Saturday, February 15, 2014
“’But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,’ says the LORD, your Redeemer. For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then My faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,’ says the LORD, who has mercy on you.” (Isaiah 54:8b, 10).
Friday, February 14, 2014
“Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.” (Psalms 36:5-6)
Thursday, February 13, 2014
“I will be glad and rejoice in Your unfailing love, for You have seen my troubles, and You care about the anguish of my soul.” (Psalms 31:7)
Read Mark 4:35-41
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Cast all your anxiety on [God], because [God] cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
And the stress isn’t just related to our own travels. My wife works an hour away from where I live. She is a registered nurse and has to go to work regardless of the weather. People’s lives depend on nurses showing up and performing their duties. I know that in winter storms, I get particularly stressed out when she is driving to or from work. There are a lot of unknowns and uncertainties. Will she make it to work okay? Will she make it home okay? What happens if she gets stranded somewhere on the road? What happens if she crashes and dies? How will I ever even begin to explain that to my children? What will my life be like if that were to happen?
The worries and the fears can certainly add up in such situations. Now, some might call me a worry wort, some might say that I’m making a big deal out of nothing; however, there are also a good many people who went out in storms, died and never came home. That reality exists, and the possibility of it happening to anyone of us is also a reality. So, for those of us who do get stressed out, know that you are not crazy for being worried. It is a natural reaction to stressful and unsettling stimuli, to get clinical about it.
With that said, what good does all of that fear do? Is it saving your’s or your spouse’s or your children’s or your parent’s lives? Is it ridding you of the situation? Is it helping you to remain focused and calm? Is it lifting you up and providing you with clear and rational thought? Of course, the answer to all of those questions would be no. When fear spirals out of control, it can paralyze us and leave us in an even worse state than the actual circumstances we find ourselves facing.
Jesus understood the meaning of fear and, without a shadow of a doubt, he certainly was stressed and fearful of the many circumstances befalling him. Yet, he also was a person of profound trust. He was a person that was able to give everything, including his fears, to God. Did that take away his fears? Did that take away his stress? Did that relieve him of his circumstances? Nope! But what it did do was give him the peace and the courage he needed to face his fears, to face his stress, and to face his circumstances.
God is asking you to place your faith in the power that God has to get you through your circumstances. Notice I did not say around or beneath them. But God can and WILL get you through them. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4, KJV). Remember, that God is ALWAYS with you. And since God is with you, what do you have to fear? So, fear not for God will see you through any and every storm that comes your way.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Leave it there, leave it there, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, he will surely bring you out; take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” – the refrain from Charles Albert Tindley’s hymn, “Leave It There”.
PRAYER
Lord, I put my trust and my faith in you. I take my fears and anxieties and give them all to you. Give me strength. Amen.
Read Mark 1:21-28
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23)
It was both an exhausting and a rewarding trip. One of the most rewarding parts of the trip was that I got to see Jesus in a whole new light. Growing up America, I knew the Jesus of my childhood well. I knew the reverent, light-skinned, golden flowing hair, blue-eyed Jesus that taught us to love one another and died for our sins. I knew the resurrected Christ who promised would come again. Of course, the Jesus I grew up understanding was coming from my reading of Scripture through the lenses of Western art, film, church and cultural experiences.
And there is nothing wrong with those experiences, for they are very much a part of the foundation of my faith. With that said, in India I came across the meditating, guru Jesus. On the one hand the image was exotic, distinctly Indian, and seemingly foreign to me; however, as I began to look at that Jesus, sitting in the cross-legged position in a circle with his disciples, I began to realize that this, too, was the Jesus of Scripture. After all, to use the Indian term, Jesus was a guru, which simply means teacher (or Rabbi as it is called in Hebrew). Also, Jesus was very spiritually in tune with God and with himself, and he no doubt meditated on God, on the Scriptures and certainly prayed continually as a part of his spiritual discipline.
