Unceasing love

27 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

So when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it was a good idea to stay on in Athens by ourselves, and we sent you Timothy, who is our brother and God’s coworker in the good news about Christ. We sent him to strengthen and encourage you in your faithfulness.  We didn’t want any of you to be shaken by these problems. You know very well that we were meant to go through this. In fact, when we were with you, we kept on predicting that we were going to face problems exactly like what happened, as you know. That’s why I sent Timothy to find out about your faithfulness when I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was worried that the tempter might have tempted you so that our work would have been a waste of time. Now Timothy has returned to us from you and has given us good news about your faithfulness and love! He says that you always have good memories about us and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you. Because of this, brothers and sisters, we were encouraged in all our distress and trouble through your faithfulness. For now we are alive if you are standing your ground in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you, given all the joy we have because of you before our God? Night and day, we pray more than ever to see all of you in person and to complete whatever you still need for your faith. Now may our God and Father himself guide us on our way back to you.  May the Lord cause you to increase and enrich your love for each other and for everyone in the same way as we also love you. May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his people. Amen. ~1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 (CEB)

All of God’s life is available to each of us already, but not yet. Ordinary suffering will not be taken away, not the suffering we must face when we bear witness to God’s love and are met with the world’s hostility and scorn. But our suffering will have meaning, will be lifted up, transformed by the unceasing love of God. ~Robert A. Jonas from Henri Nouwen:  Writings Selected with an Introduction by Robert A. Jonas

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your transforming grace that has worked its wonders within me. May I this day be an example of Your light to someone who may need it this day. May I be a blessing to someone amidst their trials. Help me be Your love to the world. Amen.

A bigger vision

23 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

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 15:12-16 (CEB)

“The church is the worshiping community. We are that body of people who are learning together to repent, pray, and serve in the light of our history and an imagination that is teaching us to do so. The focus of our history and imagination is Jesus Christ in whom we see what it means to live in repentance, prayer, and service. We seek to follow him, to be his disciples, and to undertake the disciplines that such a life requires.

As we follow him, we see that we cannot be the church and remain a closed system of intimate and exclusive social relationships through which we are protected from the world. To the extent that we actually are being transformed in repentance, prayer, and service, we find that we must continually strive to rupture our own boundaries. The church is just not the church except as it seeks to incorporate within its mutuality enemies and strangers. Its repentance, prayer and service is for all people, for the world as such, and not just for others as Christians. In the church we are impelled by the very dynamics of what it means to be the church to meet the enemies and strangers of our lives.” ~From Vision and Character by Craig R. Dykstra

Help me this day Lord to step out of my comfort zones and intimate circles of friends. Help me remember that we are called to take Your good news to the whole world not just to those we are comfortable with. Help me remember that I may be the only Bible some people will ever read or the only church they will ever see. Help me to remember what it means to be a Christian. Amen.

The gentle way

20 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

Jesus knew what they intended to do, so he went away from there. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them all. But he ordered them not to spread the word about him, so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:  Look, my Servant whom I chose, the one I love, in whom I find great pleasure. I’ll put my Spirit upon him, and he’ll announce judgment to the Gentiles. He won’t argue or shout, and nobody will hear his voice in the streets. He won’t break a bent stalk, and he won’t snuff out a smoldering wick, until he makes justice win. And the Gentiles will put their hope in his name. ~Matthew 12:15-21 (CEB)

Sometimes we think that there are only two ways to respond to things in life, either with violence or passivity. But Jesus came to earth to show us that there is a third way to respond that is neither submission nor assault, neither fight or flight. This third way is gentleness which allows us to oppose without mirroring the evil we see, resist without emulating the oppressors and neutralize without destroying. Living out this gentle way requires imagination and creativity. Living out gentleness sometimes requires that we look between the blacks and whites of this world to see all the shades of grey.

Challenge me this day O Lord, to live in the shades of grey. Help me to remember to stop and doodle in the sand in the midst of heated conflict. If I must carry a load give me the strength to go beyond the required mile. Help me to woo others with Your love through creativity and imagination, not by force and by strength. Amen.

