Devotional 11-19-10

Psalm 98:4-9
Shout to the Lord

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.
Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy
at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity Psalm 98:4-9

I love the imagery of these verses from Psalms. I love the image of the whole world praising God – the seas roaring its praise and the hills singing. I believe God is worthy of such dramatic praise.
Before last weekend, my definition of praise was probably too narrow. If asked, I would have defined praise, without much thought, as the songs of praise in worship, the prayers of thanksgiving we offer to God, and the words of the sermon that extol God’s majesty. With that definition of praise, it’s hard to imagine that the sea and the hills could actually offer praise.

Last Sunday, Ember led the early service in the song “Shout to the Lord” – a song partially based on Psalm 98. Following that, in Jack’s prayer, he asked God that we would shout loudly with our actions of praise of the Lord.

Shouting with our actions our praise of the Lord.

The next day I read about praise as described by Frederick Buechner. He wrote that praise of God is volcanic – explosive. “The whole of creation is in on the act – the sun and moon, the sea, fire and snow, Holstein cows and white-throated sparrows, old men in walkers and children who still haven’t taken their first step. Their praise is not chiefly a matter of saying anything, because most of creation doesn’t deal in words. Instead, the snow whirls, thee fire roars, the Holstein bellows, the old man watches the moon rise. Their praise is not something that at their most complimentary they say, but something that their truest they are.”

Do we shout of praise of God with our actions? Does our praise of God reflect who we are at our “truest?” Trees stand, reaching the skies while the ocean crashes and the sun paints the skies with colors of glory – all of them shouting a testimony to God’s greatness. Do we do the same with who we are, with what we have been given and with our actions?

Prayer: Our Jesus, our Savior, Lord there is none like you. All of our days, we want to praise, the wonder of your mighty love. Our comfort, our shelter, tower of refuge and strength, let every breath, all that we are, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. We sing for joy at the works of your hands. Forever, we’ll love you. Forever we’ll stand. Nothing compares to the promise we have in you. Amen.

Prayer adapted from the song “Shout to the Lord,” Words and music by Darlene Zschech

Kim Matthews

Devotional 11-12-10

November 12, 2010
Luke 15:1-10 “Each One is Important”

When I was a little girl I often heard my grandmother singing that old song “The Ninety and Nine”. Of course I had no idea what that hymn was about, only that it meant a great deal to her. In case you don’t remember it or have never heard it, it goes like this:. “There were ninety and nine that safely lay . . .” This hymn is about finding something that was lost.

Have you ever lost something that was really important to you? Not misplaced, but actually lost? I suppose how a person would react would be in relation to how important the thing that was lost was. If something is lost, who will go looking for it? If I said I lost a quarter in my yard while I was cutting back some herbs, someone, maybe a kid would go looking for it. If I said I lost a $100.00 bill in my yard, some of you might not read the rest of this devotional but would feel a prompting by the Holy Spirit to help with the herb drying and find that $100.00 bill. Again, the value we place on something will determine how much time and effort we are willing to go through to search for that lost object.

This is another time when Jesus was trying to get the Scribes and Pharisees to understand the nature of God. Remember, they were the religious people of the day, the ones who kept the rules, the spiritual I’s dotted and t’s crossed. They did everything the way it was supposed to be done. And they were proud of that. They did not think there was anything lost about themselves. But they were threatened by the fact that the sinners and tax collectors were coming closer to them. They didn’t want anything to do with those lost people. They couldn’t understand why Jesus was welcoming them and eating with them.

As I was preparing this week, I wondered for the first time, if Jesus acceptance of these sinners was easy for him to do. Initially, I thought, of course it was, he was God’s son. But now I wonder. Jesus was a pious Jew. He knew the laws of Moses at least as well as any Scribe or Pharisee there that day. But I wonder if, through his own prayer life and his own intimate interaction with God, God showed Him that everyone was equal in God’s sight. Scripture tells us that Jesus interacted with the lost. It doesn’t tell us whether or not he really wanted to do it from his human side. But he was compassionate, where the Scribes and Pharisees were not. Jesus wanted them to understand that God chose him to come for the lost. So he told them these parables.

