Readings

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:1-12

Hebrews 5:5-10

John 12:20-44

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Before the contractor could start building our house, Jerry and I had to secure a construction loan from the bank. We had to prove we had the money to make the monthly payments; we also had to prove the house was worth the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars we were asking from the bank. The application process was slow and drawn out. We eventually got the loan and signed our lives away, so the builder could begin his work.

Once the house was built, we had to get another appraisal, a building inspection, and a water test done before we could convert the construction loan into a normal mortgage with a lower interest rate. However, since the pool was not complete when Jerry and I moved in, we could not turn the construction loan into a mortgage until it was finished. After a few months of headaches, we finally passed all of the necessary inspections and signed our lives away again. Despite all of the complexities, the change was needed so that Jerry and I could move into something more permanent than my parents’ home where we had been staying.

The Israelites have a strict covenant with God that was set up in the wilderness. The prophet Jeremiah has the unenviable task of publicly declaring the covenant failures and sin of the Israelites. Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry was to a nation who had become involved with idol worship for decades under the rule of Manasseh. Since the sins of the Israelites ran deep and there was no forthcoming repentance, Judah and Jerusalem were facing destruction.

The covenant God gave the Israelites provided a road map to live by and to be in a relationship with him. The covenant was a strict set of rules for the Israelites to follow to remain holy in the Lord. However, the Israelites lived in the world where they faced temptations by Satan every day. Since they were not perfect like God, the Israelites fell short of his expectations and became unholy. This separated the Israelites from God and broke their relationship with him.

It is in this environment that Israelites begin to understand the covenant that they made with the Lord in the wilderness is impossible to keep. Imperfect, fallen people who live in the world where Satan reigns can never keep the covenant. The Lord made this covenant to show the Israelites that they could not be holy without his divine intervention. The Israelites struggle everyday to uphold the Ten Commandments and to beat Satan at his deceptive ways. Darkness surrounds the Israelites as they try to live in the world according to the covenant.

God makes plans to create a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:32) to reclaim his relationship with the Israelites. The new covenant will reclaim the Israelites as his people (Jeremiah 31:33) and bring them back into a relationship with the Lord. The Lord promises to their God, and the Israelites will be his people (Jeremiah 31:33). The Lord desperately wants to be their God by being in a relationship with them. However, God knows the current covenant will never allow this to happen. A change needs to occur to allow this to happen.

Instead of having the laws written on tablets, God wants to write them on the Israelites’ hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Although in Western culture, the heart connotes emotional feeling, in the world of the Old Testament, the heart signified cognitive reaction. In other words, this writing of the Law on hearts means that the Israelites will know and understand the Law and be able to follow them to their best ability.

And there is more: God promises to forgive the Israelites’ shortcomings. God will no longer remember the Israelites’ sins or hold their sins against them (Jeremiah 31:34). The Israelites (and we) will be freed from out sinful pasts through God’s forgiveness.

These changes allow us to be in a more permanent relationship with God the Father. Forgiveness gives us the opportunity to really know God and to be able to carry out his plan.

Allow God to create a clean heart in you, to make a new and right spirit within you (Psalm 51:10). We need God’s cleansing in order to know the Triune God.

This is the beginning to the ending: Jesus came to walk on earth beside us in order to feel our pain and joy. Then he did something incredible: he became God’s living sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, went to hell for three days, rose again and ascended into heaven.

And still God’s promise is not fully fulfilled. Jesus is coming back for us – those who believe in the Triune God – to take us to heaven to be with God the Father. So as we look towards Holy Week – and Easter – remember this is not the end; it is just the beginning.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the new covenant which extends forgiveness to us and renews our relationship with you. Help us to understand that this is just a beginning to the end. You have greater plans for us than we can imagine. You have claimed, are claiming, and will continue to claim us as your children by redeeming us from our sins. Thank you for creating a clean heart in us. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. Where do you find God? How does God find you?

2. How does God continue to redeem you?

Readings

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:1-12

Hebrews 5:5-10

John 12:20-44

Devotion

Peace be with you!

On Private Practice a week ago (season 5, episode 17, “The Letting Go”), Erica Warner (AJ Langer) finds out that the cancer has come back and has spread throughout her body. Charlotte King (KaDee Strickland) and Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) have the unfortunate news that Erica only has a week to live, even though Amelia with the help of her brother, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey from Grey’s Anatomy), got the brain tumor that was initially suppose to kill her.

