Upper Room Daily Reflections - daily
words of wisdom and faith “Living Prayer” for Monday, 10 March 2014
Today’s Reflection:
IN THE CONTEXT of the Christian faith, a
disciple is not one who subscribes to the teachings of Jesus and seeks to
spread them, but also one who seeks to relive Jesus’ life in the world.
Discipline for the Christian is the way we train ourselves or allow the Spirit
to train us to be “like Jesus,” to appropriate his spirit, and to cultivate the
power to live his life in the world. …
Prayer is recognizing, cultivating
awareness of, and giving expression to the indwelling Christ. By recognizing I
mean more than affirming Christ’s presence. That is the beginning, of course.
But living prayer is more. Through meditation, reflection, living with
scripture, corporate worship, intentional relationship and conversation with
others, and other spiritual disciplines, we cultivate our awareness of Christ’s
presence within us. We sharpen our sensitivity and deepen our yieldedness to
his presence. We can then give expression to the indwelling Christ, actually
reflecting his presence within us in our daily living.
--Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook on Abiding
in Christ
From page 87 of The Workbook on Abiding
in Christ: The Way of Living Prayer by Maxie Dunnam. Copyright © 2010 by Maxie
Dunnam. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books.
http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
Are you observing a specific discipline
during the Lenten season?
Today’s Scripture:
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your
country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show
you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your
name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him;
and Lot went with him.--Genesis 12:1-4a, NRSV
This Week: pray for newly ordained
clergy.
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Did You Know?
In need of renewal? Join us this July 13
– 17 for SOULfeast at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina as we engage the Living
Psalms. Leadership includes Roberta Bondi, Rob Fuquay, Dana Trent, and more!
Early registration rates end March 15, 2014!
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Saints, Inc.:
This week we remember: Harriet Tubman (March 10).
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in
1821. At age eight, she was already working for her Maryland owner. When she
was thirteen, an overseer hit her in the head with a two-pound weight; she
suffered from seizures the rest of her life. In 1844 she married John Tubman, a
free black man.
In 1849 Harriet escaped north to
Philadelphia with the help of the Underground Railroad network. On over
nineteen return trips to the south, Harriet helped more than three hundred
other slaves escape to freedom, including some of her own family, earning
herself the name "the Moses of her people."
During the Civil War, Harriet worked as a
spy for the Union Army; she planned and executed a mass escape of slaves to
Union ships at the Combahee River Ferry.
After the war, Harriet was active in
African-American and women 's rights, published the story of her life, and
married Nelson Davis, a former slave and Union soldier. When Harriet Tubman
died on March 10, 1913, she was given a full military burial.
If Harriet Tubman had taken the Spiritual
Types Test, she probably would have been a Prophet. Harriet Tubman is
remembered on March 10.
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Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1 Now Yahweh said to Abram,
“Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the
land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless
you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who
bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All the families of the earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him.
Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from
Haran.
Psalm 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the
hills.
Where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from Yahweh,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to be
moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 Yahweh is your keeper.
Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 Yahweh will keep you from all evil.
He will keep your soul.
8 Yahweh will keep your going out and
your coming in,
from this time forward, and forever more.
Romans 4:1 What then will we say that
Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was
justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3 For
what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him
for righteousness.”[a] 4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as
grace, but as something owed. 5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in
him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Footnotes:
a. Romans 4:3 Genesis 15:6
13 For the promise to Abraham and to his
offspring[a] that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are
heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15 For the law
produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 16
For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end
that the promise may be sure to all the offspring,[b] not to that only which is
of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all. 17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many
nations.”[c] This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives
life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
Footnotes:
a. Romans 4:13 or, seed
b. Romans 4:16 or, seed
c. Romans 4:17 Genesis 17:5
John 3:1 Now there was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 The same came to him by
night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I
tell you, unless one is born anew,[a] he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man
be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and
be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell
you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom!
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. 7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 The
wind[b] blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where
it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these
things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the
teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? 11 Most certainly I tell
you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and
you don’t receive our witness. 12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t
believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has
ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who
is in heaven. 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and
only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. 17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but
that the world should be saved through him.
Footnotes:
a. John 3:3 The word translated “anew”
here and in John 3:7 (anothen) also means “again” and “from above”.
b. John 3:8 The same Greek word (pneuma)
means wind, breath, and spirit.
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John Wesley’s Notes/Commentary:
Second Sunday in Lent
Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
XII From henceforward Abram and his seed
are almost the only subject of the sacred history. In this chapter we have,
I. God's call of Abram to the land of
Canaan ver. 1, 2, 3.
II. Abram's obedience to this call, ver.
4, 5.
III. His welcome to the land of Canaan,
ver. 6-9.
IV. His occasional remove into Egypt,
with an account of what happened to him there. Abram's flight and fault, ver.
10-13. Sarai's danger and deliverance, ver. 14-20.
