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MEDITATION:

Written by J. Brent Bill, a contemporary author of Quaker spiritual literature who has also worked as a pastor.   This is an excerpt from his book “Beauty, Truth, Life, and Love.”

Are you living the abundant life?  An abundant life—not an abundance life. There’s a significant difference between the two. Many of us middle-class North Americans are living the abundance life. We have more things than ever. Bigger televisions that grow smarter every day. Technology-laden cars telling us when we’ve drifted out of our lane or applying our brakes when someone in front of us stops suddenly. Computers more powerful than the ones that helped land men on the moon are held in the palms of our hands. Yet, for all our stuff, Henry David Thoreau’s 19^th – century dictum that “the mass of men [and women] lead lives of quiet desperation” is still true…Perhaps our lack of happiness or sense that our lives are less than they could be is because our abundance life is rooted in transient things. A dip in the economy can wipe out a lifetime of savings. Trade wars can raise the cost of goods to unaffordable levels, result in the elimination of jobs, put farmers out of business, and more. Plus, all these televisions, tablets, phones, cars, and clothes are constantly being replaced by new and better ones. Advertising, social media, and the like tell us we must have them. And, judging by our buying habits, we believe it…The sad thing is, I’m tempted by the new gadgets. I want those cool improvements. They won’t though, bring me the abundant life. When I am silent and still, I realize that the abundant life is a spiritual state of being. The abundance life is an acquisitional way of living. The abundant life that Jesus came to give us reveals itself in things such as “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”…What will bring these things is growing into the person God created me to be, doing the work God meant me to do, being in the relationships I am supposed to have, and so on. I believe that the abundant life is found in four essential ideals. They can guide us into the life Jesus promised if we incorporate them into our daily lives. These four ideals are beauty, truth, life, and love. I think one reason that we who desire the abundant life miss living it is that we don’t often think about those four things as relating to life of the spirit and faith…Beauty, truth, life, and love move us beyond doing life and faith correctly into doing them well. They are central to the very essence of the life God desires for us to live because they are the very essence of God.

PRAYER:

Written by Janet Thompson, a contemporary speaker and author.

Lord, please guide me to the purpose and plans for which you created me. Help me to be receptive even when they’re not what I expected. Show me your ways, Lord. I want to live abundantly following the calling you have for my life. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Isaac Pennington (1617-1680), the son of the may of London who joined the Society of Friends (the Quakers) and suffered persecution for his beliefs. This is an excerpt from his work “Letters on Spiritual Virtues.”

Friends, our life is love and peace and tenderness. We are called to bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another, and never judge or accuse one another. Instead, we must pray for one another, helping one another up with a tender hand if there has been any slip or fall. O! wait to feel this spirit. Wait to be guided and to walk in this spirit that you may enjoy the Lord in sweetness and walk meekly, tenderly, peaceably, and lovingly with one another. Then you will be able to praise the Lord, and anything that has hindered you, you will be able to overcome in the Lamb’s dominion. That which is contrary shall be trampled upon as his life rises and begins to rule in you. So, watch your hearts and ways. Watch over one another in gentleness and tenderness. Know that we cannot help one another out of a snare of our own strength, for only the Lord, who must be waited upon, can do this in all and for all. So, attend to the Truth, to the service and enjoyment and possession of it in your hearts. Walk in such a way that you do not bring disgrace upon it, but instead, let the Truth be a good savor to others in the places where you live. May the meek, innocent, tender, righteous life that reigns within you and governs you, shine through you into the eyes of all with whom you speak. 

PRAYER:

Written by Dionysius Telmarharensis (?-845), patriarch of the Syrian Jacobite Church and author of important documents on Eastern Christianity.

God the Father,

source of Divinity,

good beyond all that is good,

fair beyond all that is fair,

in you is calmness, peace and unity.

Repair the things that divide us from each other

and restore our unity of love

like your divine love.

