To share our stories

20 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

But remember the earlier days, after you saw the light. You stood your ground while you were suffering from an enormous amount of pressure. Sometimes you were exposed to insults and abuse in public. Other times you became partners with those who were treated that way. You even showed sympathy toward people in prison and accepted the confiscation of your possessions with joy, since you knew that you had better and lasting possessions. So don’t throw away your confidence—it brings a great reward. You need to endure so that you can receive the promises after you do God’s will.

In a little while longer,

the one who is coming will come and won’t delay;

but my righteous one will live by faith,

and my whole being won’t be pleased with anyone who shrinks back.

But we aren’t the sort of people who timidly draw back and end up being destroyed. We’re the sort of people who have faith so that our whole beings are preserved. ~Heb. 10:32-39 (CEB)

“We shouldn’t put down people who show great euphoria and excitement after a born again or religious experience. They’re right. Suddenly the world makes sense for them. Suddenly it’s okay, despite the absurdity, the injustice, the pain. Life is now so spacious that we can even absorb the contradictions. God is so great, so bottomless, so empty, that God can absorb even the contraries, even the collision of opposites. Thus salvation often feels like a kind of universal amnesty, a total forgiveness of ourselves and all other things.” ~From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr

I love to hear people’s stories. It helps me to remember my own victories over trials. Sometimes it gives me much needed hope for a trial that I am going through. Sharing our stories helps us to put it all into focus. Everything in the end can belong to the overall story.

Heavenly Father, help me not forget my trials. Help me to weave my stories into my present being so that I can stand in wonder at the works and miracles that You have done in my life. Help me to dance in joy when other’s find their way home to You. Help me to sing Your glory when someone claims the inheritance of Your love. Amen.

The eyes of a child

18 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us.

Dear friends, now we are God’s children, and it hasn’t yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we’ll see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. ~1 John 3:1-3 (CEB)

“In 1966 a retrospective of Picasso’s paintings was exhibited in Cannes, France. Hundreds of his works, from the first he did as an adolescent beginner to the latest of the master, who was then eighty-five years old, graced the walls of the gallery. The old man himself roamed about, enjoying the show more than anyone. One report told of a woman who stopped him and said, ‘I don’t understand. Over there, the beginning pictures- so mature, serious and solemn- then the later ones, so different, so irrepressible. It almost seems as though the dates should be reversed. How do you explain it?’

‘Easily,’ replied Picasso, eyes sparkling. ‘It takes a long time to become young.’” ~From Alive in Christ by Maxie Dunnam

To see the world through the eyes of a child means I love more deeply, laugh more quickly and my heart grow young. A child trusts more readily and believes more easily. No wonder Jesus says we need to have the faith of a child.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day and all the wonders it will hold. Help me to see the beauty of a flower, pause to watch a butterfly float by, and marvel at the song of a bird. Help me to look under the rocks for tiny wonders that I could easily walk by. Help me to see pictures in the clouds and inhale deeply the freshness of spring. When I come to the end of my day Lord, help me to sleep with the ease of one who has not acquired a world of hurts but lies safely in her Fathers embrace knowing with all assuredness that I am safe and sound. Amen

Purpose and goal

15 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

We sailed from Troas straight for Samothrace and came to Neapolis the following day. From there we went to Philippi, a city of Macedonia’s first district and a Roman colony. We stayed in that city several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the riverbank, where we thought there might be a place for prayer. We sat down and began to talk with the women who had gathered. One of those women was Lydia, a Gentile God-worshipper from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple cloth. As she listened, the Lord enabled her to embrace Paul’s message. Once she and her household were baptized, she urged, “Now that you have decided that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us. ~Acts 16:11-15 (CEB)

“The purpose and goal of spiritual discernment is knowing and doing God’s will. We can easily become enamored with discernment definitions, strategies for holding meetings, the emotional rush of doing something new, or even the self-adulation for attempting to do something spiritual. The newness of our endeavor may compromise our vision if we fail to see the urgency of knowing and doing God’s will. Nothing is more urgent in our lives or in our congregations than yearning to know and do God’s will. We must keep our eyes and hearts on our purpose and goal.” ~From Discerning God’s Will Together by Danny E, Morris and Charles M. Olsen

Almighty God, you have called the church into being and have gathered us into one family. By the power of your Holy Spirit help us to live in unity and peace with all Your children. May our actions this day be fruit of our faith in Your kingdom. In the name of Christ. Amen.

