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MEDITATION:

Written by Philip Yancey, a contemporary American author who writes primarily about spiritual issues. This is an excerpt from his book with Dr. Paul Brand, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.”

Under the old covenant, worshipers brought the sacrifice—they gave. In the new, believers receive tokens of the finished work of the risen Christ. “My body, which was broken for you…my blood which was shed for you…” In those phrases, Jesus spans the distance from Jerusalem to me, cutting across the years that separate his time from mine. When we come to the table we come short of breath, with a weakened pulse. We live in a world far from God, and during the week we catch ourselves doubting. We muddle along with our weaknesses, our repeated failings, our stubborn habits, our aches and pains. In that condition, bruised and pale, we are beckoned by Christ to his table to celebrate life. We experience the gracious flow of God’s forgiveness and love and healing—a murmur to us that we are accepted and made alive, transfused…The Lord’s Supper sums up all three tenses: the life that was and died for us, the life that is and lives in us, and the life that will be. Christ is no mere example of living; he is life itself.

PRAYER:

Written by Luci Shaw, a contemporary American writer of poetry and essays.

Lord, I admit that I often feel inadequate, in spite of  your promises. Often I hold back. Help me to take the risks of faith, to be aware of your affirming presence in my life. Sharpen my spirit and my senses, and enable me to pay attention to the moments of God-radiance when you ask me to look and listen. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by John Ortberg, a contemporary pastor, speaker, and author. This is an excerpt from his book “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.”

Whereas once David had wealth, power, fame, friends, security and what he thought was a guaranteed future, now he was running for his life and living in a cave. It is called the cave of Adullam, but we might think of it as the cave named Failure. The cave is where you end up when your props, supports, and crutches get stripped away. The cave is where you find yourself when you thought you were going to do great things, have a great family, or boldly go where no one had gone before, and it becomes clear that things will not work out as you dreamed. Perhaps you are in the cave because of foolish choices. Perhaps it is a result of circumstances you could not control. Most likely it is a combination of the two. Perhaps you are in the cave right now – Maybe its because you have lost your job, or you are under financial pressure. Maybe it is because your dreams about family life have been shattered…For whatever reason you are in the cave.  If you are not in the cave right now, wait a while – you will be. Nobody plans on ending up in the cave, but sooner or later everybody logs some time there.

The hardest thing about being in the cave is that you begin to wonder whether God has lost track of you…There is one thing you need to know. The cave is where God does some of his best work in molding and shaping human lives. Sometimes when all the props and crutches in your life get stripped away and you find you have only God, you discover that God is enough. Sometimes when your worst fears of inadequacy are confirmed and you discover that you really are out of your league, you experience the liberation of realizing that it is okay to be inadequate and that God wants his power to flow through your weakness. Sometimes the cave is where you meet God, for God does some of his best work in caves.

PRAYER:

Written by Lesli White, a contemporary Christian author.

Dear God, I pray that I will stay focused on You today. I pray that You will constantly remind me to be content in all of my circumstances. I pray that You will fill me up that I may be joyful all day, even if stress creeps in. I know that through my contentment, You will be glorified. I want to honor You, Father, in all that I do. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by A.J. Tozer (1897-1963), an American pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor. This is an excerpt from “Tozer on Christian Leadership.”

The fact is that the New Testament message embraces a great deal more than an offer of free pardon. It is a message of pardon, and for that may God be praised; but it is also a message of repentance. It is a message of atonement, but it is also a message of temperance and righteousness and godliness in this present world. It tells us that we must accept a Savior, but it tells us also that we must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. The gospel message includes the idea of amendment, of separation from the world, of cross-carrying and loyalty to the kingdom of God even unto death. To be strictly technical, these latter truths are corollaries of the gospel, and not the gospel itself; but they are part and parcel of the total message which we are commissioned to declare….To offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold injury where it hurts him worst.  Lord, help me to proclaim the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as I present the Gospel today.

PRAYER:

From the Roman Breviary, the liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church. Published in 1482, it became known as the Liturgy of the Hours.

O God,

let the fire of your love burn up in us all things that displease you,

and prepare us for your heavenly Kingdom; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer, and theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “With Open Hands.”

