Thursday Meditation - Reflection on 9/11

Reflection on 9/11

This morning as I thought about what to write for the Thursday Meditation, I thought about the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11.  Like many of you I remember where I was when this happened.  This was a time when I was sitting in my office at work.  Not in a home office or on a client site but in my actual office at work getting my day started.  I was eating breakfast at my desk and a friend working at the Research Triangle Park, NC location ping me on IM.  That ping with a link to CNN changed my day and my perspective on human mortality.  As I was in disbelief, I headed to the crash pad to watch the news on the television and the reality of seeing the first tower fall and then the second I sprang quickly into action.  I was immediately on the phone calling my sister in Hawaii to let her know what was going on.  I write all this to say this was the start of my seminary journey.

Ten years ago during the week of 9/11, I started seminary.  We, the class of 2004, did not know what to expect.  We were all excited about this journey and connecting with people we had met just a week earlier during orientation.  Now this and why now God?  This has been the question that shaped us for ministry in a major way.  The class of 2004 has been a witness to 9/11, the DC snipers and the start of the war in Iraq.  Now we are people living in a state of fear, we are terrified when we see Muslim brother and sisters get on planes or in places we frequent.  We judge them based on their name and their appearance.  We target them because our country and others are fighting a war on terrorism.  The fighting continues but it doesn’t bring back those lives that have been lost.  As ministers of the Gospel we must wrestle with this and more. 

Today’s meditation is a reflection and a few questions for each of you to answer truthfully. 

Are you ready to start the healing process in the community so we can openly discuss what keeps us apart as a community?  9/11? Racism? Homosexuality?

How do we help heal a community that is fearful of people who don’t look, talk or act like us?

What will it take for us to be honest with ourselves for the wrongs we’ve done as a nation to all people?

How can we love our neighbors when our neighbor is a reminder of tragedy in our lives?

When we are really honest with ourselves God can start the healing process in us, the community, the land and the world.  We can not blame God for all that has happened in life.  No we can not blame the devil either.  There are consequences in the decisions we make in life.  It is up to us to make this life better for the next generation to come.

Thursday Meditation - A Bethel Moment

A Bethel Moment

Genesis 28:10-19a

In society today, we hear the phrase, “a senior moment.”  This usually means we’ve forgotten something or someone as we get older year by year.  However, this is one type of moment in lie.  We’ve experience the “Ahha moments”, a sacred moment and regret moments.  Today we will look at Jacob’s Bethel Moment.

His moment is like ours; unplanned and unexpected in the places we’ve journeyed too.  We find ourselves going to a certain place to get away from daily life.  For Jacob he was on the run from his brother Esau, Genesis 27.  That’s a story for another day.  However, when we go to a certain place it is usually a place of rest and peace.  While there we experience glimpse, images and emotions we rarely experience during the hustle and bustle of our days.

Jacob’s Bethel Moment came in a dream.  For this to happen he was lying down, resting and unplugging his mind because he felt safe.  Although the rock with his pillow, he drifted into what we call REM (Rapid Eye Moment) sleep where he could dream 5 to 20 minutes.  He needed the rest and this may have been a familiar place for him. 

As Jacob slept he had vivid dreams and he remembered his dream.  So many times when we dream we barely remember them but there are those we remember and say to ourselves, “God are you for real?!”  Some dreams are so real that we will wake up in a cold sweat and panicking because some of our dreams are tragic.  As we stay on the happy path of dreams, Jacob woke up and was afraid because he may have never dreamed about an encounter with God like this.  He saw a vision and then God revealed his future.  Just as God has spoken to Jacob, God speaks to us and reveal to us our future. 

Jacobs dream gave him hope and peace.  He may have thought the place Luz was the reason he dreamed about the ladder to heaven and his conversation with God.  I would say it was the rest his body needed in order for God to speak with him and remember his Bethel moment.  We may not change the name of a place to have a Bethel Moment, but we can allow God to move us from rapid busy place to a place where we can say this is the House of God and this is the gate to heaven.

