IN AND OUT
d365.org is a devotional website that has a word for us this day! A few years ago my brother-in-law recommended it to me. The daily devotional format is as follows. It strikes me as a resolute way to be a faith-filled follower of God:
Pause Listen Think Pray Go
1. Teach us to slow down, to PAUSE to hear God: we often do all the talking and forget to listen!
2. Oh, here we go, LISTEN to God, urging, pleading, inspiring, nudging, gracing, calling, attending, comforting, and much more. Sometimes God has a still, small voice; sometimes, a loud thunder!
3. Encourage us to THINK. As I often heard growing up, “God gave you a brain, you should use it!”
4. PRAY! And don’t leave it as a final option when we are desperate for God (although that is a fine time to pray as well!) Pray first, middle, and last or as Paul said it better: “Pray without ceasing!” (I Thessalonians 5:17)
5. As Jesus said, “GO!”…you are set free, now do something about it! Go and tell; go and do; go and be my disciple; GO!
Loving God, encourage us in our walk with you and one another that we might—
Pause
Listen
Think
Pray
Go
So be it!
Love,
Lucia
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
A Word from Your Pastor
LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD:
THE PREACHER TALKS FRANKLY
Have you ever wondered, “So what?” I have. The preacher who penned Ecclesiastes has. I commend this short book of the Bible to you. I’m grateful it is in our canon. The unnamed teacher/preacher asks the hard questions and doesn’t give us neat and tidy answers—for life isn’t neat or tidy.
I have been reminiscing lately. My dad lived to the age of 52; my mom, to the age of 72. As my two sisters and I are reaching our dad’s age when he died, it is a weird feeling. Life is going by quickly and as the song goes,
What’s it all about Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out?
Hal David, lyricist; Burt Bacharach; music; lyrics.com
The preacher puts it this way:
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil
at which they toil under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down,
and hurries to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south,
and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns. Ecclesiastes 1:1-6
What is it all about? Finally, this comes down to your answer for yourself. But we also consider this in community. What is it all about? Does any of it add up to a pile of beans?
The song writers above conclude that our purpose is love. Jesus also makes that conclusion: Love one another as I have loved you. Love God and neighbor as yourself. Or as the saying goes, do the best you have with what you have, and in all things have joy.
If we put love and joy and service together, they will add up. That is the promise. That is what Jesus did on earth. He loved; he took joy in the little things, praising the God of all creation; and he served by meeting people in their hour of need. Love, joy, service: If that way of living is good enough for the Christ, then how about us? What’s it all about? What do you think?
See you Sunday at the church house! Remember your church this summer.
God bless you,
Lucia
THE PREACHER TALKS FRANKLY
Have you ever wondered, “So what?” I have. The preacher who penned Ecclesiastes has. I commend this short book of the Bible to you. I’m grateful it is in our canon. The unnamed teacher/preacher asks the hard questions and doesn’t give us neat and tidy answers—for life isn’t neat or tidy.
I have been reminiscing lately. My dad lived to the age of 52; my mom, to the age of 72. As my two sisters and I are reaching our dad’s age when he died, it is a weird feeling. Life is going by quickly and as the song goes,
What’s it all about Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out?
Hal David, lyricist; Burt Bacharach; music; lyrics.com
The preacher puts it this way:
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil
at which they toil under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down,
and hurries to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south,
and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns. Ecclesiastes 1:1-6
What is it all about? Finally, this comes down to your answer for yourself. But we also consider this in community. What is it all about? Does any of it add up to a pile of beans?
The song writers above conclude that our purpose is love. Jesus also makes that conclusion: Love one another as I have loved you. Love God and neighbor as yourself. Or as the saying goes, do the best you have with what you have, and in all things have joy.
If we put love and joy and service together, they will add up. That is the promise. That is what Jesus did on earth. He loved; he took joy in the little things, praising the God of all creation; and he served by meeting people in their hour of need. Love, joy, service: If that way of living is good enough for the Christ, then how about us? What’s it all about? What do you think?
See you Sunday at the church house! Remember your church this summer.
God bless you,
Lucia
A Word from Your Pastor
An Attitude of Gratitude
Psalm 42.4:
These things I remember; as I pour forth my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Can we talk? Why does it seem that for the Psalmists praise came easily? They seem to always be turning to God in praise somehow, some way. Well, not so fast. It wasn’t that they praised God more easily, they just praised as often as their hearts beat! God caught it all. God caught blame for ten thousand Philistines being killed. God caught blame for natural disasters and ill health. In the same way, God was praised for everything. God was exalted for the way the moon shone, the way the sun rose, the way the animals skipped in the fields. The people necessarily kept God at center, a lesson for us. May we vow to say thank you often and sincerely.
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that
would suffice.”
— Eckhart, Meister
The Psalmists practiced their gratitude. And that is what our faith is all about. To have an attitude of gratitude is to give thanks often with our very lives.
Sound familiar?
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (I Thess.5:16-24)
May it always be so.
Love and God’s blessings now and always,
Lucia
Psalm 42.4:
These things I remember; as I pour forth my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Can we talk? Why does it seem that for the Psalmists praise came easily? They seem to always be turning to God in praise somehow, some way. Well, not so fast. It wasn’t that they praised God more easily, they just praised as often as their hearts beat! God caught it all. God caught blame for ten thousand Philistines being killed. God caught blame for natural disasters and ill health. In the same way, God was praised for everything. God was exalted for the way the moon shone, the way the sun rose, the way the animals skipped in the fields. The people necessarily kept God at center, a lesson for us. May we vow to say thank you often and sincerely.
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that
would suffice.”
— Eckhart, Meister
The Psalmists practiced their gratitude. And that is what our faith is all about. To have an attitude of gratitude is to give thanks often with our very lives.
Sound familiar?
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (I Thess.5:16-24)
May it always be so.
Love and God’s blessings now and always,
Lucia
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