d365.org PRESENCE OF GOD (Laura Rector)"The best gifts are those received from someone who knows us well. These are the kinds of gifts that we celebrate with great gladness!
Take time to consider the gifts you have received from the One who knows you best, and celebrate God's great goodness and generosity."
SATURDAY, January 26 "Fountain of Light"
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| I had fun with this one! God overflowing! |
Your faithful love is priceless, God!
Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the bounty of your house;
you let them drink from your river of pure joy.
Within you is the spring of life.
In your light, we see light.
Extend your faithful love to those who know you;
extend your righteousness to those whose heart is right.
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| Psalm 36 Scribble from Make a Joyful Scribble Unto the Lord! |
FRIDAY, January 25 "Many to One"
1 Corinthians 12:4-7,11 (The Message)
God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.....All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
Many gifts, one Giver.Many ways to serve, one Spirit.
Many talents, one Spirit.
Many races, one Creator.
Many lands, one World.
Many denominations, one God.
Many sins, one Redeemer Christ.
Many paths, one destination.
We were created for community.
Father, Son, and Spirit community.
Everyone with a gift to offer.
Everyone with a purpose to share.
For the common good.
For the benefit of the community.
May we open our hearts, our hands,
And release the gifts we have received.
May we celebrate
The heavenly community we create together
When the many gifts come back to the Giver
Into ONE.
"Open your heart now as you would a brightly-wrapped package,
Confident that the Giver of Life has provided you the greatest gift,
The gift of life.
Live today as a celebration, a time of giving back—
To God
And to all the world."
Confident that the Giver of Life has provided you the greatest gift,
The gift of life.
Live today as a celebration, a time of giving back—
To God
And to all the world."
THURSDAY, January 24 "Spiritual Gifts"
1 Corinthians 12:1-3 (Good News Translation)
I want you to know the truth about [the gifts from the Holy Spirit], my friends. You know that while you were still heathen, you were led astray in many ways to the worship of lifeless idols. I want you to know that no one who is led by God's Spirit can say “A curse on Jesus!” and no one can confess “Jesus is Lord,” without being guided by the Holy Spirit.
What idols do we continue to worship today that separate us from our God? They are not lifeless if we grant them voice and the power to limit our focused love and worship of God. Money? Status? Power? Selfishness? Isolation? Time? Let us allow the Holy Spirit to vanquish the idol in our lives, to focus our complete love and adoration on the God of the universe. The Holy Spirit is one of God's greatest gifts!!
I just finished reading Crossroads by Paul Young, author of The Shack. It is excellent. In the book the central character must confront the 'idols' he has nurtured in his life during a transition time between life and death. Check it out.
John 2:6-11 (Common English Bible)
Nearby were six stone water jars used for the Jewish cleansing ritual, each able to hold about twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some from them and take it to the headwaiter,” and they did. The headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine. He didn’t know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
The headwaiter called the groom and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first. They bring out the second-rate wine only when the guests are drinking freely. You kept the good wine until now.” This was the first miraculous sign that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Water into wine. The first miracle! But focus first on what kind of water was used. This was hand washing water - ritual cleansing water! While freshly filled by the servants, the jars themselves had held dirty water. Over a hundred gallons of tainted water! Jesus takes a symbol of Jewish ritual, cleansing, and changes it beyond imagination. The sacrament of baptism comes to my mind. God is able to clean us up far better than we can ourselves. Imagine the shock for the servants. "This guy has to be crazy! Why are we hauling these heavy jars of unclean water to the host? We need WINE!" And then to discover the water was now the best of wines! In overflowing abundance! I feel for the servants...they must have been blown away. But that's the kind of gifts God has to offer. May we stop trying to clean up all by ourselves, accept God's gift of baptism, and celebrate the abundant life before us! Drink up! I shall post Sunday's sermon scribble as well today, since John 2:1-11 was the text!
TUESDAY, January 22 "Do Whatever"
John 2:1-5 (Good News Translation)
Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, “They are out of wine.”
“You must not tell me what to do,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”
Jesus' mother then told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus, for a moment. She sees a problem, a situation of potential embarrassment for the host family. She tells Jesus, confident that he can take care of the problem. While Jesus' response is somewhat cryptic, Mary simply tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says. She doesn't put words into Jesus' mouth, she doesn't lay out a plan of action. She trusts that Jesus will do what is best. Are we willing to do the same? To lay our life before Jesus and confidently say, 'I'll do whatever you tell me?" Too often we ask for help and then dictate our plans for how that help should be delivered. We offer to serve, but under our terms. May we celebrate the gifst God has given us by responding with confidence and trust in his control.
MONDAY, January 21 "MARRIED...TO GOD"
No longer will you be called “Forsaken,”
Or your land be called “The Deserted Wife.”
Your new name will be “God Is Pleased with Her.”
Your land will be called “Happily Married,”
Because the Lord is pleased with you
And will be like a husband to your land.
Your new name will be “God Is Pleased with Her.”
Your land will be called “Happily Married,”
Because the Lord is pleased with you
And will be like a husband to your land.
Like a young man taking a virgin as his bride,He who formed you will marry you.
As a groom is delighted with his bride,
So your God will delight in you.
Faithfulness. Forever.
Gifts overflowing with loving care.
Our God comes to us like a bridegroom.
Our God has chosen us to be his bride.
A marriage that will last ... unbroken.
A marriage filled with delight and celebration.
A marriage seeped in trust and love.
Hardship and turmoil will arise,
Hardship and turmoil will arise,
But our groom will not desert us. Ever.
No divorce in this union.
Just faithfulness. Forever.
Delight in our wedding with God!
Delight in the gift of God's presence!
Delight in the gift of God's presence!
What an incredible gift!
SUNDAY, January 20 "INFINITE GIFTS"
Psalm 36:5-6 (The Message)
God’s love is meteoric,his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
Eugene Peterson in The Message is downright poetic in paraphrasing this passage from the 36th Psalm. He doesn't mince words but uses the biggest adjectives imaginable! I'll use INFINITE! Our God is infinite in his love, his loyalty, his righteousness, and his justice. Infinite in his gift of his Son. But in all that universal-size greatness, he knows you and me. He attends to the details of our life IF we choose to keep God in relationship. Nothing is forgotten or lost. Nothing too inconsequential. Nothing slips through the cracks. What an incredible God! What incredible gifts!
This last set of posters and comments after Epiphany, have an underlying understanding, "We Belong to God". Belonging to God is much more than being owned by God, being God's possession. There is a realization that in addition to belonging to God we belong to each other, that those who belong to God do NOT exclude others who belong to God! Now, how do we identify those others who belong to God? Maybe Luke 10 gives us an answer. When you enter a house, give them your peace, if they return your peace, stay at their house. Maybe we identify those others who belong to God by the peace they share. With this thought in mind, God gives us an admonition in Luke 10. God tells us, if a town (community) does not return our peace we are to shake their dust from our feet, we are to move on. Now this may seem a bit harsh but, we must keep in mind that we are told, in Luke 10, that this work is URGENT, we do not have time to WASTE. I am learning what it is like to be an outsider / not accepted. How much effort and time do we, as Christians, spend with those who continue to look at us as outsiders before we shake their dust from our feet.
ReplyDeleteMay God give us all the Wisdom to know when we must shake the dust from our feet.
God Bless,
Jim