Category: daily devotions

The fern is green!

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Outside of my house I can see the resurrection ferns growing on the oak trees. I love having this reminder of how life can come from death. When things are dry and there is little rain it turns brown and looks dead. Then the rains come and it rises green. I remember the hymn “Now the Green Blade Riseth” and the fern is proof of that.

resurrection fern

J. M. C. Crum
The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 311

Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

Yes! Love lives again. Thanks be to God! AMEN

Learn to use your trials

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A gem cannot be polished without friction nor a man perfected without trials. —-Chinese proverb

We all bemoan the trials that we go through. We wish that life could be easy with no bumps in the road. However, it is the trials that help to make us, not only beautiful, but useful in God’s eyes. It is the trials that help us to understand the pain of others. Learn from the trials so that you can be used by God to help others.

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Miraculous God, you don’t cause our trials to happen but you want us to use them to bring about your kingdom. AMEN

Let go

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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –———Lao Tzu

We spend a lot of time concerned with ourselves. It is a natural things to do but what if we didn’t? What if we let go of ourselves and just let God be in charge. I think it would be amazing what would happen. What would we be like? Why don’t we try it?

just let go

Incredible God, help us to let go and let you! AMEN

Two simple (not simple or rules) rules

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God always required something deeper than religious legalism.—-Eric Metaxas in Bonhoeffer.

In Christianity we have many different denominations. I grew up in several of them. I was expected to learn about each and understand what I had to do to be a part of the belief. As a youth I saw them as the rules of belonging. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that many of these tenets were created to keep the lines of a certain denomination clear….to set it apart from the others. This gave me difficulty.

As an adult, the rules I want to follow are not really rules but a way of life. The life that Jesus led and the one that he wants us to follow. He told us how..Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. …Love your neighbor as yourself. These are the only ones we must try our best to follow.

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Discerning God, help us to live as you would have us live..to follow your example in all that we do. AMEN

Gather

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Where a people prays, there is the church, and where the church is, there is never loneliness.-————-Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

When we pray together God joins in. We call upon him and he hears. This joining of voices, prayers, intentions and cohesion is truly the church. When this happens we are definitely part of the whole…..complete. We are definitely not alone.

gather

Consuming God, you have promised that where two or more of us are gathered you are there. Help us to meet and join our prayers with those of others. AMEN

 

 

 

Can we be inclusive?

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It is important to remember that if we take as our model of the church the hospitality extended to the stranger, it can in no way be a community of like-minded friends but must have at its very heart the inclusion of the others, the different.————Sallie McFague in Models of God.

Too often if someone appears at our church who is radically different from us we choose not to welcome them. We are called to do the opposite. Do we include those dressed poorly, someone obviously homeless or anyone else who doesn’t seem to fit?

inclusion

Inclusive God, we are your creation and we are all yours. Help us to remove our fears and welcome all to our worship. AMEN

Be present

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Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.
Sometimes you have to watch for things that will inspire you.There are things that will feed your soul but we can miss them if we don’t pay attention. Be present in everything.

God of beauty, help us to be present in every moment. AMEN

God with us

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God is not distant at the cross and God is not distant in the grief of the newly motherless at the hospital; but instead, God is there in the messy mascara-streaked middle of it, feeling as shitty as the rest of us. There simply is no knowable answer to the question of why there is suffering. But there is meaning….We want to go to God for answers but sometimes what we get is God’s presence. ——————–Nadia Bolz -Weber

God promises that he will be with us always and he will!

never leave you

Ever-present God, thank you being with us throughout our entire lives. AMEN

A radical?

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Jesus, I found, bore little resemblance to the Mister Rogers figure I had met in Sunday school, and was remarkable unlike the person I had studied in Bible college. For one thing, he was far less tame. ————-Philip Yancey in “The Jesus I Never Knew”

Someone once said to my husband “Jesus was a conservative.” My husband replied “he was so conservative he got himself crucified.” I really don’t know the story of anyone less conservative than Jesus. He ate with tax collectors, touched women (taboo) and didn’t follow anyone’s rules. I am sure he wishes we could learn to be as open and loving as he was.

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Radical Jesus, you followed only the image of God’s kingdom and want us to help bring it to fruition. Help us to see that. AMEN

Don’t forget to play!

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Play is not an escape; it is the way to release the life-smothering grip of busyness, stress, and anxiety….(It is) a modern expression of hope, a celebration of the flickering light of the gospel that plays with the dark by pouncing on the surrounding darkness like a cat toying with a mouse.—————Michael Yaconelli in Dangerous Wonder

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I love the image of the light of the gospel pouncing on the darkness like a cat. Play is important to our health as human beings and an expression of the joy that God has given us. Play is NOT wasted time. Be sure to find ways to be playful like that cat and enjoy it.

Unexpected God, you have gifted us with the ability to play and seek out joy. Remind us how important it is. AMEN