Lent 2019 Day 29 “Birds of a Feather”

Wed Apr 3

am: 101, 109 pm: 119:121-144

Jere 18:1-11

Rom 8:1-11

John 6:27-40

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+101%2C+Psalm+109%2C+Psalm+119%3A121-144%2C+Jeremiah+18%3A1-11%2C+Romans+8%3A1-11%2C+John+6%3A27-40&version=NIV

PSALM 101:3 -6 I hate what faithless people do;

    I will have no part in it. ⁴ The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
    I will have nothing to do with what is evil. ⁵ Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,    I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate.⁶ My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me.

 

Birds of a feather flock together. I have heard this statement my entire life. On the surface it makes good sense. Why wouldn’t geese be with geese and eagles be with eagles? It makes sense. However No person is an island and no person can stand alone. Humanity was created for community. While we are all human, we must distinguish how we will allow ourselves to be influenced by the company that we keep. What I am driving at is the people and places that we interact with operate in an intricate balance between influencing and being influenced. When we don’t pay attention to the company that we keep we may find ourselves manifesting behaviors inconsistent with our core beliefs.  An example of this can be seen in mob generated behavior. Many people of normally reserved emotions and good character can find themselves in a mob and all of a sudden get carried away and before they know it they are shouting crucify him.

The Psalmist in Psalm 101 speaks of being careful to live a blameless life. Needless to say this is a tall order. The only possible way I can imagine living a blameless life is to be careful and rely on help from GOD. YESHUAH the Christ taught the disciples to pray “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Evil is all around us and without proper spiritual disciplines it will rub off on  us. One will not remain blameless by luck. This being said we must be careful not to miss the fact that we are all made in the image of the Divine creator. YESHUAH was criticized for the company he kept because he believed it was not the well that needed the doctor but the sick. YESHUAH kept a balance between who he was called to be and the people he was called to serve and to save. As it was with YESHUAH so I believe it should be with us. We are called to be a light that shines. Like a flashlight, we cannot shine continuously without changing or charging our batteries. Lent is such a time. During this season we recharge our batteries through spiritual nurturing so that we can handle the challenge of being in the world and not of the world.

As you go and grow through this day, I encourage you to recharge your spiritual battery. In that same way, share love with all you meet, regardless of their response. Maintain the balance between hating sin and loving the sinner.

PRAYER: DIVINE CREATOR, may your kingdom come and your will be done through us today. May the nourishment from our daily bread empower us to glorify you in word and in deed. Forgive us for getting off track so easily and becoming overly influenced by the world as it is and not as you desire it to be. AMEN

Point to Ponder: Who has influenced your life the most? What is your plan to live a blameless life? Remember failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Lent 2019 Day 18 ” Love Endures”

Sat Mar 30

am: Psalm 87, 90 pm: Psalm 136

Jeremiah 13:1-11

Romans 6:12-23

John 8:47-59

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+87%2C+Psalm+90%2C+Psalm+136%2C+Jeremiah+13%3A1-11%2C+Romans+6%3A12-23%2C+John+8%3A47-59&version=NIV

^{Psalm 136″1} Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.

                                                              ⁴ to him who alone does great wonders,                                        His love endures forever.

^{Romans 6:22} But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We all have a tendancy to struggle at times doing the right thing. Think of the days you began with every intention to do right. After beginning your pursuit before you knew it life happened. A cross wordwas spoken to you and your response was even sharper. Who do you think you are talking too? You get cut off on the road and you CREATORrespnd with the middle digit salute. You pass by the homeless and dont even look, you simply miss the mark, and still you are loved.

Psalm 136 says, “give thanks to the LORD, His love endures forever.” When I read this, I pick up on words love and endures. To endure means to be presented with a challenge that tests the will and strength of someone who does not quit or give up. To think that our actions are an assault on the CREATOR is humbling and convicting. It is humbling to know that YHWH loves us in an enduring way. Even though we seem to be naughty by nature when we miss the mark GODS love endures and repositions us for success. The PSalmist exhorts us to give thanks for all the ways GOD reveals GODSELF to us. The greatest way is the gift of grace and eternal life through Jesus Christ. Be grateful and work to live holy

Point to Ponder: When does eternal life begin for you? In what ways will you commit to righteous life? Who can you share the grace of GOD with in word and or in deed?

Lent 2018 Day 21 “Cleaning House”

2 Chronicles 29:1-11, 16-19 (NIV)

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple

29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ² He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side ⁵ and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. ⁶ Our parents were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. ¹⁰ Now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”

¹⁶ The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month, they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles. ¹⁹ We have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”

Hebrews 9:23-28 (NIV)

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Cleaning House

Have you ever wondered what is the point of cleaning up your house when it’s only going to get dirty again? Have you ever wondered what the big deal was behind making up your bed every day only to get back in it and mess it up at night especially when no one is going to see it? Many are the excuses used to validate not putting in the extra effort do house cleaning. I confess I have used some of them. When my daughters were younger I worked on instituting the first five rule. This rule stated the first five minutes of arriving home were the most critical. If we put things away, right away they wouldn’t pile up. Five minutes could save hours of hard work. (Reminder to self, I need to follow my own plan). Just as our homes miraculously accumulate work that needs to be done when neglected, so does our spirits.

