Devotion.al

Tag: presence

  • Whatcha Doing?

    Whatcha Doing?

    Psalm 46; Luke 10:38–42

    It’s a crazy world. There is so much going on. If you live in the States, you know the next election is just around the corner. Although, it seems all of 2020 has been an election year.

    If you are on social media, your “stream” may be flooded with this and that. People arguing over things discussing, just not worth hating. The amount of content created by the end of this year will likely be quadruple the amount of the previous five years.

    There isn’t much that is settled at the moment. In fact, as far as the world around us goes, it seems to get more unsettled every day.

    “God is our refuge…Stop fighting (be still).” Psalm 46 may well be the mantra for 2020. God is our refuge. We just have to stop fighting in our own strength.

    We also cannot allow the world to distract us. It isn’t the government that’s the problem (which everyone, or ones, you don’t like). It isn’t the rioters that are the problem (though many are destructive, while are not). It isn’t even COVID or terrorism or (insert some “global” issue here).

    It’s the . In the story of Mary and Martha, we see the struggle firsthand. Martha is busy. It’s not even that she is busy with bad or wrong things. It’s that Mary chose to be busy with the better “thing”.

    We’re all busy with things. Right now, it would seem that we are best situated to be like Mary. It doesn’t seem to be the case for far too many.

    They are distracted by the bad news, filled with anxiety, filled with anger, feeling the need to (just to do something). They are busy.

    However, many are busy not because they are doing good/right things at the wrong time. They are busy doing non--following things right now.

    ※Prayer※

    As we watch the world seem to spin further into chaos, remind us, God, that you are God, and we are not. Help us to work on being still in your presence. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) What struck you about you in this? Why are “you” more important in this than others?

    2) How will you help be the of Christ’s in a time of anxiety, anger, and ?

  • Money Change

    Money Change

    Luke 7:36–8:3; Luke 24:1–12 (read online ⧉)

    In Jesus’ day, women held a “lesser” societal role. It’s not that they held no role. In Roman culture, women’s roles were actually in somewhat of a cultural disarray as “free” marriage was opposed by Augustus Caesar who wanted a “traditional” male-dominant marriage. Marriage differed between “noble” and “common” people, too.

    In Jewish culture, women did have a lesser role, but today rabbinical tradition holds to matrilineal which is estimated to have begun in Jesus’ lifetime! In other words, “the fathers” that were held in apparent esteem, would no longer be the “line”.

    This means that in the time of Jesus’ ministry, there was likely a lot of turmoil regarding women’s roles in both Roman and Jewish societies. Having named (versus anonymous) women listed as Jesus’ followers could either have been a cultural shock or no great surprise.

    Currently, the general consensus has been that the women’s with Jesus would have been a shocking thing. Yet, even the words of the Sadducees and Pharisees don’t mention the women as followers. In the first of today’s verses, the scandalous (“sinner”) woman was pointed to. Jesus was questioned for pardoning her sins. Her presence didn’t seem overly surprising.

    As Jesus continues his story of the debtor, the gender is irrelevant to God’s grace and mercy. We go from hair being used to wipe feet, a parable of the debtors (), then the jump to the financing of the of Jesus. We learn that women appeared to be the financial backers (or at least the mentioned ones) of the mission. Judas Iscariot may have “held” the purse strings (John 12:6), but he obviously was not the fundraiser.

    These women had all had (apparently) miraculous encounters with Jesus, so they supported Jesus’ ministry. Joanna is culturally the most interesting, as her husband was Herod’s household manager. In some respects, her presence may have caused some to be more hesitant when it came to dealing with Jesus, for who knew what Joanna could have had happen. Perhaps not in reality, but people will invent large stories in their , to justify their inaction.

    According to Luke, Mary Magdalene and Joanna were two of the women (Mary at the grave of Jesus on the Day of . That these two women showed up, which means that they viewed Jesus as family, for they were taking on the role of family caring for the dead.

