What will you be when you grow up?

Did you ever wonder what you were going to be when you grow up? Some of us are probably still wondering what we will be when we grow up. We dream about being astronauts, or firemen or women, or police men or women, or the President of the United States. Maybe we wanted to be a carpenter, or a brick layer. My brother wanted to be a garbage man because the trucks were really cool. Or at least that is what he thought when he was 7.

We all have dreams and wonder about what our lives will be. In todays lesson Jeremiah hears, as we hear too, the call of God on his life. God says to all of us, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Before you were born I knew you, God says to you. You are consecrated as a prophet not just to your people, but to the nations, to everyone. And to this Jeremiah (just as all of us would) balks, “but I am just a boy and subject to my parents, what can I do, I can not even speak.”

And then God gives the most important words from this passage. “I have touched you and put my words in you, you will go where I send you and say what I give you. I will be with you and always guide you as my hands and feet.” God told Jeremiah he was in control, and knew what was going to happen. Can we trust God, to follow where he leads and not where we want? Can we trust God to give us the words to say and not speak what we know is right or true?

Dear daddy God, help us to trust you as a baby trusts his parents, for everything. Help us to give you our lives knowing that you have our lives in your hands, and that is the best place they can be. Amen.

Dwell and rest

What do I have to do today?  Where is the to do list so I can get started?  I need to accomplish the first 10 things on my list before noon…

Been there?  Sound like you this morning?  or every morning?

We are in a hurry up and get it done society.  We have easy macaroni and cheese, and easy hot dogs for crying out load!  It has to be quick, and if it takes longer than 30 seconds, it is too long…

Psalm 91:1 says “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

God calls us into a intimate relationship with him.  He has called us to come and dwell with him, to sit and rest in the shadow he casts.  Now to rest takes longer than 30 seconds, and dwelling is something we have to stop everything else we are doing to do.  To dwell means to live in and not be concerned about anything else.  To dwell with the lord and to rest in him means we are giving up everything else we are doing or thinking about, even the stuff we think we have to do to be religious, and just sit and be with him!

We need to chill out with God and allow him to overtake us, and be with us.  Give it up to God and rest in his shadow!

For God so Loved…

My devotions for today included the gospel reading of John 3:16-21…

Of course we all know John 3:16 – For God so loved the World that He sent His only Son…  We see it at sporting events, and every where.  This is one of the verses that almost everybody knows, but do any of us really get it?  I for the longest time was hung up on the loved.  This is an aorist tense.  To be specific it is a 3rd person singular Aorist Active Indicative.  And you are probably saying, “I would be hung up on that to…”  No really this says something important for the love of God. This means at one point in the past God loved you so much that he did something that still has effect on you today, and will forever.  At one point God loved you and that love has effected your life since that point and it will always effect your life.  That point for me has always been the cross.  Where Jesus died for me.  Now we could argue from Jeremiah that it was the point in time that God consecrated us as a prophet to the nations.  The point in time He knew us before he formed us in our mother’s womb.

But here is something new that I have discovered from John 3:16.  The world. For God so loved the World.  Not you. Not me.  He loved the world.  And not just any world.  He loved τον κοσμον.  The world in John is that which hates God (see 16:33, 17:9-19), so maybe a better translation of this verse would be “For God so Loved the God hating world that he sent his only son.”  And he did not ask us about is.  He did not ask our permission to love us.  He loved us, even when he could not because of our sin.  He loved us even though he knew we would not follow where he lead us.  He loved us regardless of how we would react.  God loves us whether we like it or not.

I’ll end here with a quote from David Lose, “God’s judgment is revealed: God loves this world, even the God-hating world that crucified the Lord of glory. At this place in our Lenten journey, we would do well to pray that by the gift of the untamed Spirit we might perceive in Jesus’ cross God’s redemptive act and in this way be drawn into fellowship with all who dare believe in Jesus and, indeed, the whole world that God loves so much!” Amen.

Nicodemus…

Nicodemus like many sometimes get a bad rap…

He comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness to ask his questions, because he could not risk asking them in the light of day.  He had the thought that Jesus was who he said he was, who the people said he was, but his position as a Pharisee did not allow him to think these things or to question his faith.  Faith is a gift though, and is capable of being pushed and pulled.  Nicodemus followed where his heart was leading.  In out passage for my devotion today, John 2:23-3:15 Nicodemus comes under darkness and leaves under darkness.  In this passage we do not know what happened to Nicodemus, did he get it?  If we read the rest of the gospel of John, we see Nicodemus return, and yes he did get it. His faith progressed and grew over time.  His next appearance in the gospel is defending Jesus in public, saying he needs to have a public trial, and Nicodemus’ next appearance has him with Joseph of Arimathea taking the body of Christ off the cross, and preparing him to be placed in the tomb.  He went from darkness, to standing up for him, to publicly in the light of day helping prepare the dead body, not something a good Jew or Pharisee would be doing, but something a disciple would be.