The new is hard to accept since Erica has a son, Mason (Griffin Gluck), and it was a miracle Amelia and Derek got her brain tumor. Every other doctor said it was inoperable. Cooper, Mason’s father and Charlotte’s husband, was hopeful Mason would have his mother for a long time. Now it seems the miracle just prolonged Erica’s pain.

Erica has undying love for Mason, her son, who she refuses to allow to watch her die. All Erica wants is to have Mason remember her healthy and vibrate. The episode ends with Mason saying his final goodbye to his mother.

Like Erica, Jesus knows he has to die, and the news disturbs the disciples then and us now – or I am disturbed. The Son of God has to die. Why? He’s God for goodness sake! It just does not make sense.

However, Jesus explains why he must die to the Greeks – a group outside the Jewish tradition, which symbolizes that he came for the whole world (John 3:16). Evil is in the world, which separates us from God the Father. Evil is responsible for the deception in the world. Satan acts in the world to bring an end by forcing us to do his destruction. By doing this, he brings death into the world in an attempt to destroy God’s creation. Satan wants to bring an end to God’s goodness.

By sending Jesus, God is working to reverse Satan’s hold in the world, so we can enjoy fullness of life. Jesus brings truth, divine love, and life into the world, but it comes with a price: his crucifixion. Through his crucifixion, Jesus gives us the truth about Satan and God. God loves us without a second thought, because we are his creation; on the other hand, Satan works to deceive us and forces us to work against God. Jesus’ crucifixion is an expression of God’s divine love and liberates us from Satan’s deception. God’s divine love is self-giving as he sends Jesus to walk besides us to feel our pain, joy, and confusion. The crucifixion liberates us from the rare emotions Satan puts on our minds and frees us from his deception. Jesus wants us to join God, and God wants us to see him as a human, which allows us to feel his closeness to him. Jesus had to die for our liberation.

God has a greater purpose behind Jesus’ crucifixion than we could ever image. It is just part of God’s plan to liberate us from Satan. In order to liberate us, Jesus must die, but that is not the end of the story: Jesus will resurrect from the dead to overcome Satan’s end for us. Jesus gives us a new life in him to be in a relationship with God the Father.

We are called to follow God the Father and Jesus Christ through our liberation. With Jesus in our hearts, we bear much fruit for God through our actions and words. We give comfort to those still in Satan’s grip of deception, to those still fighting the darkness and cannot see the light, and to those still fighting death in the face of life. Satan has a powerful force, but Jesus knocks him down through his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. Jesus overcomes death to free us from the darkness.

God accomplishes our liberation through Jesus’ crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension to claim us as his children. He brings us back into a relationship with him. We could not do it on our own because of Satan’s power of deception and his will to bring an end to God’s creation. Therefore, God has to conquer death by sending his son, Jesus Christ into the world to die for us. Even in death, God’s plan is not done, because there is life after death.

Just as Erica will live on through Mason on Private Practice, Jesus lives on with the Holy Spirit and in us – drawing us to God the Father. We bear the fruits of Jesus Christ when we carry out God’s plan, but it requires us to first force Satan to give up his hold on us and second to walk along side Jesus. We must let our old selves under Satan’s deception die before we can live our new lives with Jesus. When our old selves die, the light can shine in and give us a new life with Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for coming into the world to fight against Satan’s deception. Help us to die in order to bear your fruit and to live along side you. Remind us that death is no longer the final say. Thank you for using us to bear your fruit. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. What does it mean to see God as human?

2. How do you force Satan out of your life?

3. How do you lift Jesus up? How are you lifted up?

Readings

Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Ephesians 2:1-10

John 3:14-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Some days it feels like the world–and maybe even God–is out to get you. God has called you to be [whatever “it” is], and yet nothing seems to go your way. You applied to finally get your masters in [whatever “it” is], were accepted, and then health issues within the family push back your start date. Or you complete all of your classes but cannot find an internship to fit your family schedule. And when you finally graduate, you struggle to find a job that can work around your family. It is just not fair. For me, the struggle was finding people to help me eat three times a day and shower in the morning. I actually had personal caregivers call me a hour before my morning shift and ask if I still needed them. Or half the time the personal caregivers would not bother to show up at all. Several times during my first semester at Luther Seminary I debated if I should move back home since I could not rely on the caregivers to show up. I had to eat to keep up my strength. It seemed impossible.

