The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Sunday, 12 June 2016 – "Prayer Tip: Unsettled: Just Ask!"
Daily Scripture: Romans 8:31 What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? 33 So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! 34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf! 35 Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War?
37 No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us.
Prayer Tip:It is a joy for me to be writing the prayer tip this week, after a few weeks away. The last few weeks have been very full. Some of you know that my mother-in-law, mentor in ministry, and Rezlife youth minister Julie Peters has been battling ovarian cancer for over a year. A few weeks ago, my husband and I received a call that it was time to travel to M. D. Anderson. The doctors believed it was time to say our goodbyes. With heavy hearts we made the journey to Houston. But now, three weeks later, Julie is still with us, even able to travel back to KC, where she can be near family, Rezlife youth and her pups. Each extra moment we have to be present together is a blessing. I tell you all this for two reasons. First, we covet your prayers for not only our journey, but the journey of all those dealing with cancer. Secondly, this experience is the background for my prayer tip this week.
This week we will continue to explore the importance of asking questions in our faith journeys. I believe that God loves it when we are authentic and vulnerable enough to ask questions about life and faith. Far too often I have let the questions, especially the unanswered or unanswerable ones, bog me down.
When we first learned about Julie's diagnosis, right before her 53rd birthday, she was in the middle of her awesome youth ministry career. She had big dreams for what God was calling to her next with young adult and teenage kids and little grandkids. My mind was full of some very specific questions for God:
Why, God, Why? How much time do we have left? How is this fair? What can the doctors do for her? Why does cancer exist? Does God even hear our prayers? How can we go on without her? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Will the pain ever pass?
These were questions I needed to wrestle with God about. They were raw and honest. As I reflect on the questions I find myself asking now, though, I notice that my perspective has changed. I've zoomed out. Today, as a family, our questions sound a bit simpler:
Where did God pop up in our lives today? How can we make the most of this day we have together? What does God want to teach us through Julie's faith? How is God offering us light even in the darkness? How is God calling us to serve one another? Today, how are we supposed to share the hope we have in Christ and with whom?
In some ways these questions seem simpler than the harder questions we asked at first. But I find that when I forget to ask the simple questions, I forget the foundation our faith. We have a God who loves us deeply and whose love always overcomes. We may not have an answer to every question, but often the simple answers are what are our hearts really need to remember. As Julie so beautifully reminded me and so many others in the Caring Bridge post written right after she got difficult news from the hospital: "I do just want you to hear from me... that my eyes are still fixed on my precious Jesus."
So this week, my prayer challenge to you is to zoom out, take a break from the difficult, nitty-gritty questions and try to focus your heart on the questions whose answers are a reminder that God is with us and for us...always and in everything.[Katherine Ebling-Frazier, Pastor of Prayer]
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Sunday, June 12, 2016
"Unsettled: Just Ask!"
Scripture: Romans 8:31 What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? 33 So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! 34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf! 35 Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War?
37 No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us.
“Where is the newborn king?”
Monday, 13 June 2016
Matthew 2:1 After Yeshua was born in Beit-Lechem in the land of Y’hudah during the time when Herod was king, Magi from the east came to Yerushalayim 2 and asked, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard of this he became very agitated, and so did everyone else in Yerushalayim. 4 He called together all the head cohanim and Torah-teachers of the people and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?” 5 “In Beit-Lechem of Y’hudah,” they replied, “because the prophet wrote,
6 ‘And you, Beit-Lechem in the land of Y’hudah,
are by no means the least among the rulers of Y’hudah;
for from you will come a Ruler
who will shepherd my people Isra’el.’”[Matthew 2:6 Micah 5:1(2)]
This “Christmas story” can teach us helpful lessons any time of year. One lesson is that the foreign (probably Persian) wise men didn’t swagger into Jerusalem announcing that they had come to share their superior wisdom. They asked a question, and they made the reason for their question clear. They didn’t say, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We have come to make a treaty with him,” or “We have some demands for him.” They said,
“We have come to honor him.”
• In a heart-breaking irony, the Hebrew experts knew the answer to the magi’s question. Yet they showed no interest in the life-changing question itself. Why do you think none of them seem to have said, “King of the Jews? Wow—could we go with you to honor him?” What opportunities might you miss by being too sure of the answers, and not sufficiently interested in the implications of the question?
• When the wise men arrived, King Herod reacted with deadly hatred (which he cleverly hid), and Israel’s religious leaders showed a total lack of interest. When the same sun shines on ice and clay, one melts while the other hardens into a brick. When the light of Jesus shines in your life, how do you tend to react—“no way,” “so what?” or “I want to honor him”?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you came into our world as an infant, and you still refuse to force yourself into any heart. Teach me how to keep my heart open and always welcoming to your presence in my life. Amen.
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Matthew 20:29 As they were leaving Yericho, a large crowd followed Yeshua. 30 Two blind men sitting by the side of the road heard that he was passing by and shouted, “Son of David! Have pity on us!” 31 The crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord! Son of David! Have pity on us!” 32 Yeshua stopped, called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, open our eyes.” 34 Filled with tenderness, Yeshua touched their eyes; and instantly they received their sight and followed him.
Coming out of the city of Jericho, Jesus heard two blind men calling, “Show us mercy, Lord, Son of David.” Yet he responded by asking them what they wanted him to do for them. You might think their blindness made that obvious, but Jesus did not treat them that way. It appears that he knew that answering his question would clarify, for the men and for everyone else, the most deeply-held yearning of their hearts.
• If you imagine Jesus asking you, “What do you want me to do for you?” it’s likely that one or more answers comes to your mind right away. Take some time to let the question “soak.”
Does your immediate answer express your heart’s deepest yearning, or is there something more enduring or of greater eternal impact that you would ask for?
• Through the prophet Nathan, God promised David and his descendants, “I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me” (2 Samuel 7:14). But neither David nor any of his human descendants could fully live out those promises. So Israel came to call the Messiah the true “son of David,” who would fulfill all God’s promises. In Jesus, God redeemed our human history and pointed it toward its eternal destiny. What does it mean, each day, for you to ask the “Son of David” to be the king of your life?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Guide my life in your paths today and
every day. Amen.
“Do you want to get well?”
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
John 5:2 In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. 4 [John 5:4 Some manuscripts have verses 3b–4: . . . , waiting for the water to move; 4 for at certain times an angel of Adonai went down into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever stepped into the water first after it was disturbed was healed of whatever disease he had.] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Yeshua, seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.” 8 Yeshua said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.
Now that day was Shabbat,
It seems clear that, either through divine power or just keen human perception, Jesus sensed something about the man who had been by the pool people believed had healing powers for so many years. “Do you want to get well?” was not a casual pleasantry. It was a deeply searching question. The man replied with excuses, probably very familiar ones. The words didn’t fool Jesus, who said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” The man dropped the excuses, tried to stand, and in doing so showed that he really did want to get well.
• There’s a pattern in many Scriptural stories of God’s acts. In Joshua 3, as Israel prepared to cross the Jordan River, Joshua said that as the priests stepped into the river, God’s power would stop the waters. Here Jesus didn’t heal the man and then tell him to stand up; he healed him when the man tried to stand. Is God nudging you in some direction, while you hesitate wishing God would change circumstances to make it safer or easier to move?
Is it possible you need to start moving to show your willingness to move?
• In standing when Jesus told him to, this man left behind a familiar, though terribly limiting, way of life, a routine he’d followed for 38 years. Have you ever answered Jesus’ question in ways that moved you away from a settled routine that was limiting you? If so, what new opportunities, and new challenges, did you find? Are any of your routines limiting your life right now?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I try to imagine the man’s excitement and nervousness as he walked
away from that pool after 38 years. Help me overcome my nervousness, and open myself to
the excitement of new life as you bring it into my experience. Amen.
“Is there no one to condemn you?”
Thursday, 16 June 2016
John 8:2 At daybreak, he appeared again in the Temple Court, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and made her stand in the center of the group. 4 Then they said to him, “Rabbi, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in our Torah, Moshe commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. What do you say about it?” 6 They said this to trap him, so that they might have ground for bringing charges against him; but Yeshua bent down and began writing in the dust with his finger. 7 When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down and wrote in the dust again. 9 On hearing this, they began to leave, one by one, the older ones first, until he was left alone, with the woman still there. 10 Standing up, Yeshua said to her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Jesus moved an unnamed woman from disgrace and despair to redemption and the hope of a
new life. Jesus’ enemies cited Scripture almost accurately—Leviticus 20:10 did name death as the penalty for adultery, but for both the woman and the man. This was life-and-death—the accusers were clamoring to stone the woman to death, right there and then. John didn’t say what Jesus wrote on the ground, but it shamed the condemning Pharisees. His poignant question after they left showed the woman that HE had no wish to condemn her.
• A question doesn’t always sound like a question at first glance. In what ways was Jesus’ penetrating statement in verse 7 really a question (“Are you morally worthy to throw those stones?”) that challenged the woman’s accusers’ judgmental spirit? How did his statement speak to the widespread inner human inclination to criticize and condemn others?
• In what ways do guilt and shame haunt your life? Imagine yourself huddled on the ground,
mentally and spiritually in the place where the woman in this story was. Who are the
accusers standing around you (maybe including yourself)? Now hear Jesus asking you, “Is
there no one to condemn you?” How can his question, and the divine grace behind it, move your life in the direction of greater freedom, peace and joy?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, condemnation, from inside myself or outside, makes life a misery. Thank
you for bringing the model of God’s compassion and forgiveness into our world, to free me (and all of us) from the terrible burden of condemnation. Amen.
“What should we do?”
Friday, 17 June 2016
Acts 2:22 “Men of Isra’el! Listen to this! Yeshua from Natzeret was a man demonstrated to you to have been from God by the powerful works, miracles and signs that God performed through him in your presence. You yourselves know this. 23 This man was arrested in accordance with God’s predetermined plan and foreknowledge; and, through the agency of persons not bound by the Torah, you nailed him up on a stake and killed him!
24 “But God has raised him up and freed him from the suffering of death; it was impossible that death could keep its hold on him. 25 For David says this about him:
‘I saw Adonai always before me,
for he is at my right hand,
so that I will not be shaken.
26 For this reason, my heart was glad;
and my tongue rejoiced;
and now my body too will live on in the certain hope
27 that you will not abandon me to Sh’ol
or let your Holy One see decay.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will fill me with joy by your presence.’[Acts 2:28 Psalm 16:8–11]
29 “Brothers, I know I can say to you frankly that the patriarch David died and was buried — his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that one of his descendants would sit on his throne, 31 he was speaking in advance about the resurrection of the Messiah, that it was he who was not abandoned in Sh’ol and whose flesh did not see decay. 32 God raised up this Yeshua! And we are all witnesses of it!
33 “Moreover, he has been exalted to the right hand of God; has received from the Father what he promised, namely, the Ruach HaKodesh; and has poured out this gift, which you are both seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into heaven. But he says,
35 ‘Adonai said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’[Acts 2:35 Psalm 110:1]
36 Therefore, let the whole house of Isra’el know beyond doubt that God has made him both Lord and Messiah — this Yeshua, whom you executed on a stake!”
37 On hearing this, they were stung in their hearts; and they said to Kefa and the other emissaries, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Kefa answered them, “Turn from sin, return to God, and each of you be immersed on the authority of Yeshua the Messiah into forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh!
