To truly see

28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

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.

Open to God

26 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God. ‘Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” ~John 6:42-51 (CEB)

“If we are to experience God, we must be open to God, to the mystical, to the divine, appearing in our lives. And we must have an openness that is free of any preconditions about how that will happen. Looking for God in a godly form is the great historical mistake.” ~From In Pursuit of the Great White Rabbit by Edward Hays

Open my eyes O Lord, to see You in the world around be. Open my heart to fill Your love. Open my ears to hear Your whispers of love to my heart. Amen.

Compasssion as my guide

25 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

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 (CEB)

“For a Christian, an economic system is a means to an end- a mechanism for exchanging goods and services. . . . nothing more. We steer our lives by a higher value- the love ethic of Jesus. Central to our bearing the cross is our acceptance of Jesus’ love and our attentiveness to the needs of others. Love, not mammon, must be our guiding light.

Each of us can choose to change out of aspiration rather than desperation. We have the choice to live our faith. But living our faith will require ‘righteousness,’ that is, a genuine relationship with God. Compassion will be our guiding light, our rule I life. Justice will lead us to faithful stewardship- to care for and work on behalf of others in the global community. Shalom will be our reward.” ~From Climbing the Sycamore Tree by Ann Hagmann

Heavenly Father, may I be known this day by the love I show. May I aspire to be more like Jesus in my words and actions. May they be a testament of Your work in my life.

Chains of self-reliance

23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” ~Mark 10:17-27 (CEB)

“There are some who resign themselves, but they attach conditions to it. They do not trust in God completely, so they take pains to provide for themselves just in case. Some offer everything at first, but later, beaten down by temptations, they go back to their old ways and thus make little progress in virtue. People like these will not gain the true freedom of a pure heart nor the grace of a joyful intimacy with me unless they surrender themselves unconditionally and offer themselves as a sacrifice to me each day. Without this total self-surrender a joyful union between us cannot exist, either now or ever.” ~From The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

Almighty God, I come to You today seeking freedom that only You can give. Help me to break these chains of self-reliance. Help me to depend solely on You. Amen.

To have vision

21 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained,
But happy is he who keeps the law.”
Proverbs 29:18 (NASB)

“True mystics are not necessarily those who have visions, but rather those who have vision. They see the extraordinary, the mystical, in everyday events. If we desire such vision, we will have to give our brains a bath! Our minds must be cleansed of prejudgments about what God looks like. We will have to take a brush and scrub away all those grade school pictures of God and erase all the statements made by saints about their experience of the Divine Mystery. Only then can we begin to see the true picture.” ~From In Pursuit of the Great White Rabbit by Edward Hays

Heavenly Father, give me the vision this day to see the extraordinary in the everyday moments of my life. Help me to see this world and You as You truly would have me see. Amen.

Friend to my soul

13 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over. “So he went in to stay with them. After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”

They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” Then the two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread. ~Luke 24:28-35 (CEB)

“I didn’t want it to happen but it did. Before I knew it, anxiety found its way into my restless heart and robbed me of the peace promised to all who place their trust in God. Ah, so that is the reason for my anxious heart: I forgot to trust in God!

Many demands upon our time and many opportunities waiting to be explored often fill our lives too full with activities and distractions. When this happens it is not surprising that we grow anxious and lose out sense of peace and tranquility. Today remember that God and God alone is able to care for all that exists; we can trust our smallest and largest concern to the wisdom and love of God. Peace, hope calm, and joy are the fruits of placing our confidence in God. May these gifts be yours in abundance.” ~Rueben P. Job, A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

Almighty God, You who are the source of my life, strength, and ministry. In Your presence alone I find help, hope, and life. Send me out as a healing reminder of Your love to all whose lives I touch this day. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

To see Christ in the world

12 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:

Though he was in the form of God,

he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.

But he emptied himself

by taking the form of a slave

and by becoming like human beings.

When he found himself in the form of a human,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Therefore, God highly honored him

and gave him a name above all names,

so that at the name of Jesus everyone

in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~Phil. 2:5-11 (CEB)

“For many of us . . . the great and poignant challenge is precisely to see God on earth. . . . We labor to discern meaning in the mess of hectic days, to find God in the torque of stressful work, demanding family life, and complicated friendships. And when the days of travail are upon us, when suffering consumes our energy and despair spreads its unwelcome scent around us, how can we live faithfully before God in the chaos of God’s apparent absence? Paul’s image is apt: We see God on earth as if through a glass mirror, but darkly (1Cor. 13:12). It is not simply that what we are able to see is a mere reflection of the real thing. This reflection is also distorted, obscure, maddeningly enigmatic.

