We'd appreciate you allowing the use of cookies. They are anonymized while allowing us to see how the site is used.

Devotion.al

Tag: relationship

  • Blessings and Love

    Ecclesiastes 4:4–8, Ecclesiastes 5:8–17, Luke 12:13–21
    “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” —John Wesley

    Money and all that it can get a person is what drives so much. The worst aspects of capitalism are very visible, and rightly so. The media (capitalistic endeavors) are quick to question many with money. However, not all are questioned equally. Even as certain capitalistic practices are in the spotlight, still others are being hidden or ignored. Capitalism, despite being the current target, isn’t the only one with severe gaps of power.

    The wisdom of Ecclesiastes warns that those that pursue money/wealth/power may find themselves to be very lonely people, without companion, children or grandchildren. In this day and age, people consciously make that decision. When Ecclesiastes was written, this was really a huge insult and failure. The family was the primary social group. If you didn’t have a family and seemed to have chosen a path to not have one, you were letting down your parents, ancestors, and tribe. For such people, the value of all the work, all that life working, is lost in an instant. Despite all the wisdom, including secular and other religions, a shiny coin (proverbially) will lead people down a path away from people and God. They miss a lot of the Very Good Life. Very Good Life involves people. Of course, people also can be painful to live with. So, money often becomes a substitute relationship, for it doesn’t emotionally hurt you.

    When Jesus speaks to the man about his inheritance, it is not a matter of justice, but a matter of wealth. Obviously, there were some family issues that needed to be resolved. The inheritance was just a sign of the problem. The man had confused gain (wealth) with something completely different. This is why Jesus talks about the landowner who had had a successful crop. The landowner’s first response wasn’t, “Praise God!” It was, “horde more!” It is not that great crops and riches are bad, it is where they fit into our relationship with God and people. In verse 20, Jesus says, “…whose will they be?” The echo of Ecclesiastes is there. “No one you cared for will receive it,” could be said, “because you cared for no one other than yourself.”

    1) Have you ever made a decision of money or power or influence over people? If you say no, then you might want to reconsider (we all do it to some degree). If yes, what was that decision? Did you evaluate the decision based on people or something else?

    2) Throughout history, there have been people who have had no companion to love. How do you see yourself in such people? Do you know anyone like this? How can you love them?

    3) How do you balance God’s blessings (including those you worked for) in comparison to seeking more?

  • All To Be Reconciled

    Genesis 4:1–17, Ezekiel 33:10–20

    Cain is often portrayed as the human embodiment of evil. In popular media, he’s the ultimate bad guy. Which makes sense. Cain invented murder. Yet, Cain lived. Later, the rules would be set, he would be dead according to the penalties, but for this time and age, he lived. What about the “mark” of Cain? Some people have drawn from Revelation what that symbol could look like. It must have been pretty significant for it to be instantly recognized. We focus on a lot of that, but perhaps we ought to focus on something slightly different. God’s grace.

    Where is God’s grace in this? Cain’s protection. Cain being able to, in some way, move on with his life. Cain was able to have a family, and even began to be settled. This not the story of a man on the run, but the story of a man who did a horrible wrong, but was yet a recipient of God’s grace and protection.
    We don’t know the story behind the story. Was Cain’s relationship with God reconciled? The Bible doesn’t say. John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews don’t have much confidence in Cain’s rehabilitation, but nothing is impossible with God.

    The reason this matters is summed up in the words of Ezekiel. God doesn’t want anyone to not be reconciled. Bad men become righteous. Just like Adam and Eve, however, good can become bad because of a choice made. We forever are stuck with the consequences of the choices we have made. However, those choices do no prevent us from approaching God.

    1) What are some of the worst choices you ever made? How did they affect your relationships with others and your relationship with God?

    2) Do you think it is possible (regardless of likely) that God showed Cain grace? Why or why note?

    3) Thinking of Ezekiel’s words, what is the flip (or possibly negative) side of God’s grace?

  • Wednesday after Easter

    Genesis 1:24–2:1, Genesis 3:6–13, Psalm 11, Matthew 6:22–23

    Up through verse 25, God’s creative acts end with the epithet, “…God saw that it was good.” Then God made mankind. With the completion of that act, “…God saw that it was very good.” The word very can also be translated as exceedingly. Look around. Do we look exceedingly good? Our wars, our violence, our hatred, our favoritism, our biases, our brokenness. Exceedingly good? It is indeed true that our issues are not as God intended. Creation with the advent of humankind was very good. Then humanity lost it all.