    The transformation of these 2 women, in particular, is a good lesson. Jesus saved them. They responded in (giving) and following (discipleship). Then they became family (possibly sanctification).  What their role was after that is, sadly, unclear. It may not matter in the . That they allowed Jesus to continue to upend their life is what matters.

    ※Prayer※

    God of our transformation, help us to have hearts of peace as you upend our lives. May our lives be continually transformed so that they can display your . Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) Other than COVID-19 itself and the general upending of all our lives, what is the biggest thing being challenged and changed in your life?

    2) How have you experienced the Holy initiate, transform, and sustain life change?

  • Despairing Flames of Joy

    Despairing Flames of Joy

    Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3; Job 3:1–26 (read online ⧉)

    Let’s be honest, Ecclesiastes is not the most uplifting book of the bible. In many respects, it can be a bigger downer than the story of Job. Both books are generally put under (along with Proverbs) the category of literature.

    Wisdom literature often doesn’t seek (though people search wisdom literature for it). Wisdom literature seeks understanding. That would seem to be the same thing, yet if we look at all the clicks a person makes on their computers or on Facebook, we know things about them, but it does not mean we understand them.

    The hard thing about Ecclesiastes is that the writer (“the Teacher”) is quite willing to confront the darkness of the world, facing it head-on. Most of us would prefer to avoid the darkness of the world, and so such writers make us uncomfortable. This is a good thing.

    It is for times such as this, that wisdom literature may help us. Wisdom literature won’t hand us the cure (whether for disease or human depravity). Wisdom literature can help us step back from our immediate responses and reactions, and help us to develop a framework with which to handle reality.

    Ecclesiastes 3:16 begins with the presence of wickedness where justice and righteousness are supposed to prevail. It is not just with police brutality. It is not just with racism. It is not just with the distribution of wealth. It is not just with misogyny. It is with humanity.

    This is not a paean to make us feel better about ourselves or to deaden anyone’s anger, frustration, pain, or in the drama that is 2020. This might, might, be the straw that finally breaks the camels back, and brings Christianity where it needs to be, on our knees in , supplication, confession, remorse, celebration, and reverence.

    Seems to be an odd mix? That is the beauty of wisdom literature. Conclusions drawn from it, just like in life, are not always easy to put in a .

    As the Teacher seems to envy the dead and the neverborn, Job wishes that the day of his birth had never come. Similar to George in It’s a Wonderful Life, Job believed that it would have been better were he never to have been born. This is often the of despair in our lives, as it was in Job’s.

    “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.” —Ecclesiastes 12:13

    “There is in no one else, for there is no other under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” —Acts 4:12

    Often, it is these two verses that can keep despair at bay. The passage from Ecclesiastes is the conclusion of this book of wisdom. The passage from Acts was Peter’s first public sermon and strong proclamation of the .

    When lost in despair, or tending toward despair, God remains steadfast.

    ※Prayer※

    God, thank you for your steadfast love for all Creation. Help us rely and trust in that. May we look at our fellow humans as people who are looking (whether they know it or not) for the wisdom that only you can provide. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) How is your soul in this turmoil?

    2) How do you view your fellow humans at this point?

    3) How do you attempt to redeem the darkness of yourself and your fellow humans?

  • Falling Down

    Falling Down

    Numbers 11:24–30; Joel 2:27–29; Acts 2:1–21 (read online ⧉)

    Just in case you didn’t know, today is . Some call it the “true” birth of the Church for the Holy fell upon the people of God, and has not left us yet. It is also called Whitsunday, of which part that is white (for purity) and the other is whit (Old English for wit, or wisdom).

    It is not the case that Jesus left us bare. It is the case that Jesus left us with fire. The tongues of flame (whether in Numbers or Acts) were representative of the Holy Spirit and God’s / being active. It is not coincidental that the tongues of flame seen on Pentecost were previously seen in Moses’ time.

