Morning Grace

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;  be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.  Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.  If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he  would not have let his house be broken into.  You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” ~ Luke 12:25-40   “Wake up.  If your eyes are sleeping  then wipe them gently.  You need to be awake for this.  It is a matter of life and death.  Wake up!  If your mind is sleeping  then shake it quickly.  You need to be awake for this.  It is a matter of life and death.  Wake up, I said!  If your hea

Oh my strength, I will watch for you; for you O God are my fortress. ~ Psalm 59:9    Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus, To reach out and touch him,  And say that we love him. ~ Robert Cull Advent is the season of waiting. And four words signify the ways in which we wait for Christmas Eve and Life to come. So for this Advent season, I want to share these words that will remind us to pause with bated breath for God to come into our midst. The word for this week is "Watch."  We wait for God, but we wait with eyes open. We are like watchmen at their posts in a posture of anticipation and expectation. Alert. Waiting for the one who is our strength and fortress. So this week, let's be alert for the one to come! For the Light to come into the world! Open our Eyes Lord! We want to see you! Amen Advent Meditation: Sit in stillness, reciting either this psalm or the words to this hymn as you imagine seeing the Christ child come into the world.

- Re-read the passages from this week's devotions. Choose the one that is most meaningful to you to be your prayer focus for today. They are: James 2:14-18 Micah 3:5-12 Psalm 5:8 Acts 12:6-10 - 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.

Happy Thanksgiving! When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.  He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.  But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.  But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him  and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? ~ Acts 12:6-10 Not all who hesitate are lost. ~ Joseph Campbell The metaphor of a path on our journey of faith is a difficult one.  It would be nice to think that God's path always comes in front of us straight, without the detours and sideways and or enemies of distraction. However, the truth is that the way - the pa

Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness      because of my enemies;      make your way straight before me. ~ Psalm 5:8 It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands. ~  Dag Hammarskjöld,  Markings Psalm 5 is full of lament and cries for God's justice and mercy for the Psalmist.  It's a familiar theme from other Psalms, and fits in easily with the theme from yesterday's reading from Micah (as well as the other reading today from Jeremiah) about evildoers who are deceitful and spread lies. Verse 8 caught me like a lightning bolt, however.  Make your way straight in front of me, Lord.  First, because of my enemies. I get a visual of a crowded room of so many distractions that keep me from God that the pathway becomes invisible. Because when it comes down to it, those are really who my "ene

Thus says the LORD  concerning the prophets   who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace"  when they have something to eat, but declare war against those  who put nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,  and darkness to you, without revelation.  The sun shall go down upon the prophets,  and the day shall be black over them; the seers shall be disgraced   and the diviners put to shame;  they shall all cover their lips,  for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I am filled with power,  with the spirit of the LORD ,  and with justice and might,  to declare to Jacob his transgression  and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob  and chiefs of the house of Israel,  who abhor justice a nd pervert all equity,  who build Zion with blood  and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;   its priests teach for a price,  its prophets give oracles for money;  yet they lean upon the LORD  a

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,  if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. ~ James 2:14-18 I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.   ~  Abraham Lincoln Two millennia later, Christians still get tangled up in the debate about faith vs. works as if they are two completely unrelated ideas.  Martin Luther himself was at best ambivalent about the epistle of James, and this passage is perhaps partially why. Luther certainly favored Paul's strong assertions of faith being

- Re-read the passages from this week's devotions. Choose the one that is most meaningful to you to be your prayer focus for today. They are: I Peter 5:5b Matthew 9:2-6 Isaiah 14:7 Psalm 98 - 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.

A Psalm. O sing to the LORD a new song,      for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm      have gotten him victory. The LORD has made known his victory;      he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness      to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen      the victory of our God. Make a joyful noise to the LORD all the earth;      break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,      with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn      make a joyful noise before the King, the  Lord . Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;      the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands;      let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the LORD for he is coming      to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness,     and the peoples with equ

The whole earth is at rest and quiet;   they break forth into singing. ~ Isaiah 14:7 I'd like to teach the world to sing In perfect harmony I'd like to hold it in my arms And keep it company I'd like to see the world for once All standing hand in hand And hear them echo through the hills For peace through out the land (That's the song I hear) I'd like to teach the world to sing In perfect harmony. ~ "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" by Backer/Cook/Davis/Greenaway Imagine this for a  moment.  The whole earth is at rest. And quiet. And then slowly, bit by bit, breaks into song and the quiet becomes a choir of joy and praise. Maybe something like this (but, well, without the Coca Cola! The lyrics to the non-commercial version are quoted here) (link to video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM In the Hebrew scriptures, Prophets were often full of doom and gloom.  Full of warnings and condemna