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MEDITATION:

Written by Joel Vande Werken, a contemporary American pastor.

The ascension changes the way God’s people understand history. As faithful Jews, Jesus’ first disciples knew Psalm 2 well. They understood how futile it was for humans to try to stand against God. They knew that someday God would call the world to account. And now they knew how. Originally, Psalm 2 probably celebrated the crowning of Israel’s kings. But those who knew Jesus saw more in its words: a prophecy of the reign of Christ. As the author of Hebrews notes, God did not even give the angels—much less human kings—the kind of authority we read of the Son having in this psalm. In the ascension and reign of Jesus, God proclaims that his Son is the “heir of all things,” appointed to rule over world history and the universe (Hebrews 1:2).

There is a warning in these words. If Jesus truly is God’s Son and Lord of all, we must take his power and authority seriously. We have to surrender our lives to him. He suffered the punishment for human sin, so Christ can rightfully pour out his wrath on sin and its effects and call on the world to resist it. But the goal is not merely for people to submit to Christ, but also for them to find refuge in the ascended Lord of all. Jesus is God’s appointed provider of salvation. Will you receive his refuge today?

PRAYER:

Written by Ambrose, a bishop in Milan in the 4th century (339-397).  He contributed to theology and doctrine of the early Christian Church and influenced Augustine of Hippo.

Creator God, O Lord of all, who rule the skies, you clothe the day in radiant color, bid the night in quietness serve the gracious sway of sleep, that weary limbs, restored to labor’s use, may rise again, and jaded minds abate their fret,  and mourners find release from pain.

MEDITATION:

Today’s reflection  is an excerpt from the  book “Seeking God’s Peace in a Nuclear Age: A Call to Disciples of Christ.”

As members of churches we are also members of other groups and institutions –political parties, economic organizations, regional, and national associations. Each of these constituencies has its vested interests, its value systems, and its authority figures. We cannot deny our participation in these groups; in fact, it is of the utmost importance that these memberships be acknowledged, lest we become unconsciously possessed by them. But the challenge before us as followers of Jesus Christ is to make conscious decisions, as Christians, honoring our commitment to Him above the claims and assumptions of every other authority.

PRAYER:

Written by Francis de Sales (1567-1622), 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.

Lord, I am yours, and I must belong to no one but you. My soul is yours, and must live only by you. My will is yours, and must love only for you. I must love you as my first cause, since I am from you. I must love you as my end and rest, since I am for you. I must love you more than my own being, since my being subsists by you. I must love you more than myself, since I am all yours and all in you. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Tony Evans, a contemporary American pastor, speaker, and writer. 

In a football game, the players tower over the referees. The players are bigger, stronger and more powerful than the older, smaller and, often, out-of- shape referees. In a game, the players can use their power to knock you down, but the referees can use their authority to put you out of the game. Never confuse power with authority. Satan may be able to knock you down. He has more power than you. But he has absolutely no authority over you if you’re a believer. Of course, Satan knows that, but he doesn’t want you to know it. So, Satan tries to intimidate with lies and pressure and to deceive you into believing he has authority over you…Satan still has power. He still dominates the world in which we live and influences people’s lives in countless ways. His tactics are both real and destructive. But what he doesn’t have is final authority. Jesus has the authority. Jesus is exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.”  Satan knows if he can get you to ignore the authority and rule of Christ in your day-to-day activities and decisions, he can deceive, trick and harm you however he chooses. Yet acknowledging and remaining under Christ’s lordship and authority will protect you from Satan’s onslaught. God “made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” You were made to function in concert and cadence with Christ. For you to gain access to the authority which comes through the perfect union of Jesus Christ—bringing heaven to bear on earth—you must abide in Him. To abide means to dwell, to align your thoughts, choices and perspective under God’s thoughts, choices and perspective. It means connecting with Him and honoring Him in everything you do. God doesn’t want weekend visits with His kids; He wants full custody. This is such an important part of the victorious Christian life. You can go to all of the church services you want, read all the spiritual books you want, even do all the Bible studies that you want, but experiencing all God has planned for you comes only through aligning yourself under and abiding in the one who reigns over all, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ.

