Tag Archives: Relating to God

Relating to God

Living in the Spirit

July 6, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 25:1-10

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
   do not let me be put to shame;
   do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
   let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
   teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
   for you are the God of my salvation;
   for you I wait all day long.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
   for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
   according to your steadfast love remember me,
   for your goodness’ sake, O Lord!

Good and upright is the Lord;
   therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
   and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
   for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

This scripture describes a very personal, close relationship with God, a relationship available to all of us. It is based on trust that the ways of the Lord are the best for us. Let us use this scripture to guide our meditation today as we work to embrace our relationship with God. Guide us to be the best people we can be.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we get so caught up with the distractions of our world and fail to let our relationship with you be our guide. 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.

Go-To Scripture

Ordinary Time

February 3, 2022

Scripture Reading:
1 Corinthians 15:1-11

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain.–1 Corinthians 15:3-11

Do you have a go-to scripture that you turn to when you need to be reminded who you are or whose you are? Mine is Psalm 63:1-7. I memorized it years ago from The New English Bible, published in 1961. I now stumble over it when I read it in any other translations. Memorizing allows me to access it immediately, particularly helpful in the middle of the night when I do not want to reach for my phone. I think the first few sentences of the above scripture were Paul’s go-to scripture. It concisely states the story and the purpose of Jesus, the Christ that drew Paul to share Christ’s story and message. The change in Paul’s life was recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. Two thousand plus years later, we still profit from Paul’s mission. Indeed, God calls us to send it forth for generations to come.

If you do not have a go-to scripture, I encourage you to identify one. We can even have more than one. Hebrews 4:12 says, Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Prayer: Lord, be ever near us through our study of scripture. 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.

Relating to God

Living in the Spirit

June 15, 2021

Scripture Reading:

Job 38:1-11

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man,
   I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
   Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
   or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together

   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
   when it burst out from the womb?—
when I made the clouds its garment,
   and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed bounds for it,
   and set bars and doors,
and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
   and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

A class I took on theology dealt with the Trinity, a subject argued at least since the beginning of Christianity. I was not a good student for this topic. I have no problem with worshipping an all-powerful God, trying to model my life after a very human man who was also fully divine, and following the guidance of a Spirit all working together somehow. I do not care if that grouping has a name or not. I do not think there is a shape, title, or description that can illustrate this phenomenon. If such artwork is helpful to others’ understanding of God, I am glad it is meaningful to them.

God’s frustration described in the above scripture is not how to define God but the paradox that we can take God for granted and we never should. God had a purpose in creating the world and all that is in it. The Lord made life with which God could relate.  The story of Job starts at a meeting in heaven where God and Satan discuss whether Job would continue to be a blameless, steadfast follower of God if all the things God had provided for Job were taken from him. And so, a test was created. Job lost everything he cared about and was chastised by his friends for the loss resulting from Job’s sins even though he had not sinned. Job held forth his innocence. The book of Job is a morality play illustrating how vital our relationship with God is and that we should never assume we know God better than God knows God’s self as we attempt to judge others.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your abiding presence with us. Forgive us when our love falls short in our relationship with you and with your other children. 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.

Rust Removal

Living in the Spirit

May 26, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 29

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
   the God of glory thunders,
   the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
   the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
   the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
   and Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
   the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. –Psalm 29:3-8

How do we visualize God in our minds? Do we personify God, seeing the image of a human perhaps sitting on a throne? Do we perceive God’s presence with no visual identity? Is God’s image in your mind’s eye that of a loving father or an angry ruler or both or something else? Read through the quote from Psalm 29 above and consider how the Psalmist identified the voice of God. Most of us live in areas that are threatened at some time each year with floods, tornados, hurricanes, fires, or volcanos. These forces are fully capable of destroying everything around them. Yesterday, I saw pictures of the damage hurricanes did during the last year in Honduras. The homes were splintered wood on the ground peppered here and there with a bedframe or broken table. Worse yet, their crops were ruined—their source of livelihood gone in a split second. The story was about a young man trekking to North American in search of work to feed his family. He was turned back at the Mexican border.

I do not think the Psalmist writes to scare us. The poem highlights that God is more powerful than all the frightening experiences of life. We most often forget that truth when our lives are going well, and we begin to focus our attention on what Paul would call the flesh or the enticements of the world. That results in our getting rusty in our relationship with God–that is no place to be.

