Lent Day 33 March 30

Lenten Reflection for Day 33

Date: Friday March 30, 2012

Author: Lorraine Blanchfield

Bible Passage: Proverbs 2:1–5 (NRSV)

¹ My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, ² making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; ³ if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; ⁴ if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures— ⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Reflection:

Accepting God's words is more than simply acknowledging them. It is more than reading and agreeing with them, but actually living them out in our lives and making them a part of our daily actions. When we treasure something, we guard it, and do everything not to lose it. Do you embrace God's words and lean on them for understanding on what is

happening in your life? This does not always come naturally but I believe that if we just show up, and turn our will and lives over to God, he will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

God always hears us but there are times when we cry out to be heard. Like a child, I have cried out to God, "Why?" so many times. Why about my circumstances, why about the deaths in my family, especially the passing of my mother, who I grew so close to in her last few years. I just wasn't ready to let her go, and I still feel the void in my heart. Hunting for the hidden treasures, the insights or the answers, seems to be something that I do over and over again. It is a daily process of searching, reading and praying. If I am willing to do my part, then by the power of the Holy Spirit, I have received acceptance and a deep gentle peace of understanding, which has allowed me to grow as a person.

Prayer:

God, I give you thanks for the difficult times because it is during these events that I cry out to you and I find your love and forgiveness. May the Holy Spirit touch all of our lives with a peace that can still our cries, knowing that we can have peace and acceptance in all of our circumstances. Show us your hidden treasures daily to carry us through this life and onto our new life with you in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent Day 16: March 10

Lenten Reflection for Day 16

Date: Saturday March 16

Author: Mike Michaels

Bible Passage:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (Good News) “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.”

Reflection:

The scripture quoted today is taken from Paul’s second letter to Timothy, first meant to be personal advice to the younger early Christian. I’ve always enjoyed reading this letter (it somehow helps me to feel the concrete reality of our early brothers and sisters) especially for two of the warnings Paul gave, although the second helps to explain the first to me:

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (Good News) “The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.”

This scriptural advice explains to me why Paul would have to remind Timothy that indeed all scripture is God’s word (and not the legends of men.) Human nature certainly hasn’t changed; it seems that we have forever sought out that which makes us happy to hear, in some cases even substituting it for God’s truth. Some religious teachers will “cherry-pick” and quote out of context from God’s word, and indeed some translations use the phrase implying that some people “just want to have their ears tickled” by their teachers, allowing them leeway to do whatever they want, sometimes in direct contradiction to God’s Word.

Whenever I find myself beginning to doubt, or start to find faults or seeming “contradictions” with anything in God’s inspired, written scriptures to us, I am reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy, above. I can’t explain everything. Long ago I turned my life over to God and asked Him to help me strengthen the faith I needed to continue, whenever life would present me with a new challenge to overcome. So that now, when I have problems, I turn them over to God, and they will vanish almost overnight, with prayer, and through God’s grace.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, as we thank you for this day and everything you’ve given us, we pray that you continue to watch over us all, and help us to remember your special place for us. Please help us to never forget the sacrifice you gave in your only Son, to forgive us our sins, so that we may behave at all times in accordance with your will. Help us to have the faith we need (as children) in your Word, and not be led astray by the false doctrines of men. Today, we especially thank you for the strength and encouragement we derive from your inspired, written word, without which we would not know what to do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Lent Day 25: April 6

This morning's devotion helps us to think about the ways in which we hear God's Word.

Lenten Reflection for Day 25

Date: Wednesday March 6, 2011

Author: Pastor Pat Harris

Bible Passage:

Hebrews 13:7 (NRSV)

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Reflection:

The Word of God comes two us in two forms: Law and Gospel. The Law shows us our failings, condemns us, convicts us and even has the power to kill the sinner us in. The Gospel part of God’s Word comforts us, restores us, saves us and gives us the promise of eternal life.

We receive the Word of God when we hear Scripture read, when we hear Scripture preached, when we experience Christ in the sacraments, and when Christ comes among us as two or three gather in his name. God uses human beings to preach and proclaim God’s own Word to others. Hearing God’s Word from other people is an important way in which God shapes us and gives us the gift of faith. We come to know the Word of God in a Christian community.

St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that “Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) From whom have you heard God’s Word? In what ways have those people been role models for you? How has the hearing of God’s Word affected you? How does hearing God’s Word from others strengthen your faith?

Prayer:

Good and gracious God, I thank you for all those who speak God’s Word to me. May your Word take root in me and thrive and blossom. May your Word strengthen my faith. Amen

Devotion for the Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent

Theme for the week: Joy

Devotion for the Wednesday of the third Week in Advent (Day 18)

Reading: Jeremiah 15:15–21 (NRSV)

¹⁵ O Lord, you know; remember me and visit me, and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance do not take me away; know that on your account I suffer insult. ¹⁶ Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. ¹⁷ I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; under the weight of your hand I sat alone, for you had filled me with indignation. ¹⁸ Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord: If you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth. It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them. ²⁰ And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. ²¹ I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.

REFLECTION:

“Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.”

What images come to your mind when you think of the Word of God? Do you think of comfort, sustenance, judgment, promise, fear, or all of the above? Would you use the word ‘joy’, as the prophet Jeremiah does, when he describes what God’s Word means to him?

God’s Word can act on us in many ways. In fact the same Biblical passage can affect us in different ways on different days in our lives. One of the blessings of God’s Word is that is that it acts on us, in the ways that we need at a particular point in time. God’s Word does sometimes challenge us, particularly when we are feeling complacent. We can also be comforted by God’s Word, at a time when perhaps we feel that there is no hope. In the psalms we certainly find words of comfort for difficult times in our lives. There are also times when God’s Word does judge or convict us, when we need to be brought face to face with things that we have done wrong. There are other times when we are in dire need of strength or uplifting. At these times, God’s Word comforts us and saves us.

Martin Luther wrote that all of the Bible consists of God’s Law and God’s Promise or Gospel. The Law convicts us and kills the sinner within us, driving us to need the Gospel. Just when we are feeling terribly convicted, we are driven to the comfort of the Gospel, which brings us back to life again. When the Gospel acts on us, we are filled with joy—the joy of the knowledge that God has forgiven us and saved us, even when we have done nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness.

In this passage, Jeremiah can depend on God’s promise that God will deliver him out of the hand of the wicked. No wonder Jeremiah can speak of the joy of God’s Word—a joy in the promise God has made to keep him from slipping into the grasp of the ruthless.

When have you experienced joy from the way that God’s Gospel or Promise has acted on your life? Has God ever pulled you out of the grasp of evil? What Bible story or quote most means joy to you?

PRAYER:

Pray that you might experience God’s Law showing you when you are going in the wrong direction. Pray that you might feel yourself being driven to need the comfort of the Gospel or God’s Promise. Pray that the joy of Gospel might permeate your life. Amen