A shepherd had 100 sheep. Ninety nine of them were accounted for one was lost. A woman had 10 coins. One was lost so she only had nine. The first thing these parables teach us is that god is interested in everyone from the ones the world thinks of as important to the ones who the world says are not. Everyone in the world is equally important to God. That’s an idea we still struggle with today, because, like the Scribes and Pharisees, we want to limit God’s love. We need to understand also that the lost sheep wasn’t more valuable just because it was lost. All 100 sheep were part of the flock and the shepherd, who of course represents God, was equally concerned about all of them. But the shepherd wants all 100 of them to be accounted for and when he realizes one is missing he goes looking everywhere he can think of to find it. When he does, he gently lifts it up, because sheep are notoriously stupid, and takes it back to be with the other sheep. When a sheep is lost, they don’t bleat for help, because they are afraid. They just lie down and curl up into themselves. It cannot help in its own rescue. We might wonder about those 99 sheep and what was going on with them while the shepherd was gone. They may have felt it was unfair for the shepherd to leave them vulnerable while he was out looking for the one lost sheep. After all, they had acted as they were supposed to. They allowed themselves to be herded. They did not go adventuring off to taste the grass somewhere else.

The other parable Jesus told is about the woman who lost a coin. In the culture of Jesus’ day, a woman was given a dowry. They did not carry purses, so they would keep their money in a headband or a necklace of some kind. Probably this coin had come loose from the chain or been dropped somehow. It was not any more valuable that the other coins. The thing Jesus wants us to understand here us that both the coin and the sheep are lost

The last thing I want to lift up this morning is that as the shepherd rejoiced when the sheep was found and as the woman rejoiced when the coin was found, so God rejoices when the lost are found. God searches for the lost and rejoices when anyone lost is found. “There is rejoicing in heaven when even one sinner is found.” These Scriptures teach us God looks for each and every one who is lost because each and every one is important.

Here’s the thing. We are lost in one way or another. I find it kind of tempting to take sides in these stores. The Scribes and Pharisees were doing their best to please God and they wanted credit for that. That’s me most of the time, at least on the surface. But when I look inside myself, I know that through some choices I’ve made that I knew were wrong, and plenty more choices I made without understanding the consequences, I’m a sinner, just as lost as someone who has never heard about God at all (like the tax collectors, prostitutes and so forth). In fact, I’m probably more lost because I willfully disobeyed God. I knew what I was supposed to do and I chose something deliberately. Jesus wanted people to understand that just as everyone is lost, everyone needs a relationship with God. Some people think they already have one and they’re doing what they’re supposed to, some know just how sinful thy are and are willing to admit it, and most of us in this time and in this place have a bit of both.

But the real emphasis in these Scriptures is not so much on the lost as it is in the rejoicing of the one who finds, the one who loves all of us and wants to be in relationship, in community with us. The good news of the gospel is that everyone is loved by God, held accountable, certainly, but loved and accepted by God. God, like the shepherd searching for the lost sheep, looks everywhere for us, too. Through wilderness, briars, who knows what and rejoices when we are found. God looks for us like the woman who looks for the coin everywhere and dusts it off after she has found it. We all get lost. We all need dusted off sometimes. Let us be thankful that we have a God who does that. Let us be thankful that whether we are the Pharisee or the tax collector, we have a God who searches everywhere for us, and rejoices once we are found.

Rev. Dorcas Conrad
(adapted by Kim from Dorcas' sermon)

Devotional 11-5-10

Bibles and Oranges
Especially in the colder months, I sometimes find myself wanting to eat an orange just for the smell of it. While peeling it, the aroma seems to be everywhere. After eating it, the sweet scent continues to linger on my hands. It’s unfortunate that I frequently forget just how great oranges are, and I eat junk food instead. Isn’t it ridiculous that, when an orange and an order of french fries are both readily available—and we know we’ll feel better while digesting the orange—we too often choose the fries? I think we’d all prefer to share the room with someone who smells of citrus rather than someone carrying the odor of a deep fryer.

