Signs and wonders

07 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

After their release, Peter and John returned to the brothers and sisters and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said. They listened, then lifted their voices in unison to God, “Master, you are the one who created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. You are the one who spoke by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:

Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth took their stand

and the rulers gathered together as one

against the Lord and against his Christ.

Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with Gentiles and Israelites, did gather in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and plan had already determined would happen. Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence. Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant.” After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence. ~ Acts 4:23-31 (CEB)

“Living in a multicultural world, the disciples easily could have remained silent about their dramatic encounter with God in Jesus Christ. In a world of many religions, they might understandably have been timid about even mentioning their faith in Jesus Christ. In a time when allegiance to the official religion often was demanded, they would have found it so much simpler to go along with the crowd.  In a time, when advocacy of any new religion was dangerous, they would have been so much safer to hide any evidence of faith in Jesus Christ.

However, these very risks and dangers that could have sent the disciples running in fact prompted them to pray for boldness to declare the gospel. They did not ask for security, relief from persecution, or the demise of opposition. They asked for boldness to declare the gospel. They were not longing for their own safety; they were longing for faithfulness. And as soon as their prayers subsided, the place where they were gathered was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31). Their prayers were instantly answered.

How often has the Christian community of which you are a member prayed for boldness to declare the gospel? Probably not very often since we don’t place a great value on boldness to declare the gospel. But what if we did? What difference would it make in our lives, our congregations, and the communities in which we live? The early disciples found that praying for boldness gave them the wisdom, the faith, and the power to live faithful and effective lives. What are we praying for today?” ~A Guide for All Who Seek God, Rueben p. Job

Almighty God, may the transforming power of your gospel be at work in my life today and always. Amen.

Opposistion

30 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , ,

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them. They were incensed that the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus. They seized Peter and John and put them in prison until the next day. (It was already evening.) Many who heard the word became believers, and their number grew to about five thousand.

The next day the leaders, elders, and legal experts gathered in Jerusalem, along with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others from the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, answered, “Leaders of the people and elders, are we being examined today because something good was done for a sick person, a good deed that healed him? If so, then you and all the people of Israel need to know that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is the stone you builders rejected; he has become the cornerstone! Salvation can be found in no one else. Throughout the whole world, no other name has been given among humans through which we must be saved.” ~Acts 4:1-12 (CEB)

“Those who seek to follow Jesus will encounter opposition. It follows as surely as night follows day. The opposition may arise within ourselves; it may arise among the followers of Jesus; or it may arise in the world. It may be subtle, blatant, mild, or severe. But opposition is sure to come, so the issue is not whether it will appear but how we respond to opposition.

Following Jesus was not easy in the first century, and it is not easy in the twenty-first century. The level of opposition to Jesus from within his own family and his own religious group surprised his early followers. Two thousand years later we understand a little more about human personality, but the level of opposition to Jesus and his followers still surprise us.

We may be able to understand the opposition of the Roman government, but it is hard to understand the opposition of a religious community that claimed to be seeking God and faithfulness to God just as Jesus was. And yet, opposition still comes today from within the church as well as from without. How are we to face opposition when it comes? Squarely, humbly, openly, and with all the faith we can muster.

To commit to following Jesus is to commit myself to a lifelong journey of being led where Jesus wants me to go and not necessarily where I want to go. This situation often causes opposition within myself. Jesus may call me to do what I do not normally and easily do. Jesus may ask me to wait or remain silent when I wish to speak or move on. In each of these cases I experience opposition within to what Jesus calls me to do and to be.

External opposition can arise when God calls for an action that is not what the church wants or what the world wants. Am I to follow Jesus? If so, I will face and feel opposition. And yet, the only course for faithfulness is to follow where Jesus leads. May God always guide us, and may we have the grace to follow Jesus as faithfully when we face opposition as when we face affirmation, affection, and acclaim.” From A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Rueben P. Job

Lord Jesus Christ, you have shown us what it means to be a servant. We ask now for your grace and strength to faithfully follow in the footsteps of servanthood. We pray in the name and spirit of Jesus. Amen.

Joy like Jesus

29 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)

“Now Jesus himself was and is a joyous, creative person. He does not allow us to continue thinking of our Father who fills and overflows space as a morose and miserable monarch, a frustrated and petty parent, or a policeman on the prowl.