Some people might be pausing here and saying, “Hey, that sounds awfully like Eastern philosophy/religion to me! That can’t be Biblical!” But, with careful evaluation and study, one cannot help but notice that Judaism (and Jesus was a Jew), is a Middle-EASTERN religion…not originally a Western religion. The Scriptures are loaded with Middle-Eastern symbology, with an emphasis on meditation and communion with God, and with plenty of wise sages roaming the countryside with bands of followers. All of this truly corroborates the Indian image of Jesus that I saw in my travels through India.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying to abandon the way you have come to know Jesus. That would not be true to your relationship with him, nor would it be true to your personal faith experiences. What I am saying is that we should be willing to meet Jesus everywhere and anywhere we go, and we should be open to meeting him in the ways that others have gotten to know him too! After all Christianity is not about EAST or WEST, NORTH or SOUTH, HERE or THERE; rather, Christianity is about CHRIST!
Today’s challenge is for you to open yourself to Christ in ways you never thought possible. Can we ever know CHRIST fully enough? Is Christ as small as the limits of our own minds and theologies? Or is Christ transcendent of those limitations? I choose to believe the latter and, in my experience, I have not been disappointed in how, when, where and with who I meet my LORD and Savior! I pray the same becomes true for you as well!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit” – Asaph (Psalm 77:6)
PRAYER
Lord, open my heart and my mind to meet you everywhere, anywhere and anyway you reveal yourself to me. Amen.
Read Psalm 146
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” Proverbs 3:5
As it turns out, I discovered that “Naked Juice” is owned by Pepsico…as in the huge soda company that makes products such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew and other toxic drinks that have no nutritional value whatsoever. What’s more, Pepsico donated over $2,000,000 to fight against Prop 37, which was a measure to have honest labeling on food products, so that consumers can know exactly what they are buying. Even worse than that, Pepsico owns Tropicana Orange Juice and a whole host of other popular products. Yikes! Who knew, right?
Have you ever stopped and wondered, “who can I trust?” In the American and/or Western culture, we are bombarded by tons of companies, government agencies and/or people, all begging us to place our trust in them. Yet, time after time we are let down by the reality that most of these things we place our trust in are not trustworthy.
Many of us then come to the conclusion that if we are going to trust anyone it is going to be ourselves; yet, how many times have we let ourselves down. I know I have let myself down quite a few times. I put my trust in my ability to eat healthy and stay on track, and yet I find myself derailing every so often. This of course leads me to be doubtful of whether I can even trust myself and my own abilities.
And let us not even mention the church. Can the church be trusted? How many times have people been burned by the church? Unfortunately, this leads many people to come to the conclusion that God cannot be trusted, and if that is the case, who can be trusted? But the reality is that, while the church represents God, the church is still made up of people. And while people can sometimes be trusted, and most people try to be trustworthy, the fact is that people cannot ALWAYS be trusted.
But God CAN always be trusted. Placing our trust in God is not the same as placing our trust in the church. Rather than placing our trust in companies, in products, in ourselves or in institutions such as the church, God is pleading with us to put our trust in GOD and in GOD’s abilities! In fact, if the church would just place its trust in GOD, it would look much different than it often does.
So, today’s challenge is for you to start placing your complete trust in God! Whatever your concerns are, whatever your worries are, whatever your trials and challenges are, whatever your triumphs are, TRUST that God IS and WILL CONTINUE TO lead you from where you are to where God is calling you to be. If you do so, you will find that GOD NEVER FAILS and that your TRUST has finally been placed on the only ONE who is TRUSTWORTHY!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Rather than stamping “In God We Trust” on our money, we should be stamping that on our hearts.
PRAYER
Lord, I put my trust in you to lead me to where it is that you would like me to be. Amen.
Read Matthew 16:1-4
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
As much as I do not enjoy extreme temperatures, and as much as I semi-jokingly carry on about my dislike for the winter months, I cannot say I was not prepared for this harsh winter. In fact, I pretty much knew in advance that this winter was going to be a rough one, not because I am a soothsayer or some kind of super psychic, but because I saw the signs that were right in front of me.
Well, at least the signs were right in front of me on my youngest daughter’s class trip to Lakota Wolf Preserve in Blairstown, NJ. It was at this preserve that I met a couple of elegant and graceful bobcats! Aside from them being absolutely adorable, they also had weather prediction built naturally into their fur.
As it turns out, when ever a cold and harsh winter is approaching, their fur turns from brown to silvery white. And when ever a mild winter is approaching, their fur doesn’t change colors at all! Well, when I met these furry rascals their fur was already turning silver. Once that was pointed out to me by the tour guide, my heart sunk. Nature is ALWAYS right. I knew we were going to have a rough winter ahead of us!