Prayer:  Dear God, as we sleep and even nap help us to dream of your images, give us ideas to help those who need help and stir our emotions so w hen we awake we will say this is the Lord’s doing. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - A Checklist Lifestyle

A Checklist Lifestyle
Luke 19:16-22

In life we've created a list for everything. We have a to do list, a bucket list, a wedding list, a list of traits and characteristics for our future spouse, a list of A or B schools and so forth to keep track of what we've accomplished in life.  These checklists can be soooo legalistic that if  we do not accomplish what is set out on the list many of us are devastated.  Often times my friends joke about my educational accomplishments and wanted to know if I was working on an educational checklist.  To be honest I had no intention obtaining the number of degrees I have because the school I wanted to go to didn't accept me.  At that point in life I dropped my checklist and recognized the value of education.

While preparing this meditation, I had to re-read the parable of the young rich ruler.  In the re-reading I recognized he was living a checklist lifestyle.  He told Jesus about all the laws he kept since his youth.  I wonder if he had a scroll to show Jesus what he had done over the years and what he did daily.  This young man was like most of us excited and joyful about his accomplishments.  Then the unthinkable happened, Jesus challenged his checklist life and asked him to give up all he had, what he has done and follow him. He was heartbroken.  Like this young man, we want to keep holding on to our checklist lifestyle so we can say look at what I've accomplished in life. He worked hard to follow the rules and wanted Jesus to be proud of him.

However, there are times in life when our checklist gets pushed to the side in order for the Holy Spirit to guide us and for us to do what God has called us to do.  We need to move away from checking off a list and running through life as a big to do list.  Life is more than a list of accomplishments.  Yes it is wonderful to have our names among the Who's Who's in life but wouldn't it be better to be unique instead of routine. Many of us want the routine things of life power, prestige and position at any cost.  This young ruler couldn't trade his routine life for one that was not on his checklist.  Let us be careful not to follow in this young man's footsteps.  He grieved because he was asked to give up all he had accomplished.  What have you accomplished in life to cause you to walk away from Jesus instead of following Him?

Prayer: God help us to move away from this checklist life and embrace the things we haven't imagined because it wasn't on our list of accomplishments.  Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Here I Am

Here I Am

Genesis 22:1-14

In the society we live in today, when we are called by our name that expresses some type of strong feeling our response may be, “yea, what, huh, yep or yes ma’am/sir”.  Here in this Genesis text we see a consistency in Abraham’s discussion with God, his son and the Angel of the Lord.  We notice when Abraham was called by all three his response was always the same, “Here I Am”.

When we are called we usually do not respond immediately even if we are sitting or standing feet from each other.  In our mind we are trying to decide and figure out the vocal expression of the call.  Just like when our parents called us as children and teens we knew what to expect. When we were called by our full name including our middle name, we were either in trouble or there was something important our parents wanted us to do. Each of us has this similar story and it was the same with Abraham.

As we know Abraham spent time in God’s presence and commune with God so much that when God called his name he knew it was something God wanted him to do.  This expression is found 30 times in the Bible including the Apocrypha.  In this chapter it is said three times compared to the five times Samuel answered when he thought the Priest Eli called him 1 Samuel 3:4-16.  When God called Abraham he was not like Adam trying to hide, he just responded, Here I Am.

The second call was from his son Isaac who may have had a puzzling, perplex, inquisitive and questioning reason to call him, but Abraham’s response was still, “Here I Am”.  Isaac questioning was more to do with the sacrifice and worship without having a burnt offering with them.

The third call was from the Angel of the Lord who called him with great urgency.  The angel called him by his name twice to denote how urgent it was to get his attention.  This will be the same call a parent will do when a child may be in danger and need their attention immediately.

No matter how Abraham was called his response was still the same, “Here I Am”.  Too often we allow our reaction to the tone of voice to dictate how we will respond to someone calling our name.  So let us control our actions and use an expression that was just as consistent as Abraham.  So instead of using the typical language of the day, try responding in a respectful way and see how many people will catch on and do the same.