And as you are above all things,

unite us in goodness and love

that we may be spiritually one,

with you and with each other,

through your peace which makes all things peaceful

and through the grace, mercy, and tenderness

of your only Son., Jesus Christ. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by L.B. Cowman (1870-1960), an American writer and author of devotional books.

Our too general neglect of looking for answers to what we ask shows how little we are in earnest in our petitions. A husbandman is not content without the harvest; a marksman will observe whether the ball hits the target; a physician watches the effect of the medicine which he gives; and shall the Christian be careless about the effect of his labor? Every prayer of the Christian, made in faith, according to the will of God, for which God has promised, offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the influence of the Spirit, whether for temporal or for spiritual blessings, is, or will be, fully answered. God always answers the general design and intention of His people’s prayers, in doing that which, all things considered, is most for His own glory and their spiritual and eternal welfare. As we never find that Jesus Christ rejected a single supplicant who came to Him for mercy, so we believe that no prayer made in His name will be in vain.

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve,

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do great things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for—but everything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation.  This is an excerpt from his work “Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, Interviews, and Talks.”

Spiritual formation in Christ is the process through which disciples or apprentices of Jesus take on the qualities or characteristics of Christ himself, in every essential dimension of human personality. The overall orientation of their will, the kinds of thoughts and feelings that occupy them, the “automatic” inclinations and “readinesses” of their body in action, the prevailing posture of their relations toward others, and the harmonious wholeness of their soul—these all, through the formative processes undergone by his disciples, increasingly come to resemble the personal dimensions of their master. “A pupil is not above his teacher,” Jesus said, “but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the PrayRay prayer website.

Man is not perfect so if I make a man my ultimate role model, then I am bound to do mistakes or fail. But if I make you Lord my ultimate role model, a light will shine on my path. I will never be able to make mistakes, and I will be successful.  Therefore, Lord Jesus, I make you my number one role model today. I want to do the things you do, I want to behave just like you, I want to show love to people and heal people. I pray that you help me, Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

This meditation is from Maranatha Christian Ministries.

We all know that the Bible says that man was created in the image of God. As God’s highest creation, and in that image, it is a given that man should be free. There is no scriptural foundation for any other teaching. That is one of the reasons that America is a great nation. It is founded on the liberating Biblical concept of freedom. When the citizens of the early colonies declared their freedom from and independence of England, it was a great day for freedom and the church. The United States was born. Since that time we have taken great pride in our freedoms and our independence from other tyrannical nations. It is a good thing to be free to worship God and that is what our founding fathers worked, fought, and died for. Sadly enough though, too many have taken that independent spirit too far and have become totally independent of any and all powers and entities, resulting in rebellion. As a Christian, independence is never more demonstrated than when we exercise total dependence on God. We were never intended to be independent of Him or His ways. He created us to depend on Him and thus to find our total fulfillment in Him, to find His perfect strength by acknowledging our own weakness. (2 Cor. 10: 9-10). On this day that we as Americans proudly, and justly so, give honor to our country, one nation under one God, let us also along with this day of independence declare that this is our Day Of Dependence. A day that we acknowledge that we depend on God for everything in this life. A day that we know that we live and move and have our being in Him. To God be the glory for our United States of America and for the liberty with which Christ has set us free. In Christ, we have real freedom.

PRAYER:

Written by William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to stop the slave trade.

Lord God, Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength and forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will: through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

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MEDITATION:

Written by Thaddeus J. Williams, a contemporary professor of theology and ethics. This is an excerpt from his book “Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth.”

