Daily Devotions

As we continue our journey through Lent, we will now look at different ways  holding the 40 days of reflection. We start with Elizabeth Hyndman, a Christian writer and editor who wrote, “There are three elements that are almost always part of Lent: prayer, giving something up, and giving something back." 

Sadie Sieker, for many years served as a house-parent for the children of mission partners in the Philippines. Sadie loved books. Though she gladly loaned out some books, others she treasured in case under her bed. Once, in the quiet of the night, Sadie heard a faint gnawing sound. After searching all around her room, she discovered that the noise was coming from her beneath the bed in the case. When she opened it, she found nothing but an enormous pile of dust. All the books she had kept to herself had been lost to termites. The moral to this tale seems to say, “What we give away, we keep. What we hoard, we lose.”

The familiar words of Jesus in Mark 8:34–36 come to mind, “He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”

Following Jesus means making choices and choices mean that we leave some possibilities behind even as we pick up new God-directed opportunities. As we deny ourselves this Lent, we ask Jesus to help us not to become regretful or nostalgic but to face the future confidently.

Eternal God, holy and faithful, 

what can we give in return for our life? 

Teach us to take up the cross of Christ 

with grateful hearts and humble spirits, 

offering all for the sake of the gospel, 

so that we may receive life in fullness; 

through Christ, who is coming in glory. Amen

Daily Devotions

It can be said that sometimes a mother's love has to be a tough love.  Deuteronomy 32:18 “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”

 It was Helen Rice who penned the poem

A Mother’s love is something
that no one can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,

It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .

Solomon Rosenberg, his wife, his two sons, and his mother and father were arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust of WWII. It was a labour camp and the rules were simple: As long as you can do your work, you are permitted to live. When you become too weak to do your work, then you will be exterminated.

Rosenberg watched his mother and father being marched off to their deaths when they became too weak to work. He knew that his youngest son, David, would be next because David had always been a frail child. Every evening when Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of labour, he would search for the faces of his family. When he found them, they would huddle together, embrace one another, and thank God for another day of life.

One day Rosenberg came back, but he didn't see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping, and praying. He said, "Josh, tell me it's not true." Joshua turned and said, "It is true, Poppa. Today David was not strong enough to do his work, so they came for him."

"But where is your mother?" asked Mr. Rosenberg.

"Oh Poppa," he exclaimed. "When they came for David, he was afraid and he was crying. Momma said, ‘There is nothing to be afraid of, David,' and then she took his hand and went with him."

What was it Paul wrote to the Romans 5:6-8 “While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Lord,

This is love.

Not that you spoke words of comfort,

walked with the unclean and unloved,

shared wisdom, bread and wine,

brought healing into lives

and challenged the status quo.

This is love.

That you spoke the word of God,

walked a painful road to the Cross,

shared living water, bread of life,

brought Salvation to the world

and died for the sake of all.

This is love.

It is a seed

sown in the ground,

which germinates,

blossoms,

and spreads its sweet perfume. Amen

Daily Devotions

The Bible sometimes speaks of God as a Mother Hen. For example Jesus in the gospels says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34)

A devastating fire broke out in Harrison, Arkansas. Police and firefighters worked to search burning homes to evacuate anyone inside. One of the homes was engulfed in flames on all sides. The firefighters ran into the house to check it. In the upstairs bathroom they found a woman, Katherine Benefiel, 41, heavily burned, arms wrapped around her five year old son, covering him from the flames. Both were rushed to hospital, but the mom succumbed to her burns. The son, while badly burned himself, remained in critical care, but lived.

Katherine Benefiel with her last strength, when it was apparent that there was no way out, used her self as a shield to protect her son.

What wouldn’t a mother do to rescue her children? She would give her very life. Is it any wonder  then why Scripture uses the metaphor of the love of a mother to teach us about God’s love for us? Isn’t that exactly what God did for us in Jesus Christ on the cross? God loved us so much that God would die to save God’s children. God died so that we could have life, eternal life.

So, it goes much further than that. God’s motherly love goes beyond any earthly motherly love. Creation is limited. God is infinite. Thus, the love of a mother is similar, but also infinitely dissimilar to God's all embracing love.

Tender Shepherd, my heavenly Father, thank you for your Son and my Saviour and Lord. Use me to be a blessing to the people where I live and empower me to share your saving grace given through Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen

Daily Devotions

A teacher gave her Key Stage 2 pupils a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M, and I pick up things. What am I?” When the school children completed the test, the teacher was astounded to find that almost fifty percent had written "MOTHER."

