d365.org PAUSE TO HEAR GOD (Brian Foreman)Snapshots remind us of times past. They rekindle memories and create opportunities for sharing stories.Those who have experienced God before us provide snapshots of God’s love for us. This love speaks through their words. It speaks through their actions.
As different as their lives and cultures were from ours, God’s love remains the same. Love speaks to us on our darkest days and in our brightest hours. Love speaks to us through stories and snapshots. Love speaks to us through actions and words.
SATURDAY, February 9 "Steamed up Mirrors"
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (The Message)
We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Life separated from God is like one long shower, causing our mirrors to blur, our understanding and picture of love incomplete and fuzzy. We might catches glimpses now and then through our love for others, their love for us, and the love between complete strangers. But until we come to KNOW God, we do not see God's love clearly.
It is 'holy' that I use the term KNOW God. I am reading another book entitled Not a Fan by Kyle Idelman. Last night the chapter focused on knowing God face to face. Not as a fan, but as a follower. Jimmy made a comment speaking of the holiness of our relationship with God and God's love. All reaffirmations once again of God's message coming clearer - my mirror beginning to defog!
d365.org BENEDICTION (Brian Foreman)
You are God’s.
You are loved and known.
Let love speak to you.
Let love speak through you.
You are loved and known.
Let love speak to you.
Let love speak through you.
FRIDAY, February 8 "God's Love"
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The Message)
Love never gives up.Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love. We toss the word around carelessly and thoughtlessly. Yet, LOVE changes everything. God's love has the potential to change absolutely everything. The first part of this famous chapter from Paul's letter describes our bankruptcy without love. This section describes just what God's love looks like -- the same love we are to share with those both intimate and stranger, friend and enemy. A selfless love, a giving love, a life-changing love.
Love can speaks through many forms and in many different ways. The key is opening ourselves up and letting love take voice, allowing love to take action. How today will I reveal God's love to another?
THURSDAY, February 7 "Nothing Without Love"
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (The Message)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Eloquent words,
Mountain-moving faith,
Generosity and service.
Personal sacrifice.
All manifestations of God's gifts.
All the result of God's blessings.
But done without Love?
Performed for personal glory?
Enacted at the cost of others?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Love speaks.
Love acts.
Love calls others to relationship with God.
Love must be wastefully shared.
Nothing without love.
WEDNESDAY, February 6 "Hometown Radical"
Luke 4: 24-30 (Common English Bible)
He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”
When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
Cheers and accolades.
Egos swollen with pride.
Then the hero speaks.
Love speaks with painful honesty.
Truth speaks.
And truth hurts.
It strikes home with accusation.
Its message is not popular
For it challenges the status quo
And calls for change, disruption.
That's what radicals do...
They call us to examine ourselves in a new light.
And when we don't like what we see,
We quiet the call,
Suppress the prophet,
And turn quickly on the one
We called our own.
Jesus was a radical man.
Are radicals speaking love today?
Are we listening?
TUESDAY, February 5 "Hometown Hero"
Luke 4:21-23 (Common English Bible)
He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
Expectations can be pretty high when the hometown boy returns to his rural village as a celebrity. This is one of our own! We helped raise him! People might even think, "We'll get special treatment because we knew him back WHEN!" But Jesus holds a message for all! Love all! Care for all! Everyone is equally in on the love, everyone is part of the responsibility to share that love. The scripture written in Isaiah and fulfilled in Christ must continue to be fulfilled today....by you and by me...through the grace of God and the power of the Spirit.
MONDAY, February 4 "Chosen" Luke 4:21-23 (Common English Bible)
He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”
Then Jesus said to them,“Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’”
Expectations can be pretty high when the hometown boy returns to his rural village as a celebrity. This is one of our own! We helped raise him! People might even think, "We'll get special treatment because we knew him back WHEN!" But Jesus holds a message for all! Love all! Care for all! Everyone is equally in on the love, everyone is part of the responsibility to share that love. The scripture written in Isaiah and fulfilled in Christ must continue to be fulfilled today....by you and by me...through the grace of God and the power of the Spirit.
Jeremiah 1:4-8 (Good News Translation)
The Lord said to me, “I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.”
I answered, “Sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
It is a huge universe.
Filled with stars that sent light millions of years ago.
I feel so small.
So insignificant in all that vast space.
God is so big.
Surely God doesn't know ME.
But God does.
With compassion and purpose.
I am chosen! Appointed!
I am chosen! Appointed!
God's love speaks to me
And fills my heart and mind.
Listen to God!
Listen to Love!
For what does God call?
For what does God call?
SUNDAY, February 3 "Refuge"
Psalm 71: 4-6 (Good News Translation)
from the power of cruel and evil people.
Sovereign Lord, I put my hope in you;
I have trusted in you since I was young.
I have relied on you all my life;
you have protected me since the day I was born.I have trusted in you since I was young.
I have relied on you all my life;
I will always praise you.
God is a refuge during the storms of our life. A sheltering and warm fire in the midst of a blizzard, a lighthouse showing the way in stormy seas, a reassuring hug, helping hands, kind words. God is there - in family, in friends, in community, in love. Praise God!
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