For the Israelites, the days never seem to get any better. God has led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness for forty years. God promised to lead the Israelites to the Promise Land, yet they are still wandering in the wilderness for what seems like an eternity. The Israelites have nothing exciting to eat or drink – just manna and water – in the wilderness. If they knew there would be such monotonous food and drink for forty years before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites might have thought twice about leaving Egypt. Although the Pharaoh made them work as slaves and do hard labor, the Israelites always had plenty of food and drink (or at least that’s how they remember it). They could eat and drink anything they wanted – especially leeks and onions! But–in the wilderness?– all the Israelites have is manna and water. What were they thinking?

During my time in seminary, I often asked myself what I was thinking to follow God’s call there. The first year, the professors break you down–which seems cruel at the time. After all, you come to seminary with a strong faith. Why else would you offer your life to God in fulltime service? But then the second year rolls around and things start making sense … and your professors laugh about it. You start to be built back up, stronger than ever. Forty years in the wilderness must have felt like an eternity to the Israelites, though we must remember it was all part of God’s plan. The Israelites are living between two realities: being promised and having the promise fulfilled. The original generation that left Egypt is not allowed in the Promised Land, because they went against God by breaking their covenants with him. The first generation had to die off before the next one could enter the Promised Land.

For four years (or so…), I saw so many friends stand between being given the okay by their call committee to start seminary and ordination. They had to go through multiple interviews with your call committee; they wrote a dozen essays why they would make a good pastor; they did CPE and the cultural experience. Yet there is no guarantee that they would be called a pastor. The time between being called and ordination is like forty years in the wilderness.

And even if you went to school for something else, such as a nurse or a teacher, your schooling is a lot being in the wilderness. The times it takes to apply school and pass any pre-entry tests, attend the classes and do the work, and take any post-graduation exams to obtain licenses can wear on a person.

As a MA student, I was required to write a 50-80 page thesis with something to do with the New Testament. I had no idea what to write since everything seemed to be written on before me. What could I possibly add to the New Testament field? I was no scholar.

When the Israelites complain about only having manna and water, God becomes angry and sends poisonous snakes to bite them. As a result, many of the Israelites die from the bites. Although this seems cruel, when that first generation dies, it does move the Israelites closer to the Promised Land. However, Moses pleads with God not to kill off the first generation all at one time (Numbers 14:13-19). Moses elegantly says in Numbers 14:19, “In accordance with your great love, forgive the sins if these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” (NIV). God is responsive to Moses’ intercession and tells Moses to make the image of a poisonous snake on a rod. He tells Moses to have anyone bitten by a snake look at it. By this act of obedient faith, the sick person would be healed from the snakebite. God provides a way for the Israelites to be healed, despite his anger.

Although we do not always follow God’s plan in seminary, we eventually end up where he wants us to be. For me, seminary started off rocky as I figured out who would help me with personal care, especially with eating my three meals a day. Thankfully, Jerry moved up before my second semester to provide my care so that I could focus on my class work. Another issue I struggled with throughout seminary was questioning my calling since I was not becoming a pastor.

Like the obedient faith that focused on the snake on the rod, I had to take many quiet mornings of reflection in chapel to understand what I was doing in seminary. I sought God for guidance and waited to be given direction.

Finally, by the end of my second year, I felt the call to educate people on what it means to be healed and spent the next year writing my thesis on John 9(the healing of the blind man). And, yes, it took another year after graduation to figure out how I am supposed to answer the calling.

Whatever calling you have, it has probably taken a journey to get you to hear it and answer it. Between resistance, denial, and just life happening, answering God’s call can seem a lot like the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness. We are excited to begin answering God’s call, but we become weary when things do not work out the first few attempts. The word of encouragement to us today is this: Don’t give up. Hang on to Jesus and act in obedient faith, even when you don’t understand, even when you can’t figure out what God is doing. He is faithful. Trust him.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for leading us even when we don’t understand your purposes. Help us to turn to you in obedient faith. Thank you for forgiving us when we come to you in repentance and faith. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. Where are you in answering God’s call?

