Pieces of the Puzzle

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ~Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)

“Life is not a game we win, and God is not a trophy we merit. No matter how ‘good’ we are, we are not good enough for God. On the other hand, no matter how ‘bad’ we are, we can never be outside of God. We can only hope in each instance to come to such a consciousness of God that no lesser gods can capture our attention and no trifling, self-centered gods can keep us from the fullness of awareness that is the fullness of Life. It is the project of life, this coming to Wholeness, this experience of Purpose beyond all purposes, this identification with everything that is.” ~From Illuminated Life by Joan Chisttister

Draw me ever closer Lord to a true heart in full assurance of faith. Protect my heart Lord from an evil conscience. Help me to remember that I am a new creature washed pure by You. Amen.

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it. ~Psalm 34:1-14 (ESV)

“You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and I burned for your peace. ~From The Confessions  by Saint Augustine

Almighty God, You never gave up on me. You have pursued me, wooed me, You have gently turned me towards Your Love. I will never be the same now that you have touched my heart. Guide my steps so that I may never stray again away from Your love. Amen.

“And now, O sons, listen to me:

blessed are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it.

Blessed is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the Lord,

but he who fails to find me injures himself;

all who hate me love death.” ~Proverbs 8:32-36

“To the degree that we Christians surrender ourselves freely to the leadership of Jesus Christ through the mystical oneness we enjoy with him and in him, to that degree we can say we are Christians, living members of his body. We will know experientially that we live in his light by the gentle love we have toward each person whom we meet in each moment.

Thus we will be led from moment to moment into greater light as we see, by increased faith, hope and love, God’s loving presence in all events. Complete abandonment and childlike trust are the Holy Spirit’s gifts to those who are ready to die to their false selves and begin to live in the truth of the new creatures that they are and have always been in the eyes of the heavenly Father.” ~From In Jesus We Trust by George A. Maloney

Heavenly Father, You created me and called to my heart wooing me closer to You. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on me today so that I may be a wise steward of the gifts You have bestowed on me. Amen.

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ~John 20:21-18 (CEB)

“We move away from doubt at our own pace and with our own set of doubts and beliefs to master. While our first step is a matter of belief and ultimate trust in God, there are many other and some even more difficult steps to take in out movement from doubt to belief.

One step along this journey that causes many people to stop and struggle is the step of actually believing God loves them and that they can be lovable in God’s sight. This more than any other step along the journey makes men and women, young and old, stumble and fall from faith to doubt. Why is it so hard for us to believe that God’s love really is unconditional and that we should imitate God’s love not only for others but also for ourselves?

Perhaps we have regarded self-centered behavior too harshly. We are unwilling or unable to give ourselves the same gentle grace that God offers us and that doubt to belief and remember that God loves you, in God and in God’s creation. ~Rueben P. Job, A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

Almighty God, send your transforming power into my life as I seek to serve you this day. Grant unto me wisdom, courage, grace, and strength to faithfully fulfill ministry to which you have called me. In the name of Christ. Amen.

Teach me your way, O Lord,

That I may walk in your truth;

give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

And I will glorify your name forever. ~Psalm 86:11-12 (RSV)                                                                       

“God is, above all else, a being of immense beauty. It is this beauty that continues to draw us and enfold us in eternal goodness. This mysterious Beloved is forever wooing us, longing for us to be totally immersed in love of the purest kind. As I look at my life, I count as my greatest blessing the gift of God’s own essence. Being able to know this wondrous God of beauty, being embraced and welcomed home time and again, all of this is truly powerful.

I see this immense goodness of God reflected in every variety of people and in all the facet of the universe that sing out the goodness of the Creator. Each one mirrors the essence of God’s beauty. Each one is a vessel filled with manifestations of the Creator. I know this beauty, also, within myself, in the silent encounters deep within my own being. Every once in a while, each of us senses, for a moment, this rare blessing of the touch of God. Brief as it is, it is enough to remind us that there is an underlying harmony beneath all the chaos. There is an eternal beauty giving a loving texture to all of life.” ~From The Cup of Our Life by Joyce Rupp

I thank You, Heavenly Father, for blessing me with another day. You are my greatest gift. You are my biggest treasure. You are the music my heart sings. I thank You for calling to me every morning. Amen.

The smoke of the incense offered for the prayers of the saints rose up before God from the angel’s hand. ~Rev 8:4

This is a picture of my grandmother.