    “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.” -Obi-Wan Kenobi*

    Eve saw. Adam witnessed. Their eyes “were opened.” Obi-Wan Kenobi was very wise in sharing with his young disciple about how our eyes do indeed deceive us. Illusionists and magicians are very much aware of this. If you’ve ever had motion sickness, it is often a result of a disconnect between your eyes and your inner-ear (or your stomach). Your eyes give your body a signal, and the rest of your body disagrees.

    Yet, we have many phrases (like Thomas) such as, “I’ll believe it with my own eyes.” It’s as if we think our eyes are more “honest” or “true” than another’s. There is also the reality that often what we see is not the whole story. Most people now believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun. It wasn’t that long ago that people believed that a chariot pulled the Sun through the sky or some other similar mythology. They based their conclusions upon what they saw.

    Now, this could easily end up being a wild goose trip, if we let it. This is where both Psalm 11 and Jesus’ words in Matthew come in. The physical aspect of our eyes is one thing. Our eyes “lead” to our soul. While the serpent’s deceit and Eve’s (along with Adam’s) pride to “be like God,” definitely are part of the picture, Eve “saw” the apple. If we look at the 10 Commandments, much of it involves vision to some degree.

    God sees all we do. Our eyes deceive us in that we don’t see God, so he must not see us (the sinner’s version of peek-a-boo). When Jesus warns us about the relationship between our eyes and our souls, it is because of how our eyes will often draw us away from the True desire of our souls…a deep and abiding relationship with God.

    1) We often look to others and compare ourselves to them. How does that lead us away from the Very Good Life?

    2) Our culture is very visual. Advertisers and media companies are aggressively pursuing our eyeballs. How should Jesus’ words influence our response? How does that reinforce Jesus’ words?

    3) The original sin has a symbol…an apple and a snake. Our salvation has a symbol…the cross. The church as #framily has a symbol…the cup and bread. What other symbols can you think of that evoke a powerful response?

    *GEEK ALERT! Just in case you don’t know the reference, this is from the movie Star Wars: A New Hope.

  • Bargain Making

    Genesis 22:15–18, Isaiah 48:17–49:4

    Promises. Promises.

    God is faithful and true and fulfills his Word. If someone who does not trust God nor believe that God fulfills his Word were to compare the passage in Genesis to Isaiah 48:17–19, would they come to the same conclusion? We would like to think so. From a perspective of logic, one can see that Abraham’s descendants didn’t fulfill their end of things. We see that from a spiritual side, too.

    It the relational difference between these two passages. Abraham has shown his faithfulness. The Israelites have shown their faithlessness.

    This is where God’s faithfulness, and God’s fulfilling of his Word comes in. It is, in many ways, where God’s promise to Abraham outweighs the failures of Abraham’s descendants.

    The Israelites are condemned to rot in bondage. That could be the message. After all, they did abandon Abraham’s God for godless idols of wood and metal. Their relationship with God was transactional at best, and more along the lines of reluctant.

    Sadly, not much has changed. We hear stories about people making transactional bargains with God, and lives transformed. We also hear about bargains that God did not fulfill and people are mad at God as a result. If one makes a bargain with God, that doesn’t make it a relationship. In many cases, it is less relational than handing money to the cashier and getting your change back. In the case of bargains made, whether fulfilled or not, the true relationship is when we allow God to transform us, and we partner with God in that transformation.

    1) Have you ever tried to bargain with God? What about? What was the result?

    2) Have you ever prayed to God about a need or desire? What about? What was the result?

    3) What is the difference between a bargain and a prayer? Which sounds more like the Living Water of Jesus Christ, and which one sounds more like burdens and chains?

  • Long Roads Together

    Genesis 22:1–18, Isaiah 45:11–17, Matthew 4:1–11

    Genesis has many passages in it that Christians, Jews, and non-believers stumble over. Often it is our own pride, and sometimes it is us looking back upon those “backward and ignorant” people, with all our knowledge and obviously “better” culture. This passage in Genesis (22:1–18) is often one of the hard ones, as God calls upon Abraham to sacrifice his only son of his wife Sarah. This appears problematic as God later condemns such human sacrifice. It is to result in the death penalty. Yet, God still calls for it. The easy answer is that God was “just” testing Abraham. God already knew that a ram would be provided. If so, to us it is a cruel test. To Abraham and the cultures around him, it was still cruel, but it was part of god worship (note, not God worship). We also have to understand that Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham regarding descendants. God requested that Abraham kill the very legacy (so it seemed) that God had promised.