Jesus calls his disciples to be observant of the signs surrounding us. He told his disciples to observe the signs of the times in order to be prepared for the things that are to come. He didn’t tell his disciples when and where these things would happen, but that the signs would be there for us to observe. With that said, Jesus also said to not get too caught up in the signs or in looking for them.
Many Christians have not heeded Jesus’ instruction to be observant of the signs and, as a result, they have missed out on the very presence of Christ, and the opportunities to bear that presence, in those moments. On the other hand, other Christians are overly observant, finding signs, and the end of the world, in everything they see. Jesus warns us against both scenarios.
Today’s challenge is for us to be observant, to be present, and to keep it real. Let us not be among the complacent who are caught unaware by the presence of God. Let us not be complacent and miss the presence of the Lord in the faces of those we ignore and pass by. Let us also not be overzealous in seeking out signs at every turn. No one needs another blowhard predicting the unpredictable. Remember that the signs will show themselves to us and, when they do, we will be prepared for what God is doing in the world!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“My choices, including those related to the day-to-day aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing.” – Pope Francis I
PRAYER
Lord, open my eyes to the signs of the times and fill me with the urgency to act upon them. Amen.
Read Matthew 4:17-25
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:3-4, NLT)
The film is about a father who discovers that his son died during a storm while backpacking on the Camino de Santiago (“The Way of St. James”), which is of various lengths depending on where you start. The father, who spontaneously decides to complete his son’s trek, started in France and traveled by foot approximately 800 km or 497 miles. Along the way, the father meets and, eventually befriends, several people along the way.
In a flashback scene, the father is remembering an argument he had with his son. He wasn’t happy with his son’s life choices, and he thought his 40 year old son’s passion for world travel was frivolous. In the argument his son questions him on why he doesn’t just go on the trip with him. He also questions why his dad insists on basing his life around work and other such things. His father replies, “You may not think much of my life, but it’s the one I choose.”
At that moment his son replies, “You don’t choose a life dad, you live one.” Wow, what words of wisdom. His father didn’t reply to him that day, which would be the last day he ever saw his son alive, but those words forever echoed in his head. “You don’t choose a life dad, you live one.” His son had hit upon something that would take him an 800 km trek to discover.
We often go about our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routines as if we have chosen the lives we have. But have we? Did you choose to be born? Did you choose what family you were born into? Did you choose what schools you were first educated in? Did you choose every last detail of your life? The fact is, while we do have and make choices that affect our lives, we do not choose our lives. They are a gift given to us by God through our parents. Life is a gift that is meant to be used, and used abundantly.
Along The Way, the father discovers that life is meant to be lived and he discovers that living life means living it in the company of others, even those who seem worlds apart from who you are. We do not get to choose our lives, but we do get to choose to live them and to be a presence of hope and faith, of love, support and encouragement for others along the way of our life’s journey.
Christ calls us, as his disciples, to live life through sharing in the journey with others. Jesus was not just one person out in the country side, choosing his life all by himself; rather, he chose to journey with and encourage others who rather different than him. Sometimes their differences were downright frustrating; yet, Jesus chose to love them. From that loving bond came an even larger community of people who chose to join in with them, a community that continues on to this day through the Church. Today’s challenge is for you to stop pretending you choose your life and start living it. Live it in the presence of the people around you and live it in, through and with love! That is THE WAY to the Kingdom of Heaven.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Make Jesus the way you live your life.
PRAYER
Lord, I want to be more like you. Though I do not choose my life, I choose to live my life for you. Amen.
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Leviticus 19:11-18
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Many people don’t understand why anyone in the world would want to abstain from meats, butter, cheese, milk, ice cream, eggs and all of the things that come from those products. I often get many questions and, to be honest, some people balk at me as if I am a lunatic. While it is true that I may be a little nutty, as it turns out my being vegan has absolutely nothing to do with it! Just ask anyone of my friends and family members.
Of course, I can certainly understand why people are put off by the notion of being vegan. In our culture, it goes against everything we were taught about a well-rounded diet. We’ve been told that we need animal protein, that we need milk to make our bones strong, and who can ever imagine baking without butter and eggs? Seriously! The truth is that I, too, balked at vegans before becoming one. I swore that I was a carnivorous meat-eater through and through. I could eat a block of cheese in a single sitting! I loved cheese! And baked goods, cookies in particular, forget about it! I couldn’t get enough of them.