In the passage from 2 Chronicles 29 the writer highlights the story of King Hezekiah and how he responded to the negligence of the house of the LORD. The first thing he does is fix the doors. Imagine walking by or driving by a church and the doors are hanging off the hinges. I am sure this is not what the preachers have meant when they say, “The doors of the church are open”. In this case, the doors were open because they were broken. Yesterday we read about being the temple of GOD (1 Corinthians 3) and how we must build with care. This text from Chronicles reminds us that after building the house, we need to take care of the house.

Lent is a time of Spiritual house cleaning. We use this time to purify ourselves. To be intentional about creating and maintaining a dwelling place worthy of the King of Kings. When we like the people of Judah and Israel neglect the temple there are consequences. We are tasked to consecrate ourselves as we seek to consecrate the temple. In other words, it’s hard for an old broom to sweep clean. We must work on ourselves as we seek to work on others. We must develop a new attitude that resists the temptation to let things go. I am a witness, the more we let things go the more they tend to grow. The senior saints used to say, “If you let the devil ride, sooner or later he will try to drive.” The day is the LORD has made for us to practice the first five. Here are my first five for building spiritual clarity using the acronym CLEAN

1. Consecrate Yourself. Take time away from hustle and bustle and listen for GOD
2. Love. Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart mind souls and strength, and know that you are loved by the CREATOR unconditionally.
3. Excavate. Dig up and clean out any debris of doubt or unrepentant sin. Warning, when you lift the rocks in your life, you might find hidden snakes.
4. Acknowledge. We must acknowledge we have messed up in order to avoid falling back into the same level of disrepair. We cannot erase what we will not face.
5. Nurture. We must nuture our relationship with the DIVINE. Nurture means to spend time with GOD, Feed our spirits, Take out weeds in our spiritual garden

When we practice these first five we will find the clean up next year will be a lot easier. LIVEBIG.

Points to Ponder: In what ways is your spiritual temple in disrepair? What steps are you taking to address this clutter in your soul? After cleaning your house, how will you help others to clean theirs?

Lent Day 38: Prosperous in Peril

^{JEREMIAH 29:14-13} 

⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” ⁸ Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. ⁹ They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.¹⁰ This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from home. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever just wanted to feel at home? Many people as time and technology progress feel less and less connected to the world in which they live. All the bells and beeps that surround us can become disconcerting. As we get older things that once happened through us begin to happen to us. We lose our sense of belonging. When this occurs we begin to long for the good old days. This mindset only exacerbates the disconnect. It is to this life experience this text is directed.

In this text GOD inspires Jeremiah to prepare the people for being in exile. The Israelite community is exiled and being frustrated by living in a foreign land away from familiar surroundings, basically trying to figure out what to do. How can we find a home away from home. GOD instructs the Israelite community to settle down. Don’t spend all their energy trying to be where they are not. There is a tragedy and not being present. GOD is an ever present help in time of trouble. Knowing this we can know that GOD cannot be confined to any space or place. We know that the earth is the LORDS and all that dwell in it. So whether they are in Jerusalem or Babylon the Israelites can still be at home. And this is the message for us today.

Our situation may take a while to change in our favor. GOD doesn’t want us to be skittish even though we are scattered. It is the plan of GOD to prosper us, not just in the not yet, but right now. Knowing that GOD has a future for us adds meaning in the present moment. The plan of GOD to prosper us allows there to be a purpose in the midst of our pain. Hope has as much power in our present as it has for our future. Just think about what happens when a person is hopeless. When we give up hope it has implications right now. Hopeless people dead people walking. No joy, no peace, no laughter, just a gnawing experience that steals all vitality. On the other hand people with hope can go through hell because they live in heaven. They know the kingdom of heaven is within and thus they learn to bloom where they are planted. Working for the best even in this foreign place means everybody can prosper.

As we near the end of this Lenten season, we may notice a desire to want to hang on to the sense of home we feel doing our devotions. I challenge us by saying it doesn’t have to end. Just because we change liturgical season doesn’t mean we have to change spiritual disciplines. And even if they have to change some, we must hold on to the hope that we can call on the LORD and be heard, when we call with our whole heart.

PRAYER: LORD help us to bloom where we are planted. As we experience exile let us also experience your presence and blessed assurance that we are not alone. Lead us Guide us, Direct us to export inner peace amid external chaos. Awaken the dead areas of our lives killed by despair. AMEN

Point to Ponder: In what ways have you experienced exile? How are you blooming where you are planted? Share what it means for you to prosper.

Additional Scripture: John 11

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+11&version=NIV