Chosen

06 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear the fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. ~John 15:16-17 (NRSV)

“’I am with you always.’ This is the eternal source of our daily life of prayer: This is not technique. We are in deep waters of the most intimate of all possible relationships that flow to us- forever fresh and new- from minute to minute. And, as with all that lives, open-ended, unexpected, asymmetrical, and unfolding…

You might think of or picture yourself walking with Jesus or sitting across from him. Ask him as you might a beloved friend, ‘What can I do each day to respond from my heart to your presence? What is best and most real for me?’ You may wish to ask these questions of the living Jesus Christ each day: ‘How can I best experience your transforming friendship today? What way can we best share and talk together today?’ How do you feel like responding at this moment?

It may appear that each day will differ. Or you may feel the inner suggestions to have one main way of prayer for a period of time. Whatever suggestion surfaces will be in rhythm with the type of person you essentially are- because that is the person God created and loves.” ~From Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner

Almighty God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit open my eyes, ears, heart and very life to Your presence so that today I may worship and serve You in faithfulness, be blessing and healing reminder of Your love to all I meet this day. In the name of Christ, Amen.

My deepest power

05 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made know to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ~John 15:13-15 (NRSV)

“The great spiritual teachers are not concerned about domination and power in the sense our culture uses it. Their power is in descent, not ascent. I find, in fact, my deepest power is what Jesus visualizes on the cross as powerlessness. We Christians believe that the crucifixion of Christ- utter powerlessness- is his moment of greatest power. This recognition is at the core of all spiritual teaching. It is a recognition that dramatically turns one’s reality upside down. It is a paradox, a dilemma, and finally becomes a choice.” ~From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr

I know, O Lord, that if I follow close to You nothing shall be able to separate me from Your endless life and love. Give me the grace to make Your word my home, that I may know You more intimately and follow You more closely. Amen.

God of the living

03 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother .Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. The second and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. Finally, the woman died too. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her. ”

Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive. ”

Some of the legal experts responded, “Teacher, you have answered well.” No one dared to ask him anything else.

Jesus said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? David himself says in the scroll of Psalms, The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’  Since David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be David’s son? ” ~Luke 20:27-40

“As we practice the Art of Passingover, we begin to personify the truth of this saying of Jesus. Again and again, we willingly die by ‘letting-go’ and ‘letting-be’ only to discover the rich harvest that awaits us in ‘letting-be’ and ‘letting-grow.’

To face death with such willingness is revolutionary in this culture. Our culture is largely based on the denial of death in any of its form. For most of us, death is the opposite of life, so we deny it in order to live in peace. In the Art of Passingover, however, we experience death and life as organically related parts of a larger whole; we experience them as inextricably wedded to one another within the messianic process of growth and creativity. So, rather than deny death, we affirm it by creatively living through it; in order to become what we are not, we willingly die to what we are. That is how it is in the Art of Passingover.

As we begin to experience the on-going interrelatedness of life and death in practice, our whole approach to human growth, and to how life unfolds, changes. Formerly, we may have thought that the cycle of human life begins with physical birth and ends with physical death. Given the bias of our culture, we may even have graded the stages along the way on the basis of how close they came to death. So, we gave youth a decided ‘plus,’ middle age a perplexed ‘plus-minus with a question mark,’ and old age a definite ‘minus,’ if we considered it at all. ~From The Art of Passingover by Francis Dorff

Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Your Son to defeat death. May I prove to be worthy of that age of resurrection. Thank You for being the God of the living. Amen.

Nothing wasted

02 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

That’s why all the faithful should pray to you during troubled times,so that a great flood of water won’t reach them. You are my secret hideout! You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of rescue! I will instruct you and teach you about the direction you should go. I’ll advise you and keep my eye on you. ~Psalm 38:6-8 (CEB)

“Everything that is comes alive in the risen Christ- who, as Chesterton reminded, is standing behind us. Everything- great, small, important, unimportant, distant and near- has its place, its meaning, and its value. Through union with Him (as Augustine said, He is more intimate with us than we are with ourselves), nothing is wasted, nothing is missing. There is never a moment that does not carry eternal significance- no action that is sterile, no love that lacks fruition, and no prayer that is unheard. ‘We know that by turning everything to their good God cooperates with all those who love [God]’ (Romans 8:28, emphasis added)” ~ From Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning

There are days that what I am going through just can’t seem possible for my greater good. Those days I just put one foot in front of the other and make it to the end of that day to the best of my ability, trusting Christ is walking behind me directing my steps. Even the areas of my life that I have thought dead Christ can take these areas as well and make it fruitful once again. For these times I have hidden Romans 8:28 in my heart trusting that He is the God He says He is.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Your Son to earth to conquer sin and death so that I might have hope. Amen.

A living hope

01 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time.

You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation.

The prophets, who long ago foretold the grace that you’ve received, searched and explored, inquiring carefully about this salvation. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was saying when he bore witness beforehand about the suffering that would happen to Christ and the glory that would follow. They wondered what sort of person or what sort of time they were speaking about. It was revealed to them that in their search they were not serving themselves but you. These things, which even angels long to examine, have now been proclaimed to you by those who brought you the good news. They did this in the power of the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven. ~1 Peter 1:3-12 (CEB)

So in all the ups and downs of our life we greatly rejoice (1Peter 1:6), and we can take our cue from Peter, who experienced more than a few ups and downs. Simply saying ‘In this you rejoice’ was not enough, so Peter said it again: ‘Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you so not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy; for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls’ (v.8). This is the meaning and spirit of Easter ~Norman Shawchuck

May the peace of God fill my heart, mind, and activities all this day long. Amen.