But in my quest to lose weight and regain my health, I discovered what life without them would be like. I discovered that I would have tons of energy, that I would get rid of all of the diseases plaguing me, and that I would actually LOVE food just as much…if not more so…than I did before! Anyone who knows me knows that I NEVER stop talking about food and I certainly never stop trying new recipes! Yet, the foods I eat are definitely different than the ones I used to consume, and as a result, I am a new and transformed person.
While I have been talking about my personal dietary lifestyle, I can truly tell you that the same principles apply to our spiritual lives. In our culture, we are told to seek fame, fortune, and bliss. We are taught to expect things automatically. We are told what is beautiful and what is ugly. We are told what is healthy and unhealthy; however, a majority of people in our world are plagued with spiritual dis-ease. Many are seeking answers in all of the wrong places and balk at people when they are told that there is a better way.
Yet, there IS a better way! There is a way that is healthy and wholesome! There is a way that leads to abundant life! There is a way that will transform you completely from the inside out! There is a way that will lift you out of dis-ease and into HOPE, HEALING and WHOLENESS. That way was embodied by Jesus the Christ. That way leads us into service of others. That way leads us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It leads us to seek justice and love mercy. It leads us to forsake everything, but the Gospel of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, as rubbish and worthless. Jesus embodied THE WAY and is calling you to join him in doing the same.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Transformation in the world happens when people are healed and start investing in other people.” – Michael W. Smith
PRAYER
Lord, transform me. Lead me on the way toward hope, healing and wholeness so that I may bear witness to it for the transformation of the world. Amen.
Read Deuteronomy 11:18-23
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalms 119:105)
As a Christian educator and, in particular, as someone who has taught many confirmation classes, I have made it a priority to encourage, promote and provide opportunity for Christian education. In confirmation class, I developed a curriculum in which the confirmands had to learn Christian history, become acquainted with doctrine and its historical and theological development, gain working knowledge of the way our church operates, and begin to think theologically for themselves. While, no doubt, this sounds like a lot for someone at the age of confirmation…my students will attest that the process was immensely rewarding for them as they grew in ways they didn’t know they could.
John Wesley believed in the vital importance of “attending to the ordinances of God.” In other words, in order to maintain our spiritual well-being, including spiritual growth, people need to actively participate in their faith. It is important for a Christian to be actively a part of the Christian community (aka church). It is important for a Christian to participate in the sacraments. It is important for a Christian to maintain a consistent prayer life. It is also vitally important for a Christian to study his or her Bible. And, of course, anyone who has read the Bible knows that it teaches us of the vital importance to serve others and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The fact of the matter is that many people do not invest themselves in their faith. When it comes to their faith, most people only know what they have heard from others and have no real or personal understanding of why it is they believe what say they believe. They take what they hear at face value without ever really taking the time to probe into it. As a result, many people find themselves stagnating in their faith, rather than seeing themselves grow and transform. For many people faith is just another one of those “religious” words.
Today’s challenge…and to be honest, this is a challenge for the rest of our lives…is for us to begin to take our faith more seriously. We should be seeking to devote time to reading and getting to know Scripture. We should be seeking to join Bible and/or book studies to enhance our understanding. We should be seeking to participate in all of the ordinances of God so that we not only claim to believe, but that we also know WHAT we believe and WHY we believe it.
It is such conviction that will lead us to live out our beliefs. If we are merely claiming to believe something, then their is no REAL reason for us to carry it out beyond our mental assent. If we do not know WHAT we believe, there is no way we can act upon our beliefs. If we don’t know WHY we believe, then we will not have the conviction it takes to act upon those beliefs. So, take the challenge and find ways to grow in your faith. Seek to gain an understanding of what you believe and why you believe it, study the Bible and it’s historical contexts, and actively participate in the life and mission of the Christian community! Invest in your faith and you’ll find it was well worth the investment!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Belief is so much more than mere mental assent.
PRAYER
Lord, spark a passion for investing in my faith and grounding myself in what I believe so that I may live in a way that reflects that faith. Amen.
