Tag Archives: God of Love

All-Powerful God

Kingdom Building

October 25, 2019

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. –2 Timothy 4:16-18

This scripture reminds me of the Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. It also makes me remember Abram’s aloneness when dreadful and great darkness fell upon him; Moses’ encounter with a burning bush; Jacob’s fight with an angel; Elijah’s running away and encountering God in the silence; Jesus dying on the cross; in this scripture, Paul feeling deserted; Dietrich Bonhoeffer standing naked and alone facing a hanging noose; and Martin Luther King Jr. with tears in his eyes, crying out I have a dream.

Finding connection with the all-powerful God is a life-changing experience where one never sees the world the same again. Most of us encounter God in perhaps less dramatic ways but no less meaningful than those I have named. Most of us will not be remember for our encounter 5000 years later or even 50 years later. All of us are called to be a part of building the Kingdom of God ruled by love. The only way that can happen in each of our quest is for us to form a relationship with the God of Love. We must feel as totally loved by God as Paul did standing alone facing his accusers. We must love all of God’s other children as much as Paul did when he continued his ministry to the Gentiles despite the danger.

In our world today, as was true in times such as these ancestors in faith lived, hate and division is epidemic, and the ways of love may seem lost in the ways of the world, but they are not. For the God of Abram, Moses, Jacob, Elijah, Jesus, Paul, John of the Cross, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King Jr. still has our backs and always will.

The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

John 16.32-33

Prayer: Lord, strengthen us for the loving required to heal the world in which we live. 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.

Awe Not Fear

Living in the Spirit
August 15, 2018

Scripture Reading: Psalm 111

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
   all those who practice it have a good understanding.
   His praise endures forever. –Psalm 111:10

While visiting a friend attending college in Austin, Texas many years ago, I toured a museum either on the campus or it near it while she was in class. Rounding a corner in one of the ancient history sections, I came face-to-face with a monstrous effigy set in an outdoor scene that was five or six times my height and nearly as wide as it was tall. It was one great stone with eyes and mouth carved to make a face. It may have had a nose I do not remember. I screamed very loudly and jumped back in fear. Quickly getting my wits about me I looked around to see who heard or saw me and was relieved to see no one near or anyone coming to investigate. The effigy was no doubt created to bring about the same fearful response I had among its worshippers. The concept of humans desiring something greater than themselves to have some control over the world is present in the origins of history. Such entities brought people together in a shared sense of fear or reverence or awe depending on their understanding of the god. In my tradition Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, was the first to recognize one God of all not hewn by human hands.

My mother shared God as an entity to be revered and held in awe. I think part of that was from her understanding of the devil from her childhood. She shared once that she would run as fast as she could to the outhouse at night. Having been taught in church that the devil would get her if she ever sinned, she envisioned the devil grabbing her legs and pulling her into hell if she didn’t run fast enough. I always wondered what horrible sin she thought she had done to deserve such treatment. She later grew up in the understanding of the God of Love in whose image all of us are made who was and is more awesome than any evil.

I thus have never experienced God as the source of wrath but One who restores to wholeness those who are broken in any sense of the word. I hope I never lose the sense of the unmeasurable depth and breadth and mercy of God’s grace and love that is beyond all imagination. We are not alone.

Prayer:
Lo! the hosts of evil round us
scorn the Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days*. Amen

*Verse 2 of God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry Emerson Fosdick see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory

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.

Knowing the God of Love

child-in-hands-of-godLiving in the Spirit
September 30, 2016

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. –2 Timothy 1:11-14

As I look back on my life, I must admit I probably was a weird kid. Way too serious; my dad described me as three going on 103. My two favorites songs as a child were Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone and I Know Whom I Have Believed. Obviously, I got my social justice creds early in life and I also learned early that I am never alone even when the world seems to be going crazy. While neither song is sung much today, neither are in our contemporary hymnal; I believe they have much to say about being a follower of Christ in a world living in fear, strangled by greed.

I do not remember knowing at the time that 2 Timothy was the source of I Know Whom I have Believed. Apparently, such assurance was as necessary for the first century as it is now. We become disillusioned because with put our faith in lesser gods promising magic wands to make all things right again. If I just had enough money, if we just had the right person in power, if we just drop a bomb and kill all the bad people, everything will be OK. We dig ourselves deeper and deeper into futility.

There was a man who lived in that first century who proposed a different way: the way of love. When applied with all due humility, Jesus’ way works.

 But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I’ve committed
unto him against that day. *

Prayer: Lord, save us from ourselves. Give us the courage to love as you love and to spread that love throughout the lands. Amen.

*Chorus of hymn I Know Whom I Have Believed, Lyrics by Daniel W. Whittle, see at http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh714.sht

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 American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

Listen and Learn

Living-Gods-Heart-SmLiving in the Spirit
June 2, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 8:4-20

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, ‘No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.’ –1 Samuel 8:4-20

The people called for a king to fight their battles for them without the presence of forethought to realize that they would be the ones conscripted to do the fighting. The prophets often quote God as saying something to the effect, “You closed your ears to me.” The people of Israel had just heard Samuel’s speech regarding the cost of a kingship and it did not matter.

There is a lot of failure to heed wise advice going around throughout the world. From texting while driving to over indulging in sugar and trans fat, we personally do not accept responsibility for our own wellbeing. Our scorn of the poor targeted at saving a few dollars in tax spending is dark comedy when Congress wants to fund the Department of Defense with millions more dollars than requested in its budget.

I have been reading Joan Chittister’s book The Ten Commandments, laws of the Heart. Her treatment of the second commandment really got my attention. My childhood take on, “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain” was basically not to swear. But no, Chittister asserts we should not call on the Lord when we know in our hearts what we are demanding is not something the God of love would even consider. We are wasting God’s time and our own—my words not hers.

We are called to a lifetime quest to know God. Hearing does not mean we have listened. Listening does not mean we have learned unless we live what God speaks to us.

Prayer:  Lord, enable us to give ear to your teaching, let in immerse our souls, and be reflected in our lives. 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.