Living in The Spirit

June 17, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ –Matthew 9:35-38

The just released KIDS COUNT Report shows Oklahoma Ranks 46th for Child Well-Being among the 50 states in the USA.  It is sponsored by THE ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION. If you want to get a glimpse of what disturbed Jesus as he went from cities to villages and saw people who were harassed and helpless, read this document. You will find it at https://okpolicy.org/kids-count-report-shows-oklahoma-ranks-46th-for-child-well-being/

There is no excuse for Oklahoma to rank so badly as compared to other states in the USA. Legislation passed this session raising teacher pay may help some, but much more is needed.

Prayer: Lord, help us see our neighbors you have called us to love as you saw them. Help us become your laborers to correct this travesty. 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 18, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. –Matthew 10:9-23

It is frightening to hear people believing information that is not true. If lies are repeated enough with enough drama, they grow into ideas that become new inventions, having nothing to do with truth. Indeed, we are sheep being sent into the midst of wolves. Anymore, I cross-check most things I read or hear.  Many newspapers now carry a section where it cross-checks what they are quoting. The fact that it is being said, even if incorrect, is news.

I tend to blame most of the ills in our world today on greed and lust for power. Our governments at all levels are caught in the dependence on greed for people to win elections. I receive text messages and emails daily asking me to donate to some candidate. Broadcasters predict who will win elections by how much money they have raised. We, the people, are the only ones who can rein in this greed and lust for power, but before we start, we need to read the above scripture, take it to heart, and not get caught up in the idols of our day.

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

Prayer: Lord, enable your love within us to love the idols out of our 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 15, 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name.

For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures forever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.

Practicing Thanksgiving is not only good for our souls, but it is also good for our mental health. Life can be frustrating with many small things that slow us down or complicate our lives.  That is especially true when we reach the age where we walk into the kitchen and do not remember why we went there in the first place. Making a habit of listing the things we are thankful for each evening when we go to bed can be a great way to calm ourselves for sleep.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for always being with me as I stumble through some parts of life and bask in other gifts you shower on me like a beautiful sunset, a funny cartoon,  and things we may take for granted, but others cannot, like food and shelter. 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 14, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Exodus 19:2-8a
They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

The big word in this scripture is “if.”  if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. The egalitarian in me does not like the suggestion that God has favorites.  So, I read this as saying that anyone who keeps God’s covenant would be God’s treasured possession. Even that does not recognize that all people are made in the image of God and have the potential to live in God’s covenant. Some people who do not pass our inspection may be doing better than those of us who judge others by our interpretation of what is right, which may be a narrower or broader interpretation of God’s righteousness.

For everyone, however, God’s righteousness is the quest for what is right and what is just. It is designed for the well-being of all, and it is the quest of all who believe that living in God’s love is the ultimate way of being whole for everyone.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to follow you by your definition of love of others, not our definition filtered by our culture or the ways of the 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 13, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
I love the Lord, because he has heard
   my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
   therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
What shall I return to the Lord
   for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
   and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
   is the death of his faithful ones.
O Lord, I am your servant;
   I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.
   You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
   and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
   in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

Relationship, this scripture speaks about relationship with God. It speaks to how we reach out to God, respond to God, how we do our part in that relationship. It starts with the understanding that he started that relationship by inclining his ear to us. He still is hearing us today.

Prayer:

Thank You Lord For Saving My Soul,
Thank You Lord For Making Me Whole,
Thank You Lord For Giving To Me,
Thy Great Salvation So Rich And Free. Amen.

Chorus Thank You Lord, by Seth and Bessie Sikes, see at https://divinehymns.com/lyrics/thank-you-lord-for-saving-my-soul-song-lyrics/

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.

