Thursday's Devotion: A Well of Well-Being

 Psalm 119:11 I have hid your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.

Like many of you, I am faced with many challenges.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have a great life, I do.  But God has called me into a profession that is impossible to fulfill on my own.  And when God calls us to tasks beyond our capabilities as he often does, we rely on the Holy Spirit and then can be quite successful in our endeavors.  My pastor, Jerry spoke often on the importance of memorizing scripture as a life tool.  This morning I want to share some that I have memorized (if not word-for-word) that I do recall and that helps me on my Christian walk. These are in no particular order.

Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Romans 8:28  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love   him, who have been called according to his purpose. – This one helps me look for God in the big picture.
2 Timothy 1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  – I use this when I do get anxious about something.
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.
Jeremiah 17:4  Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one that I praise.  – I use this as a breath prayer, saying it over and over when I am really in need of God’s comfort.
1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – For times when I feel I fail in my attempts to be completely in God’s will.
John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 
Matthew 25:40  Truly I tell you, as you did it unto the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me. – I cannot live a life for myself.  Life is also about serving the least, the last and the lost.  Those three words encompass people in many different life situations.  We are serving Christ directly when we help others.
Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  – A favorite of mine. 

Holy Scripture is a well of good advice, admonitions and comfort that we can dip into whenever we want.  In times of need we have the quickest access when we have memorized those words and hidden them in our hearts.

Gracious God, reveal your Word to us in ways that it will constantly help us in life.  Amen.

Wednesday's Devotion: One More Simple Thing

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest.

Yesterday I wrote about three simple things Rev. Steven Soulen said a church should do to grow. They were to be in prayer, develop relationships and develop leaders.  I wrote that as individuals, we could do the same.  Steven talked about a 4^th element, too.  He said a church must be missional.  He said being a church in mission is a spiritual discipline.  A church that isn’t reaching out in mission to the needy and spreading the gospel isn’t a vital church by Methodist standards.

Here’s where it gets dicey.  I missed much of what he said on this subject because my phone kept ringing and I had to run out to answer it.  The team leader from a mission team of Methodists from Kentucky who had been building a church in Haiti called to touch bases with me.  We let them spend the night in the church the night before they flew from Atlanta to Haiti and provided breakfast for them. They were in Ft. Lauderdale on the way back to Atlanta. I met them later at the church around midnight and they gave us a beautiful carved Madonna and Child signed by the team.  They said through our hospitality we became part of the mission team. Another call came from our new Assistant Pastor for Hispanic Ministry.  We started another session of ESL and Advanced Spanish classes and he wasn’t sure how to lock one door.  The third call was from the teacher of our Monday night children’s program that we provide for the children of the ESL students.  I was too busy doing the business of being a missional church to hear about one!  Like with the first three simple things, as individuals we are called to be people who are compassionate and help the needy.  I call them the least, the last and the lost. Whether it’s a simple act of kindness or a mission trip to Haiti, our life will be rewarded when we help others. Likewise, we want to take every opportunity to share the message of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ with others.

Loving God, when we are needy please bring people to help us; when we have plenty please bring people for us to help.  We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Tuesday's Devotion: Three Simple Things

James 5:13-14  If any of you are having trouble, pray. If you are happy, sing psalms. If you are sick, call for the church leaders. Have them pray for you and anoint you with olive oil in the name of the Lord.

Four of us went to a training event on Evangelism last night. The leader, Rev. Steven Soulen was appointed two years ago to a church in a declining community.  His church however is growing. Steven said he didn’t profess to be an expert but shared things that have helped turn his church around.  The first was prayer.  He said become a praying church. Have your leaders pray at the altar together.  Second, be relational.  Develop relationships within and beyond the church family.  Go deep, he said.  Don’t stop at talking about baseball, ask about their faith experiences.  Finally focus on leadership development.  Study together instead of just having meetings. 

I think we can apply those principles in our own lives, especially when faced with trials.  First, become a praying person.  Pray fervently and expect answers. Lay all your concerns before God.  Even pastors sometimes just get so caught up in problems that they don’t think to pray to God about a solution. Second, develop relationships within your family and beyond.  Two are better than one. Third, work on your own spiritual growth. Steven said faith is like a muscle; you can develop it and become stronger for whatever challenges might face you. These three simple things can have a positive effect upon our lives but it is up to us to make them happen.  Mentos has a new gum called UP2U.  Maybe we should all carry a pack around to remind us that our success really is up to us!

Gracious God, help us not to give up when all around us seems to be going downhill.  We know that you are faithful and that you equip us with gifts and talents to make our way in life, if we will use them.  Be a constant presence, encouraging and helping us to grow in our prayer life, our faith and our relationships.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Monday's Devotion: We Want to Pass it On

Mark 1:30-31 (NIV) Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.  So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

I used to have problems with this scripture.  I don’t know about you but when I’m sick, even after my fever has subsided, I still feel bad for awhile.  So Simon Peter’s mother gets up from her sick bed to wait on these men. Where was her daughter?  Couldn’t someone cut her some slack?  Yet with scripture, new insights are always possible. And I have two from these verses.  First Jesus healing was complete.  He healed her fever and made her completely well.  Second, her desire to serve came maybe not just because that was her role as a woman; it also came from a gratitude for Jesus’ work in her life.  I’ve seen God do wonderful things in people’s lives.  Many responded by wanting to pass their blessings on to others. I’m learning from the Celebrate Recovery ministry offered at our church that everyone has hurts, habits and hang-ups of some type and that faith in Christ and willingness to work towards a better way of living through faith will make overcoming those hurts, habits and hang-ups possible. I also see people in that program passing on the blessings by helping and encouraging one another. It’s a wonderful thing to see the healing power of Christ have a ripple effect. Thank God for Christ’s healing touch in our lives just when we need it and thank God that we have the opportunity to respond. And while I may live a life of Christian service as a pastor, I too am benefiting from the service of others.  The Great Commandment is working at Hapeville First!  Have a blessed week.