    Think of Moses’ words to Joshua in to Joshua’s complaint that 2 elders who dishonored God and Moses spoke via the Holy Spirit, “If only all the LORD’s people were prophets and the LORD would place his Spirit on them!” This also goes hand-in-hand with Joel’s words, “I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity.”

    In all likelihood, you have not seen some with tongues of fire over their heads. You may have witnessed—or been part of a tradition—where people spoke “in tongues”. Neither is required as evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift of God, and is God. Through the guidance (wisdom) of the Holy Spirit, we see the for what they are…the Word of God.

    This is not to say that the Holy Spirit was never present before, quite the contrary. What this means is that the of the Holy Spirit in the church is distinctly different than what is and was present outside of the church. Theologians still try to discern the whys and wherefores of the difference.

    One of the biggest differences is that while the Holy Spirit was generally present (just as today), the Holy Spirit as expressed through prophets was unique to the calling of the prophets. The Pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit was that all received the Holy Spirit expressly, not generally.

    This does not mean that all are gifted with foretelling (often called ) or Truth-telling (also called prophesy, or preaching). The Holy Spirit works in and through each person differently. Your gifting may be quite different than another’s, that does not invalidate either.

    ※ Prayer ※

    Holy Spirit, we thank you for your ongoing gift of yourself to us. Help us to you, God the Father, and Jesus the Son, as we are the church, the bride of Christ, to the world. Amen.

    ※ Questions ※

    1)How would you evaluate/discern whether someone was gifted by the Holy Spirit or by the natural talents they had? What is the difference?

    2) Why is Moses’ story so important in the context of Pentecost? What about Joshua’s response?

    3) Why do you think people thought the disciples of Jesus were drunk? What might their rationale be for how a drunk person would as if a native speaker of their own tongue(s)?

  • Holy Grounding

    Holy Grounding

    Exodus 3:2–6; Exodus 20:22–26; 2 Chronicles 3:1–2 (read online ⧉)

    The concept of “ ground” has a long-standing history. In popular imagination, church buildings and their lands are—by their very nature—holy ground. Whether it was vampires (or other unholy creatures) or Immortals (e.g., Connor MacLeod) or something else, the concept was powerful.

    While popular imagination puts holy ground more in the realm of something magical (or a convenient plot device), it does not deny or invalidate the reality of holy ground.

    So, what could holy ground be? The simplest one is where God says so. The only place where holy and ground are in this way is here in Exodus (This passage is quoted in Acts, so that mention doesn’t count). However, the concept of a place set apart as holy is not unique to this verse.

    Sometimes, as later in Exodus 20:22–26, is a place set aside as holy (in this case, an altar), but it is not, in and of itself, holy ground. Yet, it is.

    The burning bush in Exodus is pretty simple. However, this holy ground, that God said was holy ground…we don’t even know where it is. Perhaps, then, it wasn’t so holy.

    David had a confrontation with God. The place where he offered a to remove his sin, which was causing the destruction of the people, was a threshing floor. It was a place of work.

    Using it, though, for a holy , it became a holy place. So holy, in fact, that the was built there. We know where that place is right now. It wasn’t called holy ground, though.

    What made the former threshing floor holy ground was the acts that would occur there. It wasn’t just praising and worshiping God. It wasn’t just praying to God. It was the place where God “set his foot”. This was the formal Godly residence on earth.

    Just as the (not-so) burning bush (miracle notwithstanding) was holy ground, so were the uncut rocks, or piles of dirt, or a beautiful temple. It wasn’t the place per se that was holy, but the encounters with God that made that space, for a time, holy.

    For generations, for example, the sanctuary of the church was holy ground. As the megachurch rolled in, however, it transformed into a worship center. It’s not that God was not encountered, it was just a in the understanding of how it worked.

    Even now, as we “gather” online, there are places (hopefully) of Godly encounters. They just happen to be rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, other rooms, cars, even backyards. This is one of those things that mystics can teach us…any place is holy when we are knowingly, purposefully, seekingly in the presence of God.