Prayer:  God help us to be consistent in our response when we are called by you, family, friends or an angel. Let the words be respectful and not just another slang of the day. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Uncertain Future

Uncertain Future

1 Samuel 22:1-5

 When we are away from our familiar sights and routine, we would isolate ourselves from others.  We may go to school or work, but once we get home we don’t leave again.  Our actions say we want to be alone and don’t bother me, but deep inside we hope that someone would come to our rescue.  Instead of reaching out we retreat to our shell.  Just like a turtle when danger appears, it hides itself in its shell.  When we retreat we try to go back to familiar things of life.  We go back to the old ways of doing things.  We want to go back to the old neighborhood, the old church, the old school and to the old friends.  Sometimes strange things happen when we retreat.  People treat us differently.  Some of the old things we long for cause us to stumble and fall.  Instead of moving forward we peddle backwards and stunt our growth. 

When we stunt our growth we give power to the negative side of life.  We find a place of refuge that is dark and away from life.  A place where no one could hear from us but a place only others who are uncertain about the future would be found.  This is the place we find David, the future King of Israel.  David has been on the run from Saul from place to place.  David is the youngest son of Jesse from the tribe of Judah.  David killed Goliath, he was the one they sung a song about him killing ten thousand while Saul killed his thousand.  He was the harp player for Saul when an evil spirit came upon Saul.  He was put over the army by Saul.  He married Saul’s daughter Michal and was his son Jonathan best friend (like brothers).  Even with all this David was found in a dark cave, running from Saul’s persecution.  He was disconnected and isolated from the familiar places of life. 

David was uncertain about his future because he knew what Samuel told him but he may have been in deep doubt cause of the persecution inflicted by Saul.  Many times we find ourselves in David’s shoes being obedient to God’s will and still uncertain about the future.  As believers in Jesus Christ we pray and hope for revelation about our future.  We may get a glimpse of it and then every situation we encountered we hope this was that future we’ve seen.  The key to our future is learning how to transform and learn from our past so our present will be a better foundation for our future.

Prayer: God of our future we know you know the plans for our lives.  We ask for your discipline as we prepare to walk into our future you have revealed to us.  Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Welcome into this Place

Welcome into this Place

Luke 2:22-40

There is a song in the African American Heritage Hymnal titled “Welcome into this Place”.   The song is a reflection of our brokenness and our desire to welcome the God into our lives.  As we read Luke 2:22-40 we notice how Anna and Simeon welcome the savior of the world into a broken world with their praises.  The spirit of Anna and Simeon are the welcoming spirit for the parents of Jesus.  They were just ordinary people who came to the temple to present their son to God.  There was no great crowd of people following them and welcoming the Savior of the world.  They went to the temple to do what was customary in the Jewish religion after the birth of a child.  Mary observed the days of purification for the birth of a male child, seven days unclean and then 33 days of purification.  Mary and Joseph may have been disconnected from the community until this point, but they brought their offering of two turtledoves or two young pigeons as a sin and a burnt offering to God according to their customary practice.

When I think about the song mentioned above it brought me to this text to see how the Holy Spirit sends out the devoted greeters to welcome our Lord and Savior.  It is the responsibility of the greeters to welcome people in the place of God.  Mary and Joseph did not know what to anticipate as they journeyed to Jerusalem, I believe they did not expect to be received with open arms, delight and joy because they were just ordinary people.  When the Holy Spirit sends out the welcoming party or the greeters for ordinary people, the greeters are not able to contain their joy.  Those being greeted are more relaxed because someone has taken the time to say “Welcome into this Place”.  Just because we are broken in spirit don’t disconnect from the body of Christ we may not know who will enter our life, but let us be like Simeon and Anna and devote ourselves to God so we can be used by God to welcome others like us.

Prayer:  God thank you for abiding in us. We are wounded and broken vessels but you have use for us and we thank you for not giving up on us. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Experiencing God

Experiencing God

Luke 24:13-35

Several years ago, Lifeway bookstore carried a book called Experiencing God.  The intent of the book was to help those who have been exposed to God to experience the wonders of God through daily reading and writing.  For many the book was an exposure to God rather than an experience of God.  Yes, there is a difference between being exposed to God and the experience of God.  In the course of our lifetime, many of us have been or will be exposed to more things than we experience.  For instance, on TV we are exposed to violent crimes, sexually explicit videos, degrading of women and exploitation of people private lives.  We have been exposed to more negative images than positive.  Everywhere we turn we are exposed to death, selfishness, hatred, abuse, illness, wickedness, greed and deceit.  Not all exposure is negative but they overshadow the positive. 