One cannot think of God in such ways while confronting Jesus’ declaration, ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father.’ One of the most outstanding features of Jesus’ personality was precisely an abundance of joy. This he left as an inheritance to his students, ‘that their joy might be full’ (John 15:11). And they did not say, ‘Pass the aspirin,’ for he was well known to those as a happy man. It is deeply illuminating of kingdom as a happy man. It is deeply illuminating of kingdom living to understand that his steady happiness was not ruled out by his experience of sorrow and even grief.

So we must understand that God does not ‘love’ us without liking us- through gritted teeth- as ‘Christian’ love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core- which we vainly try to capture without tired but indispensable old word love.” ~From The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Help me this day O Lord to love with Your love. May it be genuine. May it be ever true. May the people I meet get a glimpse of Your love through me. Amen.

To go out in joy

26 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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

For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountain and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ~Isa 55:12 (NRSV)

“Our work is constant, our homes are full. The problems of the poor continue, so our work continues. Yet everyone, not just the Missionaries of Charity, can do something beautiful for God by reaching out to the poor people in their own countries. I see no lack of hesitation in helping others. I see only people filled with God’s love, wanting to do works of love. This is the future- this is God’s wish for us- to serve through love in action, and to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to act when called.” ~Mother Teresa in Mother Teresa: A Simple Path comp. Lucinda Vardey

O God our Father, renew my spirit and draw my heart to Yourself, that my work may not be to me a burden but a delight; and give me such love to sweeten by obedience. Help me that I may serve You with the cheerfulness and gladness of Your child, delighting myself in You and rejoicing in all that is to the honor of Your name; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

To simply follow

25 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

Teach me your ways. 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. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. ~Psalm 86:11-13

“St. Francis was a radical in his day- was even perceived as a heretic- because he offered a fresh view of the Christian life by living as a beggar, believing in providence, and closely following the teaching of the Gospel. But what was also unusual about him was that he reformed his own religion from with the institutional Church rather than by breaking away from it. Mother Teresa’s life has many similarities to that of Francis. Her path is also through poverty, simplicity and adherence to the teachings of Christ, and because of this she has been viewed as a progressive in the present fundamentalist framework of the patriarchal Church. Yet she preaches her love and peace in action in a world still lacking in strong female leaders and from one of the largest and poorest and most polluted cities in Asia.” ~Lucinda Vardey in Mother Teresa: A Simple Path comp. by Lucinda Vardey

Loving God, clothe me this day in Yourself and enable me to live and serve after the pattern of Jesus. Help me to be Your hands and feet in this world. Help me to spread love and peace in the world. Amen.

Signs and wonders

24 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. ~Isa. 25:1

“To think that God could put an idea into someone’s mind and that person could comprehend that idea and immediately act upon it with unquestioning determination is the most remarkable wonder of all!

A second wonder is that God has given all of this capacity. God communicates with all of us! We get little nudges- feelings that this or that should be done or not done; we get hunches and leadings, signs. And signals, and sometimes direct messages.” ~From Yearnings to Know God’s Will by Danny E. Morris

Heavenly Father, help me claim the power, peace, and presence of Jesus Christ so that I may be upheld, sustained, directed throughout this day. Amen.

To grow young

19 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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

The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”

He answered, “Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.”

Even tax collectors came to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

He replied, “Collect no more than you are authorized to collect.”

Soldiers asked, “What about us? What should we do?”

He answered, “Don’t cheat or harass anyone, and be satisfied with your pay.” ~Luke 3:10-14 (CEB)

“One of the great lies of our day is that conversion is instant, like fast food. God can zap us and we’re saved. It is all free. It costs nothing. Take it and run. This is what Bonhoeffer calls ‘cheap grace.’ Punch in at church. Grab a sacrament and run. Season your conversation with ‘praise the Lord’ and you’re among the saved.

