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Day 28: Silence

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“Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10) 

Silence.

Something that is sometimes thought as a weapon rather than a choice.

Have you ever had some use the weapon of “silent treatment” on you?

It drives us crazy to have this weapon used against us, because I believe this goes to a larger truth of our humanity that we are downright obstinate against. We don’t like it. Period.

Maybe go as far to say that we hate silence and there are many reasons why.

Our culture is quite use to the loudness of everything around us.

So much so that we like it and without it we are downright confused.

As a member and staff member of St. Philip’s UMC I love going to our historic chapel that we have on campus. I love  sitting in this chapel all by myself. It is soothing. To sit there in that chapel, in the quiet. I have heard many things from God in that very chapel.

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The point here is this is that silence is in place in times when we feel God’s presence so powerfully. Every time that I sit in that chapel alone I don’t feel alone because God is not a God that is always loud and boisterous, but one that is with us in the quiet and whispers his love and grace into our very lives. Jesus showed us this behavior as well by going to the mountains and spending quiet time with God and listen for his voice.

If Jesus the Son of God did this why do we think that we don’t have to? 

So tonight before you go to bed. Spend some time in silence before God and listen to what you might hear. It just might amaze you what God has to share.

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How a New Covenant Motivates Us

 

 

 

 

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Day 26: Ate

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Day 27: Happy

 

Happiness is a word that I feel is drastically misunderstood. 

Mostly because I feel that this world that we live in is a word that drastically misunderstands things because of what it offers which actually is not even close to what God’s massive love and grace offers. Today I wanted to blog about two pictures actually. The first is a picture from yesterday that represents the word, “Ate.”  and the picture below is from today that represents the word, “Happy.”

Both of which have a lot to do with one another.

“After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in rememberance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.” 

The first picture was taken as Amy was serving me this new covenant outside of the Garden Tomb (one of the places that is believed where Jesus rose from the grave). Just thinking about it gives me chills and warms my heart. This new covenant is a very important part of our faith because it is redemption and the moment where God came down and rescued us from the slavery of sin and gave us the answer. Through this practice of remembrance we remembered what Christ has done and what he continues to do on our behalf. We remember that He came for us to rescue us so that we could come home.

This for me is what leads me in all I do.

I desire for it to be known fully and intimately by my students so that they can know Jesus like I know him. Everyday I get to share this faith with the students at St. Philip’s UMC makes me so incredibly happy but that is just one of the perks of being rescued by my Savior Jesus Christ. This motivates me because Jesus calls us back to who we were made to be, who we were originally designed to be. He calls us and says that we belong to him and He will do anything to fight for us, he will even die for us, and that’s pretty flippin sweet!

That’s something that motivates all of us!

Awesome God,

Motivate us to be your children and to live as you have taught us to live.

Amen

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Jesus Heals Us

But this was all a signpost. When Jesus came to town, it meant that healing, deliverance, joy, celebration, forgiveness, transformation, and rescue soon followed. This is the consistent testimony of the Gospels. Jesus healed, He forgave, He celebrated through feasting with people (usually the outcasts of society), He delivered, and He transformed lives— not by changing the outside of the cup, as the Pharisees did, but by curing hardened hearts and cleansing them from the inside. Jesus’ healings demonstrated that the arrival of God’s rule over evil was breaking into the present. For Jesus, healings and the casting out of demons were signs of the dawning kingdom. They indicated that God’s future had arrived. They were tangible signposts that the kingdom of God was coming to earth as it is in heaven. “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” 49 By healing the sick and casting out demons, Jesus was effectively saying, “This is what happens when God is running the world. This is what it looks like when God is King of the earth. The time has come; the dominion of God is breaking into the present. This is what happens when God becomes King on earth as He is in heaven. (Sweet, Leonard; Viola, Frank (2012-10-02). Jesus: A Theography (p. 169). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.) 

 

 

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Day 25: Faithful

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(Amy and I in the Jordan River)

She makes me want to be a better man everyday and has taught me so much about being faithful to what God has started within me. My relationship with my wife, my best friend is a constant reminder to how awesomely faithful my Heavenly Father is to us. I wanted to share a quote with you from the book, “Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas.” This quote is not by Gary Thomas but is a quote that references at the beginning of chapter 3: Learning to Love.

If you treat a man as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become the bigger and better man. (Johann Wolfgang con Goethe) 

This is exactly what I mean by the feeling that I get everyday. My wife and my best friend, Amy is always pushing me, encouraging me, empowering me to realize that I am more than I realize. I think it’s easy for us to get stagnant in what we expect of ourselves, or another word to represent this is we get content with who we are and where we are.

What Amy’s empowering of me has taught me is that God doesn’t have a feeling of content with us. He is continually teaches us that He is making us new and the way that he helps us realize this is by the Body of Christ. God has this Holy Discontent for us. He is always desiring for us to continue grow in His grace and to trust in His spirit. So, today commit to have Holy Discontent. It’s what He wants for us, to continually grow in His grace and love and to continually extend that grace and love to the world.

Awesome God,

Help us this day to continually embrace and grow in your grace and love. HOLD US in YOUR GRACE and WASH US  in YOUR SPIRIT.

Amen.

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Day 24: Find

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Today was just another day where we are blessed to be breathing and also a day where we (Amy and I) were enjoying our day off. As Amy was the Pastor at her that was “on call” she had to make some hospital visits she had to make we went to St. Davids Hospital in Georgetown. After her visits we were going to see a movie so I drove her and hung out in the waiting room. After she was done with her visits she took me to the Hospital chapel (pictured above).

It’s amazing what you find when you are not looking.

The butterfly is a beautiful part of creation for me, it represents what God does to something not so great and turns it into something amazing. We sat in the chapel and prayed together, and it was a great holy moment. Then I realized that I couldn’t recall the last time we did this. As ministers we live a life of service to the church and sometimes we can get so focused on that that we lose sight of where we are in our lives. Which brings something to mind.

How do we expect to love God and the world if we have not first recognized our need for time with Him?

I know for a fact that this is not just specific to our situation, but something we can all relate to. We all fall short. We get busy and the first thing that is put on the back burner when we are busy is our relationship with God. Then after time the relationship communication (prayer) starts to get a little stale and you almost forget how to do this. We wouldn’t do this with someone in our lives because if we did the relationship would suffer and usually there are hurt feelings on either side.

So why do we do this with God?

Honestly because we can.

He will let us.

But the good news is that He is always waiting and welcoming for us to return. God is just awesome like that. So, today I am thankful for the findings that God has helped us find.

Praise be to God.

Amen.