Paul refuses to interpret any inch of reality apart from God. To cut God off from our understanding is to block out the sun and bump around in the dark. We see everything in its truest light when we view it in light of God’s existence. That includes the way we see humanity’s grim track record of injustice as well as our own underrated capacity for evil…We pretend otherwise, but a transcendent power runs the universe, and deep down we know we are not him. God is God and we are not. We aren’t the Creator; we are the creatures. But we suppress that most fundamental truth about the basic structure of existence. This blurs out our vision of everything else…Refusing to give the Creator the honor and gratitude he is due, we turn and bow to the cosmos. We endow created things with an ultimate value that they are not due. This is a double injustice. We fail to give both the Creator and the creation what they are properly due. In Paul’s language, we “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…This tragedy plays out in gruesome detail throughout the Old Testament. Slavery, murder, rape, child abuse, and theft happen when people worship idols instead of God. The first commandment, to have no gods before God, is where any authentically Christian vision of justice begins. Devalue the original by putting something else in his place and it’s easier to treat the images of God like garbage. That is what is so profound about Paul’s take on injustice in Romans 1. He does not merely note that humanity is “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, [and] maliciousness,” then blames all that injustice on society and dream up a utopian political solution the way Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did. Paul does not look at the bad fruit on the human tree and then suggest replanting it in the different soil of some new political ideology. Paul knows that the human tree is so hopelessly sick that whatever soil you plant it in, toxic fruit will form. No amount of political revolution, social engineering or policy tweaking will stop envy, strife, deceit, and maliciousness from sprouting out of our sick hearts. Why were all the utopias of the modern era doomed to fail? Because the evil did not originate in politics, society, or the economy. It is expressed there, but evil originates in human hearts that “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” and the sun and water and gold and sex and power…This is how Paul adds deeper hues to our picture of injustice. Look deep enough underneath any horizontal human-against-human injustice and you will always find a vertical human-against-God injustice, a refusal to give the Creator the worship only the Creator is due. All injustice is a violation of the first commandment.

PRAYER:

Written by William Temple (1881-1944), a bishop in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury.

O Almighty God, the Father of all humanity, turn, we pray, the hearts of all peoples and their rulers, that by the power of your Holy Spirit peace may be established among the nations on the foundation of justice, righteousness, and truth; through him who was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Tommy Nelson, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “A Life Well Lived.”

Solomon observes [in Ecclesiastes] the inequity of life. Sometimes bad guys win and good guys suffer. Johnny Christian doesn’t always score the touchdown, and Paul Pagan doesn’t always fumble the ball. That’s a fact. Do you have a problem with that? Would you rather have a “perfect” universe? Wouldn’t it be great if, after a driver ran you off the road, his car would break down five minutes later? Or if someone cheated you in business, he would go bankrupt the next month? Or if someone got angry and yelled at you, her teeth would fall out that night? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  But unfortunately, you’d have to live in the same universe. So if you gossiped about someone, your tongue would turn green. Every time you lusted or envied another person, more of your hair would fall out. Every time you spent money on something you didn’t need, the food in your refrigerator would rot overnight. Would you want to live in a world like that? None of us want that kind of instant justice from God. God’s patience with sin is an incredible blessing—otherwise, all of us would come under His immediate judgment.  Here’s a fact to comfort us: There will be a day when God will deal with evil. The question is not, “Why does God not punish evil?” But, “Why does He not punish evil now?”  He will deal with it.

PRAYER:

The author of this prayer is unknown.

Heavenly Father, in your love you have called us to know you, led us to trust you, and bound our life with yours. Surround us with love and protect us from evil. Fill us with the holy spirit so we walk in the way of Christ and grow in our knowledge of your love.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Laura Banning, a Bible Study instructor and author.

