Tag Archives: Spiritual Growth

A Lightened Load

Discipleship

January 29, 2021

Scripture Reading:
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’ Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ‘Food will not bring us close to God.’ We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:18-20)

Why do we seek lesser gods? In the scripture for today, Paul writes about idol worship. In Romans 7, he writes about not being able to do what is right but does the evil he knows he should not. The thing about idols that is so compelling is we can craft them into anything we desire and call it god. On the other hand, God created us in God’s image so that our being in sync with God results in that which is good, not only for us but for all of God’s children. God built into our creation the right to choose whether to live in alignment with God or not. Jesus said that my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30), but like two-year-old’s, we test God to establish the trust needed in any relationship. We carry that testing into maturity or lack thereof. Our primary life’s work is growing into relationship with God through good times and bad until evil is no longer attractive. When we pursue that work with all our hearts, God is always with us to share our challenges and joys.

Prayer: Creator God, thank you for making us who we are. Guide us in fulfilling all the promise you built into us at our creation. 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.

Journey to the Cross

Lent
March 24, 2018

 Scripture Reading: John 12:12-16

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
   the King of Israel!’
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:
‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
   sitting on a donkey’s colt!’
His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

John’s story of what we call the Triumphal Entry does not vary much from Mark’s except it occurred much earlier in Jesus’ ministry. It too emphasizes the value of hindsight when everything is much clear after the fog has lifted.

My father by all accounts loved his Grandmother Moore. She was a favorite. At least I heard more about her than I heard about the other grandparents. Part of that is no doubt the result of her outliving the others and partly because she lived with his family off and on after his mother was widowed. While he held her in great esteem he did recognize some idiosyncrasies. She told him many times that someday a highway going all the way from Kansas to Texas would pass through her farm making it a lot easier to travel. He just laughed at her, to himself, he told us after all she was old, and he did love her. She died in 1934. He told me of her prophetic insight in the 1950’s as we watched the big machines breaking the ground for Interstate Highway 35 that does run through the edge of her farm.

I am a fan of science and rational thinking, but I also accept that there is more about humans and the world we live in than we will ever understand. Shakespeare perhaps said it best:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 
– Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

I think God created the world as our textbook to help us develop and learn from our experiences. The disciples lived in a world that probably accepted lack of understanding better than we do. We have grown accustomed to explanations for most things and grow frustrated when answers are not forthcoming. The disciples had to live through Jesus’ death before they finally gained understanding. Holy Week provides us with the opportunity to retrace their steps as we grow in our understanding of God and God’s desires for his children. Invest in the process.

Prayer: God, give us glimpses of your will and your love as we journey into Jerusalem this week toward the Cross. 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 Eternal Message

ive-got-thisChristmas
January 1, 2017

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:13-23

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’ –Matthew 2:19-23

One of the characteristics of the prophets who speak to us through the Bible I most appreciate is that they never lose sight of God’s eternal message, “I’ve got this.” When the world is falling apart around them, this message resonates. I call them pragmatic optimists. They see the fault lines. They fully realize the implications. They trust God.

Joseph demonstrates the same characteristic in our scripture today. In looking back on my life, I now can see clearly when doors I wanted to enter closed before me, new doors opened. At the time, I mourned the inability to cross the thresholds of those old doors. Later, I thanked God for the opportunities that resulted and in some instances the disasters I averted.

We make decisions that matter every day often on the fly. We as Christ-followers must keep our spirits as fine tuned as skilled athletes hone their bodies and practice their specific sport. It enables us to let our spirit memories, like an athlete’s muscle memory, take over as needed when our lives would otherwise be spinning out of control.

Prayer: O God,
Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.  

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting*. Amen.

*Psalm 139:7-12, 23-24

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.

Turning Around

Jesus healsEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 15, 2015

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  — 1 Corinthians 6:12-15

 I have had osteoarthritis in most of my major joints since I was 24. I had the bad kind of strep that went untreated—just thought it was a bad cold—until I went to work one morning and could not pick up my pen to write. There were red streaks running up the back of my hands and my arms. I got in to see my doctor immediately, had blood tests, was put on a steroid, and later told I had rheumatoid arthritis for which I was treated. (I have since been told I probably never had it in the first place so I don’t really know what I had). Six months later I had no sign of rheumatoid arthritis but had osteoarthritis at one level or another in all my major joints. My left knee was impacted the worst. Fast forward to 2008, my left knee was replaced with a stainless steel implant.

I was at normal weight when I was 24, but by the time my knee was replaced I was morbidly obese and grossly out of shape.  It struck me recently that my health history is a great example of how sin enters our lives and gradually wears away our souls, very much like arthritis attacks joints and bone. I now weigh about the same thing I weighed when I was 24 and am probably in a lot better shape thanks to God and a very good personal trainer. The catalyst for this happening was the excision of that rotten knee, but the transition happened with a lot of support from people who know the human body and from investment of myself in the process to become as whole physically as I could become.

In our scripture today Paul, I think, is using physical examples to help us understand spiritual realities. Don’t get me wrong, I think Paul wants us to live lives where we respect ourselves and others in our relationships, but he is also saying that that starts and continues with being one with God through Jesus Christ. Such a relationship takes the catalyst of turning around from whatever is keeping us separate from God, but also requires our total commitment toward making that relationship work. It takes even more dedication to practice spiritual disciplines of prayer and worship and service and more, than it took for me to exercise and eat right toward gaining better health.

Prayer: God of our bodies, minds and souls, enable us to achieve wholeness in whatever aspects of our lives we are lacking and in our resulting wholeness help us to live fully in your loving service. 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.