Most Holy God, We’re beginning a new week with both challenges and opportunities.  Draw near to us as we draw near to you.  Give us strength to meet what each day brings and to help others do the same.  We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.    

Friday's Devotion: Stars and Lemonade

 Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

I had a wonderful conversation with a church member yesterday about trusting God. I told her that I liked the old saying even if trite that says, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  But I changed it.  I said that because God chose to create the world with certain laws of physics and to give humankind free will both good things and bad things happen.  God does not cause the bad things to happen.  God does not cause a child to die.  No; God does not need another little angel.  The child dies because there’s illness in the world and accidents can render the body unable to function. God may not intervene and stop our hard times, but God can and will make lemonade from them.  We either learn a lesson, have another door opened when one shuts, or gain a valuable life experience with which we can help someone else facing a similar problem.  In those dark hours, we need to seek God and see where he is working for our future good.  Noted psychologist Lee Salk told the story of his mother coming to this country in 1901 and living in poverty for many years.  In spite of all her challenges she taught her family to think about what they had, not what they didn’t have. She taught them that in hardship you develop a capacity to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest elements of life.  She always told her children: “When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.”  It’s hard to be optimistic or cheerful when awful things happen but if we trust God’s love for us we will find inner peace and hope just as surely as he hung those stars in the sky.

In both our good times and in our dark times Lord, let us see your light and power in our lives.  Remind us daily that you are always near. We ask in the name of the one who promised he would send a Comforter to dwell with us. Amen.

Thursday's Devotion: Coincidence or God-incident?

John 1:5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 In our Wednesday night program last night we had a discussion about the relationship between our prayer life and our sense of having an engaged relationship with God. I shared that as my prayer life improved I experienced many answers to prayers.  They often came in different ways and still do.  Here are some excerpts from a journal I kept while I was going through the discernment process after I realized God was calling me into the ministry.  I was so anxious to know if God was REALLY asking me to do this! It all started when I came across this quote:

“Writing is like driving a car at night.  You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.”             -E. L. Doctorow

I realized after reading this quote that this is the way God reveals himself in my life.  I don’t see everything at once.  Instead, God shines just enough light on his nature, his Word, and his will for my life to get me through my present situation.  If I follow this light faithfully, it will show me the way through my entire life’s journey. I wrote in my journal what this quote had revealed to me.  The Daily Bible Verse for that day on the internet was also about light.  “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His son, purifies us from all sin.” I John1:5-7  The daily thought was “To walk in the light is to live in obedience to God’s commandments.”

I spoke with my pastor that evening about my desire to know the future. He said something to the effect that I was trying to shine light too far into the future, in order to control it. There was the light again! The following day as I pondered this at lunch, I decided to read from the book of Psalms.  “Psalm 89” popped into my head.  I read it searching for a message.  Verse 15 says “How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!  O Lord, they walk in the light of Thy countenance.”   I knew that God’s hand was on me, telling me through all this to trust him to reveal (shine light) on his path for me and to follow his leading.  This experience was one of many that have taught me to pray and expect an answer but to also expect that the answer may come in unexpected ways.

Creator God, we are humbled and amazed that you would listen to our prayers in such a personal way and that you answer those prayers. Help us to trust enough in this that we will not hesitate to pray about the things that are on our heart.  We ask in your Son’s holy name.  Amen.

Wednesday's Devotion: A Lesson from Mud-Wrestling

Mark 14:38 (NLT)  “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

 A conversation with a friend about men still having a lot of “boy” in them reminded me of a friend's little boys. One day Susannah looked out her kitchen window to check on her boys who were playing in the back yard and found that they had used the hose to create a large mud puddle.  They had taken off their shirts and were mud wrestling.  Susannah was not about to let them track mud into the house, so she stood them on the deck and hosed the mud off of them. Jeffery and Will squirmed and yelped as the cold water hit them, but soon they were clean enough to be dried off and allowed inside.  As she related this to me, it brought to mind a line from an old hymn, “What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

We may not wallow in sin, like the boys were wallowing in the mud, but we often brush up against it. I often define sin as anything that separates us from God or harms us or others.  Thanks be to God, that because Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross for us, we may be cleansed of our sin.  When we accept the fact that Christ did this for us, we can then say to God, “I’ve messed up, Lord.  Please forgive me and help me to be what you would have me to be.”  Sometimes this cleansing process can be painful as we let go of old habits. However, there is a price to pay in order to enter into His kingdom.  This kingdom is here and now.  We become a part of it, and it becomes a part of us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.  The rewards are both immediate and eternal.  Where have you brushed up against sin recently?  Are you asking God for forgiveness and guidance on a regular basis?  Are you seeking to grow in your faith?   If you need help with any of this, my door is always open to you.

Gracious God, We ask that you help us through the Holy Spirit to overcome temptations that would hurt us or others. Give us wisdom and discernment as we make choices in our lives so that we may lead lives of love, health and happiness.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.