Many of us try to cram too many activities into our calendars, usually at the expense of our mental, emotional, and physical health. I know that spending time reading my Bible is to a spiritual lifestyle what eating that orange is to a physical one. I still find myself making time for things that don’t matter, and the result is double the dissatisfaction! First, I’m guilty about wasting my time; secondly, I’ve done nothing to help deal with stress. It is no surprise to me that making time for Bible study makes the rest of my life fall into place.

Like that sweet smell of the orange lingering on my hands, the effect of devotional time stays with me for a while. It can begin to fade, though. Devoting time to God is such a fulfilling labor of love, similar to peeling an orange. Imagine that while you read a passage today, the effect stains your fingertips. When you next pick up your Bible, it will cover your hands. It will of course take time to completely saturate the center of your head and your heart. With every step, others will want to be around us more often because of God’s love radiating from us.

My prayer for you is that the Bible finds its way into your hands on a frequent basis, and that the sweet result is a combination of greater joy and inner peace.

Natalie Wray

Devotional 10-29-10

Halfhearted Commitment
Please read Luke 19: 1-10. Jesus and Zacchaeus

Zacchaeus is a fairly obscure biblical character—he’s only mentioned in one chapter of one Gospel. He’s very familiar, though, because of the song so many of us learned as children—the one with the hand motions that is probably running through your head as you read this. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he; he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see…

If it wasn’t already running through your head, you can thank me that now it is!

I know there was more to the song, but what I took from it was just that Zacchaeus was short. So short, in fact, that he climbed a tree to see Jesus. It was much later that I learned there’s so much more to the story, and to Zacchaeus. The takeaway should be the last line of the song, after Zacchaeus had come down from the tree and hosted Jesus: A better man was he, yes, a better man was he! We are changed for the better when we accept Jesus’ invitation into relationship with him.

Zacchaeus, the tax collector—the chief tax collector, Luke says—would have been despised by his own people. Tax collectors are not popular today, but tax collectors in first-century Palestine were seen as in cahoots with Roman oppressors. They got to keep a percentage of whatever they collected, and what they forwarded on to Rome financed the brutal treatment of their own people—and God’s chosen ones. A short man, he would have been looked down upon in more ways than one.

Zacchaeus was unloved and probably saw himself as unlovable; he was searching for something else, something more, something that his riches could not give him when he climbed that sycamore tree. Zacchaeus wouldn’t have predicted that Jesus would want to have a relationship with the likes of him. Jesus’ loving and gracious invitation transformed Zacchaeus instantly. Immediately, he gave half of his riches away.

My dad really liked the story of Zacchaeus. He once (probably more than once) used the story as the basis of a devotional for a United Methodist Men meeting. Dad suggested that we, like Zacchaeus, might like to climb a tree to see Jesus and his disciples. We admire Jesus and what he and the disciples do; healing people, feeding multitudes, casting out demons—it’s all good stuff. But we want to watch—from a distance. Dad suggested that, contrary to the way Zacchaeus hurried down from his perch at Jesus’ invitation, we might be more apt to cling to the tree where we can observe in safety without the risks associated with committed, participatory discipleship. Dad ended the time of devotion by inviting his audience to examine their fingernails for sycamore bark.

We might ask ourselves: What is our sycamore tree? What is it that we cling to for comfort and safety? What separates us from active, hands-on discipleship?

What about Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus was a tax collector—the chief tax collector. He was very rich. He may have completely let go of the tree, but he held on to half his riches. As a planned giving fundraiser, I would like to have been invited to that meal with Jesus and Zacchaeus. I would have talked to Zacchaeus about the other half.

Jeff Taylor

Devotional 10-22-10

No Solitary Saints

I heard a preacher on the radio say that John Wesley had made the observation that the word saint never appears in the singular form anywhere in the Bible. I do not remember running across this in Wesley's writings, but I did check "Bible Gateway" on line. It is true that the word saint does not appear even once in the Bible. The word saints appears at least 69 times, however. There is no such thing as a solitary saint. We cannot be all that God calls us to be without the support of a caring Christian fellowship.

In the tenth chapter of Hebrews, we read, "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye can see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:234, 25 KJV).