To be a friend of Jesus

14 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , ,

“As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. I give you these commandments so that you can love each other. John 15:9-17 (CEB)

Am I a friend of Jesus? I am if my words and actions are like his. When I was younger I would ask God, “How am I to know how to be like Jesus?” It all goes back to the simple lessons of childhood in the simple songs we learned. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Not only did I learn that I am loved, but I learned where to go for other truths. The Bible. In the Bible I can learn to walk as Jesus walked and to talk as he talked.

Henri Nouwen talks about this in his book, Bread for the Journey: “Very often we distance ourselves from Jesus.  We say, ‘What Jesus knew we cannot know, and what Jesus did we cannot do.’  But Jesus never puts any distance between himself and us.   He says:  ‘I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father’ (John 15:15) and  ‘In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works’  (John 14:12).

Indeed, we are called to know what Jesus knew and do what Jesus did.  Do we really want that, or do we prefer to keep Jesus at arms’ length?”

Heavenly Father, help me to remember that when I feel that You are far away, that it is not You that has moved. I long to hear Your words, to know what You require of me. Help me to slow down enough today to spend time in Your Word. Amen.

Saintly material

13 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

 

Then the LORD ’s messenger came and sat under the oak at Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. The LORD ’s messenger appeared to him and said, “ The LORD is with you, mighty warrior! ” ~Judges 6:11-12 (CEB)

I am so thankful that God sees me for more than who I am. Gideon’s story always reminds me that God sees us not as we are but what we can become. The stories in the Bible show us that we can all be saintly material; we just have to be willing to go where we are asked and do what we are sent to do

James C, Howell in his book Servants, Misfits, and Martyrs, reminds us that “Saints do not possess an extra layer of muscle. They are not taller, and they do not sport superior IQs. They are not richer, and their parents are not more clever than yours or mine. They have no batlike perception that enables them to fly in the dark. They are flesh and blood, just like you and me, no stronger, no more intelligent. And that is the point. They simply offer themselves to God, knowing they are not the elite, fully cognizant that they are inadequate to the task, that their abilities are limited and fallible.”

Give me the strength this day O Lord to be the person that You see me to be. Help me to be willing to do Your will and to seek Your truths. May all I do be for Your glory. Amen.

Affirmation and love

12 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you! ” She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom. ”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God.”

Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her. ~Luke 1:26-38 (CEB)

“Gabriel begins as he always begins, as God always begins (since this is God’s message, not Gabriel’s), with the affirmation of God’s creation. ‘Greetings, favored one!’ Gabriel proclaims to Mary. ‘The Lord is with you!’ Before she hears anything else, God wants Mary to hear this: She is favored. . . . Although a teenager, Mary need not ‘find’ herself. Her identity is a gift, bestowed upon her by God alone. Who am I? Mary may wonder. And God replies, ‘You are my favored one, beloved and beautiful to me.’

In truth, Mary does not stand much chance for an identity apart from God. She is too young to have had time to achieve much on which to base her identity. She is too poor to purchase her place in society. Add to this the fact that she is female, which means that even if she did have accomplishments or social stature to her credit, they likely would have gone unrecognized because of her gender. All of this makes Mary a most unlikely candidate for helping God save the world, which is precisely why God enlists her. Nothing about Mary suggests that she can be who she is apart from God’s favor of her.” ~From The Godbearing Life by Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster

I am not who I am based on my achievements. I am who I am based upon who I am in Christ. There is much value in taking the time to figure out who I in Christ. Being familiar with scriptures will help me to know who I am. Then when I am faced with what the world thinks of me I have God’s assurances tucked away in my heart. I can hold my head up high because I know who I am and I that I am loved.

Thank You O Lord, for Your assurances. Thank You for Your love that lives in my heart. Amen.

Value and Worth

11 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

You have tried my heart;
You have visited me by night;
You have tested me and You find nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips
I have kept from the paths of the violent.

My steps have held fast to Your paths.
My feet have not slipped.

