If He laid down His life for us, is it not the least we can do to lay down ours for Him? If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not to be willing to take it up for him?Dwight Lyman Moody
What does it mean to “take up the cross?” He adds “and follow me.” Am I really following him? He loved and related to all people. He ate with tax collectors (who were hated by the people); did not rebuke a woman who was unclean for touching him. He went against the grain for his time. How are we doing?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, so many are outcast s in our own time. Even naming them can set us off. Help us to follow you more closely and learn to love even the people we now shun. Amen
We come up with wonderful plans for Lent. We decide to pray more, do more, give more. And then we slip. One day goes by without us doing what we planned. Don’t worry about it. Pick up the next day and just keep on. We are imperfect. God is aware of our failings. He forgives us. Get up and keep going.
Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and Lent is here. We have always heard about giving up things for lent but it is also time to take something on. Make a decision to add something that helps others. Each day I like to choose something in my home that can help someone else…… things that can be given away to charity. I put them aside to be donated at the end of Lent.
What a sad life it must be….believing in nothing. Our link to the divine brings us closer to the world we live in. It helps us see the beauty in everything around us. How can you live without this?
Too often we think about love as an emotion. When we love there are times when we do feel an emotion surrounding it but that is not all there is. Love is what we choose. Love is what we do. The emotion may not be forefront but the choice and the doing always are.
Worry. Something that I mastered a long time ago. I turn things over to God and then pick them back up. We have to remember that God can handle anything and he is with us every moment. Worry does nothing. Let God handle it.
Today I want to share another hymn that is special to me. The words speak to me when I sing it. Truly God is calling each of us to follow. He wants us abandon our selfish ways and follow him. He want us abandon the things that are holding us back. Come, he says, I am waiting.
This is a favorite version as it uses the Spanish (and English) and is played in that style. It doesn’t have all the verses but is beautiful.
Lyrics:
You have come down to the lakeshore
Seeking neither the wise nor the wealthy,
But only asking for me to follow.
Sweet Lord, you have looked into my eyes,
Kindly smiling, you’ve called out my name.
On the sand I’ve abandoned my small boat;
Now with you, I will seek other seas.
You know full well what I have, Lord;
Neither treasure nor weapons for conquest,
Just these my fishnets and will for working.
Sweet Lord, you have looked into my eyes,
Kindly smiling, you’ve called out my name.
On the sand I’ve abandoned my small boat;
Now with you, I will seek other seas.
You need my hands, my exhaustion,
Working love for the rest of the weary,
A love that’s willing to go on loving.
Sweet Lord, you have looked into my eyes,
Kindly smiling, you’ve called out my name.
On the sand I’ve abandoned my small boat;
Now with you, I will seek other seas.
You who have fished other waters;
You, the longing of souls that are yearning;
O loving Friend, you have come to call me.
Sweet Lord, you have looked into my eyes,
Kindly smiling, you’ve called out my name.
On the sand I’ve abandoned my small boat;
Now with you, I will seek other seas.
I think this is the perfect time to center on a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am sure that Christ had no plan to be the most important person the world has ever known. His plan was to teach us about his father and how to live our lives. Each of us has a choice each day to live as Christ taught us. What is right is always the thing to do. We don’t know what the impact of that choice will be. It doesn’t matter.
God
I don’t stop
Hear God in Other Voices 