I recently came across the following description of a Mother. A mother is a curious mixture of patience, kindness, understanding, discipline, industriousness, purity and love. A mother can be at one and the same time, both "lovelorn counsellor" to a heartsick daughter, and "head soccer coach" to an athletic son.

In Isaiah 42:14 we find a definition of God as a woman in labour “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept myself still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labour, I will gasp and pant.”

God speaks of his own restraint and patience, comparing himself to a woman in labour who has been silent for a long time but is about to cry out in anguish. This imagery of a woman in labour conveys a sense of urgency, longing, and pain. It indicates that God's restraint and silence are not signs of indifference or weakness, but rather a deliberate choice as he prepares to act powerfully and decisively.

Perhaps the essence of God's patient love can be seen in this quote by Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

“The question is not 'How am I to find God?' but 'How am I to let myself be found by him?' The question is not 'How am I to know God?' but “How am I to let myself be known by God?' And, finally, the question is not 'How am I to love God?' but 'How am I to let myself be loved by God?' God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.”

God, of endless love, may I love You in all things and above all things.  May I reach the joy which You have prepared for me in  Heaven.  Nothing is good that is against Your Will,  and all that is good comes from Your Hand.  Place in my heart a desire to please You  and fill my mind with thoughts of Your Love,  so that I may grow in Your Wisdom and enjoy Your Peace. Amen

Daily Devotions

In Isaiah 49:15 God is compared to a nursing mother, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

Here, Isaiah in his poetry expresses that God is far more than all of created things. God’s love is unspeakably far greater that any metaphor we can use. God reminds us that even the beautiful love of our mothers, while it points to the divine love, it is inadequate at fully representing the perfect love God has for us.

God bore us like a mother to physical life, 

but even more than that. 

God causes us to be born again 

of his Spirit to receive everlasting life.

God protects us like a mother bird, 

but more than that, God protects us perfectly.

God has wrath like a mother, 

but perfectly, never doing so abusively.

God refuses to let us go like a mother, 

only God has laid down his life for us 

so that we can not only live this life, 

but for ever and ever in heaven afterwards.

There was a teenager who didn’t want to be seen in public with her mother, because her mother’s arms were terribly disfigured. One day when her mother took her shopping and reached out her hand, a clerk looked horrified. Later, crying, the girl told her how embarrassed she was. Understandably hurt, the mother waited an hour before going to her daughter’s room to tell her, for the first time, what happened. 

When you were a baby, I woke up to a burning house. Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere. I could have gotten out the front door, but I decided I’d rather die with you than leave you to die alone. I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you. Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire. When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonising but when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn’t touched you. Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes. Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother’s marred hands and arms.

God of Goodness, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me.  I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me.  If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there.  Teach me today to love you more.  Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child. Amen

Daily Devotions

In Hosea 11:3-4 we find God described as mother God: “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.”

What a beautiful image, but as we approach Mothering Sunday, let's reverse the paradigm. Good mothers are good mothers because they are reflecting the traits of their Creator. Good mothers are a reflection of a very good and Holy God.

God uses many images, not just gendered ones. Anything that is good can be used to communicate God’s goodness to us. God is a shepherd, a warrior, a king, a servant, a midwife, an artist, rock, light, fire, etc. This includes fatherhood as well as motherhood, because these roles are intrinsically good. While the Bible uses “he,” God is not more a he than a she. God is these things to get to the inherent goodness of God’s-self that shared with the created order.

Focusing on or limiting God to either gender is like a gardener who carefully tends to a single, wilting flower, neglecting the rest of the garden.  Such an illustration represent how we sometimes focus solely on one characteristic of God whilst not taking on board something of the  other important elements of God's nature. In Job 57:15 we discover what we perceive of God “Look, these are only the outer fringe of God's ways; we hear only a whispered word about God. Who can understand God's thunderous power?” We cannot have knowledge all who God is, but we can know the love he has for us.

Thomas Merton puts it like this, “To be grateful is to recognise the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God;
That we may Love as you Love!
That we may show patience, tolerance,
Kindness, caring and love to all!
Give me knowledge; O giver of Knowledge,
That I may be one with my Universe and Mother Earth!
O Compassionate One, grant compassion unto us;
That we may help all fellow souls in need!
Bless us with your Love O God.
Bless us with your Love. Amen

Daily Devotions

This coming Sunday is Mothering Sunday, not to be confused with the American Mother's Day. So, this week we are going to take a look at how the Bible speaks about the Maternal characteristics of God.

One of the old lectionary readings for Mothering Sunday had the verse that says "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all," (Galatians 4: 26)

So where shall we start out on our Godly Mothering journey? In Isaiah 66:13 we find the prophet voicing, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” We may ask, is it so strange to consider God as mother as well as father for in Genesis 1 we read, “God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.” In fact, I recently read, that we should consider ‘the Mother heart of the Father God.’