PRAYER:

From the The Mozarabic Rite, also called the Visigothic Rite or the Hispanic Rite, is a liturgical rite of the Latin Church once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania), in what is now Spain and Portugal.  Developed during Visigoth (Arian Christian) rule of the Iberian peninsula in the 500s AD.

Raise up Thy power, and come to deliver us, O Lord our God; that as we are overwhelmed by the storms of temptation so we may be raised up by the aid of Thy strength. We beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Laura Georgakakos, a contemporary editor and writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Grace Notes.”

God has all things in hand. When we are feeling close to Him and trust Him, that can be a great relief. But when things aren’t going the way we wish we can be frustrated or angry by the fact that He rules and we don’t. How we feel about God’s sovereignty – grateful or irritated—can tell us a lot about how yielded we are to Him and His will. It can be a valuable barometer of something needing attention in our relationship. Notice that during those times when we trust in God’s unfailing love, we live more peaceably with His sovereignty. This week, set aside what seems to be a more pressing task and intentionally choose to be alone with God. The Sovereign Lord does not rule your life with a fist or a scowl; His hands are open, His arms outstretched. The most amazing truth and gift is this – that the supreme authority and power of the universe, He who controls the motion of the planets and governs the kings of the earth, wants to draw near to you, to sit with you in a comfortable spot to talk and to listen and to laugh. He has things to share, and He longs for your approach.

PRAYER:

Written by Laura Georgakakos, author of today’s meditation.

Sovereign Lord, I get busy and harried and pretend not to hear it, but please keep knocking at the door of my heart. Insist on our time together. Alone with You is where I am supposed to be and I know it. That is the place of greatest blessing and peace; only there will I get the proper perspective on all that is demanding my attention. Thank you for all You are waiting to bestow. My heart says of you, “Seek His face!”  Your face, Lord, I will seek.

MEDITATION:

Written by Dale Melenberg, a contemporary American pastor.

The chief priests and elders of the people figured that they had all the authority for teaching in the temple, so they did not want to recognize Jesus’ authority.  Questioning authority can get sticky. The ones questioning authority are not going to accept the truth even if they are proved wrong, because they won’t believe that the person they are questioning has due authority! It is a no-win situation. Nonetheless, Jesus answered the religious leaders with a question about the work of John the Baptist, and that put them in a bind. Jesus painted them into a corner. But not wanting to leave them there, he also asked, “What do you think?” Then he told this story about two sons. Jesus pointed out that the problem here was about obedience rather than authority (note that obedience is a response to someone in authority). He asked, “Which of the two sons did what his father wanted?” The elders and priests recognized that the first son obeyed his father. Then came Jesus’ authoritative response: prostitutes and tax collectors who were obeying God in repentance were entering the kingdom ahead of the religious leaders. Moreover, like the ­second son, the religious leaders were being disobedient. They refused to listen to God’s Word and repent. Jesus wants us to know that obeying God and recognizing his authority is what counts in his kingdom—and with the Spirit’s help, we can be faithful.   

PRAYER:

Written by Dr. Charles Stanley, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker.

Dear Lord, as we rise to meet each new day, please let us be filled with Your spirit. Wherever we go, let us spread love, joy, peace, goodness, and faithfulness. Let us desire to become more like you and to worship you in all we do. Help us desire these things so much more than the sin that entices us. Thank you for always going before us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by F.B. Meyer (1847-1929), a Baptist Ambassador for Keswick holiness spirituality. He was one of the most prominent English Baptist ministers.

God’s loving appointment in making Jesus King will be apparent when we remember how beautiful He is in his personal character; how closely He is identified with our nature; the might of his arm with which He shields, the patience wherewith He bears, the redemption which He has wrought out and brought in for all who believe. What could God’s love have done better to approve itself? Is He your king? Never till He is so, will you know the fulness of God’s love. Those who question or refuse His authority are always in doubt about the love of God to themselves and to the world. Those, on the other hand, who acknowledge his claims, and crown Him as king, suddenly find themselves admitted to a standpoint of vision in which doubts and disputations vanish, and the secret love of God is unfolded. Then they experience the wise and gentle tendance of the Divine love in its most entrancing characteristics. All is love where Jesus reigns. Nothing is more indicative of God’s benevolence than his incessant appeal to men to make Jesus King. “Go, spread your trophies at His feed, and crown Him Lord of all!”

