Wednesday’s Devotion: Ignorance Can Lead to Weighty Matters

Ephesians 4:18-19 They are disconnected from God’s life because of their ignorance and their closed hearts.  They are people who lack all sense of right and wrong, and who have turned themselves over to doing whatever feels good and to practicing every sort of corruption along with greed.

We didn’t make a regular practice of it but occasionally Joe and I liked to eat a IHop. 
I love omelets. The last time we went to one, I noticed the calorie count was now by each menu item.  I can only say ignorance was bliss.  I had a difficult time then finding something to order that wouldn’t add pounds overnight.  We haven’t been back.  Most overweight people have no clue how many calories are in the meals they eat.  I know the only way to really keep my weight under control long-term is to be very aware of calories burned vs. calories consumed. When it comes to our spiritual walk, I hope we are not ignorant like the people described in today’s verses.  Ignorance is not bliss.  Joe and I participate in and support the work of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute.  One of their key phrases is “That the World May Know Jesus Christ.”  I hope that comes to fulfillment beginning with each of us knowing Christ better ourselves. Then we can proclaim the fulfillment of Jeremiah 24:7 in our lives. “I will give them a heart to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Creator God, forgive us the times we have failed to seek knowledge of your ways so that we might live by our ways.  Draw us ever closer to you.  We ask in the name of the one who came to give us understanding to know that you and only you are the one true God.  Amen.

Tuesday’s Devotion: Listen to the Mockingbird

Ecclesiastes 12:4 (CEV) The noisy grinding of grain will be shut out by your deaf ears, but even the song of a bird will keep you awake.

I love birds.  We have two feeders and I keep a bird book handy to help me identify new species.  I’d like to learn to identify birds by their call, too.  Once I purchased a clock with birds on it.  Every hour had a different bird pictured and on the hour that bird call would sound.  The clock was defective.  The birds weren’t supposed to sound during the nighttime hours.  It would wake me up at 2am. I finally took out the batteries to that part.  One night a mockingbird sang all night long outside our bedroom window.  They have an amazing repertoire.  They mimic what they hear and will even imitate car alarms and cats.  A male may have 50 to 200 songs.  And while they are imitating others, they take those tunes and make them their own.  A mockingbird is one bird that I always know by its song. 

Thomas a Kempis wrote the Christian classic book, The Imitation of Christ.   We are encouraged to imitate our Master.  Yet of course just like a mockingbird is not the bird it mimics, we are not Christ.  We must take the ways of Christ and make them uniquely our own in community with one another.  May others always know us as Christians by our song.

Gracious and Heavenly Father, we give you the praise today for the birds of air and the beauty they add to our lives.  Like the mockingbird, help us to learn by listening.  Help us to grow as Christians by hearing your Word.  Help us to then share that word with others.  In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Monday’s Devotion – Use Words if You Have To

2 Corinthians 10:11 These people need to think about this—that when we are with you, our actions will show that we are the same as the words we wrote when we were away from you.
1 John 3:18  Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth.

Friday night Joe and I went to see “The Artist.”  This contemporary silent movie has already won important awards and is nominated for many more.  I hear that when it was first released people who attended that hadn’t realized it was a silent film got up and walked out of the movie.  They wanted a “talkie.”  And the movie itself is about the advent of motion pictures with sound and its effect on movie stars of that day.  I will tell you the movie was excellent and I didn’t miss the words at all.  Of course there was script flashed occasionally but not as much as in the original silent films.  The actors told the stories with of course, actions and their expressions.  We used to have a pastor whose benediction always told us to “go share Christ with others; use words if you have to.”  Let’s remember that our actions must meet our words and when we are at a loss to use words to share Christ, we can do so with our actions.

Dear Lord, this day help us to be both professing and practicing Christians.  Bless us this week with your strength, your guidance and your joy.  In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Friday’s Devotion: Spiritual Weight Lifting

Psalm 59:16 CEB   “But me? I will sing of your strength! In the morning I will shout out loud about your faithful love because you have been my stronghold, my shelter when I was distraught.”

I love our Wednesday night fellowship meals. Each week I present a short program or study.  As always, I learn grow as I prepare for them. This week I used some visual aids.  I wanted to share about physical and spiritual strength so I brought some of our dumbbells and a kettle bell.  When I was young and not in a close relationship with God I had to face life’s challenges without the strength God provides. My challenge might be like a 20lb weight but I was only able to comfortably lift a 5lb weight.  As I became a regular church-goer in my late 20’s I learned more about praying for strength.  I was able to carry heavier burdens – like my 15lb kettle bell.  Now God is truly my strength.  I have met many challenges successfully with God’s help.  I can carry the 20lb weight now although not yet with great ease.  I still have more to grow both spiritually and physically.  That growth comes from perseverance in prayer and in my physical workout with those weights.  God wants us to be fit spiritually, mentally, and physically.  Let’s all pray for direction and help in getting into shape.

Lord, you are our strength. Help us to rely on your strength and now try to function only under our own power and understanding.  Be our help and salvation today.  We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

Thursday’s Devotion: Feeding the Hungry

Acts 20:35 ESV In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Mark 16:15 ESV And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

She was yellow, long-haired and scoping out trash cans.  It was after all trash day in Hapeville.  It’s hard to know whether she was a feral cat or someone’s pet.  There’s an abundance of both in my neighborhood.  She seemed well fed yet watching her (or him) made me think about the poor and how pitiful it is when they must resort to dumpster diving to get enough to eat; or to stand in a soup line somewhere – having to depend completely upon the kindness of others for sustenance.  I pray often for charities that feed the poor.  But my wandering mind which tends to relate the physical to the spiritual then imagined those who sit in their comfortable homes with well stocked kitchens yet hunger and thirst for spiritual nourishment.  Many have the nagging and gnawing without being able to pinpoint the source of their neediness.  When we think about providing for the poor we should think in terms of both.  Those who lack food for the body and those who lack food for the soul all need our caring help.

Gracious God, Give us the hearts to reach out and care for others.  We know that your desire is that none should perish from lack of knowing you.  Encourage and empower those who feed the bread of life to others.  We ask in your holy name. Amen.

Wednesday’s Devotion: Sitting in a pile of regrets

Romans 8:28 (CEB) We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

We are so fortunate in Hapeville to have a truck that comes by and picks up the piles of leaves we rake up and put by the road. In our case we pay someone to rake them because we have no time to do it.  Somehow today while walking by a neighbor’s leaf pile I envisioned a person sitting neck deep in a pile of regrets or self-pity.  No matter how much we want life to be “fair” things don’t work out that way. A less deserving person gets the job or promotion, a millionaire wins the lottery, and sweet kind people have bad things happen to them through no fault of their own.  If I were to counsel that person I would share Romans 8:28.  I’ve seen proof of this biblical teaching over and over.  I claim this scripture almost every day.  I’d tell that person to be on the lookout for that good God is working and then to work with it.  If we don’t recognize the good but remained buried in that pile, it may pass us by unclaimed. 

Thank you Lord for continually taking our bad situations, even the ones that sometimes seem overwhelming or hopeless, and bringing good from them.  Help us to see your hand at work and to then join in that work with you.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.