    The harder answer, but perhaps more Christian answer is that Abraham was foreshadowing God the Father. God made a request of Abraham, the God the Father would completely fulfill generations later. God would sacrifice the Son for all of humanity. God’s only Son. The Son, part of the Trinity, would be born as man, so that mankind would become the legacy intended if sin had not come. As Isaiah speaks from God, righteousness stirred up. The holy city (a place of relationship with God) rebuilt. The exiles (those separated from God) set free, but not by money or exchange of goods. Then Isaiah says that Israel will be saved by God. The only true savior is God. With God being the savior, salvation is eternal. God becomes incarnate. God is with us (Emmanuel).

    Even as God with us, Jesus walks our road. The temptations that Jesus faced in the desert are common to mankind (survival, security, pride/power). Since Jesus walked with us and Jesus is God, humanity and God became united in a way that Abraham could never have imagined, and Isaiah couldn’t fully comprehend. Even we really cannot fully comprehend it, and we (through the church) have had a long time to figure it out.

    1) During his temptations, Jesus says, “Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,” quoted Deuteronomy 8:3. If Jesus is the word (John 1:1–3), and Jesus is the bread, how does that cause you to rethink Jesus’ answer?

    2) God called on Abraham to sacrifice his legacy. How can God call on us to sacrifice our legacy for an even greater legacy?

    3) How can we discern when God is asking us to sacrifice our legacy, versus calling on us to sacrifice our pride?

  • Welcomed To The Table

    Genesis 12:1-7, Ruth 2:13–19, Job 31:24–32

    For many of us (if not most), the call of Abram (who would become Abraham) doesn’t seem that significant from a strictly human perspective. Yes, any of us would find being called by God significant, but the calling away from relatives and land is not so strange. This is not the case here. There is a relationship with the land. The land of one’s ancestors. There is also the concept of leaving one’s family.

    American culture, especially Western American culture, has some significant breaks with the culture of Abram. The settler and/or explorer mentality which underlies much of American founding is not conducive to family roots, or least always staying near home. America celebrates individuality and individual freedom to culturally understand what God is having Abram do. The only exception to this break had been agricultural families, but with the increasing transformation from family to corporate farms, even that is going away.

    Abram was separated from his family and land by choice. Yes, it was God’s direction, but in his culture, leaving was a big break. While he had his household, he was now a household of wanderers. Where is home for such wandering group? By leaving the ties of the land, Abram would now effectively be a guest wherever he went.

    Ruth was the same. Yes, she had married an Israelite, but he was dead. She didn’t have to leave her homeland. However, in her heart she had made a decision that her husband’s family was truly her own, breaking her family ties. What made her decision even more significant was that all that was left of her husband’s immediate family was his widowed mother. Not much of a family structure for support. Now that Ruth and Naomi were back in Israelite land, Ruth was now responsible for both. By the grace of God, she fell into the care of Boaz, a distant relative. Boaz welcomed her above and beyond a servant. He truly welcomed her to his table to eat. She had no functional value to him, yet he welcomed her.

    And welcoming others to the table is what Job did, too. He was righteous in this. It wasn’t that he had a long line of people that would take advantage of this ( strong cultural taboo against it), so turning people away likely didn’t happen. He welcomed people to the table.

    1) Abram was a guest. Why would other landowners welcome him to their table? Why might they not?

    2) Culturally, much of American culture has turned away from welcoming strangers (hospitality). Why do you think that is? When do you think it started to change?

    3) Generations Community Church (along with the Church of the Nazarene) practices “Open Communion.” How does that apply to Abram, Ruth, and Job? How do Abram, Ruth, and Job apply to “Open Communion?”

  • Drawing Waters of Salvation

    Isaiah 12:2–6, Jeremiah 31:31–34, Luke 22:14–20

    Isaiah is often not filled with much encouragement. This particular “song”, however, is a pronouncement of the saved telling the unsaved that they can be saved.

    Isaiah starts out with his salvation, and that his relationship with God is sound. He then tells the wayward hearer that they will joyfully (note they are miserable) draw water of their salvation. Then they will sing praises to God. Springs of salvation, or could we say Living Water? What do you think?

    Water is life. This is a special truth in the desert, where water is scarce. From a scriptural standpoint, blood is the life of a creature. Thus when we come to communion, we are to consider both the aspect of blood as life (Jesus’ blood) and water as life (Jesus is the living water). When Isaiah speaks about the spring of salvation, it is reasonable to see a foreshadowing of communion.

