Daily Guide grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 30 May 2015 - "God: still calling, still knocking"
Daily Scripture: Revelation 3:15 “I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! 17 For you keep saying, ‘I am rich, I have gotten rich,[a] I don’t need a thing!’ You don’t know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked! 18 My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see. 19 As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins! 20 Here, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.[Footnotes:
Revelation 3:17 Hosea 12:9(8)]
Reflection Questions:At the start of the Bible’s sweeping story, as soon as humans went astray, Genesis said God came calling: “Where are you?” As the grand story’s end drew near, Revelation said God is still knocking, eager to come in if we’ll let him. We do not simply respond once to God’s call. Keeping our spiritual life active and vibrant, rather than tepid, requires that every day we open our heart again, and invite Jesus to come in and guide our lives.
- In Ephesians 3:19, Paul wrote a fervent prayer: “I ask that you’ll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God.” How do you take in “the love of Christ” to keep your own spiritual life from becoming lukewarm? What do you learn about the way God deals with us from Jesus saying “I stand at the door and knock,” not something like “I’m coming in, ready or not”? (When Warner Sallman painted this scene, he put no knob on the door’s exterior. It only opened from the inside.) Have you opened your heart’s door to Jesus? If not, will you?
Today’s Prayer:
Lord, thank you for seeking and calling me, for putting me in this place, at this time, to be your child. I pray for the ability to walk in your grace, mercy and compassion each day. Amen.
Family Activity:
Many stories of missionaries are shared in the Bible. Create your own family “missionary” story. Gather your family for a local “missionary” drive. Before you leave, select a few places you would like to stop and share God’s love in some way. Would you like to take treats to firefighters or police officers and thank them for their service? How about praying for local store owners as you shop? Could you offer to do some yard work for a neighbor? Maybe you could visit those in the nursing home or a lonely neighbor. You might also want to walk through your neighborhood praying for your school and places of worship. Pray and ask God to help your family be missionaries, sharing God’s love wherever you go.Insights from Yvonne Gentile
Lord, thank you for seeking and calling me, for putting me in this place, at this time, to be your child. I pray for the ability to walk in your grace, mercy and compassion each day. Amen.
Family Activity:
Many stories of missionaries are shared in the Bible. Create your own family “missionary” story. Gather your family for a local “missionary” drive. Before you leave, select a few places you would like to stop and share God’s love in some way. Would you like to take treats to firefighters or police officers and thank them for their service? How about praying for local store owners as you shop? Could you offer to do some yard work for a neighbor? Maybe you could visit those in the nursing home or a lonely neighbor. You might also want to walk through your neighborhood praying for your school and places of worship. Pray and ask God to help your family be missionaries, sharing God’s love wherever you go.Insights from Yvonne Gentile
Yvonne Gentile serves on The Church of the Resurrection staff as the Director of Connections. Yvonne directs the team that helps people get connected into the life of the church through service, studies, group life, and other ways of involvement.
On Monday, my husband changed our bathtub faucet. The old faucet had some great features that we were excited about when we first installed it. For instance, it had and extendable hose that made cleaning the tub a breeze. Over the course of time though, the water pressure in the tub seemed to slow down to a trickle. We’ve lived with that faucet and the low water pressure for quite a long time now. We grumbled about it, but we weren’t motivated enough to do anything about it. We were lukewarm. That ended when my husband decided it was time to replace the slow faucet. Now it’s like Niagara Falls!
Sometimes our faith is like that. When we first come to faith we’re excited, but over time we can become complacent and our faith can become lukewarm. In our Scripture passage today, the church at Laodicea is criticized for letting their faith grow stale and stagnant—they were “neither cold nor hot.” Their faith no longer moved them to action. But the passage ends with a message of encouragement: “So be earnest and change your hearts and lives. Look! I’m standing at the door and knocking…”
I appreciate the GPS writer’s statement: “God is still knocking… We do not simply respond once to God’s call.” In my own life I have periods where my faith is vibrant and active, and periods where I get distracted by the things of life and my faith grows lukewarm. I have to take action to re-energize my faith, even if that’s just stopping long enough to hear and respond to God’s call—and I have to respond repeatedly to God’s call in order to keep my faith alive.
Worship, studying my Bible, a little solitude, or spending time out in God’s creation are the things that re-energize my spiritual life. Recently my husband and I went to Hawaii for vacation and to visit our son. The condo we rented was right on the ocean with a lanai that faced the Western horizon. I spent a lot of time there watching the ocean, the whales, the sunset, and the stars. The beauty and magnificence of the view made me praise God, and that vacation was a time of spiritual renewal for me. I am so grateful that God keeps knocking. What renews your faith and keeps it from becoming (and staying) lukewarm?
On Monday, my husband changed our bathtub faucet. The old faucet had some great features that we were excited about when we first installed it. For instance, it had and extendable hose that made cleaning the tub a breeze. Over the course of time though, the water pressure in the tub seemed to slow down to a trickle. We’ve lived with that faucet and the low water pressure for quite a long time now. We grumbled about it, but we weren’t motivated enough to do anything about it. We were lukewarm. That ended when my husband decided it was time to replace the slow faucet. Now it’s like Niagara Falls!
Sometimes our faith is like that. When we first come to faith we’re excited, but over time we can become complacent and our faith can become lukewarm. In our Scripture passage today, the church at Laodicea is criticized for letting their faith grow stale and stagnant—they were “neither cold nor hot.” Their faith no longer moved them to action. But the passage ends with a message of encouragement: “So be earnest and change your hearts and lives. Look! I’m standing at the door and knocking…”
I appreciate the GPS writer’s statement: “God is still knocking… We do not simply respond once to God’s call.” In my own life I have periods where my faith is vibrant and active, and periods where I get distracted by the things of life and my faith grows lukewarm. I have to take action to re-energize my faith, even if that’s just stopping long enough to hear and respond to God’s call—and I have to respond repeatedly to God’s call in order to keep my faith alive.
Worship, studying my Bible, a little solitude, or spending time out in God’s creation are the things that re-energize my spiritual life. Recently my husband and I went to Hawaii for vacation and to visit our son. The condo we rented was right on the ocean with a lanai that faced the Western horizon. I spent a lot of time there watching the ocean, the whales, the sunset, and the stars. The beauty and magnificence of the view made me praise God, and that vacation was a time of spiritual renewal for me. I am so grateful that God keeps knocking. What renews your faith and keeps it from becoming (and staying) lukewarm?
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
913.897.0120
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