So ask questions and grow in your faith, knowing that that faith is a gift and the one that gave it to you can take you asking the questions!

Freed to serve…

So why are we here?

Many of us probably wondered this from time to time.  Why are we here?  Are we suppose to do something?  Does somebody have a plan for us?

I am wired that I want to know what I need to do and get it done.  So I want to know what I am suppose to do and get to work. And so many times we hear, we are suppose to serve the poor, we are to help the needy.  So let’s get out there and do it.  Jesus came and showed us that we are to serve.  But here is the kicker in this, how many of us are able and willing to be served ourselves?

You see in order for us to really serve another, we have to be able to first receive service.  We have to be able to receive before we can give…

So you are freed to serve, but in order to do that, you have to open yourself up to Jesus and allow him to serve you.

Gracious Lord, help me to open myself up to you and allow your healing service to take control of my very life.  Live in me and fill me, so that I might be blessed by you and then able to bless others. Amen.

Wandering?

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” Moses told the people.

They had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.  40 years of wandering because they did not trust in the Lord. They built a golden calf and worshipped it, and they did not trust the Lord to give them the land they were about to enter when they first sent spies into investigate.  They were worried and fell back on their own strength rather than trust the Lord.  So they wandered.

But look at this passage again.  They wandered, but had all the food they would need to eat for the day given to them by the Lord.  And they wandered and had no place to buy new clothes, but they did not need that because the Lord made sure their clothing did not wear out and the soles of their sandals did not wear out.  Now I want to know where to get those kinds of threads, and where I might get a pair of shoes that will last for 40 years!

The Lord humbled the people.  He humbled them to know that they should and could trust in the Lord.  It is not enough to say we trust and then when push comes to shove show that we don’t trust the Lord.  The Lord has given us all that we could need, and will give us what ever it is we need.

That is what Lent is about. Remembering the 40 years in the wilderness, and the 40 days that Jesus was tempted, and denying ourselves completely and allowing the Lord to humble us so that we will follow and trust Him always.

So do not live by bread alone, but listen to the Lord, and live and feast on His very word!

Lord, you feed us everyday in ways we can not understand. Help us to be humble and trust in you for everything we need. Amen.

Come and See

“Come and see,” Jesus said to the disciples of John who came after him.  Come and see.  A physical invitation and yet so much more.

How many of us get caught up in the physical aspect of the actual written word, so much that we miss the meaning behind it?

I read a great devotion this morning about this passage.  These disciples asked Jesus where he was staying, and he told them to come and see for them selves.  They went and saw, and then they stayed with Jesus. They physically came and saw and remained with him, and the transformation started and it went from a physical notion to a spiritual one.  And then one of them was so transformed by the experience that they went and got another…

Andrew went and got his brother and told him, “Come and see, we have found the anointed one.” Come and see, come and be changed. Come and allow the transformation over take you.  All of this happens in a few verses, and many of take a lifetime to invite others to come and see the diference Jesus has made in our lives.

So you have come and seen, why have you not invited others to do the same?

What do they see?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13:34–35 ESV)

When the world looks at the church, what do they think?  Are they over come with the amazing grace filled love that they encounter?  Are they taken back by the irrational joy and love they are met with in all of the reactions they have with the church?  The world when they look at the church are just drawn to the supernatural, selfless love that pours out of each member of the Christian church, because there is nothing that compares to this love that flows from God’s throne in the non Christian world…

Yes there are times that this happens.  That God’s love is the one thing that people see when they see the church.  The disciples are out of the way and God’s love shines through and it is so compelling and it draws people in…

But usually when we hear about the church from the world, it is more about schisms, moral failures of leaders and members, political anger, power plays, and all the rest that we have heard. The church is seen as being hypocritical, because it seems like the church wants to judge everyone by a code they themselves are not willing to keep.

But we can not lose heart today. Jesus gave the disciples then a new commandment, and today he is still working it out through us.  During this season of Lent we need to empty ourselves and allow God to have control. We need to walk the path set before us with humility, we need to walk that path in service to others, and in love for the other, because that is how they will know we are His disciples, by our love!

Lord make me an uncluttered channel of your divine grace, mercy and love. Mold me into the person you created me to be, and guide me to be an instrument for your peace!

A prayer for the season of Lent

I pray that we all would clean ourselves of all the unnecessary junk in our hearts and minds, sweep out the cobwebs and dust and dirt the clutters up our lives, and hand that lump of what is left of our lives over to the master potter, and allow him to spin us into the creation he saw before the beginning of time, before he first formed us in our mothers womb.  I pray that God would have total access to our lives and thus give us the true meaning each of us is longing for.