So we are back in Montana for the summer. We are living here in a small log cabin alongside a river, the Swan River. And as I look out at that river and see all of the activity surrounding it, I think of the verse John 7:38-39. “Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” When He said “living water,” He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in Him.”The picture Jesus uses for life in the Holy Spirit is that of a river. Rivers are mentioned 150 times in Scripture, often as a picture of spiritual life, and for good reason. Israel was a desert, so a river to the children of Israel was grace. A river is life. If a river flows, life flourishes. If a river dries up, life dies. So it is with you and me and the Holy Spirit. As I look out the window and reflect on this, I see it as a beautiful analogy for how the Holy Spirit works in our lives … The Swan River is always flowing. It never stops. Yes, sometimes it’s higher and flowing faster than other times. And yes, there are rocks and obstacles in the way; but the river never stops flowing. This is a picture for how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. He is always working, all of the time whether or not it seems like it or feels like it. It’s true. We have a choice as to whether or not we will stay in the flow of His work, or not. He calls us to stay in His River. He calls us to stay in the flow of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. And as we do this, He will change us into the person that He made us to be! “The only way to become the person God made you to be is to live with the Spirit of God flowing through you like a river of living water.” (John Ortberg) I came across a verse in Psalms: “You give us drink from the River of Your delights.” (Psalm 36:8) What a great picture this is for us. Jesus calls everyone who believes in Him to come and drink freely from His “living water”. We receive this living water from the indwelling Holy Spirit, as we meditate on His Word and listen to Him. And then He tells us that rivers of living water will flow from our hearts.

PRAYER:

Written by Evangeline Paul Dhinakaran, an international speaker and author.

Loving Lord Jesus, help me to humble myself under Your mighty wings that I may receive Your healing touch in my mind, body, and soul. Please enable my soul to prosper that Your healing waters may flow. like rivers of living water from me to others. In Your matchless name, I pray. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Sergei Sosedkin, a contemporary pastor and native of Moscow, Russia.

If you ever meet ungrateful people, you know how much they can discourage you from doing good. Just recently we mailed a free Bible to one of our listeners. A few weeks later he sent us an angry letter saying that we sent a wrong translation in a cheap cover and with a font that isn’t large enough. Of course, there are many times when we ourselves display ungratefulness to others. Sadly, it comes to us so naturally that we often don’t even notice we have been unthankful to the people around us. It’s no wonder that the apostle Paul includes ungratefulness in his list of common sins peculiar to “the last days,” the era that began with Christ’s first coming. Obviously, being ungrateful is a serious thing in our social interactions, for it hurts others. But being ungrateful can also be deadly in our spiritual life, for it hurts God and damages our soul. Being ungrateful to Jesus means discounting his salvation and turning away from him. That’s why the Bible teaches us to carefully examine our hearts. The best biblical antidote for an ungrateful heart is this: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). Only by looking to the cross of Christ can we attain God-pleasing thankfulness.

PRAYER:

Written by Sergei Sosedkin, author of today’s meditation.

Lord, fill our hearts with thanksgiving to you for your love and salvation in Christ. Teach us to love our neighbors by showing our gratitude to them too. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Eric Gagnon, a contemporary pastor and author.

From the time of the kings, to the exile and destruction of Jerusalem, to the rebuilding of the new temple, mankind has longed for rescue. When left to ourselves, we look for rescue through tangible things: people, institutions, things we can see and feel. Many are good gifts and provision from God. But only God can rescue us from the mess we’ve made on earth. Thankfully, God’s story, His Word, speaks truth and wisdom into this mess. God’s Word gives and brings true hope when it may feel that there is none.

God went before His people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God remained with His people in the Holy of Holies in the temple. Both through visual evidence. God was “with” them. Yet, I am reminded of Jesus’ words in John 20:29, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” There is more to God than we will ever be able to see with our eyes. It’s always been God’s intention to “dwell with man on the earth” (2 Chronicles 6:18). He walked with us in the garden of Eden and intends to walk with us again when He returns. But when we see God in heaven, however grand His glory will be on that day, the face we look at will be none other than the face of Jesus.

PRAYER:

Written by Eric Gagnon, author of today’s meditation.

Heavenly Father, thank you for holding up a mirror to our own hearts as we read about your people in the past. We long to see You and be with You in greater ways. We often long for rescue, perhaps by You, but adding whatever else it is we can see and hold on to. Help us to let go of hoping in anything else but You for life and godliness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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