Hebrews 12:28 CEB
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that can't be shaken, let's continue to express our gratitude. With this gratitude, let's serve in a way that is pleasing to God with respect and awe. 2 Corinthians 4:15 CEB
As grace increases to benefit more and more people, it will cause gratitude to increase, which results in God's glory.
I have spent alot of time in the last few months writing, reading, and thinking about gratitude. About grace and thanks and acknowledging God at work over and over again in our lives. This should be the first part of EVERY prayer, before we wade into the help me and help them and all that other stuff.
Today's drawing simplifies GRATITUDE to Thank You - it was easier to fit together! At least 5 of the letters are filled with those things for which I am grateful. The rest are intercessory prayers.
Wednesday, Feb 25. A Centering Place
Genesis 1:31 MSG
God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!
Mark 1:9-11 MSG
At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God's Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: 'You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life."
These scriptures were the text for Katy's sermon last Sunday and the overall idea for this image was penciled on the back of my bulletin. I love the thought of heaven opening, God parting the Rainbow of Promise and bringing the holy within reach of us all. Then I was reading a book by Sue Monk Kidd titled 'God's Joyful Surprise' and I found her describing Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel scene of God stretching out to touch Adam in the Creation story. Both scripture and prose came together for me. Kidd is writing of a time of turbulent spiritual decisions in her personal life as she struggled to center herself in God, to find a Centering Place. I found her descriptions inspiring and thought provoking:
In the waiting room of a doctor's office one day I saw a copy of one tiny piece of Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It showed God's hand with one finger reaching out and Adam's hand with one finger extending back toward God's. Their fingers are almost touching but not quite. The tiniest space is left between them. I remember staring at the picture while I waited for the doctor. For some reason my attention was drawn away from the fingers to the space between them. It brought to mind at the time the gulf of separation between human beings and God. But maybe there is a different way to view that space. The mysterious inch on the fresco could as easily be where God and humans reach their fingers into a common space. It could speak to us of the place where our lives touch and mingle with God's. A shared space, a center. A center is not simply an inner place where you are in touch with God's presence. Most important, it is a space from which you can focus your entire life. Being centered is not so much a state of being as a point of beginning. ......I don't think for a minute that a centered life is the solution to all our problems. Rather it is a way to respond to our problems. We don't withdraw from the world to a center. We respond to the world from our center. Instead of rushing about, accepting every job that comes, we get a sense of what's really important. Being centered allows us to bring that elusive quality of focus to our lives. It enables us to set priorities. From the center we can respond to the chaos by eliminating that which isn't meaningful and bringing order and calm to the rest. For in the center we are rooted in God's love. In such a place there is no need for striving and impatience and dashing about seeking approval. We need not avoid our active lives, but simply bring to them a new vision and shift of gravity. We are called to live a life rich and full, but rooted firmly in the center where all is drawn together in God and then flows out of His presence. That is when life becomes the silent dance revolving around Him, alive with the music of His love.I thought of God reaching to touch Jesus in his baptism - the space between filled with the Spirit of God, the dove, the space of our intermingling. So many images and thoughts surround this concept....more to ponder. In the meantime, prayers were penned into the rainbow, the promise that God listens to each and every one of them.
Thursday, Feb 26. Fasting: Drink Only Water Today
John 7:38 CEB
All who believe in me should drink! As the scriptures said concerning me, Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”
At first
this drawing was conceived somewhat as the living water erupting from Jesus as
in this passage he is describing himself.
But this morning I woke up still with the concept of centering in God in
relation to the living waters. I
pictured God as the well we sit and live from, offering us a steady supply of
life-giving water. We can drink of it
whenever we want and need. We can start
our day at the well; we can sit there in the evening. Today’s challenge for Lent was to drink only
water. I did pretty well….no wine
this evening, water refills at the rest stops, and just a VERY light sprinkling
of instant coffee in my cup this morning.
(Those who know me well can only imagine how watery I could conceive WEAK
coffee as I never make it very strong to begin with!)
Water is the one essential in our
physical life. Perhaps living water is
the one essential in our spiritual life as well.
Friday, Feb. 27 Prayer: JESUS
Matthew 1:21 MSG
She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.”
When the
Lent calendar proposed pondering the name of Jesus I had to go online and find
a list of all the terms used for the Son of God. I found listings of over 200 names! I will limit my discoveries to some of the more common ones: Christ,
Redeemer, Saviour, Yeshua, Immanuel, Alpha and Omega, Lamb of God, Good
Shepherd, Bread of Life, Messiah, Jehovah, The Word.
The name Jesus itself comes from
the Hebrew name Yeshua – a combination of Yahweh and Joshua. The words means ‘to save’. The names link Jesus both to God and to the
Hebrew people.
Many of the
terms above describe Jesus’ role on earth and his purpose while human. My prayer drawing began with a design I have
often seen in necklaces, etc: the word Jesus in the shape of the cross. This being Lent I pictured the Passion on
it…nails and a crown of thorns. But I am
a ‘Resurrected Christ’ type of person and I needed the hope of the Eternal
Jesus, so butterfly symbols of resurrection were added!
Saturday, Feb. 28 CONVERSION: A Journey of Many Layers
The word leaped into my head.
Conversion? How strange I would
think of that. My interpretation of my
own tradition was that the grace of God came in one great dose as we accepted
Christ into our lives and were born again.