Never alone

31 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

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

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it. Now his face was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. The guards were so terrified of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you.”

With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. But Jesus met them and greeted them. They came and grabbed his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that I am going into Galilee. They will see me there.” ~Matthew 28:1-10 (CEB)

At this very moment when you read these words, you and I are in the presence of the living Christ. To remember this truth is to be shaped constantly by the presence of God in Christ in our lives. We often forget this central truth of the Christian faith, and when we do, we are easily overcome by the troubles of the world.

For me, what I write will pass before the eyes of the One about whom I write. As I write, I hope that my ordinary life and ordinary capacity will be energized, directed, and used by the One who gives me life and has called me to this ministry. If I allow myself to think that this ministry and this project are all up to me, I risk feelings, from despair to arrogance. However if I remember that I am not alone, but think, work, and live in the presence of the living Christ, I remain hopeful that even the most simple and ordinary task carried out in that presence and with the assistance of Jesus Christ is sacred, meaningful, and useful.

For you, what you read comes not from the word processor of someone full of years and short of energy or imagination. For these words are now read and heard in the presence of Jesus Christ who is able to use the most simple and ordinary words and events to enlighten, comfort, heal, and direct the seeking heart.

The risen Christ is with us and therefore we need not fear the events of this day or any day that lies in our future. We know that each day will be lived in companionship with the only One who is able to rescue, redeem, save, keep, and companion us through every experience of this life and the next.

This realization does not take away the pain or uncertainty that life holds. But it does give us strength, wisdom, guidance, and most of all, a Companion to travel through each of these experiences with us. East Sunday and every Sunday are gentle yet dramatic reminders that we are not alone never our own. As followers of Jesus, we walk with God in Christ, and that makes the journey rich in meaning, joy, and peace no matter where it leads. Jesus Christ is alive and reads with you mow words that are intended to turn your eyes, heart, and live more fully toward God. ~From A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Ruben P. Job

Almighty God, you who have sent Jesus into the world to suffer, die, and rise again for our sake, help us to experience your transforming resurrection power within our lives and ministry. We offer our prayers in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Happy Easter!

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.

Death is not the victor

29 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

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

Some Greeks were among those who had come up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and made a request: “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Human One l to be glorified. I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever. Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be. My Father will honor whoever serves me.

“Now I am deeply troubled. What should I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? No, for this is the reason I have come to this time. Father, glorify your name! ”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

The crowd standing there heard and said, “It’s thunder.” Others said, “An angel spoke to him.”

Jesus replied, “This voice wasn’t for my benefit but for yours.” ~John 12:20-32 (CEB)

“The final pictures in Matthew’s gospel are not only a bold affirmation of faith in the triumph of the kingdom of God, they are also a daring challenge to the disciples. The only logical response to this Gospel is the Great Commission: ‘Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, for I am with you always, even to the end of time.’

One of the most courageous witnesses for Christ in recent years was Archbishop Oscar Romero, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador, who was killed on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador.

With unflinching courage, he applied the message of liberation and justice to the political and social struggles of his homeland. In his last homily on March 23, he acknowledged ‘the risk that is run by our poor station for being the instrument and vehicle of truth and justice,’ but he went on to say that, in the context of the Lenten season, ‘all of this is preparation for our Easter, and Easter is a shout of victory. No one can extinguish that life which Christ revived. Not even death and hatred against him and against his Church will ever be able to overcome it. He is the victor!’” ~From What Will You Do with King Jesus? by James A. Harnish

What does it cost me to “make disciples”? If the answer is nothing maybe I am going about it the wrong way.

Heavenly Father, give me the courage I may need today to step out in faith for You. May I take with me the victory call that Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ will come again. May the fact that Jesus died for my sins strengthen and bolster me to take this good news to others. Amen.

To sit awhile with me

26 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

Jesus left and made his way to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.” He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. He said, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” Then a heavenly angel appeared to him and strengthened him. He was in anguish and prayed even more earnestly. His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he got up from praying, he went to the disciples. He found them asleep, overcome by grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation.” ~Luke 19:39-46 (CEB)

“When Jesus was in his excruciating moment in the Garden of Gethsemane he needed his disciples to be with him while he prayed. He longed for the comfort of their presence and was pained by their inability to provide this for him. Jesus didn’t need Peter to slice off an ear of his enemy. He just needed Peter and the others to be there with him as he faced his enemies).” ~From The Cup of Our Life by Joyce Rupp

Heavenly Father, help me to remember that sometimes others just need our presence. They may not be looking for words of comfort or even affirmations. Sometimes friends may just need someone to be “with them” in the sorry. Help me to see this day how I might “be with” others this day. Amen.

With imagination and a song

21 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

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

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint ~Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

“Christian existence… involves a life or incredible rhythms, of highs and lows, whether in a concert hall hearing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or in a Memphis dive trumpeting the blues. Its antinomies include a hunger for community, yet a taste for the silence of aloneness. The yearning is for intimacy, but the embrace occurs on a windswept hill called Golgatha. There is an emptying out of all thought and imagery in order to lose oneself in the Unknown and Unknowable. Yet there is an excitement over the playfulness of imagination and the intensity of mind. Christians are claimed by a past that hopes for the future by drinking deeply of the present. They are daring persons for whom belief is etched with faithful doubts. They hold tenaciously to what has been bequeathed, yet they gamble on the new being born. “~From The Art of Spiritual Direction by W. Paul Jones

Empty me O Lord so that I may be filled with Your thoughts and Your love. Help me to dream Your dreams and to dance to Your tunes. May I lose myself in the “Unknown” today and find myself in its possibilities. Amen.

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries