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- Thursday, April 23 – Voice of God - What does the voice of God sound like? Have you heard it? How do you hear it? Under what circumstances? Did the voice seem familiar? Had you heard it before? Can you sort out God’s voice from all the other voices that you hear? Was it a loud voice, or was it a small voice, even a whisper? Perhaps you thought it was just your conscience giving you trouble. Maybe, God used the voice of a loved one? In 1 Kings 19:1-13 is the story of Elijah fleeing for his life because he was carrying out God’s instructions, and Ahab wants him dead. Now he is hiding in a cave and the Lord spoke to him: “What are you doing here Elijah?” Elijah tells God that he has carried out God’s instructions, but now he wants to die, it has been too much. God tells him: “Go out and stand before the mountain.” Continue reading
- Wednesday, April 22 – The Shack - I am sure that many of you have read William Paul Young’s book The Shack. It was a Best Seller in 2008, may even have been the subject of adult Christian Ed. Classes at some point. It has been described by the author as a ‘metaphor for the places you get stuck, you get hurt, you get damaged…where shame or hurt is center- most (in one’s life). If you have read the book or seen the movie, then you may have a different perspective on its meaning. If I were to paraphrase what the author would say to us today, it would be more like: a metaphor for how isolation, quarantine, grief and inactivity can damage, if those negatives are the center of your being. Continue reading
- Tuesday, April 21 – Do Not Be Afraid - In a Jesus Calling recently, He tells us ‘do not be afraid, for I am with you’. He goes on to tell us that no matter what happens ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’. This is his assurance to us that we need to take in, let it soak into our minds and hearts and feel that sense of God’s peace flowing through us. In Psalm 46 we read ‘though the earth giveaway and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, you need not fear’. That’s a big thing, not something to be minimized. Continue reading
- Monday, April 20 – Time Out? - Miracle in your home? Have you thought about that? Miracle, right there where you live. Have you thought about what God is doing within the details of our lives, even as we sit here and consider these 35 days or so that we have been in isolation? What has changed? We have, you know, each one of us. We are not the same. Sometimes change can be so subtle that it is like a gentle breeze that just goes through and we hardly notice. Sometimes change is like an abrupt something that happens, and our lives are redirected. Or, maybe it exposes something of which we were unaware. Or perhaps expose is too strong word, maybe reveals, is better. Maybe he reveals something within us that we weren’t aware of because of all the distractions. Now that the distractions are stilled, was our blindness lifted? An attitude adjustment? Continue reading
- Sunday, April 19 – Communion - When was the last time you received the sacrament of communion? For many of us it was the last time we were in church or the last time it was offered. Pastor Amy (Zion) distributed sanctified elements to our membership during that first week of our isolation. For the next two weeks, I followed Communion instructions, just the Lord and me. Last week I followed the instructions while in FaceTime with a loved one, and will do the same this morning. I still have the blessed wine of communion, but have substituted my bread for the Body of Christ. Ordinary communion is conducted by an ordained member of the clergy. Continue reading
- Saturday, April 18 – Abide with Me - I think too often when we hear that phrase ‘be strong and of good courage’ we may think of action heroes coming to the rescue, saving us from really bad things, at the very last moment. But it is God saying to us to abide in his word and not lose faith, He will walk with us through this present Jordan. There is a commentary on Verse-A-Day that says: ‘It is striking how often the truth of scripture points to the quality of our relationship with Jesus’. As believers in Jesus Christ we need to allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit then to reach out with courage and compassion tor others who are suffering through this time. We cannot do this on our own, that’s the reality of our frailty. But we can do it with Jesus who will give us the strength. Continue reading
- Friday, April 17 – Trust Him - Borrowed from Jesus Calling: Jesus tells us to trust Him and do not be afraid, despite the many things that feel out of our control. This ‘new normal’ is not running very smoothly, slightly out of kilter, the old balance that kept us pointing in the right direction, needs adjustment. You know the imbalance that under-mines our security. What is that, you say, Lord? “Let Me lead you to the rock that is higher than you and those circumstances that seem to cause you to separate yourself from Me.” “The rock that is higher than me? What does that mean, Lord?” Continue reading