Verse 1. We have here the call by which
Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise,
which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him
apart for God. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the
knowledge of, from Stephen's speech, Acts vii, 2, where we are told, 1. That
the God of glory appeared to him to give him this call, appeared in such
displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt. God spake to him after in
divers manners: but this first time, when the correspondence was to be settled,
he appeared to him as the God of glory, and spake to him. 2. That this call was
given him in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and in obedience to this
call, he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran or Haran
about five years, and from thence, when his father was dead, by a fresh
command, he removed him into the land of Canaan. Some think Haran was in
Chaldea, and so was still a part of Abram's country; or he having staid there
five years, began to call it his country, and to take root there, till God let
him know this was not the place he was intended for. Get thee out of thy
country - Now, (1.) By this precept he was tried whether he loved God better than
he loved his native soil, and dearest friends, and whether he could willingly
leave all to go along with God. His country was become idolatrous, his kindred
and his father's house were a constant temptation to him, and he could not
continue with them without danger of being infected by them; therefore get thee
out, (Hebrew.) vade tibi, get thee gone with all speed, escape for thy life,
look not behind thee. (2.) By this precept he was tried whether he could trust
God farther than he saw him, for he must leave his own country to go to a land
that God would shew him; he doth not say, 'tis a land that I will give thee nor
doth he tell him what land it was, or what kind of land; but he must follow God
with an implicit faith, and take God's word for it in the general, though he
had no particular securities given him, that he should be no loser by leaving
his country to follow God.
Verse 2. Here is added an encouraging
promise, nay a complication of promises,
1. I will make of thee a great nation -
When God took him from his own people, he promised to make him the head of
another people. This promise was.
1. A great relief to Abram's burden, for
he had now no child.
2. A great trial to Abram's faith, for
his wife had been long barren, so that if he believe, it must be against hope,
and his faith must build purely upon that power which can out of stones raise
up children unto Abraham.
2. I will bless thee - Either
particularly with the blessing of fruitfulness, as he had blessed Adam and
Noah; or in general, I will bless thee with all manner of blessings, both of
the upper and nether springs: leave thy father's house, and I will give thee a
father's blessing, better than that of thy progenitors.
Verse 3. I will make thy name great - By
deserting his country he lost his name there: care not for that, (saith God)
but trust me, and I will make thee a greater name than ever thou couldst have
had there.
Verse 4. Thou shalt be a blessing - That
is, thy life shall be a blessing to the places where thou shalt sojourn.
Psalm 121
PS 121 David assures himself of help from
God, ver. 1, 2. He assures others of it, ver. 3-8. A song of degrees.
Verse 1. Hills - To Sion and Moriah,
which are called the holy mountains.
Verse 5. Shade - To keep thee from the
burning heat of the sun.
Verse 6. Smite - With excessive heat.
Moon - With that cold and moisture which come into the air by it. Intemperate
heats and colds are the springs of many diseases.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
IV Having proved it by argument, he now
proves by example, and such example as must have greater weight with the Jews
than any other.
1. That justification is by faith:
2. That it is free for the gentiles.
1. That our father Abraham hath found -
Acceptance with God. According to the flesh - That is, by works.
Verse 2. The meaning is, If Abraham had
been justified by works, he would have had room to glory. But he had not room
to glory. Therefore he was not justified by works.
Verse 3. Abraham believed God - That
promise of God concerning the numerousness of his seed, Gen. xv, 5, 7; but
especially the promise concerning Christ, Gen. xii, 3, through whom all nations
should be blessed. And it was imputed to him for righteousness - God accepted
him as if he had been altogether righteous. Gen. xv, 6.
Verse 4. Now to him that worketh - All
that the law requires, the reward is no favour, but an absolute debt. These two
examples are selected and applied with the utmost judgment and propriety.
Abraham was the most illustrious pattern of piety among the Jewish patriarchs.
David was the most eminent of their kings. If then neither of these was
justified by his own obedience, if they both obtained acceptance with God, not
as upright beings who might claim it, but as sinful creatures who must implore
it, the consequence is glaring It is such as must strike every attentive
understanding, and must affect every individual person.
Verse 5. But to him that worketh not - It
being impossible he should without faith. But believeth, his faith is imputed
to him for righteousness - Therefore God's affirming of Abraham, that faith was
imputed to him for righteousness, plainly shows that he worked not; or, in
other words, that he was not justified by works, but by faith only. Hence we
see plainly how groundless that opinion is, that holiness or sanctification is
previous to our justification. For the sinner, being first convinced of his sin
and danger by the Spirit of God, stands trembling before the awful tribunal of
divine justice; and has nothing to plead, but his own guilt, and the merits of
a Mediator. Christ here interposes; justice is satisfied; the sin is remitted,
and pardon is applied to the soul, by a divine faith wrought by the Holy Ghost,
who then begins the great work of inward sanctification. Thus God justifies the
ungodly, and yet remains just, and true to all his attributes! But let none
hence presume to "continue in sin;" for to the impenitent, God "is
a consuming fire." On him that justifieth the ungodly - If a man could
possibly be made holy before he was justified, it would entirely set his
justification aside; seeing he could not, in the very nature of the thing, be
justified if he were not, at that very time, ungodly.
Verse 13. The promise, that he should be
the heir of the world - Is the same as that he should be "the father of
all nations," namely, of those in all nations who receive the blessing.