The Love of a child

16 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.  I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it. ” Then he hugged the children and blessed them. ~Mark 10:13-16

No one loves like a child. This is how God wants me to love Him, that unconditional love, that love that completely believes that the parent can provide for all their needs, a complete dependence for the provision of those needs. A child is free to not know all the answers but has the assurance of where those answers may be found. Children adore their parents.

The Kingdom of God is like a child secure in the love of a parent.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for allowing me to come to You as a child comes to a parent. I thank You for Your love that You pour out on me every day. I thank You that I know that I am Your Beloved child. Amen.

Rooted in love

15 Feb 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. Every person who practices sin commits an act of rebellion, and sin is rebellion. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Every person who remains in relationship to him does not sin. Any person who sins has not seen him or known him. ~1 John 3:1-6 (CEB)

“The word ‘radical’ means going to the root, getting down to essentials. People who get down to essentials and stay with them, no matter what the changes around them, are and remain radial. They are rooted in something that endures. The most radical element of our faith is the unconditional love of God. The more we internalize this truth, the greater the transformation that happens within us. Transformation has to do with freedom, freedom to live and love like Christ.” ~From Free to ray, Free to Love by Max Olivia, S.J.

O Lord, may I ever be rooted in Your love. May Your truths be seeded deeply and knowledge and wisdom spring forth. May the seedlings You have watered shoot forth from my heart flowing into those You have placed in my life.  Help me to stay radical in You. Amen.

Unconditional love

14 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. After he entered the Pharisee’s home, he took his place at the table. Meanwhile, a woman from the city, a sinner, discovered that Jesus was dining in the Pharisee’s house. She brought perfumed oil in a vase made of alabaster. Standing behind him at his feet and crying, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured the oil on them. When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw what was happening, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. He would know that she is a sinner.

Jesus replied, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

“Teacher, speak,” he said.  

“A certain lender had two debtors. One owed enough money to pay five hundred people for a day’s work. The other owed enough money for fifty. When they couldn’t pay, the lender forgave the debts of them both. Which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the largest debt canceled.”

Jesus said, “You have judged correctly.”

Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet, but she wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has poured perfumed oil on my feet. This is why I tell you that her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love. The one who is forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other table guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this person that even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” ~Luke 7:35-50 (CEB)

Recently I experienced unconditional love. No strings attached. No judgment involved. The night before I had been tossing and turning and throwing up prayers to God. I didn’t even know exactly what I needed but I knew I needed a miracle. Maybe this was the first time I actually prayed for a miracle. But let me tell you, when you ask, be prepared for an answer.

God knew exactly what I needed to release some of the pressure that I had been under. I was struggling so hard to trust and believe… struggling so hard to keep the faith that I knew. The next morning a dear friend offered a selfless gift. It was an answer to my prayer from the night before.

When you pray for a miracle you still have to do the work of accepting it when it comes. It is so tempting when we have dug that hole of despair because of our own mistakes to not accept a miracle when it does come our way. “I made this mess so I should be the one to dig myself out!” God has been in my face this season about pride. Here again I felt that old demon rising his head.

Pride swallowed I accepted her gift and was blessed beyond belief. Through this I learned what unconditional love looks like. I pray often to be able to see with God’s eyes and to love with His heart. My eyes are opened in a way I never could have understood before.

He has shown me what unconditional love looks like.

Heavenly Father, from the depths of my despair I cried out to You and You heard me. I asked to feel Your love surround me. I thank You for showing me Your unconditional love through Your earthly servants. I thank You for people who are obedient to Your will. Help me to return the love that I have been shown. Amen.

A true fast

13 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ~Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

Today begins the season of Lent. Many churches observe this time of preparation that leads up to Easter. Some people even choose to use the season as a time for penitence and self-examination, study, and spiritual discipline. Perhaps the discipline most commonly associated with Lent is fasting, which can take many forms, such as giving up entire meals, or certain foods (like meat), or radically changing a diet, in order to be made mindful of one’s humanity and of God’s providence.

