Thursday AM Meditation - Strengthening our Faith Muscle

Strengthening our Faith Muscle

Meditation of Psalms 59

Over the years our faith muscle starts to weaken. It has weakened due to our lack of trust in God.  When we lack trust, we are slowly weakening our faith and belief in God.  When we lack faith, we are frightened by social and economic meltdown, wishy-washy politicians, and people of power because of the carefully crafted words used to misrepresent or confuse us.  When we lack faith, we have nothing to hold on to in the midst of the storm. 

We've heard "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrew 11:1).  The problem some of us have with faith is we've heard about it but we haven't experienced it in our life.  Let us take a moment to ponder on the word HOPE.  Hope is being confident about what the future will be.  We can't hope for a future if we have no faith in the God of our present.  In today's reality we are told that we should only hope and put faith in the things we can see.  If we do that we become arrogant and believe we have done everything ourselves without anyone helping us.  So many of us have been so focused on self, that we forget the gifts, natural talents and ability are all given to us by God.  Without God's help we would be no where today.

When we recognize God in us, we will hear the cry across the globe and we will have enough faith to hope that the killing of our young people in Chicago and around the world will end.  In order to make this hope a reality we must strengthen our faith muscle.  When we hear the bloodshed from around the globe, we are reminded of God's talk with Cain in Genesis 4:10 "The Lord said, “What did you do? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground."  We ought to be able to hear the cry from the ground of our brothers and sisters and go into action.  Yes we must pray!  Then we must organize and standup for the rights to take back our streets, neighborhoods, cities and community from those who only want to destroy it.  We must write petition, stage marches and occupy every place we can to get laws changed so we can make our future a reality.

When this happens we will flex and strengthen our faith muscle.  When we come together for a common good, we strengthen our trust and faith in God.  This will not be easy!  People (including family, friends, co-workers and church members) will do all they can to stop us because they lack trust and faith in God.  We must remember that there will be a day when all the nations will come before God.  If we believe and say God can move mountains, then let us work on our trust and hope in God so that our faith will be strengthened.  Our faith is strengthened when we exercise care and compassion for the least of God's children.

God's Gifts of Grace

God's Gifts of Grace
Romans 12:3-5

God has a way of just showing up unannounced in our lives.  So many times we believe God must announce when divinity will manifest in humanity.  When God does announce and use angels in the case of Jesus’ mother Mary, we are shocked and feel unworthy.  God is showing us we may feel unworthy but we can be used for God’s glorification.  When we reflect on the goodness of God, we recognized God’s awesome, majestic and wonderful power in full glory.  The song says in Christ there is no failure and in scripture it says God’s word will not return void.  When we seek to be more important in life than we believe we are, we have isolated and regulated God to our human box which renders God’s word void.  Because of this box we pride ourselves in saying all I’ve accomplished with my own hands and no help from God.

How can we say God didn’t give us the help?  We must remember that God knew us before we were born, God know the number of hairs on our heads and God provided for us when we couldn’t see a way out.  This causes so many of us to live a life of arrogance.  We are arrogant about what God has called us to do in life knowing it was not what we wanted.  We are arrogant about the gifts and talent God has given to us, so much that we think no one else has the same gift.  Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but the gift God gave was not for you.  It was intended for us to share with others so they can see God at work in us.  The gift of God ought to shine and reflect the love of God.  God’s gift cannot be imitated, copied or even duplicated.  Have you noticed when people try to mimic the gifts of others it doesn’t work out the way it works for that person?  The reason why it didn’t work was because the gift was intended for that particular person.

Remember, the gift God gives is given based on our ability and measure of faith through the Holy Spirit. 

Breathe In Us God

Acts 2:1-13

 

This Sunday is the fiftieth day after Easter, the day of Pentecost has been marked as the birth of the Christian Church because of the out pouring of Holy Spirit.  Before Jesus ascending into the clouds, he told his disciples to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  While they waited, the Jewish harvest festival that is the fiftieth day after Passover was being celebrated.   As we see there were two celebrations taking place.  The newest celebration gave new hope, assurance, testimony and life to those Jesus Christ left behind.  Pentecost allowed each person to understand each other in their native tongue and language which caused a shift in the atmosphere.

There was an awakening of their dry, weak and brittle spirit.  Now they testified and preached with the assurance and boldness of the Holy Spirit to those gathered in Jerusalem for the festival.  Too often we dismiss the action of the Holy Spirit and leave it for the Pentecostal and Holiness denominations.  When we realize the Holy Spirit is preparing us to meet God, we will testify about the spirit God has placed in us because God is breathing God’s breath in us.  When God breathes in us, we become more fruitful because we’ve stayed connected to the tree of life.  When God breathes in us we are giving another chance at life. 

The key is we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us so we will grow and mature spiritually without having to tell people to look at our good deeds.  Allow the spirit of God to take charge of you and you will bare good fruit.  Therefore, when the Holy Spirit rest on us like the dew rest of the morning grass we are assured that God keeps breathing in us.  Breath on us precious Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit so we can be salt and light to the world.

Thursday Meditation - A Second Gift

Acts 4:5-12
 
God often gives us gifts that will benefit us individually and collectively.  The problem with some gifts we get, we don’t appreciate it even if we prayed to God for it.  We will complain that the package isn’t right, the style is all wrong or it’s not our kind.  Some gifts are given to compliment, challenge or change us.  We can complain to God but God knows what is best for us.  Let us be kind to the gift given because the gift was given out of love.  When the gift is not what we expect, don’t abuse, mistreat or discard it as worthless. 

If you feel it’s not what you need individually or collectively, re-gift it to others who need what you have rejected.  What is happening in life today, we have discarded or trashed the gift God has given us that another individual or group sees the treasure in it.  Once the treasure is nurtured, loved and affirmed it will flourish and grow.  When we see it again we may not recognize the gift at first but when we do we want to get it back.  Then we are reminded it is too late, it is gone. 

However, the story doesn’t end there.  God will give us another chance with another gift.  Humanity was given the gift of Jesus Christ and they crucified him.  Therefore, God has given humanity another gift called salvation through the resurrected life of Jesus Christ.  So what will you do with this second gift today?
 

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.