The whole world was promised to him and them conjointly. Christ is the heir of
the world, and of all things; and so are all Abraham's seed, all that believe
in him with the faith of Abraham
Verse 14. If they only who are of the law
- Who have kept the whole law. Are heirs, faith is made void - No blessing
being to be obtained by it; and so the promise is of no effect.
Verse 15. Because the law - Considered
apart from that grace, which though it was in fact mingled with it, yet is no
part of the legal dispensation, is so difficult, and we so weak and sinful,
that, instead of bringing us a blessing, it only worketh wrath; it becomes to
us an occasion of wrath, and exposes us to punishment as transgressors. Where
there is no law in force, there can be no transgression of it.
Verse 16. Therefore it - The blessing. Is
of faith, that it might be of grace - That it might appear to flow from the
free love of God, and that the promise might be firm, sure, and effectual, to
all the spiritual seed of Abraham; not only Jews, but gentiles also, if they
follow his faith.
Verse 17. Before God - Though before men
nothing of this appeared, those nations being then unborn. As quickening the
dead - The dead are not dead to him and even the things that are not, are
before God. And calling the things that are not - Summoning them to rise into
being, and appear before him. The seed of Abraham did not then exist; yet God
said, "So shall thy seed be." A man can say to his servant actually
existing, Do this; and he doeth it: but God saith to the light, while it does
not exist, Go forth; and it goeth. Gen. xvii, 5. 18-21. The Apostle shows the
power and excellence of that faith to which he ascribes justification. Who
against hope - Against all probability, believed and hoped in the promise. The
same thing is apprehended both by faith and hope; by faith, as a thing which
God has spoken; by hope, as a good thing which God has promised to us. So shall
thy seed be - Both natural and spiritual, as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Gen. xv, 5.
John 3:1-17
Verse 1. A ruler - One of the great
council.
Verse 2. The same came - Through desire;
but by night - Through shame: We know - Even we rulers and Pharisees.
Verse 3. Jesus answered - That knowledge
will not avail thee unless thou be born again - Otherwise thou canst not see,
that is, experience and enjoy, either the inward or the glorious kingdom of
God. In this solemn discourse our Lord shows, that no external profession, no
ceremonial ordinances or privileges of birth, could entitle any to the
blessings of the Messiah's kingdom: that an entire change of heart as well as
of life was necessary for that purpose: that this could only be wrought in man
by the almighty power of God: that every man born into the world was by nature
in a state of sin, condemnation, and misery: that the free mercy of God had
given his Son to deliver them from it, and to raise them to a blessed
immortality: that all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, might share in these
benefits, procured by his being lifted up on the cross, and to be received by
faith in him: but that if they rejected him, their eternal, aggravated
condemnation, would be the certain consequence. Except a man be born again - If
our Lord by being born again means only reformation of life, instead of making
any new discovery, he has only thrown a great deal of obscurity on what was
before plain and obvious.
Verse 4. When he is old - As Nicodemus
himself was.
Verse 5. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit - Except he experience that great inward change by the
Spirit, and be baptized (wherever baptism can be had) as the outward sign and
means of it.
Verse 6. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh - Mere flesh, void of the Spirit, yea, at enmity with it; And that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit - Is spiritual, heavenly, divine, like
its Author.
Verse 7. Ye must be born again - To be
born again, is to be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to all holiness. It
is fitly so called, because as great a change then passes on the soul as passes
on the body when it is born into the world.
Verse 8. The wind bloweth - According to
its own nature, not thy will, and thou hearest the sound thereof - Thou art
sure it doth blow, but canst not explain the particular manner of its acting.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit - The fact is plain, the manner of
his operations inexplicable.
Verse 11. We speak what we know - I and
all that believe in me.
Verse 12. Earthly things - Things done on
earth; such as the new birth, and the present privileges of the children of
God. Heavenly things - Such as the eternity of the Son, and the unity of the
Father, Son, and Spirit.
Verse 13. For no one - For here you must
rely on my single testimony, whereas there you have a cloud of witnesses: Hath
gone up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Who is in heaven -
Therefore he is omnipresent; else he could not be in heaven and on earth at
once. This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of
properties between the Divine and human nature; whereby what is proper to the
Divine nature is spoken concerning the human, and what is proper to the human
is, as here, spoken of the Divine.
Verse 14. And as Moses - And even this
single witness will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious
manner. Num. xxi, 8, 9.
Verse 15. That whosoever - He must be
lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all believers: all those
who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that looked at
that serpent recovered bodily health.
Verse 16. Yea, and this was the very
design of God's love in sending him into the world. Whosoever believeth on him
- With that faith which worketh by love, and hold fast the beginning of his
confidence steadfast to the end. God so loved the world - That is, all men
under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally
perish. Otherwise not to believe would be no sin to them. For what should they
believe? Ought they to believe that Christ was given for them? Then he was
given for them. He gave his only Son - Truly and seriously. And the Son of God
gave himself, Gal. iv, 4, truly and seriously.
Verse 17. God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world - Although many accuse him of it.
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