A SONG OF PRAISE

A Song of Praise
PSALM 100 – Call out with joy to the Lord, all the earth praise you. 

2 Be glad as you serve the Lord. Come before God with songs of joy. 

3 Know that the Lord is God. It is God who made us, and not we ourselves. We are God’s people and the sheep of God’s pasture.

4 Go out into the world giving thanks and everywhere act with praise. Give thanks to God. Honor God’s name through love for all. 

5 For the Lord is good. God’s loving-kindness lasts forever. And God is faithful to all people and to all in the future to come. [edited]

Loving and joyful God, we thank you for all we are given. Help us appreciate these blessings and praise you through the lives of love you enable us to live. Continue to guide us as we learn to grow in our relationship with you.    Amen.       PEACE

LIVING IN ORDINARY PRAYER

LIVING IN ORDINARY PRAYER
IS LIVING WITH GOD – in such a way that everything is done from God’s love. It becomes as ordinary as breathing, and yet helps us see the joy we are given. Prayer is another word for communicating with God, however we do it. When we raise our relationship with God to the level of being open in every way to God’s love and mercy, we will be in a transformed life, where fear and hate do not rule us. Only the love and light from God will shine from us. I can imagine all who are out there laughing at this ever happening. In our cynical world, all who don’t know God, and many who do still think this is not possible. God could not and even would not bother to change us so completely. Most of us even wonder why God would do this. The answer is found in John 3:    16 “For this is how God loved the world: God gave the one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent this Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

This is an act of of a God who loves all the people of creation so much so, that the one and only son was sacrificed for all of us, in order for our lives to be blessed with constant love and light. In ancient history, there were experiences where evil intentions developed, and the chosen people knew they were not living the kind of life God had offered them. So because of fear, they saw only judgment. Even though God gave us the one and only Son, people still let fear cause doubt, and convince us that the very life God offers us is not possible, or it costs too much. In our time, we see far too many people who do not know God and the love offered to them. Even many within the walls of our church buildings do not hear this message of love, and only hear the voices speaking judgment and fear.
We, who know God’s love, can show what the fruit of this love looks like. When we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and through us, to show this love straight from God, it can have a changing effect on others around us. Allowing God to work in and through us in this way is the most important gift we can offer God in gratitude for the love we are given. Allowing our selves to be a light or beacon pointing to God’s love is ministry, and the Holy Spirit makes it possible. The link below explains mindfulness in a non-religious way, but it is not possible without the Holy Spirit. We can make the decision to live in this way, and follow the practices it suggests, but the power to make it happen comes only from God. When we decide, or set the intention to begin living this kind of life, then God in us will support us in continuing to do it. We make the commitment every day, and in prayer ask for the power to continue. Many will begin, but it is only in the Holy Spirit’s power that we will succeed in the difference it will make to us, and all those who God intends will learn from us. Our lives can become quiet examples of what a life with God can be. The world needs our ministry of love and light. Shining God, who gives us the light of unconditional love, we are grateful. Help us learn to live in love and light, and so shine it out to all those who need it in their lives. Help us return the love given through the Son.    Amen.       PEACE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-luvogt/10-mindfulness-and-medita_b_11395466.html

THAT PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

THAT PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IS ONE WE CAN COUNT ON – everyday to work in us and with us. Most of us live our lives with some kind of routine. If we bring our relationship with God into our daily routine, we will grow in that relationship. Even if it seems ordinary to us, nothing that we do with God stays the same. The state of “ordinary prayer” is worked out with God and is individual to each of us. It is a process of developing a life of close contact with God throughout our day, in order to live a faithful life of loving all we encounter, and accomplishing things that are in response to the call God gives each of us. Building on John 14, we hear from Jesus this description of how close a relationship the Creator and Jesus want with each of us. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

This process Jesus describes is more complicated than it seems at first. It begins with the Holy Spirit present in us from the beginning, because that is the way we are created. As we learn more about loving God and loving one another, we grow and are becoming a new person, when we follow Jesus. I am describing the path of someone who not only believes all that scripture says is true, but a person who has humbled themselves in the love and grace we are offered, and has accepted them, knowing what a life of love and service is like. We know this does not happen easily because it involves us changing, and that is a painful process. But as this short passage says, the Creator and Jesus will make a home within us, as a part of our growing in love and service. This kind of relationship is so close that we are not only changing, but we are receiving an inner strength and resources we could never have imagined would be at our disposal. Until we allow this to happen, there is no way of imagining the kind of help we will be given, to live beyond where we were before. This is especially true when we are in a period of trial and suffering. There is a level of support that is very hard to describe, until we have lived it. The gifts we receive at those times are also gifts we pass on to others we encounter. A life of “ordinary prayer” is far beyond saying a prayer on our knees when we get up and go to bed, and it is far from ordinary, the way the world uses that word.   O God, who offers to make a home in us, when we respond to your invitation of a life of love, help us to open to a routine of loving one another more of the time. Help us make it such a part of our routine, that we can live in no other way, but to spread your love in whatever we do. We are thankful for whatever gifts we receive along the way. Help us pass those on to others, especially those who do not know you, and have not experienced the power of what your love can do.    Amen.       PEACE

THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US

THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US
IS PROMISED – and when we are connected to the Spirit we will know the presence in us. We have talked recently about the connection from the creator to Jesus, and then to the Holy Spirit. In John 14, we hear from Jesus, speaking to the disciples, the promise of the gifts we will receive when we believe and love God and one another. 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Creator, and God will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – 17 the Spirit of truth.” We see here one possibility, that if we love our Savior, and follow what he has commanded, then we will be connected to the Holy Spirit. This requires behavior from us, that will make it possible. Jesus is calling us here, to do what he has asked us to do, as we live our lives each day. This act of love on our part means there will be an action on our behalf by Jesus to the Father. That great gift will be the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth coming into our lives. From then on, as long as we continue to follow what Jesus asked, we will continue to have the Holy Spirit working in us. We will not be alone in doing what God has called us to do. We will not have to find the strength for this work on our own. As long as we have the intention to love God and each other, we will be able to do it because the Holy Spirit will help us find the strength to accomplish it.

Then Jesus speaks further about this relationship and how it will include us. “The world cannot accept [the Spirit], because it neither sees it nor knows it. But you know the Spirit, for it lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Here Jesus speaks a word of caution and even warning. The world does not know anything of the Spirit, and is not able to help us in understanding what he is telling us of the Spirit, so we should not expect the world and its wisdom to help us in any way. If we even consider looking for answers in the world, they will not be there and we are just spinning our wheels to try this strategy. The only way to be in touch with the Spirit is through prayer and seeking the Savior within us, when we follow the ways of life Jesus has shown us. Jesus comes to us as we follow this way of life. To live this way is a form of prayer, even though it may seem strange and different to us. When we live in love for others, we are communicating that love to Jesus too. We are returning that love we have been given. To live in an ordinary way is to live a life of routine. If that routine is living in the love of Jesus to all others around us, we will be living a life of “ordinary prayer” as a daily practice.   O loving Savior, we thank you for your life of sacrifice, and the example you have given us. Help us to make that same love for others the center of our routine everyday, to honor and return your love.   Amen.      PEACE

KEEPING OUR FOCUS ON GOD

KEEPING OUR FOCUS ON GOD
IS PART OF BEING FAITHFUL – and loving God. But it isn’t something that happens easily. We grow into being able to keep focus on God, by doing it everyday. We will be tried by lots of distractions, and even things that seem harmless but take our focus from God regardless. We have to wrestle with how we work our relationship with God into our days. Like most things of any importance, it is more complicated to be faithful to God than we think at first. When we examine the things we do in a day, in light of what it means to be faithful, we may find that there are habits or practices we thought had no harm in them, but are still distractions from what our focus could be. Getting angry at others in traffic, making fun of certain people, criticizing others decisions, watching certain things on TV, or ignoring someone’s need of help right in front of us are all things we should pray about, in order to learn from God. There are things like this that we know we shouldn’t do, but it is hard to begin to change, and we are fearful of doing new things we have not experienced before. What if we do them wrong? Will God forgive us, if we mess up?
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul reassures Timothy in a similar situation.    14 “But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip God’s people to do every good work.”     Beyond this, the Holy Spirit speaks to us, and urges us to do what is right, and cautions us when we consider doing something wrong. And we always have prayer to help us figure out what to do in a perplexing situation. The Holy Spirit is always ready to guide and advise us, because we are trying to be faithful to God’s calling for us. We don’t need to agonize over anything when we have this kind of help available to us.      O guiding Spirit, we are most grateful for the help you offer us, and the forgiving love available when we mess up our attempts to be faithful. Continue to encourage our prayer by your loving help, as we stumble, and seek to find the ways we should love one another, always seeking to please God. Give us the wisdom we need to be more faithful.   Amen.       PEACE

