Devotional 10-18-13

I’m pretty sure I speak for most parents in saying the birth of a child is in many ways the most intense experience of love.  When baby Devon was born six years ago, there was no doubt that we loved her.   Instead of the usual quick tests and then time in our arms, Devon had extensive evaluations and treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit.  The attached wires and tubes made it nearly impossible to hold her, so we didn’t do much of it in her first few days.  We went to see her quite a bit, but it seemed like every visit was another opportunity for the hospital staff to tell us about something else that was wrong with her.  I found myself reluctant to hold her.   I didn’t realize that I was protecting myself in the event that we might lose her.  For many reasons, though, this bonding issue resolved itself in a very short period of time.

I look back at all the relationships I have had throughout my life to this point.  I certainly don’t like some of the things I did or said, but I would never say I regret having met any of those people.  I am glad to have had an experience with every single one of them, including those with whom things did not end well.  A few that come to mind are a college roommate, a church acquaintance, and a middle school student.  In all cases, there are memories that still make me smile.

As I did at first with infant Devon, we all spend so much of our energy trying to protect ourselves from pain, but we are also avoiding some of the most fulfilling relationships.   There are people we see every day, but one reason or another will keep us from going just that extra inch to reach out to them. I am confident that when I make a connection with someone, I’m sometimes the one who most needs the relationship or the one for whom God has put the opportunity in place.  Why not choose just one this year?  Take the time to listen to what God wants for you and how He wants to use a new friendship.  My prayer is that we all take full advantage of the love that He provides everyday through one another, and that He strengthens the Church through us.

Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.  Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. (1 Peter 4:8-10)

Natalie Wray

Devotional 10-13-13

Keep It Simple

I have recently been reading the book of Matthew. It struck me how much emphasis Jesus put on the intent of the law rather than the technicalities. He preached heartfelt obedience over legalistic observance. When questioned by the Sadducees about the greatest commandment, “Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the laws and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV) How simple! And yet over 600 laws and rules had been put in place to govern everyday life. Jesus called the Pharisees and the Sadducees hypocrites because they held others to standards they couldn’t meet themselves.

We still do this today. A few years ago I was talking to a gentleman about church. He told me he attended his wife’s church but was not allowed to join because he smoked! There was also a rule about not drinking alcohol. He thought that was okay ((he didn’t drink), but that the ‘no smoking’ rule was going a little far. I know this is an extreme example. Unfortunately it is this attitude that has made being a Christian synonymous with being a judgmental hypocrite. We all admit we are sinners. Where did we get the idea that someone else’s sin was worse than our sins? Where did we get the idea that we had the right to make that judgment? These attitudes certainly didn’t come from Jesus. Jesus was the epitome of loving acceptance and called the Sadducees and Pharisees on their hypocrisy many times. As Christians we need to hold ourselves to higher standards--not others!

Jesus kept it simple: Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and your neighbor as yourself. Do this and everything else falls into place.

Margaret Williams

Devotional 10-4-13

THE MUSTARD SEED

The mustard seed has a long history and religious importance in Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. The tiny size, 3mm in diameter, has been significant and referenced in the texts of these major religions.  Today, mustard seed is popular due to its distinct flavors and added health benefits.
                                                                                                        L.H. Lee, e-how contributor

When I was a young girl about ten years old, I received an unusual gift from my grandmother for my birthday.  It was a beautiful necklace, and hanging from the end of it was an encased oval glass piece with a tiny seed inside. Do I pretend to know what it is, or do I ask Grandmother? Though I didn’t know it at the time, Grandmother (not Grammy, Grandma, Nana, Mimi, etc. but Grandmother!) had been an activist in the Women’s Temperance Union, was a staunch Methodist, and had whispered secretly to me on occasion that I was her favorite grandchild! So rather than pretending I knew, I thought it was best to ask her what this mysterious little seed inside this beautiful bobbled necklace might be.

“It’s a mustard seed,” she said. “Wear it when you need to do something you don’t think you can do, and you may be surprised to see what happens.”

I didn’t quite understand her explanation, but I wore the necklace every day for the longest time.  I’m not sure what happened to it.  But over time I think I began to understand the significance of the mustard seed.

We learn about that significance in a parable of Jesus to his disciples in the New Testament.  In the Gospel of Luke 17:5-10, the disciples seem to be looking for an easy way to increase their faith by going directly to Jesus.  They simply say, “increase our faith!” and expect it. After all, Jesus can do anything! But Jesus indicates to them that they don’t need more faith.  They just need to believe in the faith already given them by God.

Jesus is using the tiny mustard seed as an example that little becomes much when it comes from God. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  Jesus explains in this verse from Luke  that even the tiniest bit of faith--God-given, true and free of doubt--will be there as your journey through your discipleship.

We have seen the truth of this lesson as we look at the growth of Christianity from the time of the apostles through today. Personally, for the apostles then and Christians worldwide now, we sometimes struggle as our faith is challenged. We worry that our faith will not see us through. But we need not worry. We need only to remember that little is much when it comes from God. Even the smallest bit of faith will work for us when it is true faith from God.

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible unto you.”
The Book of Matthew
 
Diane Feaganes

Devotional 9-27-13

Jesus

          There once was a man, who was born very low,
His name I am sure that you know.
          He was born very low, but has risen so high,
In fact he is even higher than sky.
          The older he grew the wiser he became
I am sure that you know of his wonderful name.
          He helped the people wherever he went
He truly was a Savior heaven sent.
          He died on the cross for sins yours and mine
So we might know of heaven divine.