One of the great truths of our day is that conversion is ongoing. Conversion is the process in which we are given opportunity upon opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation. Salvation is a free gift, yes, but it’s costly. It’s ‘costly grace.’ It costs us our lives lived passionately. The road to conversion is not a fast food line. When Saul was knocked down by that flash of lightning, that was not conversion. That was just God getting his attention. The conversion came as he groped his way in blindness to Ananias, able to see with interior eyes because he had no external eyes to depend on. His conversion continued day after day as he began to give meaning to his new name, Paul. He was still in the process of conversion when he was on his way to Rome in chains.” ~From A Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr

Lord, I don’t want cheap grace. Help me instead to live more passionately, love more deeply and cause such a great stirring that I am forever change. Guide me down the right path Jesus, seeing Your will for my life this day. Help me not to grope around in darkness but shine Your light clearly the path that I am to take. I claim all You promise me and I know that when I dwell in Your presence I am never alone. 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

Diamonds

17 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.

We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies. We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying. So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. ~2 Cor. 4:7-12 (CEB)

“Legend tells of a little girl who had an ugly hump on her back. The girl was so deformed that she was either ridiculed or pitied by everyone. When she died, it turned out that the ugly hump concealed angel’s wings. Can it be that all the ugly things in our lives have in them angel’s wings? Can it be that even our sin, our ugly sin, can be turned to good; could it conceal angel’s wings?

This is the glorious promise of conversion: God is able to make all things work together for good. Even the sinful years, the ugly years, need not be wasted but can result in good. Is this not a most comforting assurance? For many of us our ugly years were numerous, and they cause deep remorse. The may have struck at the prime of our lives and ministries. For so long we have grieved them, feeling that many years of ministry were wasted. But the love of God dawns upon us, and with it comes a most amazing promise and a new hope: We cannot redeem, God can; and what we cannot erase, God will.” ~Norman Shawchuck

Just about the time I start mourning the “lost years” that I could have been in service to God, I remember that God knew that I would take this road. It falls into His plan and He planned to use it ALL for His glory. The knowledge that I have gained by taking God’s paths or my own God will help me to reach out to others. Nothing is lost. All is gain in God’s sight.

Heavenly Father, when Satan tries to hold my past against me, remind me that You see me as a might warrior. When Satan tries to tell me I am worthless, remind me that I have always been Your beloved child. For all the loss that Satan waves at me, remind me that You will use it for Your gain. You, O Lord, are a restorer of dreams and I am thankful. Amen

Conversion

16 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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

When the crowd heard this, they were deeply troubled. They said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Peter replied, “Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away—as many as the Lord our God invites.” With many other words he testified to them and encouraged them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized. God brought about three thousand people into the community on that day. The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. ~Acts 2:37-42 (CEB)

“Conversion is going on all the time within us and within the world. The radical change of Christian conversion is also going on within us at all times. While the change of turning toward God may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it is in reality a continual process. We may think that we have turned fully toward God; then we discover another dimension of God, and we now immediately that more conversion is possible and necessary if we are to more Godward in all of life.

Conversion is a lifelong process of turning more and more fully toward God in all that we are, possess, and do. There may be earth shaking moments when we are being formed in the image of Christ at incredible speed and in remarkable ways. But such moments are not the end; there is more to come as we give ourselves to the transforming power of God.

While conversion requires our decision and action, the grace and strength to be changed- to become more than we are- is the gift of God. Conversion is a partnership project. We cannot transform us against our wishes. However, once we invite God’s transforming presence into our lives, the necessary power to change comes with the transforming presence.

It is wise not to try to dictate what our conversion will be like. We cannot know what God has in store for us until we begin to live in harmony and companionship with God. As our understanding of and relationship to God grow, we may begin to see where God is leading us in our conversion. On the other hand, we may experience surprises throughout our lives as God seeks to shape us. It is also wise not to assume that our conversion will look like, feel like, or keep pace with any other person’s conversion. Since we are unique and God is infinite, our conversion experiences will be unique as well. The important thing is inviting God to what the end product will be, but we do know that it will be good when we permit God to be the potter and we agree to be the malleable clay.” A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Rueben P. Job

O God our Father, renew my spirit and draw my heart to You, that my work may not be a burden but a delight; and give me such love to You as may sweeten all obedience. Help me that I may serve You with the cheerfulness and gladness of a child, delighting myself in You and rejoicing in all that is to the honor of Your name; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen- adapted from The Book of Worship

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