DISTINGUISHING GOD’S WORD

DISTINGUISHING GOD’S WORD
IN ALL THINGS – is very important for us, as believers. Learning to listen for God’s word, and knowing that it is God within us, is an important step in living the life God has called each of us to live. The people of the Thessalonian church, according to Paul, had learned how to hear God. In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul says,  13 “Also, we always thank God because when you heard God’s message from us, you accepted it as the word of God, not the words of humans. And it really is God’s message which works in you who believe.” Paul alludes to one way we know that God is speaking. God’s word is motivated by love, and if we hear the love of God coming through, even if it is spoken by another person, it comes from God. But in 1 John 4 we are cautioned, “Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
These false prophets are active in our world too, and many of them seek the public platform of running for office. Their purpose is to gather self aggrandizing power, which will distract us from doing what God needs us to do, or at least make it more difficult. But as Paul says, if instead we listen for “God’s message which works in you who believe”, then the message of God’s redeeming love is active in us, and we don’t have to try, in our own strength, to fight the force that would stop us from doing God’s work. The Holy Spirit will be that active energy, giving us the tools to overcome the distractions we face. A huge distraction that we will be living with for quite some time to come are the political campaigns that the media is so fond of pursuing and blowing into greater proportions. There will be many statements that are intended to get our attention, and come into being for no other purpose. There will be many false statements, because they suit the candidates intentions. We will have to pray and ask God for help in discerning what is truth, and what are just lies and statements designed intentionally to generate fear. God has given us tools to overcome the fear and see the truth. We will need to employ God’s resources to fight the evil intentions all around, in order that we are not swallowed whole.    Loving God, we thank you for the tools and resources you give us, to help us do the work you have called each of us to do. They are a blessing and are comforting to us, so we will know how much you love us. May we share that love with those we meet, so that others will know your transforming love.    Amen.       PEACE

BEWARE OF OPINION

BEWARE OF OPINION
DISGUISED AS TRUTH – because it is the work of evil, and works to distract us from God’s truth. “Taken with a grain of salt” has come to mean the use of a healthy skepticism , or applying common sense to what is heard or seen. There are those who are skeptical of the faith, but among believers, we have lost the idea of being skeptical of all worldly things. Wikipedia defines truth as “being in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original, or to a standard or ideal.” If we use this as a framework to separate truth from opinion, it will help us get at and understand the meaning of God’s truth. Creation is the beginning of it all, and is the foundation of God’s truth. Creation of the world is a fact, whether we believe God did the creating or not. As believers, we know that the universe was brought into being with great care and intention, the details of which are mind blowing. Scientists are still being baffled by the way all creatures function and the interdependence that exists among all living creatures and the environment. This speaks of the integrity of purpose and action God exhibits. Our ability to trust God comes out of God’s actions in the past, and having seen that what God says has and will continue to come true in the future. God’s next great act of truth was the coming of Jesus, who opened up the word of God to us, by living it. Both God’s actions and Jesus are motivated by love.

Opinion is a very different thing. It is personal to the one voicing it, and it comes out of their own experiences. It can have many different motivations behind it. Knowing the person helps us determine the accuracy of what they are saying, and what is motivating them to say it. The media gives people an opportunity to say things and get a wide audience, and it is a temptation to say things that will get attention. This is where we need a healthy skepticism, since we don’t know where their motivation comes from, or what intention they have for saying the things they do. Recently we heard from John, chapter 8, and it helps us again here.   31 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As believers, when we know the truth of God, we can measure all others things by that truth. But going further, that truth will free us from being drawn into the evil others put out there. We will be able to reject those ideas that go against what we know is the truth of God. That truth is based in love, and it will help us become attuned to knowing the motivation of those expressing opinions, and immediately reject them if they do not come from a place of love. When we are confronted by so many who want to stir up fear in us in our world today, we can remember the words in 1 John: 4,   18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”   So when we rely on God, and not on others for our direction and guidance, we will be on our way to living the life God calls us to live. Our lives will be more stable, and not as subject to all the fear out there, so we can spread the love God gives us to share.    O God, our source of perfect love, we are humbled by your gift of Jesus Christ and the grace it brings us. Help us reject the fear all around us, demonstrated through opinion and evil intentions. Guard us from this evil, and give us the strength we need to show the world your unconditional love.    Amen.       PEACE

BEING STILL

BEING STILL
IS ONE WAY – of welcoming God into our lives. Our culture does not always encourage this behavior. It is characterized in many ways when we are around others. In children it is called “daydreaming” and is criticized as at least different from others, and can even be stigmatized as abhorrent behavior by some. It has also been called wool-gathering for adults, or we may be asked “where did you go just then” if we are around other people. There are situations when our minds do need to go somewhere else, but it seems to make others around us uncomfortable. All of this negative reaction to something that I think is a created and inherent part of us has a dampening effect on our engaging in “letting our minds go somewhere else”. There are places where we can be alone, or among trusted people, where through our experience, we can engage in the behavior of “going to God”, or just letting our minds relax to pursue a creative silence. Clearly when we are alone, it is “safe” to seek God in the stillness. But what if we can find no stillness within us? God will help us find it, when we pray and ask for it. So at some point each day, turn off the 24/7 news and in the quiet listen for God in prayer.