I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.

Wondrously show Your loving kindness,
O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand
From those who rise up against them.

Keep me as the apple of the eye;
Hide me in the shadow of Your wings ~Psalm 17:3-8 (NRSV)

I am “favored” by God. I have value and worth. It is so easy to forget these facts wearing the labels that the world has placed on me. Some are not bad labels. Some are true. I am a mother. I am a wife… but I can still get lost among even these labels that I have chosen. But if I remember to still myself in God’s presence I can hear that still small voice say to me “You are Mine. You have value. You have worth. You are the apple of my eye, My favorite, My chosen one.”

Almighty God, I claim this day Your promises to me. I claim that I have value and that I have worth. I claim this day the fact that I am a beloved child. May the words from my mouth and the work of my hands reflect these truths in all I do and say this day. Amen.

A vessel

04 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

We always thank God for all of you when we mention you constantly in our prayers. This is because we remember your work that comes from faith, your effort that comes from love, and your perseverance that comes from hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. Brothers and sisters, you are loved by God, and we know that he has chosen you. We know this because our good news didn’t come to you just in speech but also with power and the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know as well as we do what kind of people we were when we were with you, which was for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord when you accepted the message that came from the Holy Spirit with joy in spite of great suffering.  As a result you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The message about the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place. The news about your faithfulness to God has spread so that we don’t even need to mention it. People tell us about what sort of welcome we had from you and how you turned to God from idols. As a result, you are serving the living and true God, and you are waiting for his Son from heaven. His Son is Jesus, who is the one he raised from the dead and who is the one who will rescue us from the coming wrath. ~Thess. 1:2-10 (CEB)

How often have I “seen” but not acted. How often have I “heard” but not responded. These are sins of omission. If I truly want to walk in the steps of Jesus I need to first realize that Jesus didn’t just feel bad for people who were suffering.

Brennan Manning in his book, Reflections for Ragamuffins says, “Every time the Gospels mention that Jesus was moved with the deepest emotions or felt sorry for people, it led to his doing something- physical or inner healing, deliverance or exorcism, feeding the hungry crowds or praying for others. The Good Samaritan was commended precisely because he acted. The priest and Levite, paragons of Jewish virtue, flunked the test because they didn’t do anything. ‘Which of these three in your opinion was neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?’ The answer came, ‘The one who treated him with compassion.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Then go and do the same.’”

Help me today O Lord to not only hear with Your ears or see with Your eyes, but to be the action for Your love. May I be a vessel for Your love in a hurting world. Amen.

To pray like a child

28 May 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? ”

Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples, and said, “I assure you that if you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. ~Matt. 18:1-5 (CEB)

I loved to listen to my children’s prayers when they were small…. Thank You God for my bed, my toys, my mom and dad… my house, my friends. It was always a great reminder of what all I take for granted. Jesus often referred to children when he wanted to remind us on how we should live. The trust of a child. The love of a child. The thankfulness of a child.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life together, explains the importance of thankfulness.  “In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?”

Almighty Father, Help me to remember this day to look at life through the eyes of a child. May I have the trust, the love and the thankfulness of a child. Amen.

Darkness before dawn

30 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me because I’m alone and suffering. My heart’s troubles keep getting bigger— set me free from my distress! Look at my suffering and trouble— forgive all my sins! Look at how many enemies I have and how violently they hate me! Please protect my life! Deliver me! Don’t let me be put to shame because I take refuge in you. ~Psalm 25:16-20 (CEB)

“You’ve heard the saying ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.’ Well, that’s not true, is it? Words can hurt . . . . They make us feel small and exposed. The make us feel shame.

Revenge is bittersweet- after the sweetness wears off, the bitter taste remains in your mouth. In place of revenge, civil rights leaders taught nonviolent ways of confronting people who are putting you down. Your first response to humiliating treatment needs to be claiming your own dignity as a person created in the image of God. This awareness sets you free to respond to injustice in creative rather than violent ways.” ~From “Justice” in Way to Live editd by Dorthy C. Bass and Don C. Richter

Thank You Jesus for coming into the world to show us the way. Thank You for modeling how we are to love others.  May I be an example of Your humility, love and forgiveness. Amen.

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