Rev. Thom Malcolm

Devotional 9-20-13

My Father’s World

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.  And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”  And it was so.  God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.  Genesis 1: 29-31

On a beautiful spring day in 1997, my husband looked up from his dinner plate and said, “I really don’t like my job.”  This really was not a newsflash because I had suspected for some time that he did not like it.  In the twenty-two years that we had been married, he had worked for other contractors, had done his own contracting work, remodeled rooms, and built decks.  He had been poisoned by the treated lumber of the ‘70s and was still suffering as a result.  I knew he was tired of tearing out and rebuilding.

It was that year that he and I began our treks up and down the alleys of Huntington, WV, in order to find wooden treasures that others had discarded. He then turned them into beautiful objects that were sold at our little store on Norway Avenue.  I was so proud that he had thought of recycling to make his furniture.  Not only did we make money without the overhead, but we also did our part to cut down the amount of recyclable trash being dumped into the landfill.  Faderay  Furniture was born.

Now flash forward sixteen years. We still get in the truck three evenings a week and look for treasures.  They come fewer and farther between because the economy is worse and there are more of us in the alleys looking for items. But finding a bedstead, table, or unusual chair still gives me a thrill.

Since 1997 we have also added more recycling in our home.  We recycle all paper packaging, newspapers, and junk mail; plastic bottles and cartons; aluminum cans; and plastic bags.  Where do we take them?  The Cabell County Solid Waste Authority, in conjunction with the City of Huntington and Cabell County Commission, has distributed bins all over the city.  We take our paper and plastic items to Kroger, our aluminum cans to Rt. 2 Metal Recycling, and the plastic bags to Wal-Mart’s service desk. Most weeks we have less than one bag to put out on trash day.
Recently my Sunday school class has been marveling at how God puts us in places to help others and to get help.  I think He wants Don and me to encourage you to recycle.  You don’t have to do it all.  Choose one type of recycling that you think would help and enlist the help of family and friends if you do not have a car or truck to transport the items. We must work together to preserve our Father’s world.

Please sing this hymn of praise for the world God has given us.

This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.
Amen

Becky Warren

Devotional 9-13-13

Milestones

September this year brings the milestone of the 65th anniversary of my birth.  In a letter accompanying a birthday card from my 96-year-old mother, she said she remembers the day like yesterday and gushed some about how she could have held me forever.  She cannot believe it has been 65 years.  O’course, neither can I!

A couple weeks ago in a sermon, I contemplated the characteristics of time.  When looking forward, time seems endless – to the next Christmas, to graduation, to a significant birthday.  When looking back, time has flown so swiftly.

Milestones can be millstones, depressing anchors holding us back, drowning us in the stream of life, weighing us down along the journey.  Or they can be opportunities of gratitude to God or to others with whom we share the journey.

Milestones give me pause for reflection, and may I be so bold as to offer this suggestion as a devotional moment.  Take the time, at milestone events, to give some prayerful thought to your journey through time.  Take time to be aware of the world around – both the beauties of the world and the horrors that plague the evening news – appreciate the beauties, and take an active and prayerful part with other followers of Jesus who grapple with war and hunger and discrimination and homelessness.  Take time to be fully human – to recognize that you are a child of God which makes all of us, that is, ALL of us, sisters and brothers of one another.  And take time to be holy.  Not smoke and magic, not that mysteriously unknown quality we attribute to God, but different.  Holy simply means different.  Be different from the ways of the world which can be self-absorbed and greedy, belligerent and hateful, distrustful and unwelcoming.  Take time to reflect upon being the image of God that others will see.

Take time to “BE”.  Be aware.  Be human.  Be holy.

“Take time to be holy, the world rushes on.
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like him you might be;
Your friends in your conduct his likeness shall see.”

Rev. Jack Lipphardt

Devotional 9-6-13

Love our friends, Love our enemies!!!

Philemon 1:4-7
⁴ When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God ⁵ because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. ⁶ I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we  may do for Christ. ⁷ I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother. (NRSV)

When I read these words above from Paul I cannot help but think of all our JM family and the many acts of good that you do for all those in our congregation and for those not in the congregation. Loving our friends!!

Then I read these words below from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about loving our enemies.  And my thoughts turned not to my enemies or even if anyone else has an enemy (do any of us have enemies?), but to the affairs occurring in our world today.  Now I am not making a political statement here but just asserting how we should treat others.

Are we not being encouraged or even lead by Paul’s words above and those of Dietrich Bonhoeffer below to do good and fill the needs of others -- of even those we call enemy?  When we do this we will be sharing our Christian love for all we encounter. This love received may just be the strength people need to help change their situations from within. Just by showing one simple act of love for someone else, even an enemy. Love our enemy!!

Words and thoughts are not enough. Doing good involves all the things of daily life. “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink” (Romans 12:20). In the same ways that brothers and sisters stand by each other in times of need, bind up each other’s wounds, ease each other’s pain, love of the enemy should do good to the enemy. Where in the world is there greater need, where are deeper wounds and pain than those of our enemies? Where is doing good more necessary and more blessed than for our enemies? (40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Luke 6:27-28

Pray that your “enemies” might receive every good from the hand of God and in response become instruments of God’s love and justice. (40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Prayer for Today
Holy God, who loves us all with an everlasting love, let my love for my enemies be a matter not only of words or thoughts but of specific and concrete actions. (40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Fred Herr