Another writer put it this way, “God is our number-one-cheerleader, the comforter who gives peace when we cannot find it, and the lavish table-setter who urges us to take a second helping.

It should not surprise us that in our heavenly Father experiences we will discern the maternal love for God’s sons and daughters. As the Creator, God is the source of all good things and true motherhood is certainly a good thing. When God ordained the human family it was clearly determined that it was not good for a man to be alone. From the one, God made two. The beautiful mystery of marriage is that the two will become one again. The oneness of marriage can be expressed in many ways but perhaps the ultimate expression of oneness is the conception and birth of a child. A family that flourishes as a result of the loving impartation of a godly father and mother has always been God’s strategy for fulfilling His purposes on the earth.
 
This is obviously true in a natural family. It is also true in a spiritual family. We need both powerful spiritual fathers and mothers to raise the family of God. We need both aspects of the heart of God in our journey of faith.

In the Name of Love, we have come.

In the Name of Love, we are here.

And, in the Name of Love we will go.

Knowing in our Hearts and in our Souls

that what we have experienced is truly Divine. Amen

Daily Devotions

Our last quote of the week from the pen of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is, “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him.”

Of course the gospel verse that  readily comes to mind if not always seen in our actions is, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Imagine going to a financial planner who tells you that if you want to save for retirement, you have to spend all your money. Or imagine talking to a dietician who says that if you want to lose weight, you need to eat as many cheeseburgers as you can. It just doesn’t make sense. But Jesus’ teaching here can sound almost like that: To find life, you have to give up your life for him.

Being a disciple of Jesus is often about not doing what the world says we should do. We live in a culture of hyper-individualism and self-interest. “Do what is good for yourself first,” the world says. “Look out for number one.” But following Jesus means doing what he asks and not always what I want. It means relying on his strength and power, not my own. It means putting his mission and purpose above my own ambitions and goals. It means humbling myself and following Jesus, wherever he leads.

To deny oneself is not to do without something or even many things. It is not asceticism, nor self-rejection or self-hatred, nor is it even the disowning of particular sins. It is to renounce the self as the dominant element in life. It is to replace the self with God-in-Christ as the object of affections. It is to place the divine will before self-will.

May we pray for the freedom we need to be able to let go, to realise that our lives are not ours to save; it comes from God and its fullness lies in God.

Yes, I need this reminder, Lord. You are not leading us out to a picnic in the country, or to a concert of uplifting Gregorian chant, or to a life of guaranteed prosperity. I want to find my life, to make something of it beyond getting and spending. For that I need a smidgeon of your fortitude. Amen

Daily Devotions

Dietrich Bonhoeffer continues, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a us the only true life.”

In the 14th verse of John's first chapter we come across the words “full of grace and truth” referring to Jesus incarnation. The Message paraphrases this verse as, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

For Jesus, again and again we find the true cost of his gracious love as defined  in Philippians 2:7-8 as, “He emptied Himself, having taken the form of a slave, having come in the likeness of humans And having been found as a man in outward appearance, He humbled Himself, having become obedient to the point of death— and a death of a cross!”

We’ll never be able to humble ourselves as much as Jesus did. But because he emptied himself, as we grow in his likeness, we too can grow in humility and servanthood. Our old self, marked by pride and ambition, recedes in the background as we increasingly exude gentleness and humility.

This is what Paul meant that through the costly grace of Jesus he was able to write, “if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Earlier in our devotions I shared the poetry of John Gowans, perhaps this simple verse is one that we call can say because of the costly grace of Jesus Christ.

To be like Jesus!

This hope possesses me;

In every thought and deed,

This is my aim, my creed;

To be like Jesus!

This hope possesses me;

His Spirit helping me,

Like Him I’ll be. Amen

Daily Devotions

The driving element of being a discipleship is surely the Grace of God found of Jesus Christ; but what kind of Grace? Bonhoeffer stresses in his writings what Grace is not, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

The writer of Ephesians speaks of the riches of God,s grace in this way:- “he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you.” (2:7)

One writer revealed the inestimable riches of God’s grace in terms of that which he would give to his family. He wrote, “ I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed.”

After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody's much interested any more. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left. 

The grace of God means something like: "Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you." 

There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. 

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too. 

May God, our glorious Father,

open the eyes of your heart,

so that you might see 

the hope to which he is calling you,

the richness of the inheritance he has prepared for you,

and the power that is at work among you.

Go in the grace of God! Amen