Author Archives: WOJ@deborahsdescendants.com

Bringing Hope

Living in the Spirit

June 10, 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

I get suffering producing endurance and endurance produces character but, I had to stop and think about character producing hope. Paul, the author of this idea, certainly lived it. He spent time in jail simply for preaching the ways of Jesus Christ. In some instances, he was waiting to see if he would be released, left there to starve or be executed. Until recently, I did not know that prisons in Paul’s time did not always feed their inmates. The prisoners were often at the mercy of friends and family to bring them nourishment. Experiencing that type of commitment does produce hope.  That type of commitment is just a reflection of the love of God provided through the gift of the Holy Spirit who nourishes our souls. We, too, are called to bring hope to a world when things seem so hopeless.

I just watched the testimony of a ten-year-old girl survivor of the Uvalde shooting who showed character and hope when she spread over her body the blood from her dead friend lying on the floor next to her so the shooter would think she too was dead. Hope may have saved her life. We as a people must be the catalyst for the changes needed so that such shootings do not happen. We must let this child’s courage and character teach us to be bringers of hope.

 Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we selfishly replace the safety of our schools so we can keep our deadly toys. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Justification

Living in the Spirit

June 9, 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

The Greek word, dikaioó, means The believer is made righteous/justified by the Lord, cleared of all charges (punishment) related to their sins. Moreover, they are justified, “made right, righteous” by God’s grace each time they receive (obey) faith*.

We may think of the word justify meaning to give an acceptable reason for having done something wrong. But this justification is more like the prophet Amos’s plumbline (Amos 7:7), a tool used to make sure, for example, a wall is perfectly straight so that it will be able to last for years withstanding storms and other forces that might destroy an otherwise weak wall. I think that God’s plumbline is always available, and we need to examine ourselves routinely to see if we are following God closely.  

Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Refrain:
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone**.

Prayer: Lord, create in us clean hearts so that we can see clearly how to live in your justification. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/1344.htm

First verse and Refrain of the hymn Living for Jesus by Thomas O. Chisholm see at https://hymnary.org/text/living_for_jesus_a_life_that_is_true

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Changing in God’s Way

Living in the Spirit

June 8, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 8
O Lord, our Sovereign,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
   Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
   to silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
   and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
   you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
   and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
   whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Sovereign,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I wonder if God regrets giving us dominion over the works of God’s hands. We surely can mess things up very quickly. Oklahoma is known for its dangerous weather but even for someone who has lived here for decades, I have not seen weather like we are having now. It seems we daily beat some weather record. We are more and more having to deal with issues that demand the whole world to work well together to address everything from climate change to pandemics. We do not do a good job of addressing these issues as individual nations much less having all work together. God created us too and I cannot help but think God created us with the innate ability to rise above our greed and lust for power and find common ground for the Common Good.

Oklahoma released several prisoners a few years ago because they had been sentenced to extreme sentences for non-violent crimes. The state reduced the sentences for new offenders and then realized that several of our current prisoners had already served more time than the current sentence for the crime they committed. So, we did a mass release. What we did not take into consideration was that prison itself changes people and that many of those released needed help adjusting to the outside world again. Moses dealt with this in the wilderness after leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

Humans seek what is called homeostasis, which describes a tendency toward maintenance of relatively stable social conditions among groups*. We prefer to live with what we know even if it is not the best way to survive or thrive. When forces outside ourselves alter our normal patterns, we quickly search for new homeostasis, for example, how to succeed in prison and then how to succeed out of prison. Right now, we seem to wake up every morning with a new pattern of living from weird weather to pandemics to mass shootings. At each point in meeting these challenges, the best way to learn how to deal with them is to follow the guidance of our world’s original Creator. Thus, we must take the time to analyze whether our response to the world is in keeping with God’s intentions for the world and adjust to follow God’s intentions.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we let the challenges in our world get the better of us. Grant us your peace so we can be carriers of your peace to others facing the same challenges that we are. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Using Our Wisdom

Living in the Spirit

June 7, 2022

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 8:22-31

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
   the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
   at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
   when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
   before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
   or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
   when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
   when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
   so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
   then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
   rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
   and delighting in the human race.

Wisdom was present at the beginning of the creation as wisdom is the personification of God’s will and creation was God’s will. I have always found it fascinating that every culture of which I am aware recognizes a creator. Even the Big Bang Theory started from something. That tells me that we have and are the resources needed to choose the ways that support and nurture the whole creation whether it be dealing with climate change or poverty. For some reason, humans have a hard time accepting both that gift and the responsibility that goes with it. We tend to want our cake and to eat it too. 

The COVID virus is a wake-up call for us to see the world and its people in the reality we now recognize and use our wisdom to work together in building the Kingdom Jesus visualized in his ministry.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for gifting us with the wisdom to care for your creation in all its forms. Grant us the will to use it and not let it go the waste. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Wisdom

Living in the Spirit

June 6, 2022

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 8:1-4

Does not wisdom call,
   and does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way,
   at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
   at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
‘To you, O people, I call,
   and my cry is to all that live.

Wisdom: the effectual mediating principle or personification of God’s will in the creation of the world: logos. Wisdom encompasses words like knowledge, insight, virtue, judgment, and prudence*.

I think this is the first time that I have looked up the meaning of a word and discovered that it originated from the personification of God’s will.  Jesus taught his followers in Matthew 10:16, ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. The “What would Jesus do?” fad that coursed through faith communities a few years ago was spot on. We do not always take the time to seek what Jesus would do.

Serious athletes follow a strict life plan that includes everything from getting enough rest and eating right to routine exercise topped off with a lot of practice. They develop what is called muscle memory so that when they are in the middle of a game their body and mind work together smoothly automatically. The Proverbs quote above is telling us we need to be as aggressive as an athlete about understanding and following God’s will in all that we do.

