Pathways Press.com

Written by Ryan Maher, a contemporary writer and app developer.

Lord Jesus, please help me see the areas in my life where I do not represent you well. Help me to shine brightly today and put others first. My heart is to serve you every day of my life. Help me to honor you today. When people see me, I pray they see you. In your holy name Lord Jesus, amen. 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  [2 Corinthians 5:20]

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Written by Jennifer Ayotte, a contemporary Communications Director.

I have been pondering my wilderness journey and my encounter with Christ. For some reason, I am saddened by the thought that I don’t know the day of my very first encounter with Jesus. I didn’t grow up in a family that attended church, but when I was a child, some men from a church in town knocked on our door and asked my dad if he’d want to let his kids go to church on the bus. He was thrilled to get rid of us for a few hours each weekend, so he happily agreed. I don’t remember the day or age, but I do remember asking Jesus into my heart in a Sunday School class in that church as a child. My parents never did attend church and through some difficult family circumstances and moves, I did not get to go to church through most of my teen years. When I was a senior in high school—dealing with more difficult family issues—I asked a friend of mine who I knew went to church if I could go with her sometime. From that point on, her family picked me up and took me to church with them every Wednesday and Sunday. That church is where I fully committed my life to Christ. I know I was a senior in high school, but again, I don’t know the actual date. In thinking about all of this, I’ve realized that I have had more than one encounter with Jesus throughout my life, and each one has been eye-opening and life-altering in different ways.

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. [Psalm 16:11]

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Written by Chris Eggemeyer of the Village Church

I have found the last few years challenging. Our world feels darker, not just in the proliferation of war, hunger, and disease, but in more intimate, common ways. It feels as though hatred, anger, fear, and aggression run amok in our daily lives. I find my own life offering a great many small temptations to give into these feelings, some as simple as speaking ill of someone, or muttering angrily at a passing driver who fails to dim their brights at night. I increasingly find God’s comfort and direction in Luke Chapter 6.  It is a beautiful summary of our calling as believers. Jesus tells us that faith must extend beyond ourselves, reminding us that even those who do not believe can do good to those who do good to them. We, however, are called to love our enemies and do good to them without expecting anything back. To do this we must change from the inside. Jesus tells us that ‘the mouth speaks what the heart is full of’, and so I find God calling me, challenging me, to fill my heart with his goodness, his mercy, his charity, and his compassion.

People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the goods stored up in his heart, and an evil man bring evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. [Luke 6:44-46]

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Written by Phil Ware, a contemporary writer.

Jesus made clear that his ministry was to seek the lost, serve the broken, and save those imprisoned by their past as prophesied in the prophets. This meant he got involved in messy situations, helped “undeserving” people, associated with sinners, and sought out often forgotten people. Jesus’ example here is crucial for us as we seek to be Jesus’ bodily presence in the world as his disciples. As we follow his example, he promises us that we will meet him in those we serve!

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ [Matthew 25:40]

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Written by Saint Patrick, a 5^th century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.

As I arise today,
may the strength of God pilot me,
the power of God uphold me,
the wisdom of God guide me.
May the eye of God look before me,
the ear of God hear me,
the word of God speak for me.
May the hand of God protect me,
the way of God lie before me,
the shield of God defend me,
the host of God save me.
May Christ shield me today.
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit,
Christ when I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Amen.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. [Psalm 84:11]

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Written by Lyn Lloyd-Smith from the Village Church

I love graveyards. There is so much to be learned about a community in reading the headstones and seeing families buried together through the generations.  I love researching birth, marriage and death certificates, and following family lines through history. And yet, my heart breaks a little every time I see the deaths of so many small children, taken by epidemic and infection, diseases not seen today. This was brought home to me in January when I was helping a friend with her family tree and discovered that between 1920 and 1930 her great-grandfather had lost 7 of his grandchildren, as babies and toddlers, to diphtheria, whooping cough, and pneumonia. While doing this research two of my own grandchildren, in the space of three weeks were in hospital on IV antibiotics, thanks to medical care they both recovered quickly and are back in good health. I thought of Matthew 10:8 where Jesus says “Heal the sick…. Freely you have received; freely give.” Christians, in monasteries and homes, through the ages have sought to follow this calling but for many centuries their tools were of comfort and care, bringing the love of God to the sick and the dying; often there was little they could do practically. However, the rapid expansion of medical science and community health since the late 19^th century, and particularly since the 1940s with the introduction of widespread vaccination and antibiotics, has changed our world. Today I give thanks for the hand of God, the love of Jesus in the medical research, the scientists and doctors who have made this a healthier world for all our children.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. [Matthew 10:8]

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From the Heartlight devotional website. 