2. Where has the journey taken you as you work to answer God’s call?

Readings

Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Ephesians 2:1-10

John 3:14-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

As we sat there on edge with Cristina last Thursday during Grey’s Anatomy, Owen admits to having an affair because it is painful to love her. For a minute, we see a light as Owen professes his love for Cristina, though the light disappears quickly as he clarifies the pain he feels when loving her. The floor fell out from Cristina as the one thing she has been fretting about came reality: he has been sleeping with someone else. Part of us can sympathize with Owen, because Cristina had an abortion when he desperately wants to have children and be a family. Cristina also has challenged his authority as chief at the hospital when she did surgeries without his consent. We can sympathize with Owen, because we all know a Cristina who challenges our love on a regular basis.

The light shines through, and the truth – reality, the ugliness along with the beautiful – is revealed. Owen shines the light on his relationship with Cristina: loving her causes him pain. We are all Cristina’s in God’s eyes; we are difficult to love, because we go against his will on a daily basis; we even deny being in a relationship with God at times.

But God still sends a light into the world to be lifted up. The light reveals a loving God who will die on the cross for our sake. With the evil and the good, God enters the world as a human through Jesus Christ, his only begotten son. And the light gives us a choice to be in a relationship with God or to walk away from him. Do we accept the truth? Or do we deny it? Do you walk in the light? Or do you hide in the darkness?

OR do you live in the grey? Do you fight the confrontations daily? As Christians, we proudly profess our faith, go regularly to church, and pray with our whole hearts. We hold on to our faith tightly as we go through our day. But then a crisis happens and you are left with a mix of emotions. Again the light presents us with the choice: to allow God into our painful lives or to all the pain to take over. There is always a moment during a crisis when I want to melt down – to cry until the pain “goes away”. Where is God in all of this? A boy just shot brunch of his classmates at school. The rains washed away the crops. A little boy was born too soon and fights for his life. A husband chooses the bottle over his family. Where is God?

Then God taps me on my shoulder to remind me he is standing beside me. God became human to feel our pain, our emotions, and our confusion. He understands the battles we go through daily in the world where there is robberies, murders, misery, fights within families and among friends, wars, illness, depression, physical flaws, and so on. It is so easy to get lost in the negative the world presents us.

God is in the midst of it all – in the grey; he meets us in our pain and walks through us. God enters the world through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit…and through us. The light enters the world to confront the darkness for our sake. Jesus has felt our pain, our emotions, and our confusion, and he comes to offer a way to overcome the darkness. Jesus invites us to lay out all off our pain, our emotions, and our confusion, and he will provide the way. Jesus promises to walk beside us and to help us through any crisis that comes along. When we acknowledge God’s presence in our grey lives, we choose light over darkness – life over death.

Through his resurrection from the death, Jesus is exalted on high. And when we choose to be in a relationship with God, we are exalted through Jesus Christ who lifts us up with us on the cross and resurrects us each time we turn away from the darkness. Jesus presented us forgiveness of all of our sins, and when we accept his forgiveness we are exalted through his resurrection. What a glorious thing to be resurrected through Jesus. We are counted as God’s children!

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for coming into the world to experience our pain. Help us to walk besides you as we experience crisis. Remind us to look forward to your resurrection, even when we are suffering. Thank you for Jesus’ resurrection and exalting us with Jesus on high. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. How do you exalt Jesus Christ in your life?

2. How do you experience being exalted with Jesus?

3. How do you experience God’s love?

Readings

Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

John 2:13-23

Devotion

Peace be with you!

To re-read our discussion on the Ten Commandments, click here.

The Ten Commandments seem like a harsh set of laws that are impossible for us to follow as we discussed the last time. However, tonight I would like to propose an idea: the Ten Commandments are laid out for us to be in a relationship with God the Father and those we come into contact.

The first four of the Ten Commandments gives us ways to worship God: having one God, not making our own gods, not using God’s name in vain, and resting on the Sabbath. These four commandments give us ways to honor God, so we can be in a relationship with him. Just like any other relationship, we need boundaries to have a healthy and solid relationship. With these four commandments, God wants you to honor him as your God only and have no other gods. No other god will be able to draw us away from the Lord. These are the boundaries God sets for our relationship with him, so we do not wonder off.

The last six of the Ten Commandments gives us ways to honor those around us: honor your mother and father, shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, shall not steal, shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and shall not covet your neighbor’s personal belongings. These commandments give us ways to carry out our lives to honor God by tending to the needs of others around us. God gives us these commandments, so we are aware of people around us. For instance, the fifth commandment to honor your mother and father pertains to the elderly and tending to their needs. God wants us to care for each other. If we do not kill each other, steal, or lie, we are forced to care about the other person. God wants us to be community, not at odds, with each other.