The positive exposure in life composes of love, unity, self respect and obedience.  It is the positive exposure many of us want to gain our experience in life.  These exposures help shape and define who we are today.  When we encounter people who have been exposed to negative ways of thinking and it’s always about self, they often harbor bitterness and resentment towards those who are positive.  This reminds me of a sermon I heard Dean Kinney my systematic theology professor say.  He said that a strong person encourages and a weak person controls.  When we move beyond exposure to God to experience God we learn we are not the center of all things.  We come to the reality of God’s presence in our lives because of our faith in God.  Yes, there are many who doubt God exist but when we experience a walk with God in the valley of life we experience and witness God’s true love.  God’s true love can be received if we are willing to open our hearts, becoming humble and trusting in God fully.  It is our experience of God that provides a witness of God’s love to a world who only has an exposure to God. 

Prayer: God we ask you to move us from exposure of you to experiencing you.  We want our life to be a living witness as one who experiences a deep relationship with you. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - It's About Us

It’s About Us

Galatians 6:1-10

 This letter was written to the church in Galatia by Paul. The Gentile-Christian church he founded received a backlash of criticism from the Jewish-Christians.  The Jewish-Christians told them that Paul was not a real Apostle of Christ which made them illegitimate believers in Christ.  According to them, to be real followers of Christ they had to be circumcised and follow the laws of Moses as well.  The more pressure the Gentile-Christian received they found themselves in an intra-conflict.  The intra-conflict caused many of them to go back to their old pagan religious practice. 

As the conflict continued Paul received word, but was not able to defend himself or the church in person so he wrote a letter outlining their responsibility as a church of believers.  The conflict was with those who were believers in Christ but had a different view of Faith in Christ.  This intra-conflict reminds me of the response letter Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to the eight clergymen from the Birmingham Jail in April 1963.  Although, they believed in Christ they said, “The demonstrations were unwise, untimely that hatred and violence had no sanctions in their religious and political traditions.”  A quote from Dr. King’s response said, “I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worship service to comply with the desegregation because it is the law, but I long to hear a white minister to declare: Follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is our brother.” 

As Dr. King and Paul was trying to say in their letter was it’s about us.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ connected through our faith.  We are to carry each others burden and help those who have strayed away from the faith to be reconnected with God.   When we approach a brother or sister who strayed away from God we must make sure we do not fall into temptation.  The members of this church were trying to live in Christ and in their pagan practices.  Paul had to remind them it was their faith that brought them this far.  He kept reminding them it was about them as a whole.  Today many of us continue to struggle between what we ought to do and what we really do.  Let us stop saying God knows our heart just as long we are sincere.  Let us say God help us to be sincere as we work on transformation our hearts to be a better servant and minister of the Gospel.

Prayer:  God we seek to unite ourselves as one. Help us to dismantle the intra-conflict as Christians so we can do the work ministry outside the walls of the church. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Living Spiritually

Living Spiritually

Hebrews 2:10-18

The world teaches us to live physically, but our relationship with God teaches us to live spiritually and physically.  This has been the challenge for many of us and the challenge to the writer of this 2^nd chapter of Hebrews to an early Christian church confronted by struggle and test of faith.  The unknown author of this book uses the birth of Christ and Israel’s disobedience to God to show that Christ is the only way to God’s kingdom of perfection.  Although, this letter was written to Jewish and Gentile Christians who became followers of Christ because of scripture or what they’ve seen and heard, but how do we know that Christ is the only way to perfection in God’s Kingdom?

Christ leads us to God’s glory.  The glory of God is intended for all of God’s Children.      Since we all have the same Father, v11 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his family.  When you are family you are able to come together and support one another and love one another.  As a family we can share what our parents have done for us before even before we were born.  In a family we are able to trust each other without reservation, hesitation or doubt.  In a family we focus on what will strengthen us rather than divide us.  We will listen to wisdom and not what the world thinks is right for us.  For us we are apart of God’s family with an elder brother who is not ashamed to call us sisters and brothers.  It is this type of family perfection we seek.  A family that will communicate with each other, a family that will praise God together, and a family that will not use the world’s point of view to define what God’s perfection will look like.  God’s glory is eternal and everlasting life.  A life with all believers devoted to God, worshiping God in spirit and truth. 

Prayer:  God we want our perfection in worship to be in spirit and truth.  It is your glory we seek daily for eternal life.  Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Cry from the Depths

Cry from the Depths 

Psalm 130

The Psalmist stood before the Israelites crying a soul wrenching cry.  The Israelites have turned their back on God.  They have allowed the worship of other god’s to go before the true and living God.  The people no longer fear the Lord God and have taken matters in their own hands.  Many of us have gotten to this point in life, our spouse decided to leave us, our children decided that robbing and stealing is better than working things out, our jobs have been outsourced or sent overseas for cheaper labor, the credit card company have increased our rates, our decision to invest our money has caused us to lose our investment and threaten our livelihood.  The foreclosure rate, unemployment and the recession continue to rise. 

And if that’s not enough, we received news from the doctor that our love one will not make it through the night or the diagnosis from the tests taken were positive and there is no cure.  Whatever the situation is some of us still have not cried out from the depths of our soul but those who have cried out have gotten God’s attention.  When life beats us down a shallow cry does not get God’s attention.  Shallow cries are from the throat, it’s hollow with no substance, but when a person is depressed and have no place to go like the psalmist, the cry to God will start from the gut.  This is the kind of cry that makes us take deep breaths deep and bellow out from our diaphragm to say “O Lord, hear my voice! Listen to me!"  I need your help.  I have tried it on my own but I can’t do it anymore.  I have sinned and fallen short of your glory.  I have acknowledged and recognized the sin, the unforgiveness, and the apathy in my life, but now it’s time for me to open my mouth and break the silence not only for me but for the community and its problems.  This is what God is waiting for us to do.  God wants us to break our individual silence and speak up and cry those deep well cries that will draw God’s attention and cause others to join in.

Prayer:  God we have not found our voice to cry from the depths of our souls.  We ask that you teach us by showing us where we can join the lament of others so we can cry from our souls.

Thursday Meditation - We are Living Bones

We are Living Bones
Ezekiel 37:1-14

We all may have heard about the story of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones.  God used Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and they were restored to a multitude of people in the valley.  This text fascinated me because I enjoy watching the show Bones.  Although it is a forensic crime solving show but I can't help to be intrigued by the reconstruction and resurrection of bones to tell a story.  Our bones can tell a lot about us in life and  after death. While we are living, our bones are wet with blood vessels and nerves run through them and in the center of our bones is bone marrow.  However in death our bones become dry and brittle because there is no life in them. When we want to know more about the bones of people we call upon the anthropologist and archeologist to tell us about the condition surrounding the bones and age, but it takes an osteologist to detail the true condition of bones due to disease, deficiency and demographics.

Ezekiel saw the condition of the bones and said they were very dry and in a valley.  These bones were not buried in the earth, they laid on top of the earth with direct sunlight.  The sunlight continue to make the bones drier and more brittle.  This is the image God showed to Ezekiel about the house of Israel. They have lost all hope and are cut off from God.  God showed Ezekiel restoration is possible by collecting and resurrecting the bones. 

This is the condition that many of us are in.  We are living bones, but living as dry and brittle bones.  We've lost our hope to live, no longer vibrant and wet bones with blood vessels and nerves running through our bodies.  When we encounter nothing but suffering, disappointment and rejection our living spirit starts to become like dry bones. We start to harden our hearts, our minds and spirits to the point that we refuse to hear from God nor want to speak with God.  The image God is showing in Ezekiel is the possibility of new life when all hope is gone.  We can be restored to a vibrant life if we are willing to believe in hope for a future, turn from self-righteousness and open ourselves to embrace unity without limitations.  If God can restore a valley of dry bones then what more can God do for our dried and broken spirit?