Jesus lived to its fullest our pained bewilderment. A terrible longing to see God surges through those shattering words the crucified Messiah recalled from the Psalter: ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46; Ps. 22:1). This cry of desolation, unthinkable from him who so intimately knew God as ‘Abba,’ reveals how completely Jesus is one with us in our need to see God nearby when the mists of the incomprehensible or intolerable overtake us. But more is revealed in Jesus’ anguish than his solidarity with suffering humanity. His darkening passage into death illumines with the intensity of a lightning bolt God’s pledge to be unconditionally present for us. In that molten moment, the cross of God’s most intense presence, the birthplace of a new creation. In this new creation, the One who chose to become one with us establishes the astonishing possibility of our becoming one with the risen Christ. By grace through faith, we may even share the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil 2:5) and therefore also begin to see life with the vision of Christ. As we experience a deepening participation in the mind of Christ, our capacity to see God on earth is expanded, although not without continued struggle.” ~From “Editor’s Introduction” by John S. Mogabgab in Weavings March/April 1998

Lord Jesus, You demonstrated faithfulness in all of life, even to death on the cross. Grant unto me grace and strength to follow you faithfully all the days of my life. Amen.

The comfort of tears

09 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. He asked, “Where have you laid him?”

They replied, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus began to cry. ~John 11:33-35 (CEB)

 

“We took him too much for granted. Perhaps we all take each other too much for granted. The routines of life distract us; our own pursuits make us oblivious; our anxieties and sorrows, unmindful. The beauties of the familiar go unremarked. We do not treasure each other enough.

[Eric] was a gift to us for twenty-five years. When the gift was finally snatched away, I realized how great it was. Then I could not tell him. An outpouring of letters arrived, many expressing appreciation for Eric. They all made me weep again: each word of praise a stab of loss.

How can I be thankful, in his gone-ness for what he was? I find I am. But the pain of the no more outweighs the gratitude of the once was. Will it always be so?

I didn’t know how much I loved him until he was gone.

Is love like that?” ~from Lament for a Son by Nicolas Wolterstorff

There are times O Lord that the most comfort You can give me is to know that You weep when I am sad. Thank You.

Love revealed

07 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love:it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. ~1 John 4:9-10 (CEB)

“I am beginning to now see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find [God], but, instead, as the one who is looking for me while I am doing the hiding.” ~From The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Heavenly Father, thank You for seeking me even when I wish to not be found. Thank You for relentless searching me out and calling to my heart. Thank You for continuing to woo me through life’s struggles. May the work I do this day show my love and adoration for You. Amen.

The Vinedresser

05 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything. If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.” ~John 15:1-8 (CEB)

“God desires that we be abundantly fruitful and acts to help this happen. With enduring faithfulness and intimate knowledge of our capacities, the heavenly Vinedresser provides opportunities for us to shed the excess burdens that inhibit our full maturation in God’s service. ‘Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit’ (John 15:2). The Bible sometimes describes this process of intensive nurture using the image of a parent exercising constructive discipline with a child. The purpose is not to erase our uniqueness or subdue our vitality, but rather to give us a share in God’s own holiness (Heb. 12:10) and thereby to become ‘fully-developed, complete, with nothing missing’ (James 1:3).

Pruning can certainly be uncomfortable. It strips us of what is non-essential to the power of God’s life rising within us. But it also gathers and focuses energies previously dispersed in draining distractions or even apparently worthy commitments. Pruning concentrates the savor of the fruit we bear, for it proceeds from inward peace and promotes outward goodness. Therefore the effect of the Vinedresser’s skilled hands is always a power of life greater than that which we would or could choose on our own.” ~From “Editor’s Introduction” by John S. Mogabgab in Weavings September/October 2001

Heavenly Father, give me strength as You prune me for growth. Help me to fully develop so that I may share in Your holiness. May I allow Your power to work through me to be greater than I could be on my own. Amen.

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