Isaiah 30:18:Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
This devotional is late. Have you been waiting for it?
This morning I picked up a book by Paula Gooder called The Meaning is in the Waiting. I haven’t started the book itself yet, but I did read the forward by Lauren F. Winner. She says this:
We are told, by advertisements and by our Blackberries, to squeeze time dry, to use it well, to maximize it. The church tells us a different story about it (time) -- it is God’s and there is enough of it, more than enough. The church’s narrative about time is never clearer than during Advent, when we are invited to spend our time very foolishly indeed. We are invited to wait. Just to wait.
Take a breath. Take some time. Waste it. Waste it during a season when everything around you demands that you make the most of your time. Wait on God.
Lauren Winner tells us that something amazing happens when we do. We find that God is waiting on us. The image that came to my mind was of a parent waiting up at night for a teenager to come home. God is waiting for us. “The Lord waits to be gracious to you.”
I find myself in a time that feels like limbo. Thanksgiving has come and gone; Advent has yet to come. We are waiting to begin waiting. My devotional challenge to you this week is to give some thought to Advent. What will you do as you wait for God? How will you prepare yourself to begin?
My commitment this Advent is to find some quiet time each day for devotionals and prayer. I commit to more spiritual reading during this month. Our pastor this Sunday said that “we belong to the Truth.” I want to draw closer to the Truth during this time of waiting, and I am going to be intentional about it.
It is God’s time, and there is enough of it. Do what seems wasteful, and wait for God.
Prayer:
Creator God, who stretches a hand across the heavens and spreads the stars in the sky,
meet us in our waiting.
Loving Son, who came and comes and will come,
come today and meet us in our waiting.
Abiding Spirit, who waits with us,
speak to us in our waiting.
Loving God, grant us the courage to wait for you
and the grace to realize you wait for us.
Amen.
Kim Matthews
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Devotional 11-16-12
This past June three cats were dumped off on my street. The first one that I met was a beautiful calico cat. She endeared me and my neighbor who had just lost her husband in May. My neighbor started feeding her and to my delight took her into her home. That was a total surprise as she was definetly not a cat person. Right down to, "I am allergic to cats and I must wash my hands if I touch one." We took the cat to my vet and found out that she had been spayed. She is now living the good life in my neighbor's home. To me that cat was divine intervention for my neighbor. She needed that cat to come home to and take care of after the loss of her husband.
Well, that leaves the other two cats that were dropped off. They were two black and white tuxedo cats. They started hanging around between my house and my neighbors {obviously missing one of their siblings}.
Well,what and I supposed to do? I have two older dogs and an even older cat. I have vowed that my" tubes are tied " for any more animals in my life or in my home. I also realized that those cats were starving. I, being a softy, started to feed them. Of course, they showed up morning and night for food. One was really dear to me as she was so sweet and reminded me of the sweet cat that I had lost recently at thirteen years due to diabetes. The only problem was that as a result of feeding them and our living near the woods raccoons appeared, and I feared for the cats' safety. I was scared for them but try as I might I could not accept them into my home.
I finally had to accept the fact that I could do the best I could by feeding and loving them as best I could from a distance. I realized that they could survive with my providing for them -- just by feeding them out my back door. I would try to find homes for them, but who wants a cat? Nobody.
I just think that this brings to mind how we treat the people that we meet that are in need. I will feed them from a distance but will not get too close to them because we already have our "tubes tied" and have no more room in our heart for those that need help . They may have their raccoons that show up and make them run and are also scared for their lives.. We think we are doing enough if we feed them physically but those two cats are still scared to death living outside in the elements. They trust me a little but run at the slightest noise. Trust ,when you are hungry, is not gained by being feed physically. It is only gained by being shown love right where you are. A person in need can do their best, but if the raccoons show up then you have to run. I just have to hope the raccoons do not overcome my trying to take care of them from a distance. Who will win? I do not know. It will be cold this winter. The sad part is , will I worry more about those two cats or the unwanted humans that will be out there in the cold too? Most likely both, but sad to say, it will be from a distance. Guess I have learned a good lesson from those cats. Anybody want a cat?
Jean Ramsey
Friday, November 9, 2012
Devotional 11-9-12
Please read Hebrews 9:23-28.
"Cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary"
Christ's sacrifice takes away sin. He will appear a second time to bring salvation to those who are eaagerly waiting for him.
Sacrificial rites in the old covenant were effective in cleasing the tabernacle and the furniture of worship. If this is true of the copy it is true also of the heavenly pattern. But whereas the blood of calves and goats was sufficient to cleanse the early shine, the heavenly tabernacle requires better sacrifices. And this the significance of Christ's self-offering. He does not minister in the early shine, a copy of the true one, but has entered heaen itself and there appears in the presence of God on our behalf. Moreover he does not perform this sacrifice repeatedly, as the high priest did annually in Israel but has accomposihed it once for all at the end of the age to put away sin.