PRAYER:

Written by Augustine of Hippo (354-430), an early Christian theologian and philosopher. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern day Annaba, Algeria) and is viewed as one of the most important church fathers in Western Christianity.

Lord Jesus, let our minds rest in your Word, so that when doubt and grief would overwhelm us, faith will open our eyes to see your hand at work in our life and enable us to turn toward the future with hope and toward each other in perfect charity. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by N.T. Wright, a contemporary New Testament scholar, theologian and Anglican bishop. This is an excerpt from his work “N.T. Wright on Scripture and the Authority of God.” 

We discover, as we look at the Bible itself, that God’s model of authority is not like that of the managing director over the business, not like that of the governing body over the college, not like that of the police or the law courts who have authority over society. There is a more subtle thing going on. God is not simply organizing the world in a certain way such as we would recognize from any of those human models. He is organizing it—if that’s the right word at all—through Jesus and in the power of the Spirit. And the notion of God’s authority, which we have to understand before we understand what we mean by the authority of scripture, is based on the fact that this God is the loving, wise, creator, redeemer God. And his authority is his sovereign exercise of those powers; his love and wise creations and redemption. What is he doing? He is not simply organizing the world. He is, as we see and know in Christ and by the Spirit, judging and remaking his world. What he does authoritatively he does with this intent. God is not a celestial information service to whom you can apply for answers on difficult questions. Nor is he a heavenly ticket agency to whom you can go for moral or doctrinal permits or passports to salvation. He does not stand outside the human process and merely comment on it or merely issue you with certain tickets that you might need. Those views would imply either a deist’s God or a legalist’s God, not the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ and the Spirit.

PRAYER:

Written by Francis of Assisi (c1181-1226) was 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.

God, all powerful, most holy sublime ruler of all, you alone are good – supremely, fully, completely good, may we render to you all praise, all honor, and all blessing: may we always ascribe to you alone everything that is good! Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Jonathan R. Bailey, a contemporary writer and technology entrepreneur serving in the area of Christian Spiritual Formation. This is an excerpt from his devotional “The Eternal Journey.”

C.S. Lewis told us that God wants “creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His.” But to do that, to reach that degree of conformity with the will of God, we must exercise our freedom well. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin put it, “The only thing that concerns God, the only thing he desires intensely, is your faithful use of your freedom.” Why? Because it’s the faithful use of our first freedom – our ability to choose – that enables the second freedom: union, or likeness with God. Every human being lives with this immense possibility, this staggering potentiality – this divine destiny. Every one of us is created not only to partake in the divine life, but to replicate it.

PRAYER:

Written by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), a Spanish priest and theologian who founded the Jesuits. Jesuits served the Pope as missionaries. 

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will. 

Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Rev. Jeffrey A. Bos, a contemporary pastor. This is an excerpt from his work “The Christian’s Work of Reconciliation: Bringing God’s Peace and Harmony to Earth.”

