Daily Devotion, February 13, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read Mark 9:2-8.

Next week, we will begin the Season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. We embark on that 40-day journey (not including Sundays) to Easter. Part of that journey will remind us of much of the darkness Jesus faced, culminating in his crucifixion. On the traditional Church schedule of readings (called the Lectionary), the story of Jesus’ transfiguration is always the Gospel reading for the Sunday before Lent. It is as if we are being reminded of the glory and majesty of Jesus at Easter, before we go back down from that mountaintop to live the journey in between.  

When I read the whole story of the life and ministry of Jesus, it is almost like this scene serves that same purpose for these disciples. They are Jesus’ most intimate circle of students. He allows them to experience this glimpse of his glory that will hopefully carry them through the journey ahead. Yes, even they still failed him, but this experience must have added greatly to their new understanding and commitment to him after Easter.

Hopefully you have had and will continue to experience mountaintop experiences in your relationship with Christ that carry you through the difficult times. Yes, even then, we all still fail him at times, but those previous experiences only add to our understanding and commitment when we come out on the other side. As we continue on this journey with him, may we each hear God say “This is my Son. Listen to him!”

Personal Worship Option:

Reflect on the mountaintop experiences you have had with Jesus. Give thanks for the “spiritual boost” they gave you then and still today.

Daily Devotion, February 12, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read Esther 4:12-16.

Esther was willing to give her life to rescue her people. She could have withdrawn and tried to save herself, but instead she saw that God had placed her in that position for a purpose, so she seized the moment and acted. We can learn much from Esther. When facing a difficult situation we can count the cost (Esther knew her life was in danger). Set priorities (she believed the Jewish race was more important than herself). Prepare (she gathered support and fasted). Action (she determined a course of action and followed through).  When it is within our reach to save others we must do so. In a life-threatening situation, don’t withdraw, behave selfishly, wallow in despair, or wait for God to fix everything. Instead ask God for his direction, and act. God may have placed you where you are “for such a time as this.”

Personal Worship Option:

Are you facing a difficult situation? Spend some time in prayer and fasting to determine God’s direction.

Daily Devotion, February 11, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read John 15:12-17.

It's not always easy to love people. Jesus commands us to love people and we still struggle to make loving others a priority in our life. Loving people is hard because we want them to love us first and they may be drastically different than us. We often love ourselves and are selfish in giving out love to others. If given a choice, we wouldn't make any effort to love others; but Jesus didn't give his disciples a choice. He makes the command plain even if it is difficult. I believe Jesus knows this is difficult, that's why he offers instructions on the topic. Jesus wants us to love others as He loves us.

The more I become aware that I am infinitely loved by Jesus, the more I am able to share that reservoir of love with people who need it. I should not wait for the other person to love me, just as God does not wait on my love but initiates the relationship.

A few hymns that come into my mind about Jesus being my friend:

“What a friend we have in Jesus!”

“Jesus! What a friend for sinners, Jesus lover of my soul!”

“I’ve found a friend, O, such a friend! He loved me ere I knew Him.”

“I’ve found a friend who is all to me, His love is ever true.”

“There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one, no not one!”

Personal Worship Option:

Dear God, help us to embrace your endless love and to reach out and share love with others who we meet.

Daily Devotion, February 10, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14. (NRSV)

As I write this in January, I have just seen the green leaves of daffodils emerging from the bulbs within the earth. I wonder, “How do these plants, deep within the darkness of the earth, know that it is time to spring forth and blossom?” The vision invites us into one of God’s holy mysteries.

Ezekiel, in this beloved passage, also invites us into a vision of one of God’s holy mysteries. During a most difficult time in Israel’s history, Ezekiel is reminding the people of God’s incomparable power to give life and life again.

The following four quotes opened my eyes in new ways to see God’s resurrection power and hope within these verses:

 

• “Ezekiel challenges his fellow exiles and generations of his readers to view their circumstances not through their own, limited vision, but through God’s eyes. Can these bones live? Look at them through God’s eyes and with God’s power. And watch bones come to life!!!” Dr. Katheryn Pfisterer Darr
• “God promises not only sinews and flesh and skin, but most importantly, God calls the breath to come from the four winds and breathe life into the slain. This breath is the spirit of God, the life-giving ruach God breathed into the first human creature in the garden, into Lazarus and into Jesus, lifting him up to resurrection life. This breath moves through the world, raising people into new life when all odds are against it.” Dr. James A. Wallace
• “While life would have been enough for the bones, it is not enough for the Deity. The passage grafts life to the knowledge of God.” Three times in this passage in different ways it says, “then you shall know that I am the Lord and have spoken and will act.” Dr. Stephen Breck Reid
• “Ezekial’s vision of the valley of dried bones bears no date because every generation needs to hear in its own time that these bones can live again.” Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Ellie Wiesel

God has the power to give life and to give life again! Not only that, we can know every breath that we breathe comes from God.

Personal Worship Option:

Life-Giving God, forgive us for limiting our views of life by our vision. Open our eyes to your vision of resurrection power even into a valley of dry bones. Let us live seeing new life all around us! Amen.