Isaiah 56 tells us “Isn’t this the fast I choose: releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke, setting free the mistreated, and breaking every yoke? Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house, covering the naked when you see them, and not hiding from your own family? … If you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon.” (Isa. 56:6,7,10)

So I ask you, do you hunger and thirst for justice? True fasting is not just depriving ourselves of privilege but also sharing sacrificially to bring an end to the cycles of inequality, an end to violence and solution to starvation.

Heavenly Father, create in me a hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. Enable me this day to be Your hands and feet to those who live in darkness.  Help me love with Your heart and shine with Your light so that the darkness may be like the noon day sun. Amen.

Beloved

11 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordinary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not many were from the upper class.  But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong.  And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing. So no human being can brag in God’s presence. It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. He became wisdom from God for us. This means that he made us righteous and holy, and he delivered us. ~1 Corinthians 1:26-30 (CEB)

“Don’t you often hope: ‘May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.’ But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run.  This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death.

Well, you and I don’t have to kill ourselves. We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends love or wounded us. That’s the truth of our lives. That’s the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That’s the truth spoken by the voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved.’

Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear at my center words that say: ‘I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate that that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover and your spouse … yes, even your child … wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one.’” ~From Life of the Beloved by Henri J. M. Nouwen

To be called by the Creator by name. The fact that He knew me before my mother knew me. Awesome. God knew who I would be and before I even set out in this world He loved me. Simply, I was loved before I was born.

Heavenly Father, You are mine and I am Yours. I am Your Beloved. Before I ever messed up or went astray You loved me knowing the steps I would follow and the depths that I would ascend. You reached down into that darkness, even sent Your son to guide me … all because You love me. Me, even though I am tarnished and broken You still sought me. I thank You that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Amen.

Musing

07 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

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

Finally, let’s draw near to the throne of favor with confidence so that we can receive mercy and find grace when we need help. ~Hebrews 4:16 (CEB)

“Learning to listen within our hearts may not come easily. We muse, Does God call ordinary people like us? And if so, to what? How can we distinguish God’s choice from all of the other voices that clamor at us- those of our culture, peer pressure, our careers, our egos? Amid our secular lives, where can we find support for our calls? And how can we remain faithful and accountable?

Christians have always struggled to understand what God would have them do. In 1835, Soren Kierkegaard wrote in his journal, What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know… The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do… What good would it do me to be able to explain the meaning of Christianity if it had no deeper significance for me and for my life?” ~From Listening Hearts by Suzanne G. Farnham et al.

Setting aside time each day helps me to hear God’s voice amid the chaos of life. But as 1 Corinthians 13:2 says “If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing.” I must be willing to not only search out what God wants me to do but also to carry out His plans as well.

Heavenly Father, I know that You wait for us to be Your voice and action in the world. Give me Your strength as I discern Your will. Help me to remain faithful and accountable. Amen

Love… the greatest thing

04 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for God’s good news. God promised this good news about his Son ahead of time through his prophets in the holy scriptures. His Son was descended from David. He was publicly identified as God’s Son with power through his resurrection from the dead, which was based on the Spirit of holiness. This Son is Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we have received God’s grace and our appointment to be apostles. This was to bring all Gentiles to faithful obedience for his name’s sake. You who are called by Jesus Christ are also included among these Gentiles.

To those in Rome who are dearly loved by God and called to be God’s people. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ~Romans 1:1-7 (CEB)

“Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world- stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death- and the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?” ~From The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke

I sometimes need reminding that love is the strongest thing in the world, that Light will always outshine the darkness. Christmas is the story of how love came into the world. Through Jesus we can see how we are to respond to the hate and evil we see. He was angry when anger was called for, showed compassion when it was needed and forgave freely. Only through God who strengthens me would I be able to live in such a way. But every time I do evil loses some of its footing.

Merry Christmas!

Help me Heavenly Father to keep Christmas every day. May I love and forgive where compassion is needed, may I speak up when strong words are called for, may I always remember that love is the strongest thing in the world. Amen.

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries