Prayer Tip:
This week in the GPS guide, we will be following some insights into scripture inspired by the movie The Second Best Marigold Hotel. I happen to love this movie, and one of my favorite quotes comes when an investor in the Marigold Hotel tells the character Mrs. Donnelly, “There’s nothing I respect more than someone planting trees under whose shade they may never sit."
I think our prayers should be like planting those trees. At some time or another, many of us have kept “prayer lists.” I can remember a time in my life as a Christian when I had a little bound book with lists of prayers and prayer requests, carefully divided by topic, and each had a place to record the “answer” when it came. This little scorecard completely appealed to the listing-making control freak who lives in my head. Write it down, mark it off. Written “proof” that God answered my prayers, because somewhere deep down inside I needed that proof.
But sometimes we won’t see our prayers answered. We might not be there when the answer comes, or it may come in some form we can’t even recognize. That doesn’t mean God didn’t hear our prayer, because the ultimate prayer, the prayer that is always answered, is “May Your will be done, Amen.” Prayer is like planting those trees. We may be lucky enough to sit in their shade, to celebrate the answer that is easy to see. Or we may plant that tree of prayer in faith, trusting that it will provide shade when the time is right and God’s will has come.
Lord God who holds time and the answers to prayer,
help us to offer our prayers and trust in the answers,
whenever and however they come,
so we may glorify you through our trust and faith. Amen[Jennifer Creagar, Prayer Ministry]
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Weekend Sermon Title: The Second Best Marigold Hotel
Daily Scripture: Psalm 92:(0) A psalm. A song for Shabbat:
2 (1) It is good to give thanks to Adonai
and sing praises to your name, ‘Elyon,
4 (3) to the music of a ten-stringed [harp] and a lute,
with the melody sounding on a lyre.
12 (11) My eyes have gazed with pleasure on my enemies’ ruin,
my ears have delighted in the fall of my foes.
13 (12) The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar in the L’vanon.
14 (13) Planted in the house of Adonai,
they will flourish in the courtyards of our God.
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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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Saturday, 1 August 2015 – Insights from Cathy Bien
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Saturday, 1 August 2015 – Insights from Cathy Bien
Cathy Bien is the Church of the Resurrection Director of Communications. She and her family have been Resurrection members since 1994.
(Unfortunately, Cathy Bien’s post was unavoidably delayed. Below we share an Insights blog the Chris Folmsbee, Resurrection’s Director of Discipleship wrote on 8/22/14.)
In the evenings after the dinner dishes are cleaned up, the kids’ homework is done and we are all winding down for the night, my wife and I lead our kids through some conversations about the Bible. We have been slowly working our way through the Bible’s grand narrative of the with our kids. (I am using these two resources to stay on track at the moment, and highly recommend them: God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, by Vaughn Roberts and Echo The Story by Michael Novelli.) We hope they’ll capture an imagination for the way God intends for them to live, and how they might do their part in making earth look like heaven, remembering the words “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
We’ve traced the Bible’s storyline several times, and each time we do we do so with greater detail and depth. As you might expect, as the narrative becomes clearer to all of us, the questions become deeper as well. A recent question we discussed at length was, “Dad, what does it mean to be created in the image and likeness of God?” Such a great question! Paul is explicitly talking about this in our reading today (Ephesians 4:21-24) when he states, “change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were, corrupted by deceitful desires. Instead, renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit and clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and true holiness.”
Paul’s encouragement is simple. Stop carrying an attitude of anger, rage and malice that causes you to use improper, hurtful words and even to lie. By stopping these harmful practices, we are living into the way in which we’ve been created to live–as living proof of a living God. To conform to the image of God is to become the living representation of God that God intended when God created humans. In part, this means that we live into the holiness of God. This reality challenges us to speak as God would speak–truthfully, generously and necessarily. Three questions to ask before speaking: Is it true? Is it generous? Is it necessary?
Obviously to speak truthfully, generously and necessarily requires not only thinking before we speak, but also an intense desire to be fully converted before we think. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how intense is your desire to be transformed into the image of God?
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(Unfortunately, Cathy Bien’s post was unavoidably delayed. Below we share an Insights blog the Chris Folmsbee, Resurrection’s Director of Discipleship wrote on 8/22/14.)
In the evenings after the dinner dishes are cleaned up, the kids’ homework is done and we are all winding down for the night, my wife and I lead our kids through some conversations about the Bible. We have been slowly working our way through the Bible’s grand narrative of the with our kids. (I am using these two resources to stay on track at the moment, and highly recommend them: God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, by Vaughn Roberts and Echo The Story by Michael Novelli.) We hope they’ll capture an imagination for the way God intends for them to live, and how they might do their part in making earth look like heaven, remembering the words “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
We’ve traced the Bible’s storyline several times, and each time we do we do so with greater detail and depth. As you might expect, as the narrative becomes clearer to all of us, the questions become deeper as well. A recent question we discussed at length was, “Dad, what does it mean to be created in the image and likeness of God?” Such a great question! Paul is explicitly talking about this in our reading today (Ephesians 4:21-24) when he states, “change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were, corrupted by deceitful desires. Instead, renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit and clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and true holiness.”
Paul’s encouragement is simple. Stop carrying an attitude of anger, rage and malice that causes you to use improper, hurtful words and even to lie. By stopping these harmful practices, we are living into the way in which we’ve been created to live–as living proof of a living God. To conform to the image of God is to become the living representation of God that God intended when God created humans. In part, this means that we live into the holiness of God. This reality challenges us to speak as God would speak–truthfully, generously and necessarily. Three questions to ask before speaking: Is it true? Is it generous? Is it necessary?
Obviously to speak truthfully, generously and necessarily requires not only thinking before we speak, but also an intense desire to be fully converted before we think. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how intense is your desire to be transformed into the image of God?
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