Whether than looking at the Ten Commandments as laws, we should embrace them as guidelines to be in a relationship with God and in community with each other.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the Ten Commandments as guidelines to live out our lives. Help us to live in community with each other as your children. Thank you for the opportunity to be in a relationship with you and in community with those around us. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. How do you live by the Ten Commandments?

2. How do the Ten Commandments strengthen your relationship with God?

Readings

Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

John 2:13-23 

Devotion

Peace be with you!

I loved my church as a child. We had a talented choir, caring people who looked past my Cerebral Palsy, and gifted pastors who reached out to all ages. Plus,  my church was fully handicap-accessible. As a youngster, I left my electric wheelchair at home because my parents could not easily transport it, so someone in the congregation donated a recliner for me to sit in during Sunday School since sitting in the normal chairs was too hard for me. Unlike my experience in other churches, the pastors included me during the children’s sermon. In fact, the congregation included me in all of their activities. I always looked forward to Sunday morning, because it meant going to church and seeing people who accepted me, despite my Cerebral Palsy.

As I became an adult and moved away, however, church became a building where I went when I had time. My new congregation welcomed me and found ways to include me, but it was not the same, because I did not have time to be involve in the community. Luckily, I found the Campus Ministry Center where I became a peer minister and led Bible studies and group activities. Worship was done outside of the church building. For the first time, I realized the church was just a building where we formally gathered to worship, but it was not the only place to worship.

In John 2:13-22, Jesus challenges the sacrificial system, which is centered around the temple.  A marketplace had grown up in the outer temple courts so travelers could buy animals to buy to sacrifice. Since the temple was the only place sacrifices could be made, people traveled from all over the country to offer sacrifices to God in order to demonstrate their repentance. The sacrificial system was the way individuals pleased God and were made right in his eyes.

When onlookers ask Jesus what gives him the authority to destroy the marketplace in the temple, Jesus tells them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (verse 19, NIV). This cryptic remark, John goes on to show, actually refers to the temple of Jesus’ body. When Jesus challenges the need for the marketplace in the temple, he also challenges the Jews to accept a new way to worship. For the Jews, the temple symbolized the presence of God; they went to the temple to encounter and see God.

Jesus is pointing to a deeper, more personal relationship people can have with God. Two chapters later in John 4, Jesus will say to the Samaritan woman, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem….a time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (4:21, 23, NIV).

Do you go to church to be close to God? We often forget the sermon once we leave building – or at least I do. We live in the world where Satan dwells, where corruption lives, where kids show up to school to shoot other kids, where people do not help their neighbors–and the list goes on. Where is God in all of this? Does he stay in the church building?

No! Jesus comes into the world as God to walk with us. He comes to feel our pain, to suffer alongside us, and to walk with us in the world. We have never been so close to God before; we can touch and feel God now. Jesus’ death on the cross became the last sacrifice and it was made by God so that we all might be forgiven. The promise of the resurrection gives us hope for the future.

You may be saying, “Well, that is all fine and dandy, but Jesus died two thousand years ago. We cannot see, feel, or hear him now.” And I say, “We can’t?” True, Jesus died two thousand years ago, but he continues to be with us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus feels our pain and draws us to him through the Holy Spirit. And there is no place the Holy Spirit cannot reach us.

Jesus invites us to be in a community with him and with other Christians. Paul even described all of us together as God’s Temple (I Corinthians 6:19, 12:12-14) We are able to worship as a community where the individuals share a connection with the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And with the community, the promise of being in a relationship with God now and in the future is shared and honored. The temple is no longer a physical location; instead, the community of two or more believers becomes the tangible way we can connect with God (Matthew 18:19-20). And so we can worship God wherever we are!

In college, I was involved in the Lutheran Student Movement, which is a pan-Lutheran organization. Every New Year’s weekend, hundreds of college students gather in a different city each year to share their faith in Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. My favorite part of this gathering was a late-night open mic session. People would sing, read poetry, do a stand-up comedy routine, read from the Bible, etc. In those moments, we worshiped God as a community, even though we were not in a church building and hardly knew each other. However, our common faith in the Triune God quickly made us a community, and therefore, this community became a temple of worship to God!

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for sending Jesus Christ. Help us to express our faith outwardly in order to share the blessing of your community with others. Guide us as we become your living temple. Thank you for making us your temple. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. Where do you find God?