It was a one-time negotiation in which grace arrived in a lump sum. Conversion then was more or less over. There was nothing left to do except come to
church, live for God and get other people to discover Him. But what if conversion, this turning of the
heart to God, is a gradual, ongoing process that begins at that great
outpouring of grace and then continues on?
Is it possible that awakening to God is the continuation of
conversion? That means that
conversion is a process of growth and change.
It begins with God and goes on silently within us, flowering out at
certain unique times as He calls us to decisive moments, rediscovery,
awakening, just as that initial moment of conversion did. (Sue Monk Kidd in God's Joyful Surprise)
I will deviate again today from the Lenten Calendar and take another look at Sue Monk Kidd's book. She is struggling spiritually as God calls her into a deeper relationship. This passage, along with my recent Session opening describing my 'call' or conversion moment as a journey merged into an image that was reinforced by yesterday's drive through the myriad of mountain ranges creating shadows and silhouettes that were unending. Our conversion is not just a moment, but a step by step growth in faith. Very few people have a Saul-Paul moment of absolute turn-around. We peel back layers of God as we journey through life. We drive deeper into the hills and discover a richer and fuller relationship with the Almighty. For Session I drew a scribble of my 'awakening rocks' along the river of life. Today I draw the layers of mountains that call us to deeper relationships. And perhaps a Saguaro God that stands guard, watches, waits, and guides us all along the way. Sunday, Mar 1 Service: Tend God's Earth
1 Cor 6:9-11 (Selections)
Those who use and abuse each other, ..... use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom.
Whoa....I opened a can of worms this morning when I began googling Conservation Theology or Ecotheology. I found all sorts of 'new story' proposals, many of which involve more the Creation Theology models, plus alot I just didn't understand the terminology to know what they were talking about. I did find this 2nd century quote interesting, but I haven't figured out just what he is trying to say.
In essence, however, my challenge today is to do something of a conservation nature to clean up my local environment. Litter patrol about the CHRPA/Shalom property! The wind of the past two days has surely blown some unwanted debris in. I chastise myself often on hikes for not carrying a plastic garbage bag in which to put some of the trash we find hidden along the trail. I do believe more churches should consider what they can do as a community to 'tend God's Creation' or 'take care of the garden'. As a world our actions just might come back to bite us if we don't change our ways."God delays causing the confusion and destruction of the whole world...because of the seed of the Christians, who know that they are the cause of preservation in nature." (St. Justin (c.100-165 AD)
Monday, Mar 2 Prayer: SPIRIT
John 14:26 CEB
The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.
Various translations use the term Advocate, Helper, Friend in place of the CEB Companion. All convey someone very intimate and personal who is in position to guide, assist, encourage, and help us along our way. For believers, this Spirit is Emanuel - God with us, God IN us, God as an integral part OF us. That is quite the Companion!
Commentary in this chapter of John from The Voice gave another interesting perspective on the role of the Spirit through us:God becomes flesh and lives among humanity, not just to have a transaction with people and ultimately die, but to continue to be with them and to send His Spirit to be present with believers. So God calls His Spirit-indwelled people to something greater, something more significant: they are here as redeeming forces on this earth; their time here is about reclaiming the things He has created. Believing God has created the entire cosmos and that it is restored in Jesus, the believer's work here through the Spirit is to say, "This belongs to God," and to help point out the beauty of creation to everyone. And most of all, to live in it themselves by the power of the Holy Spirit who plants the teachings of the Lord in their hearts.The beauty of creation is not just the natural world around us, but the beauty that lies within each and every individual person created by God. Our job is to recognize and reclaim that beauty for God. A good goal as I begin my CHRPA work today.
Tuesday, March 3 Prayer:
SOLITUDE
Matthew 6:6
In contemplation of this
word, I refer to a series of quotes from Chapter 8 of Sue Monk Kidd’s book:
Anyone can retire into a
quiet place, but it’s the shutting of the door that makes the difference. Solitude is a time for stripping away
everything in order to focus on God.
Solitude is a time for ‘God and God alone.’But we don’t stay in solitude. Though Jesus spent much time alone, He also returned to the crowds that followed him, renewed in his power to heal, forgive, feed, and teach.
While there may be some
loneliness in every experience of solitude, we should not confuse the two. Solitude is breaking through my isolation
into sharing, and being in touch with my Creator. In fact, we can begin to heal our loneliness
by transforming it into solitude.Moments alone with God, untethered by time, noise and inner compulsions, nourish the places where our spiritual energy is depleted and regrounds us in His love.
True solitude in God’s
presence always leads us to discover others.
Love and community are born in our times alone with God.
Philippians 2:1-2 CEB
Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other.
Today's Lenten calendar challenge is to Call Someone. I spent nearly an hour last night on the phone with my brother Mac, and I hope to call my sister Liz this evening. She has had some rough medical challenges in the past few months, most recently concerning her husband. I think it is time to 'check in'! Maybe I will wrap up my mid-week conversations, my "opportunity for encouragement in Christ, sharing comfort with love" with a call to my oldest sister on Thursday!
Today's challenge reminds me of the old telephone commercial to 'reach out and touch someone', but perhaps that is what our Lord 'calls' us to do!
Copyright Traci Smith 2015 www.traci-smith.com LENTEN PRACTICES CALENDAR FOR FAMILIES: These activities are based around the traditional 'Three Pillars' of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving or Service. The pillars are rotated throughout Lent with simple activities. On the prayer days, use the word provided to inspire a prayer you write, draw, or sing. All of the activities are suggestions. Modify as necessary or desired!
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