking for is a “right now” God.  We want that God that sees our distress and comes to us before we get stressed out.  In fact, we sometimes believe that if we’re in distress, then God has waited too long.  Our prayers become prayers of anxiety and we enter into panic mode, believing that God must be ignoring us, or at the very least, avoiding us.  It’s usually when the darkness is dropping around us like a canopy that we experience the morbid fear of death.  And yet, in the midst of that darkness we are challenged to see God’s light and remember God’s trustworthiness — to remember those earlier times in our lives when God’s goodness prevailed in our lives just when we thought it was all over.  It’s those times when we remember that our God may not come when we want, but God can be trusted and we can be sure and our peace can be certain.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, there are times of distress when life seems to be threatening and I fear You are not with me. Comfort me with reminders of Your faithfulness and mercy that I may fully trust in You.

       There is much more to life than simply disclaiming the principles that Christ teaches us.  Bob Dylan once wrote a song that said, “You’re going to have to serve somebody.  It might be the devil; it might be the Lord, but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”  Even if we choose to believe and follow someone besides Christ (God with us) whose principles advocate ,align with and even embody the same principles of God, what difference does it make if we don’t follow them?  We will either be convinced and life by faith taking care of the poor, or be unconvinced and be convicted by our indifference to the poor.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, direct me in the way of truth that convinces me of my responsibility to minister to those who are poor at my doorstep.

       In some ways, our culture believes in an old adage “Give a person a fish and they can eat for a day.  Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.”  Seldom do we first ask if those persons we want so badly to fish for themselves are strong enough to hold a fishing pole.  Christ invites us to look at the immediate condition of a person and not look upon them as we wish them to be.  It might be to our advantage to first feed a person a fish so that they have the strength and energy to go fishing themselves.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, fill my heart with Your Spirit, and my mind with Your attitude, and my actions with Your compassion that I may be convinced that the “Golden Rule” is a Godly rule.

       There are many philosophies and ideologies that people aspire to, even if they’ve chosen to reject Christ.  Sometimes it’s because it’s just easier to avoid the criticism that comes from being labeled a Christian.  And so it is that some people claim Buddha, Confucius, and many other people besides Christ.  And yet it has become clear.  What’s important, beyond acknowledging God’s gift in Jesus Christ is for all people to live in love and charity caring for the poor.  God’s message of kindness has not been reserved for one group over another.  Perhaps there is a common thread of God’s truth present in each understanding that should convince us all to care for the poor.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, enable me to be convinced of a global need to care for the poor, but especially those poor who wait for the crumbs from my table.

       There are so many crumbs that fall from our tables.  There are even scraps of food that we throw away and waste and let spoil.  I wonder if we ever consider our waste when it comes time to offer something for the poor.  A business week magazine article estimated that the average household throws away 20 pounds of food each week and American restaurants throw away 6000 tons of food a year.  Those scraps that fall from our tables could feed a lot of poor people — if we would just see them.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to be convinced that the poor who are on my doorstep just outside the gate are worthy of the scraps that fall from my table.

                  It’s not often that we see ourselves as wealthy — as people who live in luxury and pleasure.  And yet, those of us who live in the USA have one of the highest standards of living in the world.  Now, in that, perhaps there’s nothing to be ashamed about.  The question is not only “Did we profit from dishonest gain, but what we have done with that which we have accumulated?”  There is a tendency to disregard those who have been victimized by our desire to get rich.  God does not approve of that kind of behavior.  And it could well be the fuel that ignites workers who go on strike for a fairer distribution of wealth.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Creator, empower me to become more sensitive to the needs of those at my doorstep. Help me to be convinced of my responsibility to help.

       In some ways, we are all invited to see those who are poor as victims of a system of injustice.  There are times when our political affiliations and loyalties invite us to see poverty and those who are poor as disinterested and lazy, slothful, and unambitious.  Sometimes they’re viewed as manipulators and con artists, out to get something for nothing.  And yet, God, who sees in a much more comprehensive way, understands that the poverty doesn’t just happen.  God has provided enough for everyone to have if we share.  There is a system of greed and indifference to the poor that gets in the way of our sharing that promotes injustice, rather than inhibits justice.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to clearly see my participation in systems of injustice that create poverty. Help me to become an advocate of Your justice.

       The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church offer us this understanding about the poor of our world, but specifically our immediate community:

Because we recognize that the long-term reduction of poverty must move beyond services to and employment for the poor, which can be taken away, we emphasize measures that build and maintain the wealth of poor people, including asset-building strategies such as individual development savings accounts, micro-enterprise development programs, programs enabling home ownership, and financial management training and counseling.  We call upon churches to develop these and other ministries that promote asset-building among the poor.  We are especially mindful of the Global South, where investment and micro-enterprise are especially needed.  We urge support for policies that will encourage equitable economic growth in the Global South and around the world, providing a just opportunity for all.

       And of course, this complies with God’s expectation that we feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison.  But it’s also an invitation to seek justice as we are doing those things to diminish and eliminate poverty in our world.  That is, unless we remain unconvinced that meeting the needs of the poor are unimportant.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and gracious God, open my heart that I may be convinced that the poor on my doorstep are persons who need a hand up as well as a hand-out, Empower me to see them in their poverty without judging them because of their poverty.

       The death of old habits and ways do not always come quickly, especially when we’re talking about being transformed into a new creation.  The hardest part of the transition is avoiding the reversion factor where we, from time to time, go back to old ways and habits of doing things.  But, once we’ve made a conscientious decision to never return to who we were and figured out that who we were then is not who we are now, the transition becomes a lot easier.  One of the ways of managing that is to firmly fix in our minds, soul, heart, and Spirit, that Christ is in each of us who believe.  That enables us to strip off the old self and all that we have been accustomed to doing.  It’s not easy, but it is the process that reminds us that Christ has transformed us from the inside out.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy Christ, make me mindful of Your presence within me. Help me to avoid the lifestyle of my past that prevented me from being identified with You.

       The idea that we are a part of a community is a welcoming thought.  That we are connected to one another gives us a sense of belonging and community.  But belonging to the group really means that we are compelled to live our lives in an independent, yet interdependent reality.  What we do, we do for the benefit of the whole.  What we do benefits us independently as well.  Our source of pride will always be what Christ has done in us and through us.  But our pride also comes from our knowledge that what we’ve done we’ve done for Christ that he might be glorified by what we do.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, enable me to live knowing that because of You I am who I am, and what I do is done because of who You are in me.

       In some ways, our culture believes in an old adage “Give a person a fish and they can eat for a day.  Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.”  Seldom do we first ask if those persons we want so badly to fish for themselves are strong enough to hold a fishing pole.  Christ invites us to look at the immediate condition of a person and not look upon them as we wish them to be.  It might be to our advantage to first feed a person a fish so that they have the strength and energy to go fishing themselves.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, fill my heart with Your Spirit, and my mind with Your attitude, and my actions with Your compassion that I may be convinced that the “Golden Rule” is a Godly rule.

       I have to admit that when I look at myself in the mirror, I’m more likely to see my flaws and what’s changing in this body of mine from day to day.  Changes in hair, skin, and other things noticeable, that which I love and despise are right before me.  It’s not often that I look in the mirror and say to myself, “Staring back at you is the very temple of God.”  That’s a lot to remember and live up to from day to day.  And yet, if I am to believe God and what’s been accomplished in Jesus Christ, that is exactly who I am.  To remember it and internalize it gives me a foundation on which I am being built.  I am becoming a part of the very structure against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and loving God, empower me to awaken to the reality that this human shell is more than that. It is the very temple where You dwell each day.

       One of the songs we sing as children is “Jesus Loves Me.”  The song is simple, but it misses a very salient point regarding who we are as God’s people.  While it teaches us as children that we are weak in comparison to God, and God is strong, it doesn’t lift up the promise that God is with us — inside of us — to be our strength and give us strength.  What the song does not do is help us to understand that our powerful and almighty God has taken up residence within us and gives us our identity, telling us who we really are in this world.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Amazing God, enable me to see Your strength and power present in me and with me each day, giving shape, power, and definition to who I am in You.

       Our character is shaped at times by a very grueling process.  Many of us would like to think that we simply develop into who we are.  But that is not the case.  Our character is forged by the various trials and circumstances that affect our life.  A wise person once said, “A tree is made stronger by contrary winds.”  Another person, motivational speaker, Les Brown, has attributed his success to those days when challenges came.  He called them “character building days.”   If that’s so, then trials we face as people of God only serve to forge our Christian character and define who we are becoming as persons born anew in Christ Jesus.  He will be praised as our strength in him is molded because of our trials.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and gracious Christ, enable the trials that I face each day to forge me into the holy temple You’ve created me to become.

begins to support and give substance to who we are becoming.  Any changes in who we are should then be attributable to Christ, our foundation.  Jesus, then, is the one on whom our identity as people is defined.  He is responsible for who we are becoming unless we highjack our own development and build upon his foundation with works that have nothing to do with Christ.  Just as we were once new in Christ, we now have an opportunity, not to build upon the work of ourselves or another, but to build upon the foundation upon which our work in Christ will rest.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, help me — by the power of your Spirit alive in me — to remember my new life in You which identifies me to others as Your child, and allows my good works to stand.

       Much of what we do in life is determined by how we identify ourselves.  It’s not a one day, one time process, though.  It’s a process of learning who we are, and then acting out of that place of identity.  Sometimes the process can be disturbed if we have claimed ourselves as one person, but then suffer from memory confusion and forget who we really are.  If we live our lives in a way that who we believe ourselves to be internally can give credence to what we do on a daily basis, then the process of identification remains fairly simple.  But, if by our words, and actions, people are left in a quandary about the person we say we are as opposed to the person they might have just met, then they are left with nothing more than an image of confusion.  It really comes down to us being able to integrate what we do and how we live with who we really are.  Those of us who are people of faith are faced with the responsibility of remembering and connecting who we are on a spiritual level with how we act on a physical level.  If there is a connection between the two, then our actions will speak louder than any words we can say.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and Loving God, grant that as I seek each day to live a life to honor You, I may always remember who I really am. Bless me to know that Christ is my foundation and that I am made Your holy temple by the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit.

       We tend to look for the most complex way to solve life’s problems.  Perhaps that’s our human nature — to find the most difficult way into and out of something.  God has provided us with a profound, yet simple solution to the problems we encounter while living in relationships with God and each other.  The burden we carry is trying to find a way other than the which has been provided by Christ.  Perhaps the weight of trying to please God by some other way outside of a simple act of forgiveness is what makes God’s acceptance of us far more difficult than It has to be.  If we are, in fact, trying to find the easiest way of acceptance, perhaps it comes from yoking ourselves together with Christ through faith.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me to grow deeper into my relationship with You so that I may learn to accept the yoke of Your grace as the easier way of a relationship with You.