Living in the Spirit

June 12, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. –Genesis 18:1-8

Abraham’s people practiced hospitality that is beyond our imagination. Would we welcome strangers walking by our front yard and prepare them food? I grew up on a farm, and when I was a child, our doors were never locked, and we would invite people into our home that we might not know, someone who had had car trouble or got lost trying to find a relative’s farm.  No one ever entered our doors without at least being offered a glass of water.  I now live in the city, keep my doors locked, and talk to people who ring my doorbell through a closed door with enough glass to see them. If they are handing out something, I invite them to place it on the step. Last winter, the national news carried a story of a couple in Buffalo, New York, who found an elderly man freezing in the snow that shut down the city. They picked him up and brought him into their home, saving his life. It is called radical hospitality. While we do want to take proper precautions, we also need to weigh how we treat people and how we can find ways to practice hospitality with all people we meet.

Prayer: Lord, free us from unreasonable fear and open our hearts to the ways we can provide hospitality to all we meet in our service to 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 11, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district. –Matthew 9:18-26

Jesus was a healer. He left us a heritage of caring for the sick and disabled. Like so many things in our society, we have taken a good thing, a very necessary thing if we are to thrive as a people, and turned it into a den of robbers*.

The United States has one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world. In 2021, U.S. healthcare spending reached $4.3 trillion, which averages to about $12,900 per person. By comparison, the average cost of healthcare per person in other wealthy countries is only about half as much**.  US Health System Ranks Last Among High-Income Countries***. The high cost of our health care results from the layers of profit spread among its varied services.

We can, and we must do better.

Prayer: Lord, help us see better ways to provide health care to all and give us the courage to implement the changes necessary to improve that health care. Amen.

*Borrowed from Matthew 21:13

** See at https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/01/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20has%20one,only%20about%20half%20as%20much.

*** https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2784346

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.

Living in the Spirit

June 10, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. –Romans 4:13-15, 20-25

I attended a class recently on the Biodiversity Crisis. I was a little out of place surrounded by experts in the field, sometimes needing a dictionary to interpret what I was hearing. I was there because I thought I needed to know more about this whole climate change business. I am learning a lot in the class while having to stretch my mind to take in the genre of information that at times seemed like a foreign language. I was, however, blessed with being among people who could and did readily discuss in our common language. The scripture above states that Abraham would inherit the world not through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

God gave us dominion over the world; we must choose how we will care for it. If we kill the earth out of our greed, we kill ourselves. Ultimately what is right for the earth is right for us. So, like me, some of us need to learn a new relationship with the earth and all that is within it where we understand that what is good for the earth is good for us.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the fruits of the earth that nurture us and the life-giving water that sustains us. Guide us in using them wisely. 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 9, 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 50:7-15
Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
‘   I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt-offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house,
   or goats from your folds.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
   the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the air,
   and all that moves in the field is mine.

‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
   for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
   or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
   and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’

Another scripture that came to mind when I read the above Psalm was Joel 2:13:

   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.

We want to give to God what is of value to us, God wants what is of value to God. The Lord, who created the earth and all that is in it, does not need burnt offerings or our trying to be better than anyone else, resulting in self-righteousness. God created us primarily to love. Love requires humility, justice, and concern for others.

Prayer: Lord, help us answer your call to love one another, not substitute self-righteousness for 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.

Living in the Spirit

June 8, 2023

Scripture Reading: Hosea 5:15-6:6
I will return again to my place
   until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.

   In their distress they will beg my favor:
‘Come, let us return to the Lord;
   for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
   he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
  on the third day he will raise us up,
   that we may live before him.
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
   his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.’

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
   What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
   I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
   and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
   the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

As a nation, we also give lip service to God if it does not interfere with the rest of our lives. That seems to be what Hosea is saying in this last segment of the scripture.

Your love is like a morning cloud,
   like the dew that goes away early.

Hosea structures this scripture in an interesting manner. He first describes God returning to his people and imagines a positive response in the next segment. The positive response was short-lived. We welcome God when it is convenient. We often turn to God when it is too late to avoid heartbreak.

Greed seems to be the primary idol of our day. We are willing to sell our souls for wealth and power, as are some of our leaders. Why do we not see that God created a world where all can be well if we only understand God’s vision of God’s world as being fueled by love? When we follow that concept, the Beloved Community blossoms for everyone.

Prayer: Lord, guide us through whole days, not just the time of the morning dew. 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.