Prayer: Lord, create in us clean hearts so that when we communion with you we receive your messages rather than filtering them to what we want to hear. Amen.

*https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/Wisdom

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Finding What is Right

Living in the Spirit

June 5, 2022

Scripture Reading:

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. –John 14:14-17, 25-27

I acquaint advocacy with what Senator John Lewis called “good trouble.” He, indeed, was an advocate to model one’s life after. A gentle man who forcefully stood for the right and yet, did his fair share of stirring up good trouble. Doing what is right is often dangerous as Senator Lewis found out as a young man when he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. It seems almost counterintuitive to link the work of the Holy Spirit with peace as it applies to advocacy. The peace being described in the above scripture is the peace that passes understanding. (See Philippians 4:6) Such peace comes from doing what is right in God’s eyes not as defined by humans. I think of the devout Saul of Tarsus who just knew that he was doing right in persecuting the Christ-followers of the first century until he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Our challenge as advocates today is to make sure we are doing what is right in God’s eyes. It is election season in the USA, and we are hearing all kinds of pronouncements on what is right and what is wrong with our country. We need to be very sure our lines of communication with the Holy Spirit are not cluttered with cultural filters blocking the Spirit’s truth from reaching our hearts and minds.

Prayer: Take our lives and let them be consecrated Lord to thee* in all that we do. Amen.

Derived from the hymn Take My Life and Let It Be by Frances R. Havergal. See at https://hymnary.org/text/take_my_life_and_let_it_be

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

All Together

In the Spirit

June 4, 2022

Scripture Reading:

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. –John 14:8-13

Are we doing the works that Jesus did? Indeed, Jesus came to us as God incarnate, but we were all made in the image of God and apparently gifted in some way to do some part of the works as Jesus did. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11:  

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

We are not called to do everything, but we are called to do something. Jesus called us all together (1 Corinthians 27) to be the Body of Christ in the world today. Using each of our gifts to God’s service, together becomes more than the sum of our parts.

Prayer: Lord, help us to discover our gifts, and use them as our part of your Body. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God’s Presence

Living in the Spirit

June 3, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ –Acts 2:1-13

I was not a good student of Spanish. I learned to read it but I failed at being able to do any more than the simplest of conversations. Fifty or so years later, I cannot even read it. That is proof, I guess, that if you do not use it you lose it. I worked with a man whose native language was German. He was chronically slow to respond. He told me once that he had to translate what people said to him into German then form his response in German and translate it into English before he could speak it. He was very quick at it when you consider the work his brain was doing in the background. Basically, he came across as being thoughtful. What happened at Pentecost was one of those events when one had to be there to get the fullness of what happened. They were just as bad at foreign languages as I am. Descriptions just failed the participants.

Pentecost was when the disciples realized that their sojourn with Jesus had just begun. They realized his presence with them was directly from the Holy. As Paul described the empowerment, in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So can we.

Prayer: Lord, we know you will guide and help us remember that. Open our hearts and minds to your presence as we struggle through a challenging world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Spirit of Adoption

Living in the Spirit

June 2, 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The whole idea of slavery is repulsive to me, although it is the norm throughout the Bible. The Israelites were taken into slavery because their growth became a threat to the Egyptians who had welcomed them when Joseph helped the Egyptians survive drought and famine. It was normal for fighting armies from other tribes and nations to take slaves from their enemies. Even fellow Israelites used specified service slavery as a means of paying debts.

I have a copy of the legal papers that my 5th generation grandfather signed for his fifteen-year-old son, my 4th generation grandfather, to serve seven years as an indentured servant to learn how to work in the steel industry. He was also to be taught how to read, write, and cipher. Today we would probably call that being an apprentice. My 4th generation grandfather had a very successful life working at a steel forge. He must have been pretty good at it. During the War of 1812 instead of being conscripted into the army to fight, he was conscripted to work in a factory making Pennsylvania rifles for the war.

So how do we respond to Paul’s words that we did not receive a spirit of slavery but of adoption? He is defining our relationship with God as becoming a part of the family of God where we learn how to be successful people.  Such success happens within the parameters of a family that desires the very best for each of its members as they relate to God and to one another. That clarification was most important in first-century Rome where Christ-followers were coming together from very different backgrounds. Some were slaves and some were slave owners. That clarification is still very important for us today as we live in a world of diversity.

Prayer: Lord, help us see ourselves as a part of the family of God among all your children whom you call us to love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Finished with Sin

Pentecost

June 1, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
   may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
   who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
   I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
   for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
   and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord! –Psalm 104:31-34, 35

I want my meditations to be pleasing to me. I had not realized that until I read this psalm that says May my meditation be pleasing to (God). I meditate to calm down or collect myself. Now, God is most likely pleased with me calming down and getting my act together, but this scripture made me wonder if I am entering into meditation for the wrong reasons. The true purpose of meditation is to get in sync with God. This is important in our crazy world today where discord is common, and some seem to intentionally focus on keeping people divided. We are all much better at reading the world about us in truth when we are in sync with God.

The other piece about this scripture that caught my attention was the phrase, Let sinners be consumed from the earth. That reads like the sinners will be destroyed. I looked up what the Hebrew word Tamam translated as consumed in this Psalm and found that it means to be finished. I can identify with that. Romans 3:23 says since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We still must work at outgrowing our turning to sin as a lesser way of dealing with the realities of life. Our goal is to trust in God enough that following God’s ways is the higher ground we are called to follow. We are also promised that if we stick with God’s ways, God’s grace fills the gaps we may not even see when necessary.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you (Psalm 19:14) Amen.

   O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.