Praying, therefore, means being constantly ready to let go of your certainty and to move on further than where you now are. It demands that you take to the road again and again, leaving your house and looking forward to a new land for yourself and your fellowman. This is why praying demands poverty, that is, the readiness to live a life in which you have nothing to lose so that you always begin afresh. Whenever you willingly choose this poverty you make yourself vulnerable, but you also become free to see the world and to let the world be seen in its true form.

PRAYER:

Written by Jill Weber, is a contemporary spiritual director and the director of Houses of Prayer.

God, I bring before You complex situations in my life where I don’t know how to unravel the tangle of my own brokenness–where I’m feeling vulnerable and exposed. Perhaps even where others are exploiting my weakness for their own agenda. In the quiet, I ask for your wisdom and I listen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and leader of the Protestant Reformation.

This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.

PRAYER:

Written by Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), a Christian cleric and writer.

Lord Jesus Christ, like the centurion’s servant, we are in distress. Save us from the sin of presumption and complaint, for we have no claim on your love other than the promise that you love us. Purge us, cleanse us, empty us, open us, so that our every moment becomes a gift in response to your gift of life eternal, beginning now.  Amen. Let it be.

MEDITATION:

Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher and writer on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his work “The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus.”

What God is going to bring out of human history in his people is going to be the greatest reflection of God’s own glory, wisdom, and love. That is what human history is about. It is to make a society of the redeemed that will be the crown jewel of creation. And when we look at all of the terrible things that happen in human history, when we look at the extent of human evil in it, we want to remember what would be lost if human history had not happened. What would be lost is precisely this crown jewel of creation, which consists of Christlike people living together with the kind of love that the members of the Trinity have for one another and enjoying that full, shared, self-subsistent being that characterizes God himself as God dwells in those people.

PRAYER:

Originally written by John Calvin 1509-1564) and adapted by Timothy Keller. John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor, reformer of the Protestant Reformation, and principal figure in developing the theology known as Calvinism. Timothy Keller is a theologian, author, Christian apologist, and minister of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

My God, Father, and Savior, since you have been pleased to give me the grace to come through the night to the present day, now grant that I may employ it entirely in your service, so that all my works may be to the glory of your name and the edification of my neighbors. As you have been pleased to make your sun shine upon the earth to give us bodily light, grant the light of your Spirit to illumine my understanding and my heart. And because it means nothing to begin well if one does not persevere, I ask that you would continue to increase your grace in me until you have led me into full communion with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the true Sun of our souls, shining day and night, eternally and without end. Hear me, merciful Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Stephen Macchia, a contemporary pastor, author, and spiritual director.

Beauty

I’m struck by how much my soul is enlivened by beauty.

Not exclusively of human beauty per se, as delightful as that may be,

But of God and his created order, which of course includes the people he designed.

Beauty multiplied in the lives of children young and old, imperfect reflections of love;

Beauty offered in the seasons of winter, spring, summer and autumn;

Beauty displayed in the garden, desert, pasture, woodland, seashore;

Beauty portrayed in the majesty of mountains, oceans, plains, and forests;

Beauty delivered in the weather, clouds, sunshine, rain, and snow;

Beauty magnified in the light and seen clearly under the microscope;

Beauty compensated in the restitution of the ugly, dormant, neglected, or dismissed;

Beauty shared in the human touch, an act of kindness, a lovely meal, a gesture of grace;

Beauty provided in the Word of God, filled with life, hope, peace, justice, and joy;

Beauty conveyed in the written word, the spoken word, the Word of love made flesh;

Beauty created in art, dance, poetry, pottery, lyric, melody, harmony, and song;

Beauty redeemed in the heart of confession, forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation;

Beauty whispered in the ear of those who pray, love, serve, and listen to God;

Beauty is God’s glorious idea, his chosen way to communicate, his invitation.

If you’re struck by how much your soul swells with joy amidst beauty,

Gaze upon God’s beauty today and choose the one thing that matters most.

Offer God’s beauty to others today, in the coming hours, and in the days ahead.

Beauty heals, notices, releases, celebrates, affirms, enlivens, completes, and transforms.

Reflections on beauty and beautiful reflections accompany a purifying soul.

Beauty.