A Palestinian priest Elias Chacour recounts an incident in his congregation in Ibillin, Israel.  He and his people suffered greatly in the midst of conflict.  The village of Ibillin was also bitterly divided.  Chacour began preaching about the importance of ecumenical and inter-church relations but without success.  The only positive result was a note from one of his parishioners urging him “Begin first to reconcile brothers, sisters, families together.”  Chacour was struck by these words.  On the Sunday before Easter, he decided to do something.  As he celebrated the Lord’s Supper, he “could see so many people who were at odds with each other.”  In fact, he realized that every time he turned to bless the congregation, to give them Christ’s peace, he was reminded that in reality there was no peace among these people.  Such peace had always been refused.   At the conclusion of the service, before anyone could move, Chacour walked down the center aisle.  At the back of the church, he locked the only two doors and took the key.  He then marched back up the aisle, turned around, and told the people that he loved them but was saddened to find them so filled with hate for one another.  In the midst of stunned silence, he went on to say: “So on Christ’s behalf, I say this to you: the doors of the church are locked.  Either you kill each other here in your hatred and then I will celebrate your funerals, or you use the opportunity to be reconciled together…If that reconciliation happens, Christ will truly become your Lord, and I will know I am becoming your pastor and your priest.  That decision is now yours.”  Inside that locked church in Israel, ten minutes passed.  No one said a word.  Finally, one man stood up.  He was a Palestinian serving as an Israeli policeman and was in his uniform.  He stretched out his arms and said, “I ask forgiveness of everybody here and I forgive everybody.  And I ask God to forgive me my sins.”  This man and Chacour then embraced.  Chacour then called for everybody in the church to embrace one another.  Tears and laughter mingled as people who had said ugly words to each other or had not spoken to each other in years were now sharing the love and peace of Christ. Chacour told the congregation: “This is our resurrection!  We are a community that has risen from the dead, and we have new life.,,I will unlock the doors and then let us go from home to home and sing the resurrection hymn to everyone!”  After the people left the church, Chacour removed the locks from the church doors and threw them away.,,The incident related by Chacour took place fifty years ago.  Years later the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis continues, and Christians are still in the middle of it.   However, this is where reconciliation must begin.  In its history, the church has known hostility and conflict, but we also believe that God is working in our churches to bring reconciliation. 

PRAYER:

Written by Gregory the Great (?-604), Pope known for large-scale mission from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England to Christianity. 

Dear Father, by Your wondrous condescension of Loving kindness toward us, Your servants, You gave up Your Son.  Dear Jesus, You paid the debt of Adam for us to the Eternal Father by Your Blood poured forth in Loving-Kindness.  You cleared away the darkness of sin by Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.  You broke the bonds of death and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.  You reconciled Heaven and earth. Our life had no hope of Eternal Happiness before You redeemed us. Your Resurrection has washed away our sins, restored our innocence and brought us joy.  How inestimable is the tenderness of Your Love! Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Kathryn Bindig, a contemporary American pastor and spiritual consultant. 

When we tune ourselves into God’s awesome creation—when we pause to notice life bursting forth all around us, our automatic response is reverent gratitude.  It is impossible to stand in the light of creation & not recognize the reverent majesty and wonder of God’s presence in, around, & within us.  The awesome beauty & reverence of: a vine adorned with morning glories, the joyous song of birds singing, a deeply rooted stable tree, the gentle waves of a serene clear lake, the power of majestic mountain ranges, the first cry of a newborn baby, the healing sound of laughter shared, the warmth of souls embracing, the soothing feeling & sound of the wind, all fill our souls with deep reverent gratitude for our Creator & fill our spirits with new life, joy & hope.  When we fail to recognize the spiritual context in which we live, we lose sight of our Creator and our whole being; mind, body and spirit become broken and separated from our life-giving force.  Though the reverence of creation transcends our full understanding, by the very fact that God is in all creation and all of creation is in God, we who are created in the image of God, are pulled into sacred harmony with God’s creative order and made whole.  Creation is the healing balm that makes us whole and brings us into balance; in our mind, body, and spirit, regardless of what season we may find ourselves in.  The challenge for our soul is to find ways to live in harmony with God’s creative order, which by its very nature includes beauty and suffering that affects our mind, body, and spirit, without losing sight of our Creator.  We know that life is gloriously complicated.  It is difficult to understand why any suffering at all exists, but we know it does. However, even in the worst suffering, ultimately beauty will always outweigh our suffering for our Creator God resides in all life and God created all life to be beautiful and good.

PRAYER:

Written by Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), a Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and Christian theologian. He served as the archbishop of Canterbury from 1093-1109. 

Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you my whole being. Moreover, I owe you as much more love than myself as you are greater than I, for whom you gave yourself and to whom you promised yourself. I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge; let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more, and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of your love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love. Amen.