Devotional 4-26-13

I want to share some words from one of my most valued teachers (in print only). Howard Thurman was an African American professor, theologian, and pastor one generation before Martin Luther King Jr. In fact he and Dr. King’s father were good friends. There is some speculation as to the extent of his influence upon the younger King that will probably never be quantified, but the following reflection from Thurman certainly foreshadows Dr. King’s way of thinking about the significance and power of love. Enjoy…

“There is a profound ground of unity that is more pertinent and authentic than all the unilateral dimensions of our lives. This a man discovers when he is able to keep open the door of his heart. This is one’s ultimate responsibility, and it is not dependent upon whether the heart of another is kept open for him. Here is a mystery: If sweeping through the door of my heart there moves continually a genuine love for you, it bypasses all your hate and all your indifference and gets through to you at your center. You are powerless to do anything about it. “

“It is impossible to keep another from loving you. True you may scorn that love, you may reject it in all ways within your power, you may try to close every opening in your own heart – it will not matter. This is no easy sentimentality but it is the very essence of the vitality of all being. The word that love is stronger than hate and goes beyond death is the great disclosure to one who has found that when he keeps open the door of his heart, it matters not how many doors are closed against him.”

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And so the Lord says to his disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Lord it is again and again a present temptation, to close the door of our hearts upon one person or another. Again and again we are tempted to bar the door, to turn the lock. Jesus can we even find the courage to ask you to break the bar, to strip us of our locks, to oil the hinges? Have mercy upon us Lord, that we might love as you would have us to love; for anything less is not truly love at all. Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Rev. Joseph Hill

Devotional 9-7-12

A reflection written by Oswald W.S. McCall. I think it makes for a nice lead-in to a time of quiet prayer. I hope it blesses you…

“Not once in a life but again and again, and every day, and perhaps many times a day, it must be encouraged to come…the restoring sacrament of pause. It comes not easily at first without encouragement. Later it seeks one out.

It is the moment that corrects and counteracts our many moments that become destructive to us, snatching us away from and breaking the divine accord.

 
For the sake of all things good and beautiful and true in him, for the guarding of them in all of his life, one must seek again and again that lifting instant in which he rouses his soul to repair the impaired harmony. Back to God he must call his thought, lift his conscience to God for correction, bid his heart express again its chosen loyalty to God. His whole self must make an effort to re-set and re-establish and reconfirm itself in the life and love of God.”

I invite and encourage you today to accept the gift of pause, of stillness. Grant your heart a Sabbath moment to turn from all the demands that compete for our allegiance, to fix your eyes and heart firmly on the God who loves you, who redeems you, and saves you. Enjoy the presence of your God today!

Rev. Joe Hill

Devotional 9-30-11

As it happened I finished one of my class readings yesterday which pushed my original plans for this devotional aside. I will share this reading with you instead. I must confess I found the questions challenging and humbling:

“Do you really want to live your lives, every moment of your lives, in God’s Presence? Do you long for God, crave God? Do you love God’s presence? …“Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all they heart and soul and mind and strength.” Do we really do it? Is love steadfastly directed toward God, in our minds, all day long? Are our lives unshakable because we are clear down on bed rock, rooted and grounded in the love of God?...

Do you want to live in such an amazing divine Presence that life is transformed and transfigured and transmuted into peace and power and glory and miracle? If you do, then you can. But if you say you haven’t the time, I can only say to you, ‘Then you don’t really want to, you don’t yet love God above all else in the world, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.’ For except when terrific pressures come upon us, we find time for what we really want to do.”

–from  A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly

Human devotion is never complete. For with each new plateau we reach, we are so amazed at the wonder of new feeling in our relationship with God that something within us says, “This must be it! There can be no greater feeling!” And then we are blessed and humbled to hear the testimony of a sister or brother further along in their journey who calls back to us, “Enjoy it where you are, but greater wonders lie ahead! Enjoy the new place you have discovered, but soon you must climb higher!” There is no reason to believe or expect that we have or will know the fullness of God’s love in this life, for God intends to love us forever, but the invitation remains: “Climb higher!”

Joe Hill

Devotional 8-21-09

Mark 11:20-23: "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. (NIV)

God is the Lord of this creation. God is sovereign over all things. No structure, no creature, no object or being my act or be still without God's allowing it to be so. Jesus anticipation that the mountain will respond to our command is not based on the size of one's faith but on the God to whom faith looks. This is why the discourse begins with the command "Have faith in God!"
But what can be said for the figurative mountain that simply will not move? What can be said for the individual who finds himself or herself faced with such a mountain in the form of some circumstance or trial? What can be said for that situation when, despite every protest or proclamation hurled against it, the obstacle in a person's life will not simply go away?

Could it be that the mountain is not moving because it has not accomplished God's intended purpose? Could it be that in the course of doing God's bidding, the mountain has some service to render to you?

In the Hebrew Bible, Our Father (who art in Heaven) is often called "El Shaddai", generally translated in the Christian Bible as "God Almighty." But "El Shaddai" also makes reference to the old perception of God as the "God of the Mountains". Time and again from Moses to Elijah, even on down to Jesus and the Apostles, God is met in intimate, mysterious, and supernatural ways in the mountains. I imagine that such is the experience of the modern-day mountain climber. Even if she or he does not recognize or name the presence and proof of divinity in their experience, I still suspect that the divine encounter is what keeps them climbing peak after peak. Relying on God to help us to overcome our own seemingly immovable obstacles has the same potential for divine encounter.

Now God's strength and companionship may manifest supernaturally or they may come in the appearance of your church family, a close friend, even a total stranger that provides something in the way of a word or a deed that gives you the strength to move forward. And you keep climbing...and God is with you. Progressing in this way, eventually you find that you no longer need the mountain to move because you find that you are on top of it! And as a result you are standing higher than you ever have. In moving higher up the mountain you have moved deeper into the presence of the God upon whom you relied in order to get there.

It may be that the mountain in your life that won't move is God's way of trying to get you to a fresh or deeper encounter with God Almighty.

Joe Hill