We Christians need one another. We need to come together. As Hebrews tells us, we need to do more than look at the back of someone's head and listen to the preacher's sermon. We need to encourage each other and challenge each other. We need to share one another's burdens.

Exactly this sort of sharing was the centerpiece of Methodism in the beginning. Methodism was a renewal movement within the Church of England. It provided those who attended highly structured worship on Sunday another place to gather and share openly with other believers. Initially, Methodists gathered not as churches but as bands, classes, and societies.

If we are going to know the holiness and the power which the first Methodists knew, we are going to need to come together for study, fellowship and prayer. If we are going to live victorious lives, we are going to have to have one anothers' support. If we are going to bring the world to Christ, we are going to have to challenge one another to be witnesses.

Hebrews 10:24 and 25 is often quoted by people who tell us that we need to go to church on Sundays. If we look closely at what these verses are telling us, however, we will find that one hour of worship is not all that we need. We need the fellowship and support that we can find in a Disciple Bible Study or a covenant discipleship group. We need to gather in a setting in which we can share openly. If your church does not already offer such a setting, perhaps you could help to start group which will help its members to grow in Christlikeness. You need it, and so does everyone else.

Rev. Mark Flynn
Greenbrier District Superintendent
Used with Mark's permission from the Greenbrier Greetings
Newsletter of the Greenbrier District.

Devotional 10-15-10

Jeremiah 31:27-34 and Psalm 119:97-104 • Genesis 32:22-31 and Psalm 121 • 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 • Luke 18:1-8

Communicating with GOD

How do we communicate with each other? We would use direct forms of communications, such as; speech, one to one, in a group setting or by writing a letter, today e-mail.

Is it important to communicate with each other? Of course it is, communicating with others, answers questions, it prevents conflicts, it is necessary for our own intimate needs and psychological health.

But how do we speak and learn from our heavenly Father? We know the answer, prayer and reading his Word.

In each of the readings for the week, an underlying theme is communicating with God. God wants us to have to have a relationship with him. He wants us to speak with him, learn from him and listen for his guidance. He wants this just the same way we speak with one another about our; concerns, needs, desires, joys, sorrows, failures, etc.

So take time each day to read his Word and mediate on what God is saying to you. Pray with him without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray continually”. And listen for him to speak to you. His answer may not come at that moment but when you least expect it. So be ready all the time to hear him.

Recently, I have been listening for his guidance in my life as my seasons change. And one day, while speaking with a friend she a made comment to me that I quickly answered. But then just as suddenly, as my answer, I realized that her comment was an answer from God that I had been praying about. So his answers are not given to you like you think they might. Always LISTEN! Always Learn! Always speak with GOD!!

Prayer; Our Heavenly Father, you are our great teacher; you are always there to listen to us and guide us. Thank you for being there for me and help me to listen for you. Father today I ……………… (fill in here whatever you need to discuss with GOD today.) Through Jesus your son and the Power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Grace and Peace
Fred Herr

Devotional 10-8-10

How Do I Praise Him?
Italicized stanzas inspired by Psalm 66.

How do I praise him?
How do I sing joy
to a God I cannot imagine?
Cannot comprehend?
How do I sing his praises?

Worship God joyfully!
Sing of him to all the earth.
Sing hymns to his glory
And write symphonies to his majesty.
Give the God who created you
Unending praise.

How do I praise him?
How can I speak of a God
who spoke me into being?
What words can I use?
How do I sing his praises?

Shout it from the mountaintop
Whisper it in God’s ear,
Praise his amazing works.
Marvel at his power.
The entire earth stands
As a testament to his presence.
Open your eyes and see.

How do I praise him?
How can I command words
to sing of a God
whose hand has formed the earth?
How do I sing his praises?

See what God has done.
He has saved us!
He carries us through the storm,
Turning sea into sand,
Keeping watch on the nations,
Guiding our steps.
Let the sound of his praise be heard!

How do I praise him?
How can my feeble song
witness to a God
who has removed my sin with his grace?
Died in my place?
How do I sing his praises?

Kim Matthews