       Life as we know and live it is not easy.  If we’re honest about our relationship with God, then we live with God’s commandments as responsibilities that yoke us together in that relationship.  That typically means that we are yoked together in ways that obligate us to go in the same direction that the strongest part of the team (Christ) is leading.  However, it’s not unusual, being yoked together, to sometimes drift off course.  The beauty of being yoked together with Christ is knowing that whether we drift into the high weeds of life, away from the quenching streams of water, or we’re on the path chosen by the leader, that Christ will always be with us.  That makes life and living and putting on the yoke of Christ much easier when we know that no matter how difficult the journey, we will never be alone.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful Christ, empower me to be comforted by the benefits of Your faithfulness that come when I take Your yoke upon me knowing that You will always be with me.

       Psychologists have suggested that it takes 21 days of consecutive practice to change a person’s behavior pattern.  That may be true when moving a wastebasket from one side of the room to another, but I’m not certain that is the case when asking people to change from who they are into who they wish to become.  Our human condition seems to add a layer of complexity to the issue of transformation as we seek to move from the physical attractions of life to the spiritual way of living.  What we do and who we are requires something different and more than 21 days.  Yet, we find ourselves knowing what God requires almost immediately, but unable to achieve the standard God has set for us.  Jesus has offered and taught us the truth about forgiveness and grace as a highly radical way of finding acceptance with God, while at the same time providing grace as the much easier way.  Grace is the element that fills the distance between where we are and where God wants us to be.  It is the yoke of God’s grace offered in Jesus Christ that makes a relationship with God easy.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to accept the easy yoke of Your grace as I become transformed from the person I was into the person you have called me to be.

       There will always be perennial questions about how we might come to know God or be in an authentic relationship journeying together doing God’s work.  The obvious answer is we know God as we live in relationship with Him.  Since we can’t know another person’s experience with God, we have great difficulty knowing who is right.  But there is a common denominator.  Others can know us by our relationship with God.  Others can know the degree to which we are in that relationship by what we say and do to honor the relationship.  It is in essence what we practice out of our relationship with God that gives evidence of a faithful relationship with God.  It also speaks to how simple it is to accept God’s way into the relationship.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower Your grace offered to me in Jesus Christ and my acceptance of that grace as evidence of my life lived in a relationship yoked together with You.

       It is impossible to know God without being in an authentic relationship with God.  And there is a difference between “knowing of God” and “knowing God.”  It is possible to know of God without being in relationship with Him in the same way that it’s possible for us to know of someone famous without ever having met them or having been in a true relationship with them.  And of course, how a person’s life is involved with the presence and connection (or yoked) to the other individual would be one way of determining the validity of that relationship.  Perhaps the clearest evidence would be a life that reflected the grace of God experienced from living within that relationship.  In that way simply going through the motions and living life independently of the other absent a true relationship is not being yoked.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, continue to allow Your grace present in my life to be and my willingness to walk with Christ to be evidence that we are yoked together for eternity.

       It is probably a part of human nature to want to do things for ourselves.  God knows we’ve tried.  We have left no stone unturned in our efforts to devise ways to earn God’s acceptance.  All of our ways have been woefully inadequate.  It’s been inadequate because we are not all equally strong emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually.  It is because God is wiser than we are.  And it’s out of that wisdom that God has developed a way to level the human playing field of life, creating an easier way to have and maintain a meaningful partnership and relationship with Him.  As foolish as it seems, it’s as easy as accepting God’s gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  It’s much easier to accept God’s grace in Jesus Christ than to continue struggling through the daily challenges of trying not to miss opportunities to love others.  Doing it God’s way by faith is a much wiser and easier way into God’s grace than trying to devise our own plan of acceptance.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, grant that I may continually trust in the wisdom of Your gift of grace in Jesus Christ as the easy yoke of partnership int my relationship with You.

       We somehow forget that our relationship with Christ is one in which we are yoked together.  Perhaps it is because the idea of a yoke, or of being yoked, is foreign to us.  We don’t often see teams of animals tied together at the neck unable to go any direction independent of each other.  But here we are joining together to work with Christ with the yoke of forgiveness and grace, understanding and unconditional love around our necks.  And this grace has freed us from having to pull the heavy wait of the law in order to “earn” our righteousness before God.  Christ’s yoke is there to lead us and guide us through life.  Other yokes can be particularly problematic and difficult for us to live with.  For instance, living a life of always trying to be right is an awfully heavy burden to bear.  It doesn’t leave room for growth or relationship, because for every law we manage to lift, there is another heavier, more difficult law yet to shoulder.  In fact, the laws seem to always leave us in the position of comparing ourselves to others to determine how we fare in winning God’s favor.  But grace frees us to live into a growing relationship with the one who has lifted the burden for us.  When someone else is lifting your burden, the load can be remarkably light.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to know and understand your grace as the easy yoke that is able to lighten the load of my life and strengthen my relationship with You.

       When a miracle occurs in the bible, we tend to point to the powers of the supernatural as the source of our healing.  We point to powers that seem to come from other-worldly places that have somehow creeped into and become active in our world and situation.  That was certainly true in Jesus’ day and holds true in our day as well.  We sometimes fail to acknowledge what is at the heart of our healing when healing occurs in our body.  We overlook the fact that if the medical profession caught our disease and brought us through to our healing, that it was (in fact) our faith that gave them the “go-ahead” to do proceed.  We sometimes forget that prayers were sent up because people believed in faith that if they prayed, God would answer their prayers.  We’re not always willing to acknowledge the miracle that is able to be performed because of a simple act of faith.  And yes, it is God who deserves the credit for our healing whenever it occurs.  But what starts the ball rolling is a simple act of faith.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, teach me to trust in a simple act of faith as the beginning of all my blessings. Help me to know that through my faith You will provide and supply all I need to be healed.

       It’s amazing how our self-image and need to be recognized by God for what we do can interfere with a healthy relationship with God and others.  The fact that we are willing to exalt ourselves above others says something about our own blindness to those places where we fail.  It allows the seed of entitlement to creep in and grow undetected and unattended.  It’s when we feel that someone (either God or other people) owes us that the attitude of entitlement becomes pervasive.  We lose sight of the truth of our situation — that all that we are and all that we have comes as a blessing from God.

       Humility on the other hand enables us to acknowledge those places in our life where we fall short of perfection.  It as much announces to God that we need grace and mercy to be made whole.  It remains eternally true that a simple act of faith opens the door to the healing of our mind and spirit and humility is the key.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, teach me in all things to learn humility as a spiritual character trait, that your blessings of grace and mercy may come to me through a simple act of faith.

       I can remember being in school, and one of the most significant programs of the entire school was “Awards Day”.  That was the day students were acknowledged for almost everything.  “Perfect Attendance”, “Honor Roll”, “Musical Performance” and many other awards were given to students as they had earned them in the eyes of the school administration.

       Being good or working for the approval of others is a human trait that — in some ways — is unavoidable.  We like being honored or rewarded for doing a good thing or for having performed a job well done.  That can be noted by all of the awards shows and programs produced each year.  What is unacceptable is our pride and belief that somehow God should defer to us when we are seeking a blessing for our disease.  Our blessings come when we defer to God, humble ourselves in obedience, so that through our simple act of faith — believing that God is able — God will open the door for our healing to come.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me in all things to put aside my pride such that the simple act of faith, trusting in you to provide, will open the door to the healing of my diseases.

       In some ways, many of us are born blind.  We are blind to the beauty around us; blind to the evil around us; blind to the love that surrounds us; we’re born blind to many things that spark our curiosity about our world and ourselves.  We are also born with the desire and need to see.  Most of us come by our vision through experience.  We try things that either work or don’t work and learn from those experiences.  There are other times when we employ a simple act of faith and simply take another person’s word to experience the outcome we desire.

       I imagine the man born blind could have determined that going to the pool at Siloam might have been a lost cause.  But he took a simple act of faith and followed Jesus’ instructions.  God invites us to perform a simple act of faith and trust that his remedy for healing our sins (washing the mud from our spiritual eyes in the pool called Jesus) is sufficient for our healing.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and loving God, grant that I may always depend on the simple act of faith that trusting in Jesus’ blood will open my eyes to the truth that only through faith in him can I be healed.

       The human family is famous for our creativity — our ability to create ways to solve problems of a complex nature.  Sometimes, even our simplest solutions, don’t end with the results we are looking for.  We make a laundry list of things that we believe will make us acceptable enough to receive the approval of God and others.  And in some ways, our pride and faith in ourselves that our solution is the right solution leaves us unclean from the failures of our own design.  This is especially true about our relationship with God.  What’s needed is something that will purge our sins from us forever.  A simple act of faith — washing the robes of our lives in the blood of the Lamb will cleanse and heal us making us acceptable, and presentable before our God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to put aside all of my creative ideas to cleanse myself of my sins. Empower me to take a simple act of faith and wash in the blood of Jesus to be healed and clean in your sight.

       Our disease — that thing which keeps us walking around in darkness and is the leprosy that affects our souls — is the sin which clings to us closer than our skin.  It is the very nature of our separation from the Creator and that which keeps us from being clean and walking in the light.  And, if we’re honest it is an infectious disease that seems to affect everyone.  We pass it on to others by doing nothing more than living with it, whether we do it covertly or overtly.  The covert sins (or sins of omission) — are the things we don’t do or fail to do, and we justify them because we say we are blind to them.  The sins of commission are those things we do openly and claim that “we can’t help ourselves.  We’re only human”.  We therefore continually live with the truth that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 

       Not everyone has a desire to be healed and made clean.  For some, their pride of believing they have a better way to be healed stands between them and wholeness.  And yet, for everyone, a simple act of faith can cleanse us from our disease.  It takes nothing more than dumping our pride and adopting the faith-act of trusting in the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, I thank you that you have provided a remedy for my healing and wholeness by the simple act of faith of trusting in the blood of Jesus to cleanse me from all my sin.

       We live in a world where accomplished people are everywhere.  And yet, the nature of our accomplishments does not insulate us from a common disease that seems to affect us all.  For Naaman, it appeared that his disease was leprosy, but at its heart, what Naaman’s disease was pride.  We all suffer from the disease of pride that at some level prevents us from becoming healed and whole persons.

       Pride in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can be borne from our satisfaction of knowing that we’ve done something exceptionally well.  But pride that is borne of arrogance and self-indulgence — believing somehow that because of our accomplishments we always know what’s best for us and should be shown deference when the healing for our disease is at stake can be a recipe for disaster.  Feeling that we deserve more or better can be a hindrance to our blessing.

       Sometimes our healing can come from a simple act of faith — the willingness to put aside our pride and allow that God has provided an unconventional remedy to heal our disease.  For Naaman, it was washing in the Jordan seven times, that he might be healed of his diseases.  For us, God has suggested the unconventional method of washing ourselves once in the blood of Jesus, that we might be cleansed from the leprosy of a separated relationship from God.  It would be a tragedy for anyone to allow their pride to prevent the healing of their diseased relationship with God when all that’s necessary is a simple act of faith.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, grant that I may humble myself, put away my pride, and allow a simple act of faith to become Your way to heal all my diseases.