    ※ Prayer ※
    Lord, help us to seek your presence so that we are overwhelmed by your . Help us to find holy ground wherever we are. Amen.

    ※ Questions ※
    1) Other than a church building, what are some other “holy grounds” for you?
    2) What makes a place consistently a holy ground?
    3) Why is it critical to our theology, our with God, and our Christian growth to understand that holy ground is not just at a church building (especially right now)?

  • Throne of Hearts

    Psalm 47; Job 23:3–12; Job 26:2–14; John 1:43–51 (read online ⧉)

    The Stone of Scone is a stone that supposedly all the “legitimate” rulers of Scotland were/are crowned on. After one of the many wars between England and Scotland, the English King Edward I took the stone to England, where it generally remained until 1996 as the coronation “cushion” of the (soon) British Crown. One of the legends of the stone was that when the “real” heir to the Scottish throne was crowned, the stone would groan.

    The legend, of course, probably had more to “prove” that the English nobility had no “true” right to the Scottish crown than anything else. There was also the that the stone’s home was really Scotland, but became the cushion of the usurpers.

    Thrones were/are the symbols of legitimate authority over a or community. There is still plenty of royalty who on thrones. As monarchies die off and lose their importance, thrones have been replaced.

    In the States, the Oval Office could be considered at least a throne room. If you were to look at the arrangements of the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court, you will see similarities between the chairs of leaders and thrones. That isn’t by chance.

    We seek throne rooms and thrones. Not always for ourselves, but to understand who is in charge, and often who we can blame.

    Job seeks the throne of God to plead his case (another reason people seek thrones). Job believes that were he only to get there and plead his case, everything would get better.

    Job defends or describes God with many positive terms and observations of God’s . Yet, Job talks about God obscuring the throne. This could be an observation, however, where it is among Job’s words, it is likely a complaining observation (God is making it hard to find him).

    With God, though, while it may seem while God is far away or hidden, it is often our hearts that are truly far away. Job’s story is not about God’s lack of , it is more about Job’s faith.

    We see just how close God is to us through the life of Jesus. Jesus calls people into his presence. His throne is with him at all times. Jesus drew people to him that dismissed on the very outset (such as Nathanael). Sometimes the throne we are seeking is right there next to us, but we are looking for something that God does not always make known the way we want God to. God’s throne could be the sun, the Milky Way, the person next to you, in your and soul.

    The last “throne room”, though, is the one we like the least. It often reminds us of how small we are. It also reminds us of how spiteful or petty we are. That’s not the throne room we are looking for. It is also the throne room that tells us that we have far to go; we are not there yet.

    Prayer

    Dear Heavenly , help us to see the throne you occupy in our lives. May we see your majesty and royalty. Jesus, thank you for the cleansing work in our lives, help us to keep the Godly throne room in our hearts and souls clean. Spirit, guide our work so that we do it all for God’s and not our own. Amen.

    Questions

    1) How do you envision a throne room?

    2) If you had to choose the most important throne room of the world, where would it be? Who would be in it? (Note: context of the world; God/Jesus is not this answer)

    3) What kind of person draws you closer to them? What does that tell you what you look for in regards to God? What way might that mean you are not looking to God?

  • Calling Others

    Calling Others

    John 6:44–51; Acts 15:12–21; Romans 1:16–25 (read online ⧉)

    One of the hardest things for any believer is the understanding that a one may not be with them in Heaven. Whether one believes in Dante’s 7 circles of Hell, the Hell of endless torment, or the Hell of eternal life “merely” not being in God’s , or the Hell that is interim before the Great Day of Judgement and one’s final decision toward life or annihilation (Revelation 20:11–15) it doesn’t matter insofar as not having that loved one with you in eternal life.