On the day of Pentecost, Peter boldly laid out the case for faith in the risen Jesus. In John 15:26, Jesus had said the Holy Spirit “will testify about me,” and that was just what the Spirit did that day. Deeply troubled and convicted, the crowd asked the key question we must all ask when we encounter the claims of Jesus: “What should we do?”
• Peter’s Spirit-inspired sermon said, “Listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man whose credentials God proved to you through miracles, wonders, and signs.” How have you sensed the Spirit testifying about Jesus to your heart? When you have a chance to share your experience with Jesus, how can you rely on the Spirit to make your sharing as effective as possible?
• The crowd asked Peter, “What should we do?” “Change your hearts and lives,” he answered. Scholar William Barclay wrote, “When repentance comes something happens to the past. There is God’s forgiveness for what lies behind.... When repentance comes
something happens for the future. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and in that power
we can win battles we never thought to win and resist things which by ourselves we would
have been powerless to resist.”1 Have you claimed the Spirit’s power to give you not only a fresh start from your past, but a future altered decisively for the better?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, when your Spirit speaks to my heart, keep me attuned to ask, “What
should I do?” And as you show me, give me a willingness to follow wherever you lead. Amen.
1 William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Acts of the Apostles (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 29.
“Ask and you will receive”
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Luke 11:1 One time Yeshua was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, teach us to pray, just as Yochanan taught his talmidim.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father,
May your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come.
3 Give us each day the food we need.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who has wronged us.
And do not lead us to hard testing.’”
5 He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend; and you go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine who has been travelling has just arrived at my house, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 Now the one inside may answer, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already shut, my children are with me in bed — I can’t get up to give you anything!’ 8 But I tell you, even if he won’t get up because the man is his friend, yet because of the man’s hutzpah he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “Moreover, I myself say to you: keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened.
11 “Is there any father here who, if his son asked him for a fish, would instead of a fish give him a snake? 12 or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will the Father keep giving the Ruach HaKodesh from heaven to those who keep asking him!”
Clearly the disciples believed that something they admired in Jesus came from his praying.
They wanted to learn from him—they wanted to be more like him. In verses 9 and 10, Jesus
did not mean that if we ask God for a solid gold Porsche full of thousand dollar bills, God promises us that we’ll have it. But he did mean that God will give “good gifts” (by God’s definition, not ours!) when we ask. And verse 13 offered one specific promise: God will always give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.
• The Lord’s Prayer covered a wide range of concerns, from “Bring in your kingdom” to “Give us the bread we need for today.” It was a model prayer God’s people could weave into their lives. Jesus often used the “How much more…” rhetorical device found in verse 13 to
distinguish God’s infinite love and generosity from our human frailty. How secure are you in talking to God about all of your concerns in prayer? What subjects or wishes do you tend to avoid praying about, either because you think God isn’t interested or because you’re afraid God might give you something other than what you ask?
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for inviting me into the ongoing conversation with you that we call “prayer.” Help me to never be too busy, or too shy, to ask you both the big and little questions that are on my mind. Amen.
Family Activity: Do you ever think you should know more than you do about God, the world
and others? Sometimes we feel silly about asking questions, because we think we should
already know the answers. But Jesus used questions to help others learn, and we can do the same! Give each family member two slips of paper, then invite them to write down a question on each slip of paper. Let everyone know that the questions can be simple or complex, creative or concrete and based either on fact or opinion. Place the slips of paper in a bowl.
Over the next week, take turns reading the questions aloud and spend some time responding to them. Encourage conversation around more open-ended questions. Research the ones that might have a firm answer. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance as you seek answers to your questions.
Prayer Requests – submit requests at cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Todd Sloan and family on the death of his mother Macon Sloan, 6/7
• Bill Smith and family on the death of his wife Eve Smith, 6/6
• Leon White and family on the death of his wife Ocella White, 6/5
• Jake Blythe and family on the death of his mother Sue Blythe, 5/30
• Joyce Gregory and family on the death of her mother Charlotte Diebert, 2/14
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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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