2. Where and when do you worship? Who do you gather with?

Readings

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Psalm 22:23-31

Romans 4:13-25

Mark 8:31-38

Devotion

Peace be with you!

There are moments everyday where I just wish I could control my Cerebral Palsy muscles a little more than I can. Just the other day I filled my water bottle from the refrigerator, and my hand muscles started cramping up. My full water bottle went flying to the floor. What a mess!

My muscles flinch every time there is a loud noise. A “flinch” for an individual who has Cerebral Palsy is a six-inch jump, even with their seat belt on. Because my startle reflex is so sensitive, I am not able to drive either.

Then there is the fact that my reaction time is ten seconds behind the curve. Chester Jr., our newest puppy, could be messing the floor and it will take my mind ten seconds to tell my muscles to grab him and take him outside.

If only I had more control over my muscles, I could drive, fill my water bottle, open a soda can, feed myself, and just be more independent. It is the little, everyday things I wish I had the fine motor control to do.

In the Old Testament reading, both Abraham and Sarah are in their nineties (and Sarah has been barren all her life). They understand the impossibility of ever having a child of their own. They feel a lack of control over this most important part of their lives. So Sarah takes control by giving Abraham permission to have a child with Hagar, which he does. Sarah thinks she is smarter than God, because she understands the law of Mother Nature; she understands how impossible it is for her to ever conceive a child. She is in her nineties, for Pete’s sake! She is impatient; she shouldn’t have to be worrying about having a baby of her own. She should be onto grandchildren by now!

However, God promised Sarah she (not Hagar) would have a child, even though she is barren and old. God wanted to do a miracle and he wanted to do it through Sarah. He wanted to take a barren old lady and use her to create an entire nation. We often think the promise is for Abraham and Sarah when in reality it is just for Sarah. Just because Abraham has a child with Hagar does not mean God’s promise was fulfilled. Sarah could never expect such a blessing at her age; however, God had great plans for Sarah and her offspring. Sarah just had to trust God would use her for his plan.

For whatever reason, God does not grant me the kind of physical healing that would enable me to completely control my muscles. But as a result, I have come to realize that my inabilities are just as much blessings as my abilities. For one thing, I hardly ever have to eat alone. This has allowed me to get to know some wonderful personal caregivers who have become friends along the way. I have been able to share my faith with personal caregivers as well.  Since I need help with what I called “stupid stuff,” I have met some incredible individuals, especially during my travels, who have helped me without a second thought.

Last September I flew to Baltimore for a conference. I ended up having to sit in the airport for two hours until my personal caregiver flew in from Minneapolis. While waiting for my personal caregiver, I met a flight attendant who I ended having lunch with while we chatted about boys, school, etc. We now keep in touch via Facebook and keep each other’s spirits up.

Having a disability has also taught me there are a million different ways to meet a goal and to do activities. Over a decade ago, I did not think I could downhill ski. Now my brother and I go every winter to Utah to ski. Over the years, we have met individuals from all over the world who train with the National Ability Center and compete at the Paralympics. It is an incredible feeling to tell people who assume I am stuck in my electric wheelchair that I downhill ski. Their mouths just drop open.

I may not be able to control my Cerebral Palsied muscles, but God has kept his promise to include me, one of his children, in his plan. God has control over my direction in life. When the doctors told my mom and my dad that I would never sit up, talk, or walk, God must have laughed. God had and has big plans for me. When most people see me on the street, they see an individual in a wheelchair who is cognitively challenged – until I open my mouth and say I have my Masters in New Testament and run my own website. These individuals believe they have control over what I can do and be, but God has the real control. Only he knows where I am going and what I will be doing.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for always having control over our lives, even when we think it is impossible. Help us to let go of the control of our lives that we desperately hang on to; help us to give it up to you. Remind us that you have a plan and make what seems impossible possible. Thank you for taking control and using us for your plan. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. Who tries to control your life?

2. How do you try to maintain control over your life?

3. How do you give up control to God? Or how do you plan to give up control to God?

Readings

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Psalm 22:23-31

Romans 4:13-25

Mark 8:27-30, 31-38

Devotion

Peace be with you!

God has a way of blowing us away. Just try to make your own life plan and you will find God step in and completely change it for the better! The spring before starting seminary I was graduating from college and getting apprehensive about my next chapter in life. It was late in April, and I still had not heard from Luther Seminary about whether or not I was accepted into their M.A. program. My anxiety level kept rising with every passing day. What would I do if I was not accepted into seminary? One night, I was studying with a friend and my anxiety got the best of me. I couldn’t focus at all on what we were doing. “What if…?” I kept saying.