I remember the first time I met her. I was about the age of my daughter in the picture. When she saw me, she wrapped her arms around me in the biggest hug. She hugged me as if I had been lost and she finally had me back in her arms.

My Grandmother was a great example of Christ’s love. Although she had 8 children of her own, she took in different nieces and nephews when times were rough during the Great Depression. Her home was ‘marked’ by hobos as a home that would kindly give you a meal if you needed it. Her home was always open to those in need. She never had much but she always was willing to share what she had.

My own life holds examples of loving kindness and acceptance that she showed me during my growing up years. As a teenager trying to understand my past, her unconditional love anchored me and her prayers sustained me. Her quiet ways showed me what it meant to live as Christ’s hands and feet in the world. Her love was God showing me who I was and to whom I belonged.

She is part of my faith story.

Today is “All Saints Day.” Saints are people who have been “set apart” for God’s holy/special purposes. On this day, as a church community, we remember all the believers in the family of God that have gone before us. Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and others that we read about in the bible as well as the many other men and women of God who were disciples of Jesus Christ down through the ages, . . . like my grandmother.

Although I sometimes still feel like that small, insecure child, the stories I read in the Bible assure me that I am part of a bigger family. The Bible is like my family album. It tells the story of great men and women of faith in the family of God. It reminds me who I am, and whose I am. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I am part of the family of God and I can claim these great stories of Abraham, Moses, Esther, Peter, James and John, all of them, as part of my faith family.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the examples You have sent us to show us Your love in the world. Help us to follow their example, and show Your love to those we meet. Amen.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. . . ~Proverb 4:23 (NIV)

“Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise, and you will have more than enough of all good things in heaven. If your appetite for present things is excessive you may lose eternal and heavenly ones. Use the things of the world, but long for the things of eternity. You cannot be fully satisfied by material possessions, for you are simply not made to enjoy them. Even if you owned every good thing in the world you would not be happy and blessed, for your blessedness and joy is in God, who created all those things. Your happiness is not in what is seen and admired by others but in what the good and faithful followers of Christ seek. Your happiness is in what the spiritual and pure heart, those whose citizenship is in heaven, sometimes experience in this life, though it is meant for the next.” ~From The Imitation of Christ by Tomas a Kempis

Almighty God, in whom I find life, health, and strength, and through whose mercy I am clothed and fed, grant unto me a thankful and faithful heart. In the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. ~Romans 6:12-14 (CEB)

“I know that many wiser and better Christians than I in these days do not like to mention heaven and hell even in a pulpit. I know, too, that nearly all the references to this subject in New Testament come from a single source. But then that source is our Lord himself. People will tell you it is St. Paul, but that is untrue. These overwhelming doctrines are dominical. They are not really removable from the teaching of Christ or of his Church. If we do not believe them, our presence in this church is great tomfoolery. If we do, we must sometime overcome our spiritual prudery and mention them.” ~From Fern-Seed and Elephants by C.S. Lewis

Help me this day O Lord to live as You would have me. Help me to be Your hands and feet to this hurting world. Help my focus this day be on You and not me. Amen.

We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. ~1 Thes. 2:13-14 (CEB)

The Church is an object of faith.  In the Apostles’ Creed we pray:  “I believe in God, the Father … in Jesus Christ, his only Son – in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  We must believe in the Church!  The Apostles’ Creed does not say that the Church is an organization that helps us to believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  No, we are called to believe in the Church with the same faith we believe in God.

Often it seems harder to believe in the Church than to believe in God.  But whenever we separate our belief in God from our belief in the Church, we become unbelievers.  God has given us the Church as the place where God becomes God-with-us.

O God, who through the grace of Your Holy Spirit purs the gift of love into the hearts of Your faithful people: Grant me health, both of mind and body, that I may love You with my whole strength, and with a glad heart perform those things which are pleasing to You; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen. ~adapted from The Book of Worship

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? ~Mark 8:34-37 (CEB)

“Spirituality is about seeing. It’s not about earning or achieving. It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements. Once you see, the rest follows. You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it. The life is lived within us, and we learn how to say yes to that life.” ~From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr

Heavenly Father, help me to see with my spirit so that I may hear Your words speaking to my heart. Help me to have a full relationship with You. Help me to be Your hands and Feet in the world. Amen.