       Too often we try to make the work of Christ and the church too difficult.  Perhaps we feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.  There are so many hungry, empty, hopeless, needy, impoverished, lonely, desperate, and sick people, that we sometimes forget that the only commandment we are bound to obey is to love one another as he has loved us.  Love is everything.  If faithful followership is anything, it is inviting and encouraging people to join us in partnership with Christ to practice and engage in this ministry of loving one another as he has loved us.  This is the essence of Jesus’ ministry among us and the foundation of faithful followership to us.

• How do you apply the principles of Christ’s commandment to “love one another as he has loved us” in your daily life?
• Do you find it difficult to apply the principles of his new commandment to love in every situation?
• How do you find support and accountability to practice faithful followership as a spiritual discipline?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, enable me to conscientiously practice Your commandment to love others so that my life of loving others gives evidence that I am a faithful follower of You.

       The question of who is in charge is often asked by those seeking to know from whom they should get their instructions, or who’s really in charge.  The element of human leadership is always in question as people can frequently choose to follow or not to follow human authority.  But if Christ has been given all authority by God, then there is no one higher up in the chain of command since the Father and Son are of the same mind.  Regardless of who our human leader might be, our instructions and work assignments come from God through Christ.

• Where human authority and Christ’s authority are both pulling at you, how does faithfully following Christ’s commandment guide you in your decisions?
• Is your decision to follow any authority determined by your faithfulness to Christ?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, enable me to put aside my questions of human authority so that I may faithfully live answering your command on my life.

       Jesus’ words to us have always resonated with the belief that our work is done out of faithfulness to God.   Questions about why we do the things we do are really non-issues.  We’re supposed to do the things we do because Christ did the things he did out of faithfulness to God.  Therefore, our work is not isolated from who God is or who Christ is, or who we are in relationship to Christ.  We are sent into the world by Christ to do what God would have us do (love others unconditionally) in the same way that Christ was sent.  Our obedience in doing what Christ has called us to do gives evidence of our faithful followership.

• How have you accepted Christ’s commission to go into the world in the same way that God sent him into our world?
• Would you describe your response to Christ’s commission to go into the world as passive, or assertive?
• Which do you believe would receive the greatest results?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, empower me to be faithful to Your mission for my life so that I may go into the world, sent in the same way that Christ was sent to accomplish Your divine purpose?

       It would seem that all things in the eyes of God find their center in love.  There is God’s love for us.  There is God’s love for the Son.  And there is a sacred trust between the Father and the Son such that God is willing to put all authority in the hands of the Son.  But there is this obedience issue which we can’t get away from.  Obedience to God is not an option.  Yes, there is freedom to err and grace enough for those times when our good intentions lead to disastrous results, even if our heart is in the right place.  And yet it is our obedience to believe in the Son — God’s gracious act of sacrificial love for us — and our willingness to love others as he has loved us that signals the strength of our faithful followership.  His command to lead others into this relationship of God-love, teaching, and baptizing them to become faithful followers is evidence of the real power of love.

As you enter into your midweek reflection, consider what it means to be obedient to Christ’s command to make disciples and how your life can be a teaching moment.

• What can you do to show your faithfulness to God’s call upon your life to live in obedience through love?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to live obediently by faith so that others may experience Your love through me as an expression of Your love for them.

       Worshiping anyone other than God was typically reserved for political leaders and emperors.  But that has all changed for those who believe.  Worship of Jesus is a sign of his union and communion with God.  It’s offered out of reverence and respect for who he is and what he’s done.  It has now become acceptable — even expected — that those who honor God will honor the Son, and those who worship God will worship the Son .

• How does worshiping the risen Christ give evidence of your faith that Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.
• When you think about worshiping Christ, what is the most important aspect of your worship (prayer, song, liturgy, etc.)?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, accept my worship of You as an indication of my belief and faith that You are the Son of God, risen and ascended.

       Faithfulness can be a scary thing.  First, one must have belief in what they are being faithful to.  And then there is the issue of obedience.  Once we have accepted the truth of our faith, there is the expectation that we will carry out the duties that have been given to us.  If we fail in our faithfulness, then our mission fails.  And yet, God continues to operate trusting that we will be faithful followers able to carry out the responsibilities of our faith.  Jesus said to them, “Go,” and they went in faith to practice the art of faithful followership.  In all of this time, neither the requirements nor Christ’s call upon us to go has changed.

• As you observe the faithfulness of the disciples, how would you assess your own “faithful followership” to go and do as Christ commanded?
• What changes would you need to make to be a more faithful follower of Christ to make disciples?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Faithful God, as I go into the world in faith, increase my faithful followership through Your trust in me to carry out Your mission for Your church.

       Those who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ are a unique group of people (me included).  We do phenomenal work in the name of Christ, and it’s noble work that needs to be done, and is worthy of celebrating.  Feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, nurturing those who are in need — these are all important works for those of us who follow Christ’s teachings.  But those works represent only one part of being a faithful follower of Christ.  It is in fact, the easiest part.  It is important to note that those things we do are secondary imperatives, not our primary objective of a faithful follower.  While we each have a role to fulfill, being a faithful follower of Christ commands us as an action group to work intentionally in God’s world to accomplish God’s purpose for humanity.  And the words which call us to action are simple words — go, make, baptize, teach, and obey.  The growth of the Christian community is solely dependent upon faithful followership to the original commands of Christ.  We balk at the “go and the making of disciples part” believing that this is the work of specialists.  But our “faithful followership” of Christ is for all who accept the authority of Christ.  And to accept the authority of Christ is to act in Christ’s gives evidence of the reality of God’s love and grace as a global experience that Christ is always with us.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, inspire me to become a faithful follower of Christ, intentionally teaching others as a living example of Christ’s love that to love one another is Your great mission for all humanity.

       Our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is often in question by those who don’t believe as we believe.  They wonder how we can be so “sure” that Christ is the one.  There are words to an old song that say, “Something within me, that holdeth the reins; something within me that banishes pain; something within me I cannot explain; all that I know is there is something within.”  That something or rather someone, is the presence of the Holy spirit confirming what we believe to be true.  It’s that same spirit that, through our faith, allows us to live satisfied with our relationship to the Holy Spirit.

• Try to recall moments when the Spirit of God confirmed Jesus as Savior and Lord.
• What about those experiences assures you about your faith in Jesus Christ and satisfies you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, thank You for confirming within me, that which I cannot explain but yet, speaks to me in ways that let me know Your truth.

       The Holy Spirit of God dwells within each of us.  That is God’s promise fulfilled.  And it is that Spirit that instructs us about life and living and convicts us when we have strayed from the paths of God’s righteousness.  There is, of course, always the challenge of either listening to the instruction of the Holy Spirit or following the dictates of our own will and mind, do what we want to do.  Living in the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit.  To be led by the Spirit is to trust in the Spirit.  It is in that dwelling place that we receive confidence and satisfaction that our faith is secure.

• How does choosing your will over that of the Holy Spirit affect your confidence in Christ?
• What can you do to submit more easily to the teachings of the Holy Spirit?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Teach me, gracious Christ, to dwell securely in your Holy Spirit as Your Spirit dwells within me. Help me to discern with confidence Your true and perfect will that I may have a satisfied faith.

       I was once intrigued by a television program that was being aired in Spanish.  I listened for some time before I lost interest.  The reason — I don’t speak or understand Spanish beyond those limited common phrases spoken on television.   It seemed foolish to me to continue watching what I couldn’t understand.  In the same way, conversations about spiritual matters must seem foolish to those who aren’t able to communicate with God or Christ on a spiritual level because they haven’t received the Holy Spirit of God.  It is God who (through the gift of the Holy Spirit) opens the door of spiritual understanding.  And if we don’t have understanding, how can we ever be satisfied by our faith. Believing we understand when we don’t is delusional.  But having a clear understanding can bring a profound sense of satisfaction.

• Have you ever encountered a situation which was difficult to understand that was later made clear by the gift of the Holy Spirit?
• Was there a sense of relief/satisfaction once you had clarity of the situation?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, continue open me to an understanding of spiritual things by the gift of Your Holy Spirit alive in me that I may always be satisfied by my faith.

       We are often oblivious to the presence of the Holy Spirit living inside of us.  Because of that, I’m not certain that we consider how the life of the Spirit impacts our lives if we aren’t in decision-making mode.  There are, however, promises from God that are provided to us to satisfy our questions about life, death, and what happens to us following death.  The promises of God are designed to remove our anxieties and uncertainties as we experience our relationship to Christ because of the Holy Spirit.  It is only by faith that we can trust in God’s word and grow in our relationship of trust and satisfaction with God through the Holy Spirit.  And it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we become satisfied.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, empower my faith (the awareness of Your Holy Spirit alive within me) to grow in trusting your word enough to find satisfaction in my faith.

       God’s people have longed to hear God’s voice above the clamor of the world.  And while we have not always wanted to hear what God has had to say, God has spoken.  But we also express a curiosity about seeing God and knowing what God is like.  God answered our dissatisfaction with our relationship by sending Jesus Christ to reflect the glory of God by his merciful and loving nature.  It is God’s nature to always show mercy, and always to seek being in relationship with us, God’s creation.  The gift of the Holy Spirit to all flesh is God’s confirmation that we’ve been sanctified through forgiveness.  But more;  it has also been given to us to satisfy our relationship to God through faith.  There is no power that can undo what Christ has done, and no satisfaction greater than that which comes through faith.

• How do you experience and understand the gift of God’s Holy Spirit in you?
• Has receiving God’s Holy Spirit changed how you now experience God?
• Does your faith and experiencing God’s Spirit within you satisfy your doubts about God’s reality?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God and Christ, thank You for enabling me to experience Your glory through the gift of Your Holy Spirit and forgiveness revealed in Jesus Christ, the word.

       Our desire to fully know God dates from antiquity.  It’s borne of our desire to experience the fullness of God in all of God’s glory.  But we err in believing that those of us who are mortal are able to see beyond what is physical and view the spiritual reality of God.  To that extent, God the Spirit, remains a mystery.  Moses’ desire to see the immortal, invisible, wise only God, led him to the place of dissatisfaction in his life about him and his relationship to God.  But the revelation of God can now be fully seen and experienced in Jesus Christ.  Because of Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit has allowed those of us who have not actually seen Christ to have confirmation of God’s reality in Christ and in us.  And because of our relationship to Jesus Christ, we can now be satisfied by our faith.

• How does the Holy Spirit complete your understanding of God’s nature?
• In what ways does this give you satisfaction from a faith perspective?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, strengthen my faith that I may be satisfied by the power of Your Holy Spirit alive in me. Bless me that I may see Your presence as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of my life and find satisfaction from my faith alone.