Daily Devotion, February 9, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read John 11:38-44.

By the time Jesus commanded the stone to be rolled away, Lazarus had been dead four days. Martha protested that there would be an odor. Or, as the King James Version says, "Lord, he stinketh!" A body that has not been embalmed begins to noticeably decay and smell after three days, especially when exposed to heat. Sometimes, in order to have a resurrection, matters are foul and messy. Resurrections do not happen when all is sterile and clean and smelling like our favorite room deodorizer. When we need healing, it's because there's been a mess of some sort.

The stone had to be removed in order for the miracle to occur. Jesus could have moved it himself. Removing the stone is an important part of the miracle. This was hard. His friends did not want to take away the stone because they had already given up. They had lost hope. Our situations may seem hopeless too, beyond help. We may even seem desperate. In my own time of hopelessness, I have found it serves me best to focus on the God of hope. It's hard. It really is. We have to remove the stone that is preventing God from working in our lives. What is your stone? Is there something that needs to be removed in order for God to go to work in your life? A bad attitude? Lack of forgiveness? Anger? Busyness? Fear? Denial of the truth? The stones have to be removed to allow God to work. God wants us to participate in our own breakthrough and cooperate with him.

 

Lazarus had to respond to the call from death into life. Lazarus came out with his feet and hands bound with graveclothes. His face was also wrapped in a cloth. Once again Jesus gave instructions: “Take off the grave clothes. One version says, "Unbind him and let him go.” The community needed to assist in the resurrection. "Unbind him, and let him go." How terrifying to take off the graveclothes! What would you do?

Isn't it wonderful to have the fellowship of other believers to help us get untangled from our grave clothes? We need community. We need each other to help us with the action of resurrection. So many of our faith stories involve unbinding somebody, helping people to live life out of the bandages. The community has the power to either wind those burial clothes tightly around people or unwind them. Are there people in your life that you are keeping bound up? Are you refusing to forgive someone? Are you holding on to the past and need to release someone from that past? Is there someone you need to release from control?

We all are in graveclothes of some sort.  We all are bound up by something that keeps us in the tomb. What things keep you bound in your graveclothes? Does someone need to unbind you? Do you need to unbind yourself and take off anything that resembles death? Take off those negative thoughts, that angry attitude, the hurtful words, and the aggressive actions so that God can give you a resurrected life. He wants us to come to him when he calls our name. He wants us to shed our grave clothes and walk in new life with him.

Personal Worship Option:

If you are not struggling to unbind yourself today, maybe God is calling you to unbind someone else. Ask God to increase your willingness to be an unbinder so when God calls you to unbind and let them go, you will step forward.

Daily Devotion, February 8, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read Genesis 3:22-24.

Our Scriptures for this week help us to see the sacrificial love of God, who gives us life. At first, this passage of banishment from the Garden and the tree of life may seem a strange reading to be included with this theme; but on closer examination, we can see that it fits very well. Adam and Eve represent all of humanity, created in God’s image and not even aware of the difference between good and evil. Initially, they had lived obediently and in the perfect will of God, but then they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. God had warned them that eating of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil would result in their death. God had created humanity with free will; and having now disobeyed God, they were not equipped to live forever. Out of love, God ushered them away from that gift. It is important to see that God does not remove the tree of life and the possibility of living forever.

In Romans 5, Paul contrasts the sin of Adam in taking away life and the gift of eternal life through Christ. Sometimes, in our love of life on this earth, we wish it could last forever. But Christ offers a much more beautiful eternal life...a life without pain, sickness, fear, and death...a life lived in God’s presence and only beginning in this life here on earth.

Personal Worship Option:

Think for a moment about someone in your life who loves you without any conditions, who loves you deeply, and who lets you know they love you. Give thanks for that love! Now give thanks for God’s love for you that exceeds the love any human can have for us.

Daily Devotion, February 7, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read John 8:12.

In another of the “I Am” sayings of Jesus in this Gospel, Jesus uses light to describe himself. One of the ways we often think about light is when we understand something. You have probably seen it used this way in cartoons and comic strips. When they want to show that the character “gets it” or has a new idea, they put a light bulb over their head. One of the ways that Jesus is a light for us is he helps us understand what God is like. He helps us understand what it means to be God’s people, to represent God in the world. Jesus showed us what that looks like by the way he lived his life, the way he treated people and by what he taught. He helps us better understand the Scriptures.

And yet, all too often, we still don’t understand (or don’t want to). This Gospel begins by saying that even though this light came into the world, there were (and are) those who did not want to see the light. They preferred the darkness more than the light. They preferred their own understanding rather than what the light was trying to reveal to them.

But another verse in that opening chapter shouts the “good news”: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” Even though there continues to be those who do not want the light of new understanding, thank God that the light of Jesus Christ still shines to dispel the darkness of misunderstanding and misinformation. If we are open to receive the light of Christ, he still shines to guide us in all of life.

Personal Worship Option:

Pray that you will be open to receive the light of Jesus Christ, who continues to teach and guide all those willing to see and understand.