    With its darker tone (the blood of Jesus), it is also easy to see that this is not quite what had happened before, yet had similar attributes to the sacrificial practices of the Israelites. When Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant, there is little chance that the Israelites would have expected how that covenant would come to be. That this new covenant also changes how the “law” worked would also be beyond expectation. How would the Israelites “know” God’s law? It is not until the Holy Spirit is fully expressed that an understanding of this new way of the law fully revealed. There is also a special promise in Jeremiah’s New Covenant speech. If we all know God’s law, and have to be neither taught nor teach (admonish) others. Looking at the world around us, and our own lives, the only way that happens is if we fully yield ourselves to God. Yielding ourselves to God often starts with the simple acknowledgment that we cannot fully understand God.

    The disciples didn’t fully understand God, and they spent 3 years with Jesus! Have you heard, if only Jesus were here, we’d get the real/whole story, and we’d understand (or even believe). If his disciples who were with him (even one going so far as to betray him) for years didn’t get it, would we be any more likely? With our post-Enlightenment and scientific tendencies, we might be even less likely to understand! Even Judas Iscariot (the betrayer) up to this point didn’t get what this specific night meant for the future. They were just celebrating Passover with Jesus.

    When we celebrate communion (a sacrament), we become participants in this last meal.

    Instead of the usual questions at the end (besides, there were plenty of questions already), we will end with Book of Common Prayer, Contemporary Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Lent:

    Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world:
    Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him;
    who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
    one God, now and for ever. Amen.

    US Book of Common Prayer, 2007

  • False Sacraments

    Joshua 22:9–34, 1 Samuel 2:12–17, Psalm 40

    What’s for dinner?

    In other denominations, Fridays in Lent are meat-free. No steak or burgers. No bacon. Oddly, due to the latin root “carno” (i.e., carnivore), fish isn’t a “meat”. So, fish Friday it is. If you’ve ever gone out to dinner on a Friday, there is always clam chowder. This originates from the Roman Catholic tradition of not have fish on any Friday. After Vatican II (a revision of the Roman Catholic ways), fish Friday became a thing only during Lent, like today. So, what’s for dinner, again?

    Why ask this? Did you know about the reasons why clam chowder on Fridays? Some geographic areas follow this same observation, but often don’t know why. It just is. There are a lot of “that’s the way it is.” Do we ever wonder why? Let’s unpack this together a little. Our supermarkets full of pork, beef, chicken, fish are an historical anomaly. Sheep, goats, beef (okay, not pork for Israelites) were not part of the normal diet. Such meat was eaten as either part of the sacrifice (hence the deep sin of Eli’s sons) or a celebration. Both of these events have a deep tie to worship and thanksgiving to God. While in the early church, eating such meats (beef, sheep, goat, etc.) was still not a regular practice, it was decided that to honor Good Friday throughout the year, meat (i.e., flesh) was not eaten in honor of God (Jesus) who died in the flesh.

    How we approach Fridays in Lent, Good Friday, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas is very important. Even secular holidays are important in how we observe them. As Christianity fades from our culture, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, and other Christian observances, how we mindfully observe them becomes critical, for it becomes our witness. How the culture raises other observances into almost a sacramental view is important for us to understand. It is because something is missing.

    When the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built their alter it was a sort-of good thing. It was a hedge against being forbidden from worshipping at the Tabernacle. That sounds smart until you think through the heart. They didn’t trust their fellow Israelites. For some reason, there was already an emotional barrier in place. The heart of worship is supposed to be God. The sacrifice is an act to remind us of God’s grace. When a culture raises things to the point of God-relational act (such as sacrifice or worship), it becomes a secular holy thing. It wasn’t that long ago, that the Super Bowl was the event of the year. Yet, because it really isn’t important (sorry, football fans), it loses its shine. Something else will replace it. When the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh build this altar they effectively declared that the altar defined their relationship with God. They even put it in God-honoring language that the remaining Israelites bought into.

    So, what does this have to do with dinner? There are many things (habits and traditions) we do that we are not even aware of, or are so accustomed to that to not do them seems wrong. To most of us, fish Friday is not a religious act of devotion, yet it remains one for others. Eli’s sons didn’t care about the sacrifice, but more about the choice food. The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar that their descendants became entrapped and confused (in regards to worshipping and relating to God). As we approach a discussion of sacraments and legacy, sometimes our legacy can be false sacraments we left behind.

    1) Think of a normal worship service (whichever you attend). What’s one thing, that if removed, would keep you from feeling as if you were truly worshipping God?

    2) Spiritual Disciplines often can become actions we do, but have no life. What spiritual disciplines do you practice? How do they give you life?