- Do you love Me? Part 2 - Jesus Speaks, Part 2: Years ago, I read a wonderful faith story from India, about a man who rushed up to a Monk who was passing through his village and said to him, Give it to me! The Monk replied, Give you what? What you have in your pack! Last night I had a dream and in the dream God instructed me to ask the first monk I see walking through the village to give me the precious stone he carried. So give it to me! “Oh, you must mean this”, said the Monk, reaching into his pack. “I found it during a walk in the forest.” He pulled out the largest diamond the man had ever seen. It was huge and sparkled brightly in the morning sun. Well, the man was ecstatic. He ran home, happy beyond words. That night he found it impossible to sleep. Continue reading
- Jesus Speaks I - Part 1: I have a weird mind, it plays out scenarios, some of which just turn up and I make them into meditations. Hello, here’s one now: I am sitting in my office (i.e. spare bedroom), at my MacBook, writing deathless prose, of course, when Jesus walks in! I knew it was him, now standing right there, beside me, smiling. I was shaken…I was awed…I was speechless. I fall from my chair onto my knees. He reaches out…lifts me to my feet and says: ‘Do you love Me?’ I stammer out a ‘Yes, Lord’. Then He utters those awful words: ‘Follow Me’. My mind is suddenly in a whirl, I panic. I say, Master, I love you. Every morning I give the day to You. I read Your Word. I ask You to lead Me through all that I do. He smiles, and says again – ‘Stanley, do you love Me?’ Yes, Lord, You know I do. ‘Then come and follow Me.’ Continue reading
- Suddenly, He Was There! - Thanks to an amazing scientific breakthrough of time travel, I had this inspiring experience: I was curious as to what happened after the Resurrection. Oh, I know how the Resurrection anchors our faith. But, what I wanted to know was what happened the few days after the Resurrection. So, I time-traveled back to Tuesday, April 7, 33 CE, and met this guy, this physician follower of Jesus, Luke. Let me tell you, he was so on fire and excited! He was telling a number of people, there, outside the Great Temple in Jerusalem, what he had seen and heard two days before, in Capernaum, there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This is what he said: “Suddenly, he was there! Jesus. I mean, he wasn’t dead! He actually said ‘I am here, touch me, do not doubt’. “Can you imagine? I saw him dead. I was there! I helped prepared him for burial. I was standing there, on that beach in tears, I had no words! Continue reading
- Because He lives - Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Yes, and today is that ‘tomorrow’ that you can face because He lives! He is in your life to love, to heal and to forgive. How does that make you feel to know that He holds your future and that you have no need to fear; not today, not the next tomorrow, or the next? Rejoice! Jesus speaks to us: Dearly beloved, “when I give you no special guidance, stay where you are. Concentrate on doing your everyday tasks in awareness of My Presence with you. The Joy of My Presence will shine on you, as you do everything for Me. Thus, you invite Me into every aspect of your life. Through collaborating with Me in all things, you allow My Life to merge with yours. This is the secret not only of joyful living but also of victorious living. Continue reading
- Easter Sunday, April 12 - Meditation and Prayer: Happy Easter, everyone. It is a Happy Day. It’s a day to remember important stuff: The Easter bunny. The decorating of eggs, the hiding of eggs and the thrill of children searching for those eggs. Baskets with the green shredded paper in which nestled jellybeans, those choice... Continue reading
- Sacred Saturday - A Friday That Was Good? On Good Friday, we might have omitted from our thinking Psalm 118:24, This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Maybe because of the reality of that day, back then, or maybe the reality of our day now. It might have slipped our minds, in the midst of our ‘woe is me’ thinking, or our loneliness, or our discomfort. That can happen. But, that really doesn’t change the fact that we, who believe in the Resurrected Savior, have every reason to rejoice. So, did you rejoice and were you glad in it? Are you rejoicing? I hope so. In Jesus Calling for this morning, He admonishes us to “To begin the day with open hands of faith, ready to receive all that I am pouring into this brief portion of your life. Be careful not to complain about anything, even the weather, since I am the author of your circumstances.” Continue reading
- Good Friday? - Meditation: Good Friday? Friday – All through the night Jesus has been locked in the dungeon of Kishle Prison, the Citadel, Jerusalem. Early this morning he was brought before Pilate who transferred his case to Herod. Herod sent him back to Pilate, who, sometime in the middle morning, bowed to the... Continue reading