       One of the strongest needs of the human family is the need to be in relationship.  Relationship is the purpose of our creation — that we would be in relationship with each other and with God.  Yet it is and was difficult for people to believe in that which was invisible.  Jesus’ presence (in some ways) spoiled the soup.  He came to be the physical presence of God with us, thus satisfying our greatest need, that of a relationship with God.

Perhaps our greatest fear is losing that intimacy that comes with being in relationship with God.  Those who lived in close relationship with Jesus quickly became attached to the love of God.  When it was time or Jesus to leave, like any of us who have experienced what seems like the dissolution of a relationship, the disciples began to grieve.  Jesus (God with us) was sensitive to that feeling of separation and loss and the dissatisfaction that accompanies the severing of emotional and spiritual ties.  To solve this dilemma, God chose to send an Advocate, the Spirit of Truth to remain with us and remind us that God is always with us.  Knowing that God is always with us can be deeply satisfying.  We can know God by the presence of God’s Spirit, “poured out on all flesh” for the express purpose of uniting and sealing God’s relationship with humanity.  Pentecost represents God’s the active sharing of God’s spirit making it available to all humanity so that our desire to know God is fully met and our need to experience God’s can be satisfied.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to live with the assurance of faith that satisfies all questions about Your reality and truth and confirms Your gift of Your Holy Spirit alive in me.

       A lot of emphasis placed on the importance of being in unity with others.  Solidarity is a valued and honored tradition among those who believe they are working collectively to right a wrong, to bring justice to an unjust system, whether political or religious.  Tragically, the comment is made, “God is on our side.”  It’s said with the belief that God is standing with us in whatever position we take.  And, yet being in unity with God begs another question: “Are we on God’s side?”  When unity with God is in question or doubt, that is the question that requires a more profound answer.  If we seek to make God a partner with us, rather than seeking to be in unity with God, there may be a faith collision ensuing that can place spiritual anxieties on high alert.  In Jesus, we have the assurance that his plan is God’s plan, and both he and God agree.  If we are in unity with God and Christ, then we seek to be on God’s side, rather than seek God to join in on our agenda.

• Where are those places in your life where being in unity with God and Christ are important?
• How can we be certain that our lives are lived to be one in unity with God and Christ?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, thank You for providing the assurance in Christ that no matter what happens, my salvation and eternal safety are not in jeopardy.

       We experience joy in our relationship with the Lord when our cries of distress have been heard.  Out of God’s discernment of our cries and God’s hearing, we can be assured of God’s actions.  And though they may not always be certain about what we can expect from God, God is consistent.  God is consistently our strength in weakness and our protection when we are vulnerable.  When we look back in perspective, we may well come to understand that we have been spared more times that we give God credit for.  It has often been said of those times when we know that God has saved and protected us, “He may not come when you want him, but he’s always right on time!”

• Can you remember a time when you cried out to God out of you desperation and God became your salvation?
• If so, what was that experience like for you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, You and You alone are my protection from the world’s hostility. Continue to hear me when I cry out to You that I may rejoice in Your salvation.

       In the broad landscape of things in life, from the greatest to the smallest, God is truly untouchable.  There is no recourse to be taken against God, for whom we may exhibit human emotions and feelings.  It is ridiculous to even try.  And yet, within that truth is a greater truth.  Not everyone needs to fear any retributive action from God.  God’s gift to us was Jesus Christ who came to provide a hedge of protection throughout eternity.  His hands are God’s hands. If we are in his hands, nothing can take us out.  We need not fear hostility even though the storms of life rage and danger floods in to overwhelm us.  Jesus and God are there as one, and therein lies our safety.

• What comfort do you experience knowing that your present and your eternity are safe with God?
• How is this security expressed openly in your faith?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty and powerful God, thank You for being my protector, offering safety and security from a hostile world that will last longer than eternity.

       Safety and security are hallmarks of human need.  We desire it from the cradle to the grave.  Our desire for security and safety from perceived hostile forces has driven the sale of guns in this nation to unprecedented levels.  That we continue to seek more and more guns to ensure our safety seems to only heighten the presence of our insecurity.  However, it also appears that safety and security are things we can experience in our lives as something more than a desire without guns.  We are typically at the mercy of those we encounter on life’s journey to protect us.  That usually means we’re at the mercy of the stronger over the weaker.

       But God offers us a safety that extends beyond the mere boundaries of our earthly life’s parameters and brings us to a place of safety so secure that not even the strongest can violate its boundaries.  It is a security and safety that even extends beyond death and comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

• What is it that answers your need for safety and security?
• How does God fit into that answer?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of strength and love, enable me to find security in my faith that your omnipotence is my safeguard against hostility from outside sources.

       Sometimes safety is found, not in what you see, but in what you believe deeply in your heart.  The outside circumstances of our life have the potential to change with whatever direction the winds blow. But there is something credible and powerful in knowing something without a doubt.  And that “knowing” is grounded by the reality that you are certain about what you know.   When you are confident about what you know and that knowing is secured by a promise from a higher source, there is a safety that is provided that can fill a believer’s heart with a peace that passes all understanding.

• Can you recall a time when you were truly at peace about God’s promise? (try to remember it in detail)

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and generous Christ, fill me with the security found in your promise of eternal life. Enable me to experience that peace (in faith) that passes all understanding.

       The full identity of Jesus is and has always been a matter of people’s questions and doubts.  From the moment his ministry began down through our own contemporary time and culture, Jesus remains a mystery to some, contested by others, and denied by still others.  But there are also those who see Jesus and proclaim from a place deep within them that Jesus is the Son of God.  Knowing and trusting Jesus as the Son of God gives people of faith a tremendous sense of safety and security, precisely because in Jesus, their term of service under sin is over and their iniquity is pardoned.  The hostility that once existed between God and humanity is ended in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• What hostility do you find alleviated in your life because of your faith in Christ as the Son of God?
• How did that lack of faith affect you before you believed?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Precious God, may I dwell secure knowing that my faith in the one I call the Son of God provides safety through all eternity from the hostility of the world.

       The world is sometimes a hostile place.  Identify theft has increased our need to protect ourselves from those who would misrepresent us by pretending to be us.  Physical attacks by diseases from within threaten our lives in ways that leave us feeling vulnerable. The lingering effects of the latest pandemic witness to that truth.  Questions about life and its origin, longevity and eternity are always topics of philosophical discussion.  They too, at times, threaten our security about the past, the present, and our future in ways that are not necessarily hostile in terms of violence, but a threat to preconceived ideas of what we know or think we believe.  And yet, there is a God who invites us to find safety in the eternal things where God is and place less assurance on those things which are transient.  I once heard a comedian tell a joke in which he said: “Based on the history of the world, we’ll be dead a lot longer than we will have lived.”  Perhaps that’s why Christ’s invites us to believe in things eternal, where our lives and presence with him are safe and can’t be taken away from him.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and merciful God, fill me with the assurance in the promise of Your eternal protection and safety through my faith in Jesus Christ in a world where hostility comes from without and within.

       Forgiveness is a highly underrated source of power in our world.  Some people think of forgiveness as an act of weakness — something that we do or offer submissively rather than a power we have that allows us to do greater things than Christ.  Forgiveness — the ability to place ourselves and our neighbors in a right relationship with God is the greatest power on the face of the earth and anywhere else.  It is the power of God at work in us and through us, giving us the power to rebuild relationships that centers us in Christ.  Forgiveness allows us to tell the story of a resurrected Christ who forgave us and offers forgiveness to anyone willing to accept it.

• Forgiveness is a power that allows us to do what Christ did. Why is it so difficult for us to do the greatest thing and forgive ourselves and others?
• How has accepting forgiveness transformed you?
• Do you agree that making forgiveness available to others is one of the greatest things you can do?  Why or why not?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and merciful God, empower me to practice to greatest act of all — to forgive others and tell the story of our resurrected Christ through the simple act of forgiveness.

       The very essence of God is revealed in Jesus.  While some people may doubt who he was, those of us who have faith have been affirmed by God’s Holy Spirit that Jesus is and was God’s presence in the world.  To know who Jesus is (that is, to be in a living relationship with him) is to have knowledge of who God is and what God is like.  It’s impossible to experience the love of Christ and believe that he is somehow, different from God.  Our faith provides us with proof beyond all doubt that Jesus and God are one.  And yet, the greatest thing we can do is not to selfishly hold on to that information, but to share the entire story of Christ with others.  That is truly one of the greatest things we can do in this life.

• How are you assured by your faith in Jesus Christ that God was revealed in him and is now present and alive in you?
• How does this affect you when you realize the greatest thing you can do is to share that truth with others?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, continue to assure me that you did a great thing revealing yourself to in Jesus Christ. Empower me to do a great thing by sharing who You are and what you’ve done through him.

       I believe it is the deepest desire of all people of faith to want to see the fullness of God.  It seems for all practical purposes that it is impossible.  Moses desired it but was unable to see God as God fully existed.  He did however get to see all of God’s goodness, grace, and compassion.  The blessing of Simeon was that he looked upon the face of the baby Jesus and knew that he had seen his Savior and his God.  The greatness of God is displayed in his presence.  We have been given that authority to be God’s greatness and presence in our time.  Being God’s presence in the lives of people everywhere is perhaps the greatest thing we can ever do.

• What does it mean to you knowing that people can now see and experience God’s goodness, grace, and compassion through your acts of love and mercy?
• How does the realization that God has empowered you to accomplish the greatest thing change your view of yourself?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and loving God, enable and empower others to see You, and that You made me for greatness through loving acts of mercy that I do in Your name.

      Doing the greatest thing in God and Christ comes as a conferred gift of prayer.  It is an essential part of God’s grace.  We didn’t ask for it.  If we are to be honest, there are some of us who may even have doubts about it.  But the initial act of our doing the greatest thing began with knowing and believing the truth about who Jesus is.  That knowledge alone is powerful enough to save lives in this world for the next.  We should be humbled that Christ has chosen us to experience God’s presence in our lives as an expression of God’s truth in the world.  It is not our greatness, but God’s greatness working through us that enables us to share that truth with others.

• Use today as an opportunity to reflect on what it means to you that Christ has empowered you to do the greatest thing — inform the world about his resurrection and God’s act of peace and reconciliation with humanity.
• How will you pursue doing the greatest thing of sharing with others God’s greatness in you, active in your life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer
Loving God, enable others to know the truth about You — that knowing You through faith comes with the built-in benefit of being capable of doing the greatest thing.

       Our efforts to do the greatest thing in the world doesn’t have to come at great expense of time and energy from us.  Once we have acknowledged that we’ve received grace from God, the ability to do a great thing is happens through our understanding of God’s truth.  Doing a great thing — sharing the story of God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy isn’t an act of arrogance.  It’s an act of love.  We come to know God as God has chosen to reveal the truth of Christ to us.  But it is that truth of knowing who Christ is and sharing that message allows us to do a great thing with our lives. We are in him and he is in us.  There is nothing greater than our ability to share that truth.

