Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Saturday, 4 October 2014 "Eating with Jesus: the ultimate reward"Daily Scripture: Revelation 2:7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
17 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’ll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I’ll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name.”
3: To Laodicea
14 Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God’s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God’s creation, says:
15-17 “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.
18 “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.
19 “The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!
20-21 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!
Reflection Question:
As the seer of Revelation wrote to his circuit of beloved churches around the city of Ephesus, he repeatedly wove in images of how God provided food for God's people. The Tree of Life, from the Garden of Eden, would reappear in the New Jerusalem. There was hidden manna, Israel's wilderness food, for those who were faithful. In the final message, it got deeply personal, as Jesus said, "If any hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to be with them, and will have dinner with them, and they will have dinner with me."
Have you ever thought, when you read a story like the story of Zacchaeus (cf. Luke 19:1-10), "I wish Jesus would invite himself to MY house." In today's Scripture, that's exactly what happened! Verse 20 began, "Look! I'm standing at the door and knocking." What does it take for you to open that door? Knowing how it might change your life, can you find the courage and faith to accept Christ's offer to stay in your home today, and always? How can you make Jesus an honored guest at every meal you eat?
Family Activity:
Jesus showed immense compassion for people who were hungry. At The Church of the Resurrection, we follow in Jesus' footstep and take the care of those who are hungry very seriously. As a family, serve at a Saturday morning FaithWork by preparing and serving a meal at a local shelter, or fill backpacks with food through our Backpacks for Hunger ministry. Invite someone to join your family for a meal at home, pray for those who are food insecure, or keep an empty seat at the table to remind you of those in need. Serve outside of church, too, by providing food for a local food bank or community center. Be creative with food and meal times to share the love of Jesus with all people.
Today's Prayer:
Lord God, please make my home, and my heart, YOUR home. Dwell in me, cleansing, energizing, and transforming me into the person you want me to be. Amen.
Insight from Bryan Cisler
Bryan Cisler serves as the Digital Media Specialist at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
One of the constant themes of my life is most of my memorable moments have happened from things that I absolutely didn’t want to do and were outside of my comfort zone. Every time I sign up for a serving project or a new program at Resurrection, there’s part of me that tells myself how busy I am and how I really don’t have time for this. My default setting is to stay in this comfortable lukewarm state that today’s scripture warns about.
For example, last summer I went down to the Healing House (a program in northeast KC that helps provide transitional housing to recovering addicts and equips them with life skills) to help film their baptisms. You may have heard Pastor Adam mention this program several weeks ago in his sermon. There were a couple of problems with heading down there. I am not a trained videographer. I didn’t know anybody there. It was happening on a Friday night. It was like 100 degrees outside. I had never been to that area before.
So against my better judgment I went. It turned out to be awesome.
To this day, it’s probably one of the most spiritually uplifting events I have seen happen while working here at Resurrection. To see people who are battling like crazy to overcome their addictions to receive baptism and to see their faces as they know that their sins are forgiven is powerful. You can watch the video below.
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/73721653" width="500" height="333" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
I would have missed it if I would have listened to what I thought was the common sense part of my brain. So my word of encouragement to you is try something in the next week that scares you a little bit. We have Christmas in October next Saturday, which is an event that helps elderly and disabled homeowners repair their homes. If you want to check out Healing House, you should come on Friday nights when they have their Alpha course. It’s open to everyone and you get to have fellowship with some really awesome people. Email me at bryan.cisler@cor.org if you want more details. Life’s too short to play it safe all the time.
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