Prayer: God we seek restoration on this day.  Life have sucked us dry to the point that we have no hope or positive outlook on life.  We ask that you will shine a ray of hope our way so we can be recollected and filled with the spirit of your love. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Time to Move On

Time to Move On

1 Samuel 16:1

Often in life we find ourselves stuck in neutral.  We get to a point in life where we think we can just coast and ignore the changes in life while everything around us is in an uproar.  This is where we find the prophet Samuel. He is still in denial and grieving that God has rejected Saul as the King of Israel. Samuel is experiencing tremendous grief because he was the one who anointed Saul as King (1 Samuel 10:1) and then he was the one to tell Saul he was rejected by God as King of Israel (1 Samuel 15:35). As we can see, Samuel is hurting as well.  He was there at the beginning of Saul's leadership and now he is at the end of his leadership.  Samuel was probably going through the second stage of grief process, pain and guilt.  Why? Israel wanted a king over them and Samuel felt they rejected him, but actually they were rejecting God.  

Samuel finds it hard to move on and accept that God has rejected Saul.  We all know how hard it is to move on after the death of a love one.  We can't help but to grieve, remain in denial and disbelief until we get to a point of acceptance.  We know Saul did not die physically yet, but his leadership suffered death because he rejected the word of God.  Because of this leadership death, Samuel wasn't able to let go and move forward, but God was ready. 

Why do we keep holding on to situations, positions and people when it is time to move on?  

We hold on because we really don't want to start over again or believe this will be the best we will ever get.  Imagine what life would be like if we really looked at all that God has rejected in our life as a change for the better.  Too many of us are walking around as stained cups because of the things that has happened in our past. We refuse to move forward because our cups will not be as beaming white as others.  We  must stop looking at the cups of other people and move when God says move.  The longer we hold on to situations, positions and people that reject us, the harder it will be for us to function properly and we will keep grieving.  Let us not drag our feet when God says move or we'll end up like Lot's wife a pillar of salt (Genesis 19) to remind us that we started to move on but we kept looking back to see what were leaving.  In order to prepare for our future we must be willing to let loose of the baggage, junk in the trunk, skeletons in the closets or what ever we call it, we must let it go.  God let Saul go when he told Samuel to fill his horn with oil and sent him to a place and a people where new leadership.  God has told us provision has been made and trying to move us into new territories of life, leadership, relationship and positions but first we got to let the rejected mess go.

Prayer: God, we pray when we are no longer useful in what we are doing, we ask you to give us the ability to move on and stop lingering around. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - Living in a Drought Condition

Living in a Drought Condition
John 4:7-21

In recent years we've witness extreme drought conditions across the farming region in the South East and Mid-West.  These long periods of no rain have caused the ground to become cracked and hard, streams and lakes dried up, crops burnt or crops not growing.  The condition created an adverse affect on our economy, the financial well being and lively hood of the families involved.  Even when the rain comes, it doesn’t quench the thirst of the land due to prolonged dryness.  However, some families survive because they’ve started planting drought tolerant crops and preparing earlier in the year for this.

A drought causes us to rethink survival and what we need to do when a situation of prolonged dryness enters our lives.  Some of us have experienced droughts in our lives; we’ve gone long periods without prayer, daily devotional, worshiping and fellowship with the body of believers.  We have been living in a spiritual drought condition so long that we are not able to recognize the thirst in our spirit.  Our spirit is in need of nourishment just like the woman at the well.   

So, why are we living in a spiritual drought condition?

Some of us live in a drought condition because we are ashamed to be seen in public with our stained past.  When our stained past continue in our lives we stop praying, we stop our daily devotional, we cut off communication and avoid those who could be living water to our spirit.  We need to check our spiritual level and gauge it like the drought level for crops.  If we are in an extreme spiritual drought condition, expect the unexpected.  The woman at the well didn’t expect anyone to be at the well at noon, but Jesus was there.  Just because we have shutoff all communication with God in our spiritual drought stage that doesn’t mean God has stopped trying to provide living water for our soul. 