• How do you envision doing the greatest thing through God’s revealed truth to you change the world as you reveal the truth about God to others?
• How does doing the greatest thing as you understand God’s truth and the importance of sharing that truth with others change your life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Eternal Christ, empower me by Your presence in me to faithfully represent Your truth so that others may know that they, too, can do the greatest thing.

       There are those for whom access to God has been deemed impossible.  For them, the very idea of approaching God sets behind the mental, emotional, and spiritual barriers of their own lack of faith.  If they only knew Christ — who he was and what he did — they could approach God without fear or trepidation, graciously receiving the blessings that come gifted in a reconciled relationship to and with God.  And with that reconciled relationship, they receive power to become children of God, and power to offer the truth about God to others — that they, too, are able to do the greatest thing — something greater than Christ has done.

• How does the idea of bringing the human family together in peace through Christ encourage you to share and practice God’s greatness in you?
• Could working to bring the human family together become the greatest thing you can do?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, empower me to do the greatest thing — witnessing to others about Christ’s resurrection and God’s offer of forgiveness —to become the method by which others may be called to their greatness in you.

       The desire to do great things is an aspiration of many people.  There is also a common belief that in order to do something great, it has to be “off the charts”.  Accomplishing a great thing is sought in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes it’s for personal glory.  Sometimes doing something great isn’t sought at all but achieved because of an unavoidable circumstance.  But if we think in terms of doing things greater than Christ, we think of turning to the chapter in life’s book titled, “It’s Never Going to Happen.”  Christ, however, has rewritten the book and edited that chapter out.  He has announced to us and all who are willing to understand that doing something greater that he has done can still be achieved through faith and divine intervention.  It is a part of the Christian’s DNA.  The trouble for us comes in realizing and understanding what we could do that would equal to the things Christ has done, and then realize what we have the ability to do greater things than that.  The greatest that we believe Christ did were the miracles — walking on water, giving sight to the blind, healing the lame — things that Christ did boldly in front of everyone.  Yet his greatest accomplishment was to forgive people and tell them about the love of God.  Our leverage is that we have the benefit of his resurrection as evidence of his greatness and generations to inform a much greater audience.  The greatest thing we can do is to tell others the story of God’s redeeming love through Christ.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, give us the courage to do this one great thing in Your name — proclaim Your resurrection to those in need of resurrection in their lives that they may come to know the saving power of Your forgiveness.

       Life can be described in many ways.  And as many ways as there are to describe it, there are probably ways in which people try to attain it.  Some surround themselves with money.  Others choose objects such as books, recordings from old vinyl to newly streamed.  But once we get past those tangible things that define life, we are left with the spiritual component which is the most important.  That life — real life — comes by faith in Jesus Christ and following him was rejected by those in his day and some in ours.  And yet, it is by faith that we are more likely to hear his voice calling our name and we are more inclined to follow him after having heard him clearly.  And when we have heard his voice and followed him, our life in him will be saturated with his life and ours will be a life both abundant and eternal.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, thank you for allowing me to hear your voice calling to me by faith, and to secure the gift of an abundant life through your name.

       When we accept Jesus as our shepherd and follow him, we also acknowledge and accept David’s image of a good shepherd as our experience.  There is abundant life at every turn.  There is enough food, water, and rest for our sustenance and maintenance.  There is also safety and security, the absence of even the fear of death.  But there is also the promise of abundant life relative to what we can expect to experience in our relationship with our shepherd.  There is comfort in knowing that God’s grace protects us.  There is the additional benefit of knowing that we can be shown favor in the presence of those who despise us.  Lifting up and edifying our spirits leads us to be unafraid of living and dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, I rejoice that you have chosen Jesus to be my emotional, physical, and spiritual support that leads me to life eternal.

       Just as the sheep are supposed to be faithful when they are called to follow the shepherd, there is also an expectation that the shepherd will be faithful to his responsibilities.  God’s expectation from the shepherd is that he/she will act in caring ways toward the sheep, protecting them from danger giving them what they need to live while not exploiting the sheep for their own purposes.  Following Jesus invites us to examine a much different picture of the shepherd than the one where the shepherd is labeled a “thief and a robber”.  Following Jesus is an invitation to follow the shepherd who cares enough to lay down his life for the sheep.  That is the ultimate act of caring a shepherd can provide.  That’s the kind of shepherd Jesus is.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, enable me to clearly hear the voice of the good shepherd calling to me that I may receive the proper spiritual care you have desired for me.

       It’s one thing to proclaim a relationship with someone.  It’s another thing to claim that relationship by utilizing clearly defined objectives and the security that comes out of faithfulness to the relationship.  The renowned preacher Billy Sunday once said, “Being in church on Sunday no more makes you a Christian than being in a garage makes you a car.”  In other words, there’s a correlation to who we say we are and what we do.  If we truly hear Jesus’ voice calling us and choose to follow him, then there is the expectation that if we follow him out of the sheep pen, we are expected to remain faithful to his command as his faithfulness voice.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, empower me to not only hear your voice, but to respond to it in faithfulness to our relationship by doing what you say do.

       Often the liabilities of following Jesus are spoken of in terms of things Christians have to give up.  There is perception that following Jesus is a limiting faith system that takes everything out of life.  But there is another perspective which offers the fundamental realities of following Jesus as something that isn’t a liability, but as a benefit, or as something gained.  Following Jesus means that we come to know Jesus more intimately because he knows us.  It also points to security within that relationship as Jesus affirms that his follower’s future is a secure and eternal present and future life with God.  That’s good news no matter who’s saying it.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, I celebrate and rejoice in the knowledge that you know me and have promised security and an intimate relationship with you.

       Compassion is an integral part of a caring relationship.  It doesn’t mean that the ones on whom you show compassion are necessarily perfect.  It does mean that you may be able to look beyond their faults to supply their needs.  That’s the nature of a good shepherd.  The good shepherd knows that his flock may have some blemishes but is willing to look past those flaws to address them at the point of their need.  As such, it is a gift to be able to see people’s needs above the flaws.  Following someone who has that kind of compassion will rub off on the followers, so that they learn to do the same thing.  And those who become the recipients of that gift of grace, find that their lives have been enriched and abundant.  That’s the ultimate goal of a good shepherd – to enrich the lives of those to whom he had come near.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, as one who is called to follow you, teach me as one being shepherded by you to show compassion and provide abundantly the life which you have freely given to me.

       We live in a world where many voices are calling out to us.  They come from different places and spaces and can be a distraction.  Some of those voices calling us are calling to influence us in one way or another.  “Come, go with me here.”  “Let’s do this.”  “Vote for me.”  “Do this for me.”  Some of the voices we hear calling to us are innocent in some ways, but nonetheless are designed to get us to follow them.  Some of those voices are inviting us to compromise our integrity, even to the point of losing our life.  These persons become shepherds to us in some respect.  When they try to lead us in a direction that strikes against God’s desire for us or seek to satiate their personal need for power or control, then our lives and the extent to which they may become abundant are put at risk.

       On the other hand, Jesus calls us to life.  Jesus calls us to freedom.  Jesus calls us into a life of a caring and being cared for through an intimate relationship with God.  Following Jesus is invitation to enjoy a life free from the religious laws and rules that lead to sin and invites us into a life of freedom by grace.  To follow Jesus is to be invited into a loving relationship where God’s grace abounds and life flows abundantly.  Perhaps the best decision we can make is to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and caring Christ, in a world where there are many voices and distractions calling out to me, teach me to clearly hear your voice calling my name so that I will faithfully follow you.

       One of the most difficult truths to deal with is the reality of our sins.  It’s not that we do them.  We know we do.  Our difficulty comes in letting them go.  We carry them around reminding us of our imperfection and our guilt; or we carry them around to punish ourselves, believing apparently, that God is holding onto them to punish us as well.  The truth of our God is found in many places but has tremendous weight and meaning as phrased in the words of this song:

     My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

     My sin, not in part but the whole,

     is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.

     Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul.

     It is well with my soul.

How refreshing to accept God’s truth that we no longer carry our sins.

• How difficult is it for you to come to God’s truth that your sins are forgiven?
• What prevents you from coming to that truth and accepting it?
• What might it mean for you to come to that truth and live as a forgiven person?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, allow me to cherish the freedom I receive when I come to Your truth that you have erased the record of my sins through Christ.

       We don’t necessarily think of suffering as a good thing.  Perhaps it’s because we work so hard in all our lifetime to avoid suffering at all costs.  And yet suffering has a qualitative edge to it.  Suffering that occurs because someone has violated a law has invited the actions of justice.  We find some sense of satisfaction in our belief that “when you do the crime, you have to do the time.”  But when suffering occurs without justification and is made visible for all to see, then God makes it right, and the sufferer is perfected through his suffering.  Christ’s suffering was redemptive and perfected him before God.  It also and was justified by God paying the wages of sin for everyone.  Those who deny God’s truth have essentially chosen to pay the wages for their own sin.  Most agree with God’s truth that the wages of sin is death.

• Is there any comfort in coming to God’s truth that Christ has paid the wages of sin for everyone?
• How do you rely on Christ’s perfection through suffering day to day as God’s truth to encourage you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to accept righteous suffering as verification of God’s truth that Christ is the pioneer of my salvation.

       Ignorance is a difficult thing to justify.  Sometimes ignorance is a choice we make.  It comes from our weakness and refusal to accept God’s truth.  There is a familiar saying that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” That may be true in a world where laws, men, and women rule.  Where ignorance of the law brings punishment from the justice of the world, ignorance of God’s truth brings a much different response.  It brings with it the absence of the knowledge of God’s grace is a world where belief in God’s power may seem like foolishness, makes us seem wise.  But God’s truth reveals the reality that God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.  God’s truth accomplishes things that no human knowledge or wisdom can overcome.

• How does the witness of God’s word of antiquity still speak to God’s contemporary invitation to come to God’s truth?
• Does that ancient witness increase your willingness to invite someone to come to know and accept God’s truth?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to overcome the foolishness of the world to become wiser by living more intently into Your truth.

       Coming to the truth is filled with the blessings of God.  It additionally gives us the freedom to respond to one another in ways that are pleasing to God and imitates the very nature of God present in our lives.  To value others and love others in the same way that Christ loves us is the greatest testimony to God’s truth active and present in our world today.  It’s shown as God’s truth in ways that others can actually see and either accept or reject.  Love is God’s truth displayed in unmistakable ways, proved by public displays of affection (spiritual) showing how great the love by which he loved us.  God asks nothing more than, in coming to God’s truth, we let our actions speak the truth of God in unmistakably loving ways.

• Has coming to God’s truth of Christ’s love for you empowered you to freely share that love with others?
• How can your witness through loving acts of kindness tell of God’s truth to others?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, give me the freedom to openly share Your truth with others by the gracious acts of love I do in Your name that my life will be a witness to Your truth in me.