So my friend decided taking a walk was in order to clear my head. We discussed what I could do if I was not accepted. We came to the conclusion that I could move my mom’s religious store to Whitewater and run it since her current location did not draw much business. I swear the very next morning Luther Seminary emailed me my acceptance letter. It was as though God was laughing at my back-up plan and was saying “Erin, I have a better plan.”

People in Jesus’ time had their own ideas of what the Messiah would do when he came. Jews thought he would be an all-powerful warrior who would conquer the Romans and free them from oppression. Of course, from the devotion on Wednesday about Noah and the flood we understand that as long as this old world exists, there will still be oppression, sin and brokenness.  God’s plan was not to rid the world of all political oppression.

God has another plan: “…the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three day rise again.” (Mark 8:31). The Son of Man has to suffer, be rejected, and be killed? Then he will rise after three days? Huh? If I was one of the twelve disciples, I would say, “Jesus, you are not making any sense. You are the Son of God. There is no way you have to suffer, be rejected, and be killed. You are the Son of God. You can just use your magical powers and rule over everybody. There is no good reason for you to be killed. And even if you did ‘die,’ there is no way you could rise again after three days. Death is final.” Like Peter, Jesus would call me Satan and tell me to get behind him (Mark 8:33). After all, I have no idea what God has planned and what the world needs!

Jesus’ reality is God’s way of life: crucifixion, death, and resurrection. God the Father knows that he cannot rid the world of sin until the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation; therefore, he must act out of unconditional love and give himself to the world. The world, including his children, may reject him, but he will give the ultimate gift: forgiveness. Jesus had to go to the cross and die in order to rise in three days, so we could experience a fresh start through God’s unconditional life. Jesus shows us God’s way of life by coming into the world to express his love for us.

By coming into the world, Jesus meets us in our suffering by experiencing it alongside us. Jesus is not a hypocrite; he feels and understands our suffering. He knows what we feel in every situation. He has denied himself in order to carry out God’s plan to bring us into a relationship with God the Father. His love for us crosses the earthly boundaries that we create and pulls us back into God’s love.

Jesus continues to cross the boundaries to invite us to follow him. He calls us to deny and lose ourselves in order to gain life. When we deny our earthly desires by placing our faith in Jesus instead of in our own efforts, Jesus saves us and gives us the good news that we are forgiven through his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. He crosses the boundaries to show us the way back to God the Father.

Jesus crossed the boundaries when I had given up hope of being accepted into Luther Seminary. He saw my hopelessness as I chased after the unknown future. He gave me direction for the future, which produced hope out of my despair.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for crossing the boundaries in order to meet us in our suffering. Help us to wait for you to direct us into the future, instead of jumping ahead with our own plans. Thank you for including us in your plan. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. What are your expectations of God?

2. How do you lose yourself for God?

3. How does Jesus continue to cross the boundaries to walk besides you?

Readings

Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25:1-10

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Do you remember the last rainbow you saw? I am not talking about a rainbow in your children’s picture books or pictures online Honestly, the only reason I remember the last rainbow I saw is the fact that a) it was as recently as a month ago and b) it caught me by surprise. I was in Utah, downhill skiing on a cloudy, snowy day. Suddenly, just as I rounded the bend for my favorite run, there it was – just bright enough to be seen – a shimmering rainbow in the sky. I quickly yelled to my friend to take a picture before flying down the hill. The sheer beauty of this piece of God’s creation caught me off guard.

Looking this beautiful work of God’s hand, I recalled the promise God made with Noah and his family. I was struck by God’s love for us and his ability to admit a fresh start was not the answer that he hangs up his bow for all of us to see (Jacobson, et al. 2012). The flood shows us how God takes sin seriously, but he also has hope and wanted a fresh start with his creation. The same kind of fresh start found in the rainbow is found in our baptism. Sin and temptation would still be in the world. God shows us the sign of the rainbow that he is committed to act with love and grace.

The sign of the rainbow reminds us Christians of our baptisms. In both accounts – the flood and our baptisms, God is reclaiming us as his children by washing away our sins. Water is the common force in these two accounts that cleanse the world of sin. The flood showed us that the death of sinners does not wipe out sin for good. Sinners need their sinful nature killed, but then they need to be resurrected. In baptism, God uses water to cleanse our souls (through death) and to claim us as his children (thus bringing resurrection). The rainbow becomes the symbol to God’s commitment to reclaim us as his children by washing away our sins.