Psalm 46 seems to describe natural disasters and warfare [strife] as some of the experiences of life, but through it we hear this message,  7 “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”    We are called to acknowledge this fact, and let it do its work of calming our anxieties from what happens around us. But our fear is great and the world around us can be so dangerous. Doesn’t the news remind us of this? So we are called to take a deliberate step away from all the high emotions the world tries to stimulate in us, by turning off the clamor and becoming aware of God. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” God has a plan that began with creation, and it is being worked out, despite all the evil happening around us.    Purposeful God, we thank you that you have a plan, and that you call us to be a part of it. Help us feel your love and grace through all the fear that evil generates, and turn to you for the guidance you give us, to show us the way through all the muck.   Amen.       PEACE

TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES

TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES
EACH DAY – is God’s work, not ours. What we provide is the openness and willingness to go through what is sometimes a painful process. It will be as painful as how willing we are to let God work in and through us, and in the process to let go of old ideas and habits. In the first letter Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he is thinking back, in chapter 2, to the way he and his companions lived with the Christians there. 10 “When we were with you, we lived in a holy and honest way, without fault. You know this is true, and so does God. … 12 We encouraged you, we urged you, and we insisted that you live good lives for God, who calls you to his glorious kingdom.”   This is a glimpse into the disciplined life they lived, after having been transformed by God. It didn’t come about in a few days, or weeks or even months, but it was the kind of commitment they had made for the rest of their lives. The result of their lives being lived for God was testified to by Paul at the end of this chapter.  19 “You are our hope, our joy, and the crown we will take pride in when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 20 Truly you are our glory and our joy.” This was not a boast, but an honest praise of the work of God Paul saw in them.

Are we able to live our lives in this way? When we make a daily commitment, God will begin the process of helping us let go of the enticements out in the world. We will see with new eyes, how ugly and selfish the behavior of the world can be. Love from God flowing through us, will also give us the power to affect change around us, and influence others for good, when we let God act in us. This is the process of birth, and so it will come with some pain. But if we relax and put our trust in God, the pain will be tempered with joy. Yes, old ways of how we lived will be left behind, but new ways of living will be filled with love that brings joy. Love and joy are very contagious, and others will want to know what the source of it is. God will help us share, even if we are at a loss, and the Holy Spirit will guide our footsteps in our new behavior.    Loving God, we bring our fear to you, whether we can name it or not. Help us take the steps we need each day, and we will be examples of your transforming power.    Amen.       PEACE

HAVE WE EVER MADE SACRIFICES

HAVE WE EVER MADE SACRIFICES
TO GOD – as Hannah did? We may not all be called to make the kind of sacrifice Hannah made, as the mother of Samuel. I wonder if it might be somewhat metaphoric, in reminding us of the great sacrifice made by God? Hannah’s actions were out of great devotion because she believed her cries and suffering, in 1 Samuel 1, had been heard by God. Then in chapter 2, “Hannah prayed and said, ‘My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. 2 There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 3 Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by God’s actions are weighed.’ ”

Hannah is full of thanksgiving for the role she played in God’s action through her. But she is also faithful is teaching caution of what it means to be faithful to God. We don’t hear a lot about her story, and perhaps it is because she is a woman. Her sacrifice can be favorably compared to Abraham’s in its gravity. Because of her sacrificial actions and faithfulness, she is partly responsible for the life of Samuel, and all that happened through his life and afterwards. Samuel plays a pivotal role in the story of God’s people, and the establishment of the house of David. If she had not been so faithful, God would have accomplished God’s purposes another way. But the point is she was faithful, and therefore helped God in the advancement of the story of the people of God, and the working out of God’s plan.
I urge you to read her story and find out just what she did. It is not long, and it has quite a bit of family drama. May we learn from Hannah, and expect that God will need us to be faithful in some way of God’s choosing.    O God of history, help us listen for the ways you are still calling people to be faithful, in whatever ways you require of us. Give us a generous heart, like Hannah’s, so we may share whatever is necessary to do your work, and help accomplish your purposes for us all. We are thankful for the love you have for each of us, so that you want to include us in this great adventure.    Amen.       PEACE