    3) If you chose to abstain from something during Lent, have you been consistent? If not, why not? If so, have you experienced and changes or had significant reflections?

  • Rock Stories

    Rock Stories

    Joshua 4:1–13, Jeremiah 10:11-13

    A pile of rocks. What is this supposed to mean, exactly? Thanks for the field trip to the river. It’s a pile of rocks. I can make my own at home.

    How we connect the past to today is essential to passing forward history. If we make it boring and dry, some of it might stick, but most won’t. An enthusiastic teacher might be slightly more successful than the boring teacher, but it is still connecting it that matters. If the dry or enthusiastic sharing of facts doesn’t connect, should we just be quiet? Probably not. Only by sharing is there any hope at all of passing it on.

    So, then what? Story. Even the family stories that make a person roll their eyes. Some have probably heard (or even said), “I used to walk 2 (or more) miles to school uphill (uphill is important) both ways in knee-deep (or deeper) snow.” There might be some wind in there, too. Some of you probably smiled or groaned. Sounds familiar? As a child it might indeed have seemed forever to walk, the snow too deep, and the wind too cold. A re-walk of those exact steps as an adult is a completely different perspective. It’s the story that connects.

    At some point, it seems the pile of rocks pulled from the middle of a raging river, during flood stage, yet walking on dry ground, lost its magic. Did the Israelites during the time of Judges forget? Did somebody move the stones? How could the symbol of God’s amazing act turn into something boring? Easy. We can take a mirror and reflect our culture. History (except for a few) has become part of the dusty books on the back shelf. We’re not talking knowing all the amazing, angering, distressing, heart-wrenching stories, for who can know them all? We are talking about a common understanding of the way of things. Instead of common culture, we now have facts. And before one tears down the media or education, this is a long-germinating issue. It’s over a century, at this point.

    Christianity, with its own and longer history, has the same issue. We have to start sharing our God-encounter stories with each other. Whether the story is large or small, it is our story with God at the center that needs to be shared. When we all develop a culture of sharing our God encounter stories, they stop being strange or odd. It becomes no longer uncomfortable to share. There is a caveat, however. The stories have to be shared in relationship. If you walk up to another person, even someone at church, without a developed relationship, the story will seem awkward, and will likely fall flat.

    1) What story from American (or your country of origin) history do you remember? What about that story connects with you?

    2) What God-centered story from a fellow Christian do you remember? What about that story connects with you?

    3) Have you ever shared a God-centered story with a non-Christian? Why? What was the occasion? Did it connect with them? Why or why not?

  • Out of Line Annunciation

    Job 28:12–28, Luke 1:24–45, Hebrews 10:4–10

    It is often the case that humanity has to confront reality. Humanity is quite foolish. When confronted by its own folly, humanity tries to hide it in so many ways. While searching for knowledge and wisdom, it analyzes and categorizes. Humanity can only be so knowledgeable and so wise. True knowledge and wisdom come from the one who created everything, including us. Part of the issue may be that we expect God to be predictable. Somehow, we seem to think that we are capable of understanding God. Perhaps that is the legacy of the decision made in the Garden of Eden. Faith is often not understanding, but accepting anyway.

    Elizabeth and Mary were in that exact situation. They didn’t completely understand, but they trusted God anyway. It probably seems strange that in the midst of Lent to talk about the Announcement of Jesus’ birth, but timing is pretty close (though not exact). While on the journey to the cross, we include the beginning. There is indeed an echo of a beginning in the end. Lent is the journey to the cross, which is basically the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. On the other hand, the cross along with the Resurrection is the beginning of a completely new chapter in regards to a relationship with God. Why not talk about the announcement of the coming Messiah. Oh, right, God moved (again) in a way that humanity couldn’t just categorize and analyze. The announcement of Jesus, along with his birth was not “how it was supposed to be”. God broke the rules, again. The rules? Human understanding and wisdom that is far short of God.

    The author Hebrews recognizes that humanity often doesn’t get it. The author reflects on the sacrificial system that is so superficial that it ignores the whole point: relationship with God. The sacrificial system was never intended to be a “check this as done” system, but an orientation to God that was really to recognize the distance that man had put between itself and God. In its quest to categorize and analyze, humanity destroyed the wisdom that God had presented.

    1) When was the first time that you recognized that God did not respond the way you expected or were taught to expect?

    2) Why is it important to remember that our wisdom is not God’s wisdom?

    3) What does the announcement of Jesus’ coming and the journey to the cross teach you about God’s wisdom