    So, in avoidance of this hard truth, many people have developed a folk theology that there is no Hell and no eternal separation from God. It is not just Christianity that is experiencing it. In face, if one were to boil down the religions of reincarnation (mostly Buddhist and Hindu, but not exclusively), it’s that one is not good enough to not be incarnated so they get to start all over again. It’s not Hell in the Christian sense, but repeating lives until perfection can sound pretty close.

    The hardest part for all of us is the tension that we walk. Most of us aren’t “old school” knocking on our neighbor’s doors and barging into their lives to “save” them. Sometimes we are made to feel guilty because we’re not. Yet, if your neighbors are automatically resistant to Christianity because of a lifestyle choice (for example) that they “know” God “hates”, only time will ever work through that. That being said, one has to be will to work through that time.

    is often the hardest. Oddly enough, we won’t know all the pieces that brought a person to walk away from, ignore, or even hate Jesus and his church, and that’s even when they’re family. Sometimes, even more heart-wrenching is that some of the events that solidified our faith are the very ones that destroyed the faith of . Shared experiences do not necessarily equal the same results (part of the whole nature versus nurture debate).

    It “used to be” so much easier. We would recite a formula (as I look back on it, almost like a magic spell), and people would be saved. Or we’d follow a “road” in the Bible, that “proved” that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no perfect formula nor is there a perfect road that will finally bring people to Jesus, at least not one that works in every time and place, and for every person. The reality is that this often displays a sinful flaw…our desire to be the hero…our desire to save…our desire to be Jesus.

    ‘s words seem rather harsh to our post-modern ears. Some people read them as, “They don’t believe in God? Then to Hell with them!” However, Paul is addressing a fundamental reality, “they” want proof? It’s all around them, and you (personally) will not that perspective. This is when Jesus’ words of calling people to the make the most sense. The Truth is there. People’s hearts have to be open to see the Truth behind the truth. Only God does that.

    Father God, we know only you, through the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, and the power of the Spirit, call people to you. Only you can truly call. Help us to surrender that to you. Help us remember that it is not us. Guide us into the places and conversations that you want us to have, that is part of your calling of others to live in and with you. Amen.

    Questions

    1) What was the most recent conversation with a non-believer like regarding Jesus? When you look back on it, how does that make you feel?

    2) Do you feel responsible for someone else’s decision to follow Jesus? How is it your responsibility? How is it not your responsibility?

    3) Knowing that there is no perfect way to bring people to Jesus, how do you react to that? How does that make you feel in regards to the conversation in question 1?

  • Grace of Perfection

    Psalm 119:9–16; Isaiah 44:1–8; Acts 2:14–24 (read online ⧉)

    The beginning of this passage in Isaiah has an important meaning that is easy to overlook.

    Hear |
    Chosen | Israel
    Do not | Servant
    Chosen | Jeshuran

    At the beginning, it is certainly more direct and imposing. At the second part, though, the tone changes. Hear (or Listen!) becomes do not fear. Israel becomes Jeshuran, a poetic “perfect” Israel. The way of addressing the people goes from formal to informal, some might even say endearing or intimate. Israel is not just someone to be commanded; they are someone intimately, warts and all, and are “perfect” despite their imperfections.

    This loving God then declares that he will pour his spirit into his people! It will be like water filling the desert.

    A fisherman standing up and making a scene was probably not in the top 10 ways expected to have this played out. In a very public sermon, Peter invokes the prophet Joel’s vision, and we can easily see the parallel between Joel’s vision and Isaiah’s.

    In both, God seeks to more than the and the of frailty. God seeks to fill us, upon our acceptance, with the filling us with life .Us being filled by the Holy Spirit can be viewed as the ultimate expression of the intimacy expressed by Israel being called Jeshuran, or us (as the ) being called the Bride of Christ. With the Spirit in us, we should never be unaware of God’s presence in us, and the intimacy that conveys.

    1) When you hear God in you, what goes through your mind?

    2) Have you progressed to the point where it is not just spiritual or intellectual, but both? If not, what could help you get there?