PRAYER:

Francis of Assisi (c1181-1226), an Italian Catholic friar, deacon, and preacher. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Claire, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land.

Dear God, please reveal to us your sublime beauty that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, so that we will never again feel frightened. My divine love, my love, please let us touch your face.  Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Jerry Bridges (1929-2016), an author and speaker. He was a staff member of The Navigators, a college ministry.  This is an excerpt from his book “The Fruitful Life.”

When Paul lists those godly traits he calls the fruit of the Spirit, he puts Love first – very likely to emphasize its importance. Love is the overall grace from which all the others grow. Indeed, love binds all the other virtues together in perfect unity. Devotion to God is the only motivation acceptable to God for the development and exercise of Christian character. But devotion to God finds its outward expression in loving one another. Or to state it another way, our devotion to God is validated by our love for other people…We cannot truly love God without loving one another. To recognize that there is someone I do not love is to say to God, “I do not love you enough to love that person.” This is not to deny the reality of spiritual struggle in loving a particular person, because it often exists. I am referring to the attitude of not even wanting to love the person, of being content to allow a lack of love for someone reside in my heart unchecked and unchallenged.

PRAYER:

Written by Jill Weber, is a contemporary spiritual director and the director of Houses of Prayer.

God, may I be an agent of your scandalous love and mercy toward all who don’t deserve it — which includes me. I receive your mercy. I yield myself to your grace, and I am blessed.

MEDITATION:

Written by Danny Lehmann, a contemporary author, speaker, and director of Youth With a Mission.

I have discovered, through personal experience and from biblical example, that human effort, self-assertion, positive thinking, and willpower are of little use in the quest for godliness. Throughout my years at elementary school, I was a straight “C” student. I barely squeaked through high school and was forced to abandon any hopes I had of going to college, because of a lack of discipline. Instead of school, I told my family, “I’m going surfing,” and for the next four years, lived the life of a California beach bum, regularly blowing out my brains on drugs. At age twenty-one, a longhaired, broken, burned-out freak with barely enough discipline to hold down a job, I landed at the foot of the Cross, and was gloriously saved. Since that time, God, through His mercy and grace, has helped me to discipline my life – not because I had any natural endowment of sticktoitiveness, but because His Holy Spirit came and took up residence in my life when I surrendered to Him and trusted Him. Trust, spelled with a capital “T,” is the key. If we want to better our devotional life, we must trust Him…All of God’s dealings with man, Christian and non-Christian, are for one purpose: to bring us to a point where we can trust Him.

PRAYER:

Written by Francis de Sales (1567-1622), a Bishop of Geneva. He was known for his deep faith and gentle approach to the religious divisions resulting from the Reformation. He wrote on the topic of spiritual direction and formation.

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then. Put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: “The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me, and I in Him.”

MEDITATION:

Written by V. Gilbert Beers, a contemporary author of biblical reference books.

I’m a father of five wonderful grown children, one now already in heaven, and the grandfather of eleven awesome grandchildren. For more than half a century, my wife Arlie and I have made it a crusade to bless our children, their mates, and their children. It is the Christian thing to do, isn’t it? We always expected the blessings to flow “downward” through the generations. But increasingly we have discovered a reverse flow of blessings. The more we try to bless the next generations, the more we discover greater blessings from them. We who thought we were the “blessers” suddenly become the blessed, and those we expected to be the blessed have become the “blessers.” Those we blessed with wise counsel, love, generosity, role modeling and a hundred other gifts, now bless us with wise counsel, love, generosity, role modeling and a hundred other gifts. Perhaps we can carry this thought upward a bit. We expect that God is always the “blesser” and we are always the blessed. But is it not true that when we return our gifts to God we bless God? What an awesome thought that we, those blessed by God, can return blessing to Him?

PRAYER:

Written byFrancis of Assisi (c1181-1226), an Italian Catholic friar, deacon and preacher. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Claire, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land.

Whoever shall observe these things may he be filled in heaven with the blessing of the most high Father, and may he be filled on earth with the blessing of his beloved son, together with the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, and all the powers of heaven and all the saints. And I, brother Francis, your worthless servant, as far as I am able, approve this most holy blessing both internally and externally. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, in this Church and all the Churches of the world, and we bless You, because, by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.