WATCHWORD:
Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 29:2
Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him
and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
1 Peter 1:8
Meditation:
Give Unto Yourself
My notebook was just about full, and, was my practice, I leafed through, looking for jotted inspiration from yesteryear before I retired it to the bookcase. I found a reference to a Jesus Calling meditation that “was strong and encouraging…worth another look”, that I dug it out and, even though many of you follow this devotional, I include it here as part of our meditation:
“Meet Me in morning stillness, while the earth is fresh with the dew of My Presence.
Worship Me in the beauty of holiness. Sing love songs to My Holy Name. As you give yourself to Me, My Spirit swells within you till you are flooded with divine Presence.
The world’s way of pursuing riches is grasping and hoarding.
You attain My riches by letting go and giving.
The more you give yourself to Me and My ways,
the more I fill you with inexpressible, heavenly Joy.” Sarah Young
I was thinking about that ‘giving myself to Him stuff’, especially ‘though I have not seen Him’. How do I do that? Really? It’s probably quite a simple question, with a very logical answer. Since I am a simple man who believes firmly in Occam’s razor, here is what I think: Go and do likewise. Go and do as Jesus does.
Examples of that philosophy abound in our society these days. People going and doing likewise, following Christ’s example, though they may be Muslim, Jewish, atheist, or, heaven forbid, of a different political party! (That’s a joke!) Seriously, going beyond your energy, time, health, etc. in the interest of another, that is doing likewise. Think, if that were me infected by the virus, what would I want? Go, do likewise.
While visiting my sister in South Dakota earlier this year, I passed a bulletin board multiple times that read, something to the effect, “Go and do as Jesus did.” I so wanted to take a magic marker and change the “did”, past tense, to “Does, present tense.”
Think, not that long ago, of the cheering when a patient went off a ventilator, breathing on their own. Or the 7 p.m. cheer for all medical-field workers. Or the mask-makers. Or the mask-wearers. Or the home-school learners. Or the home-school teachers. Or the rough-housing and adventure-creating moms and dads with quarantined kids. The list is nationwide. The list was and is God-blessed.
I call these examples of ‘go and do’, but, really, they are examples of “Worship Me in the beauty of Holiness.” We call them acts of heroism, but really, they are Acts of Holiness. Love your neighbor? That’s an act of Holiness. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Okay, this is it! Sunday, November 6, is “Fall Back” time. Tomorrow, Saturday, before you go to bed, set your clock for an hour earlier as you turn out the light. Don’t get confused. If bedtime for you is 10 p.m., set your clock for 9 p.m. Got it? Good.
Praying Romans 8:35–39:
Heavenly Father, we seem to be surrounded by trouble, an unseen enemy, threats to our health. Threats to our loved one’s health. We feel endangered and don’t know whether to stay or to go. To be alone or with others. We hear voices on both sides and we are torn. We seek your wisdom Lord, inform our common-sense, Lord, may the choices that we make always be in line with Your Will. We know that nothing can overtake us, nothing can conquer us, for you are there. We know that neither life, nor death, nor threats on any side, nor evil powers, those that are here, now, as well as evils unknown, through the tomorrows of our lives. We honor you, Lord. We know we are your creatures, creatures that you have made out of your love, the love that we know is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Help us to step forward, Lord, free of fear, and knowing that Your Will, will be done. Amen.