       We do not all come to God’s truth at the same time.  For some, it is revealed little by little until the eyes are opened and the truth stands before them with amazing clarity.  Others come to the truth through the God’s revelation and the faithful witness and words of others simply being faithful and obedient to God’s truth in their lives.  It’s not when we come to the truth that’s important (the earlier the better, however).  It’s that we come to God’s truth, and what we do in response to God’s truth after it is revealed to us.  It’s how we faithfully respond to the truth of God and share that truth from our own experience that others may know the truth and be set free.

• What (person or people) may have been significant in helping you to acknowledge and accept God’s truth?
• In what ways have you been helpful to others to experience God’s truth for themselves?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of love, let my life be a living example of Your truth’s power to raise people to new life so that others may receive my simple gift of belief and faithfulness.

       The beauty of coming to God’s truth is that it doesn’t speak just for the current moment.  Coming to God’s truth answers all of our questions and reveals the truth across the ages and pages of history.  It is not locked into a time warp but is as ancient as time and is more current than tomorrow’s news.  And whatever glory comes from that powerful a revelation of truth is glory from the creator alone.  When we come to God’s truth, it is God’s glory which rests upon us and enlightens the truth that we tell others by our lives and glorifies us in that truth.

• Have you found the glory of Christ in God’s word as an intergenerational truth?
• How does coming to that truth about God and Christ affirm your own faith?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, may Your truth (which has existed throughout the ages) continue to enlighten my life and generations to come that they may know and accept Your Grace and Truth.

       Some people would say truth is subjective.  Those who believe that have developed a carefully constructed world in which their truth is the only truth that matters.  There!  Now, we’ve said it; “Their truth.”  It opens the very real possibility that there may in fact be as many truths as there are individual personalities to create them.  But alongside those many truths stands God’s truth — and it stands in front of, behind, above, below, and around, yet superior to all other truths.  God’s truth is the defining reality for each of us despite the truth we promote.  But, of course, the question is: “What does it take us to come to God’s truth — to recognize that with God, there are no variations of fact or discernment.  God’s truth is not altered by our ability to create our own stories of convenience.  God’s truth is immovable and immutable.  God’s truth stands despite all of our clever inventions.  And it is in the light of God’s truth that we are invited to put our truths aside and accept the truth that is eternal.

• Have you ever come to a point where something you held to be true contrasted sharply with God’s truth?
• What result occurs when we hold onto our truths while refusing to accept the truth of God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of truth and love, enable and empower me by faith to come to Your truth in all circumstances of life. Allow Your truth to guide my faith throughout my life that others may find their new life in Your truth.

       The world has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to prove and disprove the events surrounding Jesus’ death.  The Shroud of Turin stands as evidence of one such exhaustive, ongoing examination.  However, Jesus invites us to consider his works — things he’s done that give evidence to who he is.  And our first tendency is to think about the miracles: the blind see, the lame walk, etc.  But there is more tangible evidence as people’s lives are changed because of their relationship with Jesus.  Addicts and those on the margins of life continue to find God’s grace and are made whole.  He still invites us to believe because of the works themselves.  There are myriads of people whose lives have been changed because of their relationship with Jesus Christ, and yet many still demand proof.

• Do you personally know of lives that have been positively transformed because of their faith in Jesus Christ?
• How do you understand that as evidence of who Jesus really is?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, help me to understand the miracle of transformed lives as evidence of the work that Christ continues to do in the world today.

       The difficulty in believing in someone or something that you’ve never seen requires an act of faith. Faith is described as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  And yet, the power of God is that God doesn’t allow our faith to be an empty vessel.  The Spirit of God moves in us to substantiate the reality of that which we cannot see, but that which we know to be real. Our faith in Christ is not an illusion.  It is the evidence of him whom we have not yet seen, but whom we know to be real.  To that end, true faith is an awareness of the presence of God.  Eyes are not a requirement.

• Write down a few things that sustains your faith in a God whom you’ve never seen?
• What importance do you give to these elements in your life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty and invisible God, enable my faith in You to be all the evidence I need to confirm Your reality in my life and Christ as my Savior.

       Faith is our most powerful resource.  Faith is that intangible element that enables us to hold on when everything around us says give up.  Faith is what invites us to continue believing when every piece of evidence points toward doubting and denial.  With faith, we are able to overcome overwhelming circumstances and rise to accomplish what some people believe to be impossible.  This same faith confirms in us the reality of a God who cannot be seen, but who is more real than anyone or anything we have seen.

• What things have you done in life that would give evidence of your faith?
• How do these things give affirmation of the God you cannot see as a foundation of your faith?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and gracious God, empower me to grow in my relationship with You, not based on what I can see with my eyes, but by what I know deep within me.

       We don’t often think of ourselves as having any power to affect things.  And yet, God has conferred upon Christ the authority to empower us.  And with that power we enter into the world just as Christ did.  We are sent with the power of relationship and forgiveness.  We have the power to bring people together and set people free.  This is not something that we do in isolation.  Our power to build up and set free is done in partnership with the Spirit of Christ and invites us to partner with each other to carry out this ministry.  We ae sent just as he was sent, and he is with us in our faith.

• How have you utilized the power of Christ to set others free or to build them up?
• How do you perceive your role as one who is sent for those purposes?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful Christ, enable my relationship with You to be one in which, as one who is sent, I go with joy to do the things You would have me to do in Your name.

       Peace is an elusive quality in our lives.  We are, perhaps, by nature an anxious people.  We’re nervous about life, and nervous about death.  We’re nervous about living and dying and worried about not being able to live life to the full.  And yet Christ comes to us offering us the peace of God.  God’s peace moves beyond the absence of conflict but offers us the presence of a peace that somehow dispels our fears and anxieties.  It comforts us and quiets all of the storms raging in our lives.  The peace of Christ allows us to be a non-anxious presence to those who don’t know God’s peace.

• Is there a situation that has enabled you to experience the peace of Christ?
• How did experiencing that peace impact you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, may Your peace be such a presence in my life that Your love becomes an overflowing fountain or comfort to everyone around me.

       Unexpected experiences of encounters with God literally present in our world often catch us by surprise and frighten us.  Perhaps it’s because we have become so accustomed to what is common, that we no longer expect to experience the holiness of God’s world in tangible ways.  And yet, God invites us into those holy experiences, not to frighten us, but to assure us and affirm our faith.  God allows us to experience these events so that we will ultimately come to know God as the God who invites us to live beyond our fears.  Life lived behind a wall of fear is no life at all, and certainly not the life that moves us beyond the events of the cross or a personal encounter with God.

• Have you ever had a Spiritual experience with God that frightened you?
• Do you know of someone who has had and experience that frightened them?
• What was the outcome of that encounter?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower me to move beyond my fears of encountering Your Holy world to live courageously in this world of which I am a daily participant.

       We should not be surprised by how many times we are stopped by life’s events.  We’re fearful and doubtful about many things that go on in our lives.  We’re at times fearful and doubtful of what we see, and doubtful about things we can’t and don’t see.  Things that cause us to be fearful and things in our lives that seem to be unbelievable can stop us dead in our tracks.  The tragedies of life which cause us to freeze in amazement occur as spectacular moments to prevent us from living full, unimpeded lives of freedom.  The invitation of Christ’s to move to life beyond the events of the cross came to those who experienced the resurrection of Jesus that first Easter morning, and to those of us who experience it now.  A powerful event such as the resurrection that changed our relationship with God and humanity cannot stop at death’s door.  There is a new life beyond the cross that says death is not the end of it.  It is a life that begs us to live courageously unafraid of the present and confident about our future.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower and enable me to move in faith beyond those spectacular events in life that can prevent me from experiencing the abundance of life that awaits me beyond the cross.

       The idea that there may be news too good to keep is neither new, nor novel.  From the time that Jesus arrived, the admonition has been to tell someone the good news.  It began with his own proclamation when he picked up the scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4:18) and continues to those willing to hear it today.  News that is too good to keep is typically determined by its overall value and worth to the individual or the people whose lives upon whom it may have an impact.  That the Savior has entered the world is great news.  That the savior has accomplished his God-assigned task is the best news ever.  And that we were and still are the benefactors of that news and grace is ‘news too good to keep’!

• Have you ever experienced receiving news that was too good to keep to yourself?
• Do you believe your story of good news will still be good news to others 2000+ years from now?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and gracious God, enable me to always experience that joy about the story that’s too good to keep to myself so that I might share the story with others.

       There will always be events that happen in our lives that we just will not be able to keep to ourselves.  It might be that a new home for God and God’s people is about to be built after years and years of what may have seemed like forever.  But once the good news comes, especially after a dry season of despair, it is possible to approach the introduction of that good news with a heartfelt desire to simply run and tell someone, and proclaim out loud the blessings of the Lord!  When the Lord adds a blessing that’s beyond understanding and it benefits you personally or corporately, it’s news that’s too good to keep.

• Describe a situation when you received good news and just had to praise God.
• How did your joy impact your attitude about God and life in general?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, allow me to experience the exhilaration in life that news too good to keep can bring. May it resound in a joyful noise.

       Holy Scripture is clear.  Jesus appeared.  And the expected outcome of his appearing was that one day every knee in heaven and on earth, and under the earth would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  I cannot imagine every tongue acknowledging  and that confession somehow not be filled with a joyful noise, the expression of news that is too good to keep. And how could we keep quiet knowing that Christ has saved us?

• What part of telling others about the resurrection of Christ gives you the greatest joy?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, empower me to openly confess the news too good to keep to myself right now that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

       We are, at times, given the occasion to meet someone that creates a circumstance of unexpected joy in our lives.  Because these situations often come as a surprise to us, it’s difficult to maintain our composure.  It could simply be that someone important will be staying at our home.  It was that way for Zaccheus when Jesus wanted to stay at his home.  And it was that way for Rebekah at the bidding of Abraham’s servant.  Sometimes it’s impossible to keep quiet about life changing events.

• Have you ever met anyone whose unexpected presence an occasion of news too good to keep from family members?
• Who was it and how did you handle it?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, allow my experience at your entrance into my life to be the kind of experience that becomes news too good to keep.

       To have good news is one thing.  And perhaps to have discovered something that restores your hope, and replaces something that was priceless is, perhaps, the greatest news of all.  That kind of news can’t be celebrated alone.  It needs to be shared with everyone you know, so that they can celebrate with you.  The event of that resurrection morning fits right into that category.  Once we were lost, but the news of an open tomb and salvation to life eternal is news that requires that we tell somebody.  You just can’t keep news like that to yourself!

• Have you ever experienced receiving news that excited you enough to tell your friends about it?
• If so, reflect upon that feeling once again and imagine how it makes you feel.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
My God and King, empower me to become so filled with joy because of what Christ has done for me that I tell everybody I meet.