During 2020, we were thrown into multiple experiences of turmoil. We are now trying to deal with the challenges of pandemics and societal realities like racism and poverty we do not want to admit exists. Before we can refocus our priorities on the ways of God, we have a lot of rust we need to remove. The wonderful thing about an all-powerful God is God is stronger than any rust we may have developed that separates us from God. Getting rid of it may be painful as we have grown rather attached to it. God promises that God’s love can make all things new, if we follow God’s wisdom.

Prayer: Lord, remove the rust from our faith and bring us to wholeness in your 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.

Growing in Relationship with God

Lent

March 25, 2021

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:4-10

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
   but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
   you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God” –Hebrews 10:4-7

Jesus did know his Hebrew Bible. This scripture includes a quote from Psalm 40:6-8, which I used in my devotion yesterday. I recently began working with an advocacy group that has been active for a few years. It is like starting a new job with an entity that has been operational for a long time. We learn and grow from shared experiences, both good and bad. Jesus came to refocus God’s people and got his life-changing point across by his death on the Cross.

Burnt offerings were attempts to worship God with items of value as God’s people tried to build their understanding of God and how to relate to God. As their faith developed, these practices lost their meaningfulness, becoming a routine ritual that no longer fulfilled its purpose of aligning God’s people with God’s will. Hebrew prophets were paving the way for this transition. For example, Jeremiah 31:33 says, But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And Joel 2:13, advises a change of practice to
   rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
   for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
   and relents from punishing.

Jesus, too, prepared his disciples for future relations with God, when he said in John 20:19-22, When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Holy One, breathe on us your Spirit of love as we face our society’s challenges. 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.

Relating to God

Christmastide

January 4, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Wind and water, light and dark are phenomena know to most. Our best way of describing a mystery is often wrapped in the familiar. During the summer, the sun wakes me. In the winter months, I reach to turn on a light before I arise from my bed. To know God, we must be aware of God’s existence. The beginning of that knowledge comes with the creation of light. God provides and shares light for us, and God implants in us the ability to communicate and create light for ourselves and others. The story of creation attests to God’s desire to live in relationship with entities that desired to relate to God.

Humankind can be very fickle in relating to God. Ours is often a one-way street. We seek God when we need God. Our relationship would be much richer and more fulfilling if we maintained consistent contact with God. A part of my car’s purchase agreement was that I would bring it for regular checkups every six months for the first three years I owned it at no cost to me. I have a similar plan for which I pay, that provides routine checkups of my heat and air system. My health insurance includes annual medical and dental checkups because it is cheaper for them and better for me if health problems are caught and treated early.

I consider it a blessing that God was introduced to me in my childhood as my friend. It made it easier for me to mature into a richer relationship with God as an adult. On the other hand, I know people who became acquainted with God as adults who highly value knowing God. The one thing we must never do is take God for granted even though that is God’s promise.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your care and abiding love for us. Forgive us when we pull away for you. 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.

The Missing Link

God as PotterAdvent
November 25, 2014

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 64:1-9

5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed….
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity for ever.
Now consider, we are all your people. — Isaiah 64:5, 8-9

Does verse 5 above bother you? It bothers me. It seems to blame God for our transgressions. Is it possible that the poet left a verse or two out? Should there have been a verse between the first half of five and the last half of five that says something about our not gladly doing right and remembering God and thus God was angry.

Luke tells us a story (Luke 17:11-19) about ten lepers who Jesus meets along the way and who Jesus cures of this dreaded disease, telling them to follow the practice for lepers who have been cleansed to go to the priest to receive acceptance back into the community. All ten went to the priests and all ten were found to be clean but only one returned to Jesus to thank him for his healing mercies. The others did not. Perhaps this is a story the poet could have inserted between the first half of verse five and the second half.

From this reading plucked from context, we do not know why God is reported to have been angry nor why God bothered to hid from those who apparently did not seek God. A broader review of Isaiah would surely clarify the matter but I do not think it is any different than Jesus’ experience with the lepers and perhaps is not different than God’s experience with us today.

Advent is a time of introspection. A time to reconsider how we are meeting God along the way.

Prayer: Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
            Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
            Mold me and make me after thy will,
            while I am waiting, yielded and still.* 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.