Morning Grace

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. ~ Ephesians 2:10 What does it mean that we are created IN Christ?

For in  him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ~ Colossians 16 What does it mean that ALL things are created through the Christ?

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,  and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.  ~ Ephesians 3:16-17 So...what is the Christ to you here? What does it mean for Christ to dwell in your hearts?

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come   the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! ~ Isaiah 2:1-5 So...what is the Christ? How is Christ the light of the Lord?

From now until Christmas, Grace Lutheran will be using as its Advent devotion the booklet Meditations on the Christ: What, Why, When, Where, and Who is the X ? X is an ancient way of naming The Christ. It is from the letter "Chi" from the Greek Alphabet. These meditations, as well as our theme this Advent, are about identifying the Christ. Christ is not the last name of Jesus. Instead, as a way of understand "Christ" Father Richard Rohr (whose book, The Universal Christ is the basis of this series) asks these questions: - What if Christ is a name of the transcendent within everything in the universe? - What if Christ is a name of the immense spaciousness of all true Love? - What if Christ is another name for everything in its fullness?  Rohr further states that the Christ is: "God's constant, unfolding work" in creation. In Jesus, the physical incarnation of the Christ, we find that "God loves all things by becoming them." Christ i

- Choose one of this week's readings and related texts to be your prayer focus for today. They are: The Book of Habakkuk Luke Chapter 1 Passages about Peter in Matthew 16; John 18 & 21; and Acts 2 John 20 - Read the passage again and identify a word or phrases that jump out at you. - Read the passage again, and if possible read from a different translation ( biblegateway.com  has many translations you can choose from). Identify where this passage might be touching your life today. How is this relevant to your life? - Read the passage a third time, again in a different translation if possible. Ask yourself what God is calling you to do or to be from this passage. What change might God be moving your toward? - Close with a silent prayer, listening to God rather than speaking to God. What actions will you take today based on this prayer? - Recite the Lord's Prayer.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look  into the tomb;  and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.  They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,  “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).  Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah,  the Son of the living God.”  And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter,  and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ~ Matthew 16:13-19 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest,  but Peter was standing

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,  where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit  and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?  For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.  And blessed is she who believed that there would be  a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary  said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,      and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.      Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me,      and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him      from generation to gener

The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence! and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted. ~ Habakkuk 1:1-4 Then the Lord answered me and said:  Write the vision;  make it plain on tablets,  so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time;  it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it;  it will surely come, it will not delay. ~ Habakkuk 2:2-3 Though the fig tree does not blossom,  and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails,  and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold,  and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the

- Choose one of this week's passages to be your prayer focus for today. They are: Genesis 32:22-33:4 Isaiah 6:1-8 & Jeremiah 1:1-10 I Kings 19:1-19 Esther 4:10-17 - Read the passage again and identify a word or phrases that jump out at you. - Read the passage again, and if possible read from a different translation ( biblegateway.com  has many translations you can choose from). Identify where this passage might be touching your life today. How is this relevant to your life? - Read the passage a third time, again in a different translation if possible. Ask yourself what God is calling you to do or to be from this passage. What change might God be moving your toward? - Close with a silent prayer, listening to God rather than speaking to God. What actions will you take today based on this prayer? - Recite the Lord's Prayer.

Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying,  “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.”  When they told Mordecai what Esther had said,  Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.  For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”  Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai,  “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”  Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O  Lord , take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”  Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.”  He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.  The angel of the  Lord  came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the  Lord  of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots  on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.  And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the  Lord  of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  The seraph  touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send