       There are times when the news of something special changes our reality.  If it’s really, really good news, we can become so overwhelmed at the reception of that good news that our desire to tell someone about it leaves us speechless.  We may even resort to hand and arm gestures to convey the message without any results.  Maybe this was not the case with Zechariah, but his inability to speak with words didn’t stop him from trying to motion to them with gestures.  Sometimes there is news too good to keep but falls within God’s framework of divine time.  Sometimes we have to wait to hear the good news, even if it is news too good to keep.

Have you ever received news so good that left you temporarily speechless?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, enable me to rise above the limitations of my inability to tell the good news, and empower my joy to tell the story of Your amazing grace.

       There is nothing that moves us like fear and joy.  Fear is often a great motivator because it raises the level of adrenaline in our bodies to abnormal levels.  Joy on the other hand creates an excitement level that keeps the adrenaline going.  When receiving unexpected good news that gives us new hope, it’s often difficult not to connect our emotional high with our need to share what it is that makes us feel so joyful.  The energy becomes much like a capped steam valve, and if we don’t find a way to release the energy, it can create explosive feelings of anxiety within us.  Sometimes we have to fight those feelings of anxiety.  But at other times, it’s normal, even healthy to release it.  This can often be the case when there is news that’s too good to keep quiet about.  Yes.  Those who first found out about the resurrection may have first been overcome with feelings of fear.  But how do we keep within ourselves the news that someone once thought dead, is alive again.  That, brothers and sisters, is truly news too good to keep.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, let me be filled to overflowing with joy at the good news of Your rising that I may tell the world of news that is truly too good to keep.

       The very idea that there is no hope signals the end.  It is the end of everything, for if there is no hope, then there is nothing to live for or toward.  There is no apparent future.  The realities of the past chase after us with its shadows seeking to devour us with bitter memories of what might have been. When we look for someone to save us and they do not come, there is the appearance that all hope is lost.  The curtain of life falls and death takes the seat of the victor.  A good reality check allows us to acknowledge what appears to be hopeless and forces us to look for a light at the end of what might be a very dark tunnel.

• What has your experience been regarding the loss of hope.
• How did you handle the hopelessness of your situation?
• Did someone else help?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and Almighty God, when there are times that it seems like all hope is lost, empower me to greet the darkness as a natural part of life.

       Helplessness is an overwhelming feeling.  It’s as if all time slows down and all activity within that environment becomes magnified in its intensity.  The actions of the people around you tend to become clearer, and there is a greater sense of your own self-awareness.  It is difficult to accurately assess the outcome of one’s life in those closing moments of helplessness.  What is also clear is the reality of a separation from all of the powers of assistance available.  A real reality check is needed in that hour to accurately assess where we are and what is going on so that we don’t become delusional.

• Describe a situation you’ve been in that left you with feelings of helplessness?
• What did you learn about yourself and those around you at that time?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of mercy and grace, enable me to do my own reality check when I’m faced with situations of helplessness in my life.

       The institution of Holy Communion is not to be taken lightly.  While the table of our Christ is an open table, the idea of a person doing their own reality check is crucial to receiving it.  What we do at the table — receiving the body and blood of Christ as a recognition of his New Covenant with us — is a decision that can only be made by those who are willing to come.  But it is a sacred feast.  It was a meal that was good enough for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

• How does your reality check impact you when you receive Holy Communion?
• Do you deeply reflect on Christ’s presence and command that we remember, or are your thoughts more likely to be faintly passing in nature?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and merciful God, let my reality check always remind of the importance of Holy Communion and that this meal was a meal fit for a King.

       Long before the laying of a cloak over a puddle in the road for a lady to cross was chivalrous, people laid their robes in the dust of the road to act as walking mats for those who were of a Kingly nature. Today, people roll out the red carpet for dignitaries and people of importance.  The parade into Jerusalem for Jesus and his exaltation was more than symbolic in that it represented the people’s proclamation and action that He was their King and their actions were not reserved for just anybody. This was God’s way of making the proclamation clear to those who knew the promise.  Our reality check invites us to examine and explore how we acknowledge that Jesus is King in our lives.

• What ways are used today symbolic of welcoming royalty?
• Could the color of the carpet in the aisle of the church’s sanctuary symbolize Christ’s triumphal coming?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious Christ, may the road that leads you into my heart always be filled with the palm branches of my own reality check proclaiming that you are King.

       At a time in history when Jesus was entering the Holy City for Passover, the people shouted, “Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  At the end of the age when we are in the presence of our Christ, the words will be, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  In the first instance, Hosanna means “O save us, Son of David”, admitting that Jesus is the Savior.  In the second, it is clear that salvation belongs to Christ.  One is exalted on High. The other is humble and sitting on a donkey.  Yet they are the same King.  Which is your reality?

• Do you identify with Jesus as the King exalted in victory or the one riding on a donkey?
• Is there another image of Jesus as Savior that you identify with?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
My God and King, empower me to see beyond the reality check of this life to the reality of the life to come where all eyes will see Jesus as King.

       When I was a child, my father would, from time to time, say, “Mark my word.”  It was a term used at that time to indicate that what he had said would come to pass.  Many years before Jesus came the prophet Zechariah said that Israel’s King would come to his people in the Holy City riding on a donkey.  I would presume that no one in Zechariah’s time said, “Mark my word.”  And yet, God has been faithful throughout eternity to bring to pass the assurance of the reality of God’s word.  Those in Jesus’ day would have been encouraged by Zechariah’s proclamation.  A reality check invites us to consider those times when God’s word became real in our lifetime.

• Have you ever experienced God’s word becoming prophetic in your lifetime?
• What specific Scripture caused you to do a reality check for your life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, enable me to do a serious reality check on Your faithful promise to Your people. Assure my spirit within me that Your promises are my reality.

       We typically enter Holy Week knowing what’s going to happen.  Unlike those days when it was happening in real time, we live fully aware of the implications of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  And even today there is a certain excitement among us.  Perhaps it’s because we know that a most special day is just around the corner.  Perhaps it’s because this day, like so many other special days, begins the week with a parade (of sorts).  Parades have typically always signaled the beginning of something important.  But on this day, those who were an active part of the parade were out front, celebrating the entrance of their self-appointed King.  There were still others who dared to ask the proverbial question, “Who is this?”  The journey from the wilderness to faithfulness continues to beg us to answer the question.  But it also is an invitation for us to do our own reality check.  The disciples thought they had done everything they needed to do.  We may be with them — needing to do a reality check to determine for ourselves who this might be in the court of our own private opinion.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty and gracious God, empower me to make a reality check in my life about who I believe Jesus to be so that my reality and Your reality agree with one another

       Far too often we only see what our eyes allow us to see.  We have our hunches and our intuition, but at times our hunches and intuitions leave us scratching our heads.  What we don’t often see with our eyes are the promises of Christ’s being fulfilled in our lives or each other’s lives.  We seem to be blind to the presence of God, even though the hope of the world, Jesus Christ, is working in us to accomplish God’s great purposes.  I contend that grace is much easier to see when we stop looking for perfection in ourselves and others, choosing instead to love each other unconditionally.

• What makes God’s grace so difficult to see beyond the physical presence of our bodies and actions?
• What can we do to make God’s grace in us more visible to the world we live in?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to see that we are more than we appear. We are the presence of Your grace active and alive in the world.

       If all we see when we look at each other is who we are physically, then we miss God’s most glorious act of grace.  Within each of us lies the presence and reality of God’s love.  Externally we are encased in the presence of God’s love.  Maybe it is our unwillingness to love others as God has loved us that makes it so difficult for others to see beyond our physical presence into the spiritual reality of God’s love in us.  We are more than flesh and bone.  We represent the presence of God’s Spirit, grace, and love because God through Jesus Christ has placed it in us.

• What more can we do as God’s people “remove our spiritual light from beneath the bushel basket” to display the love of God present in us?
• How does loving others as God loved us enable us and others to know that we are more than we appear?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable and empower me to love others as You have loved me in a way that they might see that I am in You and You are in me.

       We aren’t too far removed from our 1st Century Christian friends.  While fornication literally pointed to “forsaking God, or following after idols”, it has found its way into our contemporary culture to entice us to worship other God’s physically.  In today’s culture sex sells.  Almost every advertisement — print, media, or otherwise — uses some form of sexuality to promote its product (young men and women physically appealing selling things that have nothing to do with how they look).  And yet, we are drawn to that which the eye can see, turning people into objects.  And none that I can think of ever promote the human body as the temple of the living God.  Yet, for those of us who believe that we are the temple of the living God, we have become more than we appear.

• What is it that compels us to see the physical presence of each other and not the spiritual presence of each other?
• What part can we play in helping everyone to give more emphasis to our spiritual development and reality over the physical?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, help enable me to look beyond the aesthetic beauty of the human body to see each person as the dwelling place for Your Spirit.

       The fruit of the Spirit is something that we all hope to experience in our lifetime.  If it’s not something that reflects how we live, then we (at the very least) hope to experience it coming from others.  And yet, if the Spirit is alive in us and we are guided by the Spirit, then the fruit of our lives will reflect something that’s not outwardly visible.  We will be more than we appear to be, and what people will experience when they connect with us are the fruits of God’s presence in our lives being shared unselfishly in their lives.

• Reflect for a few moments today on times when others might have experienced the fruit of God’s Spirit present and working in and through you.
• How did others respond when God’s Spirit was being experienced by them because you were present?
• Were you more than you appeared to be at that time?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to so live that what people experience when they are in my presence is Your presence and Spirit alive in me.

       When James shouted “Adulterers!”, he wasn’t talking about our contemporary understanding of an affair with another man or woman.  He was speaking about an affair with anyone or anything that we willingly pursue taking our loyalty away from God.  What we appear to be is often associated with whom we are loyal to and/or what we stand for.  We sometimes fail our "fidelity-to-God-test” by not asking the right questions, or getting the right answers before we establish our position.  The most agonizing question we can ask may point us back to our loyalty to God and Christ when we ask, “What would Jesus do?”  The answer to that question may determine whether we have remained loyal to our God, or whether we have committed adultery with the world by clinging to the fealty of politics, race, or culture.

• How often do you consider whether or not your decisions are driven by your faithfulness to your relationship to God when you make decisions in your personal life?
• What are some ways that you can discern that your choices are made from a spiritual place, or a place that benefits you on a personal, political, or cultural level?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, give me a discerning Spirit so that my decisions are influenced by Your wisdom. Help me to appear as more than my human form.

       It has been said that right is right.  But apparently there is a distinction between what is right as it relates to the flesh and what is right as it relates to the Spirit.  It would appear that things we do to appease our flesh (this also means our emotional needs) come with the added caveat that our actions and the results of those actions could be corrupted.  On the other hand, those things we do to appease our Spirits have a greater ability and opportunity to inspire and encourage life from God.  Perhaps sowing to the spirit increases the yield of the Spirit, making us more spiritually than we appear to be in the flesh.