As I reflect on the rainbow in Utah, I am reminded of God’s on-going commitment to me as his child. Although I struggle with temptation and sin, God cleanses me through baptism. I am forever a child of God. Nothing can separate me from him.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for giving us the rainbow as a symbol of your commitment and love for us. Help us to stand in awe of the rainbow in the sky and to recall your promise to give us love and grace in the midst of sin and temptation. Thank you for cleansing our souls through baptism. Amen.

Works Cited

Jacobson, Rolf, Karoline Lewis, David Lose, and Matt Skinner. “Brainwave 221 – Lectionary Texts for Feb. 26, 2012.” WorkingPreacher.org. St Paul: Luther Seminary, February 19, 2012.

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. When was the last time you stopped and looked in awe at a rainbow?

2. How does God continue to cleanse your soul?

Readings

Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25:1-10

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Lent is a time when we look at what tempts us on a daily basis. We realize and understand temptation and sin are real in the world. Even when we do our best, temptation is still there. Sin is in the world. Jesus even had to fight temptation.

The gospel of Mark only has one verse about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by Satan. Jesus was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him (Mark 1:13). Even during his temptation, God the Father protected Jesus. Jesus also honored God the Father in everything he did. God so loves his only begotten Son that he protects him by sending angels to watch over him.

Jerry and I have three dogs, plus a puppy. Boy, do they test my patience! Just the other night, Jerry was gone, and I took all four outside one last time before heading for bed. The oldest dog, Lily, did not want to come in. The other three dogs were wrestling on the bed. I tried to fool Lily by going into the house thinking she would come by the door after finding herself alone.

But then my fears of the coyotes hurting my dog got the best of me, so out I went. I decided to go outside of the pool cage and go shepherd her in. However, in the midst of my frustration, I misjudged how far out the sand is that borders my house for future bushes. Yep, you guessed it. I drove my electric wheelchair into the sand, and there I sat. I tried backing up. I even got out of my wheelchair and tried to push it out of the sand myself. Of course, that did not work; my muscles are not strong enough. Luckily, I had my cell phone in my wheelchair pocket, so I called Kim, my step-dad, who came and got my electric wheelchair out of the sand. Even in my temptation to teach Lily a lesson, God protected me by helping me not to take my frustration out on Lily, making sure I could call for help, and having Jerry come home and talk to Lily.

God protects and cares for us in the midst of such everyday life situations. To me, my four dogs are like my children. Experiencing God caring about my dogs and me just reminded me again how much he cares about everything in my life. He cares about every single part of his creation.  I also experienced a tiny taste of God’s unconditional love for me when I continue to love my pets even when they misbehave.

Mark shows God going on the journey. First, God claims Jesus as his only begotten Son. By naming Jesus as his Son, God is reclaiming the world as his own. God becomes part of his flesh-and-bone creation in order to make it new from the inside out. God sends himself into the world to reclaims humankind as his children.

The good news comes to us through John the Baptist and Jesus. We are introduced to Jesus through John the Baptist, who is the first to obey God completely and who also later turns out to be the first martyr. John the Baptist is the one who directs us to God and shows us the way to the light through Jesus Christ.

Second, the good news challenges us to accept a new way of life with God beside us. When Jesus dies on the cross for our sins, God claims all of us as his children. We are God’s children even when we go against him, because he loves us so deeply. God sent Jesus Christ to claim us as his children.

When we repent and ask for forgiveness, we realign ourselves with the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We rededicate ourselves to God during communion just as God the Father rededicated himself to us through Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection.

Whenever Jerry and I have to punish one or more of the dogs, we always give them love after the punishment. Even though they are just dogs, it is important for them to know we love and forgive them, so they do not become afraid of us. When Jerry was done scolding Lily the other night, he took her in his arms to reassure her of his love. In the same way, God reassures us of his love on the cross. By making the ultimate sacrifice, God gives the greatest gift: his love.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for realigning your love with creation. Help us to realign ourselves with your love, so we can experience your grace. Thank you for the greatest gift: your love. Amen.

Works Cited

Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. How does God protect you when you are fighting temptation?

2. How do you realign yourself with God?

3. How has experiencing love for a child or a pet helped you to understand God’s unconditional love for you a little better?