God can be seen in my home when I love those in my family. The Father of the universe lives in my church, and his presence can be recognized when I love those in my church family. Almighty God’s love is recognizable in my life when I love those around me and when we choose to be loving instead of petty, unforgiving, critical, and harsh to our brothers and sisters in Christ. God reveals his presence, power, and perfection in us! God is love; we reveal his presence when we do love each other.

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. [1 John 4:12]

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Written by Carole Holiday, a contemporary writer.

My doctor paused as she left the exam room, her hand on the door. She opened it a bit, then turned to offer a final prognosis. “There’s a new chapter coming for you.” I love how God provides encouragement in the unlikeliest of places. In my thin paper gown, I shivered — my body’s involuntary response to her verbal gift that provided salve to my sore soul. My internist, a woman of my age, had listened well. Our conversation about aging, difficult diagnoses and caregiving had touched both of us, and she knew I was hurting both physically and emotionally. Some would say that in moments like this, we enter “thin places” — where the distance between heaven and earth diminishes and the two seemingly overlap. I found this in the sacred serendipity of another human hearing and seeing my heart and responding with empathy and understanding, as Jesus would.

He reminds us in Luke’s Gospel that the Kingdom of heaven is already superimposed over our earthly realm…Through image bearers of God, the Kingdom of heaven flourishes on earth. Every time we live like Jesus and point to His beauty, it’s like we wander through heaven’s gates and offer a bit of its mystery and wonder to our fallen world. I sense this most in encouragement from His saints: the kind word, the unexpected message, the text from a friend on a gray day when my faith is shaky. On those days, I find myself whispering, God, I need to see You today. And then a P.S.: God, I need the strength to show You today. As if I’m pausing at the door, prying it open just enough to usher the Kingdom of heaven into the broken places.

The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst. [Luke 17:20-21]

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Written by Donald Macleod (1940-2023) a Scottish theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine.”

[Jesus] did not, as incarnate, live a life of detachment. He lived a life of involvement.

He lived where he could see human sin, hear human swearing and blasphemy, see human diseases and observe human mortality, poverty and squalor. His mission was fully incarnational because he taught men by coming alongside them, becoming one of them and sharing their environment and their problems. For us, as individuals and churches in an affluent society, this is a great embarrassment. How can we effectively minister to a lost world if we are not in it? How can we reach the ignorant and the poor if we are not with them? How can our churches understand deprived areas if the church is not incarnate in the deprived areas? How can we be salt and light in the darkened ghettos of our cities if we ourselves don’t have any effective contacts and relationships with the Nazareths of [our day]? We are profoundly unfaithful to this great principle of incarnational mission. The great Prophet came right alongside the people and shared their experience at every level. He became flesh and dwelt among us.

 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [Philippians 2:5-7]

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Written by Judy Walters from the Village Church

How and when do I encounter Jesus in my everyday life? Especially since I live on a relatively quiet street with 2 cats for company. Let me count the ways! My neighbors are “Jesus” personified. First of all, having a plumber next door is an extraordinary gift- he has saved me from disaster more than once.  Pat’s wife loves to garden and presents me with the best pickles ever! Did Jesus ever make pickles? Then, there’s Jane, a trained chef, a few doors down who drops by with delicious cookies for no reason! Another, really awesome guy has helped me and others in countless ways. Got the rattlesnake out of my backyard! Held my sweet 18-year-old dog as he crossed Rainbow Bridge.  And spent the whole day in the ER with me as I cried in pain. Other kindly neighbors did my grocery shopping and walked my dog daily while I suffered from agonizing back pain.  Obviously, I have been blessed in so many ways by these dear people.  None of these neighbors expected anything in return. Their actions were not especially spiritual in nature.  However, they show real LOVE, Agape Love.

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.  [1 Corinthians 10:24]

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