Prayer:  God help us to recognize the signs of a potential spiritual drought in our lives.  Keep nourishing our spirits with living water. Amen.

Thursday Morning Meditation - Bragging Rights

Bragging Rights
Romans 4:1-5 

For those who love college basketball, we are in the midst of March Madness.  This is the NCAA Championships which overshadows all the other tournaments in the country.  There are 64 teams battling for the #1 spot of the 2011 NCAA Championship.  The winning team will not only have bragging rights for this year, they will be added to an elite group of women and men who have gone before them.  Like these men and women, we like to have something to brag about.  Some of us brag about our travels, portfolio, spouse, children, grand-children, ancestry, career, church and our pastor.

Ironically, when we brag some of us must belittle or make other people accomplishment insignificant so we can be looked favorably upon like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-13.  The Pharisee compared himself to the tax collector which was a despised position as they were in prayer with God. In verse 11 he said, "God, I thank You that I'm not like other people - greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."  As we see it is easy to make a comparison when we've attained a level of accomplishment in life.

It is still amazing after we've accomplished so much in life, we believe we are entitled to brag before God what we've accomplished to show we are justified in this right.  What makes us think we can go before God in prayer and brag about what we have?  

The only bragging we can do is about our work with our hands and that's all.  We always brag about us, but why haven't we bragged about God in our prayer, in our community and in our world.  We have a lot to brag about when it comes to God.  We can brag about God's love for us (John 3:16).  We can brag about God being our protector (Psalm 121:7-8).  We can brag about God's faithfulness and promises (Romans 4:13,17) and we can brag about God calling us out and setting us aside (Genesis 12:1-2).  Although we can go on and on about what God has done.  We must check ourselves to see why we feel the need to brag about ourselves all the time.

So before we start bragging on our self, let us brag about our God who supplies all our needs, who gave us the gifts and abilities to work with our hands.  There is little to be gained when our bragging must put others down in order to make ourselves look better before God.  Let us brag more about the one who created the world instead of us.

Prayer:  Dear God, humble us in your presence.  Remind us that you have the right to brag because you created not only the word but us in your image.  Our bragging is limited to our works but when we brag about you we just can't tell it all. Amen. 

Thursday Meditation - Off Limits

Off Limits

Genesis 2:15-17

Everyday we are reminded by signs to restrict access, show boundaries and warn us of danger.  Daily we notice signs such as: speed limit, no trespassing, only authorized personnel, caution and the home alarm signs.  There are times when these signs may have additional information to deter us further from access like beware of dog, danger high voltage wire or monitored by close circuit camera.  These signs and warning are not new, we’ve been accustomed since birth when our parents told us don’t touch that, don’t do this, be in before curfew, don’t allow anyone in the house, don’t talk to strangers, stay away from the bad kids and don’t engage in pre-martial sex.  All this off limit stuff have been posted visibly or told to us verbally.  This is where we find God and Adam.  In verse 17 God, told Adam you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This was Adam’s verbal off limit warning.

What do we learn about God and the limits placed on Adam?

We learn God has given us all we need to grow, wants to protect us from everything but also wanted to give us the free will to make our own decision.  As we read verse 8-9, “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden…out of the ground every tree was pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  Ironically, God surrounded Adam with everything that looked good but put limits only on one tree in the Garden of Eden. 

It seems like when we have everything we need we always want to obtain what is off limit to us.  The things that are off limit usually are the things we want to try and see why it was off limit in the first place.  When these limitations are place in our lives we are being told by God and our others, “I trust you to be mature enough to listen to what I’ve told you without having to take further actions to keep you away.”  Too often we allow our immaturity to ignore the signs and warning and when this happens we quickly realize why it is off limit in the first place. Let us remember if it is off limits and pleasing in appearance we must be mature enough to say I have everything I need, because not everything that is beautiful is good for us.

Prayer: God, we ask you to help us to mature spiritually so we can see and hear what is off limit in our lives.  Teach us to stand firm knowing you gave us all we need.