- Maundy Thursday - Sometimes missed in all that was happening, are Jesus words, ‘I call you friends…’. So, what is a ‘friend’? How do consider that quality, that title, that word? It was Wednesday, October 11, 2000, was when I first heard this story (I had to google it), then I heard it again on Monday of this week in an episode of West Wing, on Netflix. “A man walks down the street and falls into a hole. He cries out, ‘Someone help me!’ A doctor walks by, looks into the hole, hears the man’s cry, writes out a prescription and throws it into the hole, then walks on. A priest walks by, hears the man’s cry, looks in the hole. Writes out a prayer, throws it into the hole, and walks on. A friend walks by, hears the man’s cry for help, and jumps into the hole! The man says, Friend, what ae you doing? Now we are both here. The friend looks at him and says, ‘Yes, but I’ve been here before, and I know the way out.’ Continue reading
- Holy Wednesday - There’s something proper, if that’s the word, about these dark days of isolation, with its promise of renewal. In the middle of Holy Week, with a betrayal, a trial, torture, crucifixion still to come, maybe our mind prefers to skip all that and jump to Sunday, Easter, the resurrection, the rebirth. We don’t like to dwell on the horror of the details leading up to that shining moment. Where is our focus? Is your focus on that shining moment when all this will, ‘poof! go away like magic’? Or, do we view this time, as we should, as a time of renewal and rededication. When the ‘old normal’ may not be good enough. When the way it was, may not be what we want, at all. Continue reading
- Via Dolorosa - The Way of the Cross comprises 14 Stations. What did arriving at the final Station’ look like? Maybe something like this: “Barabbas heard a cry and looked. There, two crosses holding men, recently crucified, crying out in their pain. He did not want to be here. He needed to leave. But, before he could move, there was a commotion behind him. When he turned, it was that other group, and he saw a man staggering up the hill toward him, a heavy wooden beam across to his shoulders. He had been flogged, his back a mass of bloody flesh. It was the same man that had stood beside him with Pilate. Jesus, the man from Nazareth. There were thorns still around his head, like a crown, blood streaked down his face. There was blood on his torn tunic. Continue reading
- Fresh and New - Six years ago, I wrote and posted this essay on my Blog. Today, Monday of Holy Week, it seemed appropriate to share, it again. I entitle it, “Holy Week – Fresh and New”: “Here we are in the midst of Holy Week, that important time for the Christian Church between Passion or Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. A solemn time, commemorating the events of Christ’s journey to the Cross and the Easter Sunday celebration of the Resurrection. We listen to readings from Matthew or Luke recounting the arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, and the growing fear on the part of the Pharisees leading to an assassination plot. Symbolically, we join fellow Christians and Jews in the Passover or the Last Supper, the ceremony of the Seder on Maundy Thursday. Continue reading
- Rejoice Greatly - The crowd that had been with him when he raised Lazarus from the tomb, had gone on ahead and spread the news throughout Jerusalem, about this Prophet, this worker of miracles, this king of Israel, and that he was coming to the city. So, they gathered in large crowds, lining the streets, and greeting him with great cheers, throwing their coats on the cobblestones of the street, for His donkey to tread upon. The Pharisees watched with fear for he seemed a threat to their authority and their learning. The Romans also watched with fear, for they saw in the division between those led by Jesus and those that were strictly following the Mosaic law, a real threat to maintaining peace. The Sanhedrin was called into special session and there was much arguing as to what must be done with this, this Carpenter from Galilee, from Capernaum, of all places! Several cried out calling his message blasphemy, tearing at the very words spoken by the Prophets. Others urged calmness, and debate. Continue reading
- Thy Will - These days, how do you pray? Do you pray as Jesus did: “If it be thy will, take this cup from me”, or do you skip the first part, about ‘thy will, and go right to the second? Take this cup, this isolation, this fear, this uncertainty from me. Lord, it’s uncomfortable. Help me. Murray Bodo has written a story, entitled The Widows Son, where tells the story of a young boy who is left alone each day by his working mother. They live in a house high on a bluff, overlooking the ocean. Each day, after the mother goes to work, the boy, fascinated by the ocean, gets closer and closer to the cliff that drops down to the water. The story goes: “Then, one day, the boy reaches the bottom of the rocks and stands facing the sea with his large brown eyes. He undresses and jumps into the shallow water letting the gentle waves play with him”. Continue reading