• What are the liabilities we might experience from sowing things to the flesh (emphasizing our physical needs above our spiritual gifts)?
• What are the greater benefits we experience in life when we sow things to the Spirit rather than sowing things to the flesh?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, empower me to plant and harvest blessings from Your Spirit so that my life will always be more than it appears to be.

       We tend to believe (most of the time) that we are only human.  That is our default.  Whether we’re doing something that displays a great weakness on our part, or whether we’re doing something that shows tremendous courage and strength, our claim is that we’re human.  One is used to mask our faults, and the other is used to broadcast our strength.  Those defaults, however, are typically based on our understanding of who we are from a physical perspective.  We see our parts, both internally and externally, and presume that what we see is all of who we are.  We live with the reality that our bodies will eventually die and that will be the end of us.  And yet God has opened up another reality that we have to accept.  Simply put: “that we are more than flesh and bone who live with a system of default that defines us on a human level but ignores that God-part that is alive in us.”  To that end, we can default toward our humanity or default to our spirituality.  Agreeing with God, God’s definition of us means that we accept that we are more than we appear to be.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to rise above the limiting lifestyle of my humanity to live the spirit-filled life you’ve called me to. Help me to always be mindful that because Your Spirit is alive in me, I am more than I appear to be.

       There’s something about doing something repeatedly that speaks volumes about the impermanence of that thing we do.  And most of us enter into things knowing that nothing is one time forever.  We have to do things repeatedly, at least in our world, in an effort to satisfy our attempts at the permanence of something even though we know that our efforts are temporary.  Thank God that in Jesus, God has brought an end to repetitive sacrifices that have taken the lives of children and animals for our sins.  In Jesus, God has accomplished what we couldn’t do by the shedding of his own blood once and for all.

• What benefits do we receive by not having to make daily, weekly, and yearly sacrifices of our own offering to God?
• In what ways does the ‘once and for all sacrifice’ made by Jesus Christ strengthen our relationship to God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, I thank You for Jesus Christ who offered His own blood as the perfect one-time sacrifice for the forgiveness of my sins each day.

       It is our nature (at least for those who have accepted Christ) to believe that we have no responsibility at all for making a sacrifice to God.  However, while because of Jesus Christ we never have to make a sacrifice, we lose sight of the fact that now we have become God’s sacrifice to the world.  Just as Christ was God’s sacrifice to the world, we have now taken on the role of being Christ-like — living sacrifices for the agenda of God to love everyone unconditionally.  Our spiritual worship is not just believing in Christ, but believing and acting in ways that show that we have submitted to do the will of God just as Christ did the will of God.

• What is it necessary for you to sacrifice in your life in order for you to become a living sacrifice for God and Christ in this world?
• In what way does becoming a living sacrifice enable you to gain a better understanding of God’s good and perfect will?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy God, though my sacrifice be imperfect, enable me to be a living sacrifice for You that I might know Your good and perfect will in my life and live it.

       There is a huge difference between knowledge and application — between theory and reality.  In fact, we have old sayings that help us to understand that wisdom. Phrases like, ‘a miss is as good as a mile’, ‘close only counts in horseshoes’ and ‘almost catch a rabbit don’t make no soup’.  These are all phrases we use to describe what it means to come up short.  We can know what to do and somehow be just short of perfection because we can’t do what we know.  Being not far from the Kingdom of God may come nowhere close to God’s perfect sacrifice offered to us in Jesus Christ.

• What does it feel like to give your best and still come up short of perfection?
• What comfort is there in knowing that God has filled the gap of your imperfection?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, teach me the true understanding of what it means to accept Your perfect sacrifice for those times when I come up short of perfection in my relationship of loving You and others.

       For ages we’ve done things in an effort to appease God, believing that if we offered gifts and sacrifices, they would be acceptable and perfect.  That we had to offer them repeatedly was proof enough that the sacrifice we offered could never achieve that goal of being perfect.  What was better than all the sacrifices in the world was doing God’s will and becoming the people God desired for us to become.  But that could never happen given our nature.  What was needed was a sacrifice that was perfect — someone, not something that was good once for all.

• Take time today to reflect on times when you’ve offered a sacrifice of your own choosing (something you did to make amends to God) rather than accepting the perfect sacrifice God has offered us in Jesus.
• When you realize what God has done in Jesus Christ, how does that affect you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, forgive me in those times when I’ve chosen my own sacrifice rather than trusting in Your sacrifice for me in Jesus Christ.

       I’m not sure we often think about what happens when the righteous die for the unrighteous. Perhaps it’s because we all know deep within ourselves that we never truly get what we deserve.  All of our little hidden sins, both those we knowingly commit that never come to light are only known by us and perhaps the person we offended.  Those sins we commit by omission are known only to God.  And to that extent, we know we have not lived up to our responsibility as God’s children.  So, if the punishment of sin is death, we deserve to die.  But Jesus Christ (the righteous) died for us (the unrighteous), a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

• When you think about the sacrifice of the righteous for the unrighteous, do you ever justify yourself by telling yourself you’re a good person?
• How, then, does a “good person” accept and reconcile Christ as a perfect sacrifice for sin?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to face the truth about my broken relationship with You and trust in your perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sins.

       A perfect sacrifice does more than give the illusion that things are in order.  It sets them in order in invisible ways so that we may lead lives that are visible representations of our redeemed souls.  And perhaps, therein lies the proof.  There is something that happens within us that frees us from guilt caused by the repeated commission of our sins because we can rely on the One who became the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  That doesn’t give us permission or freedom to live out of relationship with God because of our actions.  But experiencing God’s forgiveness through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ has freed us once and for all, and once for all is a tremendous liberation.  It is in every possible way, the perfect sacrifice for sin offered to us by God.

• How meaningful is it to You that God has provided a perfect sacrifice for your sins in Jesus Christ?
• How does accepting this sacrifice translate into a life of service to God for you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, keep me mindful of all that You have done in offering me the perfect sacrifice for my sin. Enable me to always live trusting in Your perfect sacrificial gift of grace in Jesus Christ.

       The idea of giving up something in order to gain something else isn’t a new concept.  It’s actually built into the fabric of who we are.  We have to make up our minds what we are willing to sacrifice in order to get something that’s important to us.  That’s why people work, and why we do it day after day.  We sacrifice our time and energy in order to get those financial rewards that then allow us to find the basic necessities of life.  The fact that no “single” sacrifice of time and energy suffices to bring all our necessities to us all the time means that our sacrifice is not only imperfect, but it also means that what we’ve given in just one day is, in some ways, unacceptable.  Working one day will never be enough to satisfy for all time.  The perfect sacrifice, whether of time or energy — or any other commodity — would meet all of our needs for all time.  Once would be enough.  God, however, has managed to secure the perfect sacrifice in order for us to have that perfect, reconciled relationship with God, (and with each other if we’re willing to follow Jesus’ example.)  God did it by providing the perfect and acceptable sacrifice of love once and for all through Jesus Christ.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, I give thanks to You that (through Jesus) You have provided the perfect and acceptable sacrifice for my sins. Enable and empower me to become a living sacrifice always seeking to do Your will.

       The world is full of peculiar people who constantly look for proof of God's reality, and yet, the proof of God is all around us.  They see people whose lives have been changed yet fail to see that their change has anything to do with the reality or the presence of God.  The same could be said for people claiming to be believers who constantly search for proof of God.  They’ve hardened their hearts, locking out faith in all the things that God has done before, yet searching instead and asking for proof of what God has done for them lately.  God is not a “fast-food” delivery God who responds as soon as we place our prayers on the prayer list.  There are times when the lesson to be learned can only be realized after we’ve faced life’s challenges and come out on the side of faith and trust that God is with us.

• What makes us so insecure in our faith that we constantly ask for proof that God is with us?
• How can we become more confident, knowing that God is with us always?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, enable me to recall and remember Your faithfulness throughout the ages so that my heart is not hardened and l will not continually test You, but trust You.

       It is perhaps our nature to look beyond our behavior as an answer to why we find ourselves in a certain position in life.  It seems that we have found ourselves incapable of living totally obedient lives to honor God.  Yet, when we do it habitually, it is then that we ask the question, “Why is this happening to me?”  While the answer is sometimes not simple, the greater question is, “Why do we persist in blaming God for our discomforted lives?” Why do we resent God for not rescuing us from our predicament when our resistance to God put us there?  Perhaps the answer lies in making decisions that limit our culpability and allow us to trust God in all circumstances of life?

• What is it about us that seeks to blame God when our lives don’t turn out the way we’d like them to?
• How would a deeper understanding that God is not out to do us harm change your faith life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to have a change of heart from blaming You for the life predicaments I find myself in, and to own my part in it all.

       A part of life reminds us that we are not in control.  That realization compels us to seek someone to take responsibility for what happens to us.  And yet, we often forget that our control occurs as we realize we are in a relationship with God.  We can choose to live in a constant relationship with God and  hear God’s voice or ignore it.  It’s not a part-time relationship where we walk in and out, but a relationship which is constant.  Instead of questioning why we left God, we often question why God has left us.  And yet the answer is simply to have a change of heart about the distractions and to return to God.  It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

• What is it that distracts you, causing you to temporarily disconnect from God?•
• What would cause you to have a change of heart without testing God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable and empower me to have a change of heart that compels me to stay with You and avoid the distractions that cause me to stray.

       There appears to be a theme which runs throughout the Bible that suggests that God, more than anything else, wants to be chosen by us.  That God has chosen us is irrelevant at this point.  God’s wants us to make a conscious decision to hear God’s voice over all the others.  There is a sense that if we’re told the same thing over and over again and refuse to change, that we’ve hardened our hearts.  It’s clear that we can’t change our minds about choosing God until we’ve had a change of heart about choosing God.

• Today, reflect on times when you may have heard God’s voice calling to you, yet you hardened your heart, choosing to ignore God’s request.
• How do you feel after you realize you’ve hardened your heart against God?
• What can you do in the future to lead you to have a change of heart?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, forgive me in those times when I’ve chosen other gods and not listened to You. Change my heart that I might hear and come to You.

       There is an old saying not heard much anymore, but just as valid: “You’ve made your bed; now you have to lie in it.”  In some ways that explains many of the predicaments we find ourselves in, especially when we knowingly and willingly defy God.  Hardening of the heart with respect to God can occur instantly or over a period of time when we feel that God is being inattentive to our circumstances.  Like spoiled and brooding children, we cry out for the immediate and instant attention of God.  What brings us out of those situations is when we have a change of heart and remember that God is faithful and has been true to His Word that he would never leave us nor forsake us. Coming to that reality can be a real heart shift for us.

• Can you remember times when you’ve had to lie in the bed of your own making and then resented God for not helping you?
• What lessons do we learn after we’ve hardened our hearts and failed to listen to God or remember God’s faithfulness?