Thursday Meditation - Moved By the Holy Spirit

Moved by The Holy Spirit
2 Peter 1:16-21

So often in life we are moved by so many things.  We are moved by our feelings, emotions, love and passion.  Seldom some of us are moved by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is a comforter, our guide and our truth who moves us in closer and deeper relationship with God.

So, why haven't we've been moved by the Holy Spirit?

We are not moved because we have lost our connection with the voice of God.  The voice that speaks to us through answered prayers, song, music, sermons and encouraging words.  We all were in awe when we heard about the man, Ted Williams, with the golden voice, but where is the majestic voice of God in our lives.  God's majestic voice spoke and said "Let there be Light" Genesis 1:1-3.  Light entered a dark place because of the voice of God.  It was the voice of God that called Moses from the mountain Exodus 3:1-5, and it was the voice of God that told Peter, James and John to listen to Jesus because He was God's Son in Matthew 17:5.  

The voice of God is wisdom.  We know that wisdom comes from God.  Wisdom causes us to move and to hear the still quiet voice of God.  When we are able to hear God's majestic voice then we are able to be moved by the Holy Spirit.  Now is the time over the next 40 days of Lent we have a chance to do some spiritual cleaning.  We have some prayers we need to pray, we have some daily devotional reading to be resumed and some sacrificial fasting for a breakthrough. The majestic voice is waiting for us.  No matter what we need to do during this spiritual cleaning, if we are not guided by the Holy Spirit then we need to ask ourselves what is guiding our truth before we open our mouth to say "Thus said the Lord".

Prayer:  God of our spirit, we pray to be moved by the Holy Spirit.  We seek your majestic voice in our lives.  Grant us the wisdom we need to hear your voice on this day.  Amen.


Rev. Lettie

Are we Zealots for Prayer?

Do we still have the passion to pray when our world is upside down?

This is one of those questions we need to ask ourselves as we approach the Lenten Season.  During this time in the Church Year many of us will embark on a Lenten Journey.  During the journey we will reflect on our spiritual lives so far this year.  This is also a time when we will truly make a sacrifice that will impact our spiritual and personal lives in order for us to be more mindful of the decisions we make in life.  Also, we have time to reflect how these decisions will impact us for the rest of our lives.

We know many people will give up physical things, but how many of us are willing to give up desires that are naturally sinful and unfruitful such as greed, gossip, negative talk, selfishness, jealously, lust, and envy.  Although the list is short and I could have included more but dealing with one of these will be a challenge in the next 40 days but the challenge is overcoming for the rest of our lives.  How easy will it be to stop doing one of these things for the next 40 days?  What will trigger an emotion that will cause you to forget you have made a covenant with God?  

The Lenten Season is apart of our Christian Heritage.  These are the last 40 days of Jesus Christ of Nazareth human life on earth.  Take the time to add a devotional and prayer time for the Lenten Journey.  I have provided the Vanderbilt Revised Lectionary Reading for Lent.  Let us take this time to focus on spiritual growth and sharing our reading with others.

As we prepare for Ash Wednesday tomorrow, let us remember the sacrifice God and Jesus Christ gave for us to say we are Christians.  Let us pick up our cross daily and return to a life of prayer, forgiveness and hope.  Prayerful, I hope this journey will help each of us rediscover our zeal for prayer again. 

If my life was a credit report

 

 If my life was a credit report and I was trying to obtain salvation, based on my score I wouldn't get it.

My history shows that I've been delinquent in praise, past due in prayer, my worship has been in collections and I've missed a few payments (tithes) or only paid half (you know how we put $20 in the basket and feel like we've done God a favor).

Not to mention that my debt (sin) to income (blessings) ratio is too high.

BUT I thank God that I was able to file bankruptcy (repentance) and it cleared me of all of my debt (sin). Now I have a co-signer (Jesus) whose score is FLAWLESS... Not one blemish (sin) on his report.

So now.... I QUALIFY for EVERYTHING! Most importantly I've inherited eternal life and I didn't have to put one penny down.

All of my closing costs were covered when Jesus laid down His life for me!!!! I hear that my future home has all of the upgrades too.

Hardwood floors? Please!! I'll be walking on gold! : - )