The contrast between the earthly and heavenly shines, between the temporary and eternal, is joined with the biblical sense of God's purpose moving toward a goal The goal, or end, appears in the middle of history in Jesus Christ. Thus the author can speak of Christ's coming at the end of the age. But Christ still has his people on earth and therefore there is still movement toward the goal in the life of the church. Thus the author can speak of Christ's appearing a seond time, this time not the deal with sin -- his sacriice -- but to accomplish salvation for those who are waiting for him.
When Christ appears at the judgement he does not join the long line awaiting assessment but is Lord of the judgment and savior and deliverer to those who are waiting for him. He voluntarily shared our human experience and the outcome of his life and death is the trasnformation of the human situation. Death once meant only judgment. Those who are Christ's now can look beyond death to the deliverer.
Prayer:
Help us, O Lord, to be alert to signs of your coming. Help us to have our lamps trimmed and filled with oil, ready to go out to meet you. Help us ever to watch for your return, that we may not be found without oil in our lamps. Help us to be prepared when the cry is heard, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Amen.
References:
The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV). Abingdon Press, 2009.
The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible. Abingdon Press, 1971.
Prayers. H.S. Wallace. F.H. Revell Co, 1964.
Frank Hanshaw
"Cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary"
Christ's sacrifice takes away sin. He will appear a second time to bring salvation to those who are eaagerly waiting for him.
Sacrificial rites in the old covenant were effective in cleasing the tabernacle and the furniture of worship. If this is true of the copy it is true also of the heavenly pattern. But whereas the blood of calves and goats was sufficient to cleanse the early shine, the heavenly tabernacle requires better sacrifices. And this the significance of Christ's self-offering. He does not minister in the early shine, a copy of the true one, but has entered heaen itself and there appears in the presence of God on our behalf. Moreover he does not perform this sacrifice repeatedly, as the high priest did annually in Israel but has accomposihed it once for all at the end of the age to put away sin.
The contrast between the earthly and heavenly shines, between the temporary and eternal, is joined with the biblical sense of God's purpose moving toward a goal The goal, or end, appears in the middle of history in Jesus Christ. Thus the author can speak of Christ's coming at the end of the age. But Christ still has his people on earth and therefore there is still movement toward the goal in the life of the church. Thus the author can speak of Christ's appearing a seond time, this time not the deal with sin -- his sacriice -- but to accomplish salvation for those who are waiting for him.
When Christ appears at the judgement he does not join the long line awaiting assessment but is Lord of the judgment and savior and deliverer to those who are waiting for him. He voluntarily shared our human experience and the outcome of his life and death is the trasnformation of the human situation. Death once meant only judgment. Those who are Christ's now can look beyond death to the deliverer.
Prayer:
Help us, O Lord, to be alert to signs of your coming. Help us to have our lamps trimmed and filled with oil, ready to go out to meet you. Help us ever to watch for your return, that we may not be found without oil in our lamps. Help us to be prepared when the cry is heard, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Amen.
References:
The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV). Abingdon Press, 2009.
The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible. Abingdon Press, 1971.
Prayers. H.S. Wallace. F.H. Revell Co, 1964.
Frank Hanshaw
Friday, November 2, 2012
Devotional 11-2-12
A Spiritual MRI
We can’t live with foreign objects buried in our bodies, or our souls!
What would an X-ray of your interior reveal?
A remorse over a poor choice? A shame about the marriage that didn’t work or the temptation you didn’t resist? The guilty lies hidden beneath the surface, festering, irritating, and sometimes so deeply embedded you don’t know the cause.
And you can be touchy, you know, understandable, since you have a shank of shame lodged in your soul, Interested in an Extraction?
Confess! and Request! a spiritual MRI. Like the one in Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Confessors find a Freedom that Deniers don’t. If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins! He will cleanse us; Not might, could, would, or should. He WILL!
Prayer:
Oh God, look deep into my heart and find out everything I am thinking. Don’t let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true. In Jesus name, Amen.
In Love and Grace;
Jim Perry
We can’t live with foreign objects buried in our bodies, or our souls!
What would an X-ray of your interior reveal?
A remorse over a poor choice? A shame about the marriage that didn’t work or the temptation you didn’t resist? The guilty lies hidden beneath the surface, festering, irritating, and sometimes so deeply embedded you don’t know the cause.
And you can be touchy, you know, understandable, since you have a shank of shame lodged in your soul, Interested in an Extraction?
Confess! and Request! a spiritual MRI. Like the one in Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Confessors find a Freedom that Deniers don’t. If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins! He will cleanse us; Not might, could, would, or should. He WILL!
Prayer:
Oh God, look deep into my heart and find out everything I am thinking. Don’t let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true. In Jesus name, Amen.
In Love and Grace;
Jim Perry
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