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Thursday, 18 January 2018
Ephesians 2:1 You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience. 2 You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. 3 Indeed, we all once lived this way — we followed the passions of our old nature and obeyed the wishes of our old nature and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love 5 that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, he brought us to life along with the Messiah — it is by grace that you have been delivered. 6 That is, God raised us up with the Messiah Yeshua and seated us with him in heaven, 7 in order to exhibit in the ages to come how infinitely rich is his grace, how great is his kindness toward us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. 8 For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. 9 You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. 10 For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.
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“Hinduism holds…. that our struggle is not with sin, but with ignorance. If we do bad things, even though we have God within us, it is because we do not understand…. We need to gain knowledge.” * But the apostle Paul believed it was important for Christians in Ephesus to understand that the significant changes in their lives (cf. Acts 19:18-20) were not something they had accomplished on their own initiative or strength. They were God’s accomplishment (Greek poema), living out the kind of life God desired them to live.
• Today’s reading said salvation “is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of.” In what ways does Ephesians’ language fit your life experience? Do you ever pause to realize that the good changes in your life are not solely your “accomplishment,” but (even if you invest hard work in changing habits or patterns) originated in God’s power at work in your life?
• To what extent have God’s priorities become, not just an occasional exercise that you do when there’s a special church activity, but woven into the way that you live your life? How open are you to letting God continue to shape the way you live even the “secular” parts of your life—driving, shopping, business activities, playing and watching sports, and the like?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to be your accomplishment, to be an example of what your spiritual craftsmanship can do in a human being. Please keep shaping and guiding me in all I do today. Amen.
* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 39-40.
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Donna Karlen
Donna Karlen serves in Communications at Church of the Resurrection by creating and managing social media content.
"Lord Jesus, I want to be your accomplishment, to be an example of what your spiritual craftsmanship can do in a human being."
These lines are part of today's GPS prayer. This is a prayer I can get down with! I really want to be an accomplishment... Jesus' spiritual craftsmanship? That sounds awesome! Yes, Jesus - please let me be that.
You know what prayer I struggle with? John Wesley's Covenant Prayer.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
First line? Good on that. Asking God to put me with what he wills, the ranking thing? All good. But then come those next several lines. And I will shout to heaven the first parts of those: Put me to doing... Let me be employed for you, exalted for you... Let me be full... Let me have all things... Yes, Lord, all that, PLEASE!
But when it comes to the second parts, my voice gets quiet (if I give voice to them at all!) My mind just kind of closes off from them: Put me to suffering? laid aside? brought low? be empty? have nothing?... OK - who wants any of that? Really, John? You had to go there?! What a lovely prayer this would've been if you'd just stuck with the good stuff.
This Insight isn't going to be about how I overcame that struggle. Nope! Recently we said Wesley's prayer in our Thursday Staff Chapel - same reaction:
LET ME BE FULL!!! (72 point font for that) let me be empty. (6 point)
It's really the first few of these dichotomous ideas in the prayer that get to me the most. I want God to employ me, use me, give me the opportunity to do something amazing, exalt me. Hallelujah! Lord - please, let's do that! But the idea of being laid aside? brought low? (being insignificant.) Uh-uh.
So what this Insight is about is my struggle with wanting to do something amazing - and it's also about wanting it for God's glory, not mine. This is what makes me dissatisfied with myself - from not being the perfect mom (my kids have turned out amazing anyway, by the way) to how I do my job, even when I entertain in my home. I kind of want to be exalted, Lord. Oh, and yeah, definitely - for you. (It's probably no accident that I'm pretty uncomfortable when the attention of others is focused on me.)
The struggle is real. And it continues. Sigh. Maybe for the next Insight...
Which brings us to the last part of today's scripture:
You are save by God's grace because of your faith. This salvation is God's gift. It's not something you possessed. It's not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these things to be the way that we live our lives.
I get God's grace whether I am employed for God or laid aside, exalted or brought low. And whichever way those go in myeyes, I am God's accomplishment in his eyes. Created in Christ Jesus to do good things? It truly is the way I want to live my life.
That other thing? I'll keep working on it. But even if I never get past it, I get God's grace.
Donna KarlenDonna Karlen serves in Communications at Church of the Resurrection by creating and managing social media content.
"Lord Jesus, I want to be your accomplishment, to be an example of what your spiritual craftsmanship can do in a human being."
These lines are part of today's GPS prayer. This is a prayer I can get down with! I really want to be an accomplishment... Jesus' spiritual craftsmanship? That sounds awesome! Yes, Jesus - please let me be that.
You know what prayer I struggle with? John Wesley's Covenant Prayer.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
First line? Good on that. Asking God to put me with what he wills, the ranking thing? All good. But then come those next several lines. And I will shout to heaven the first parts of those: Put me to doing... Let me be employed for you, exalted for you... Let me be full... Let me have all things... Yes, Lord, all that, PLEASE!
But when it comes to the second parts, my voice gets quiet (if I give voice to them at all!) My mind just kind of closes off from them: Put me to suffering? laid aside? brought low? be empty? have nothing?... OK - who wants any of that? Really, John? You had to go there?! What a lovely prayer this would've been if you'd just stuck with the good stuff.
This Insight isn't going to be about how I overcame that struggle. Nope! Recently we said Wesley's prayer in our Thursday Staff Chapel - same reaction:
LET ME BE FULL!!! (72 point font for that) let me be empty. (6 point)
It's really the first few of these dichotomous ideas in the prayer that get to me the most. I want God to employ me, use me, give me the opportunity to do something amazing, exalt me. Hallelujah! Lord - please, let's do that! But the idea of being laid aside? brought low? (being insignificant.) Uh-uh.
So what this Insight is about is my struggle with wanting to do something amazing - and it's also about wanting it for God's glory, not mine. This is what makes me dissatisfied with myself - from not being the perfect mom (my kids have turned out amazing anyway, by the way) to how I do my job, even when I entertain in my home. I kind of want to be exalted, Lord. Oh, and yeah, definitely - for you. (It's probably no accident that I'm pretty uncomfortable when the attention of others is focused on me.)
The struggle is real. And it continues. Sigh. Maybe for the next Insight...
Which brings us to the last part of today's scripture:
You are save by God's grace because of your faith. This salvation is God's gift. It's not something you possessed. It's not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these things to be the way that we live our lives.
I get God's grace whether I am employed for God or laid aside, exalted or brought low. And whichever way those go in myeyes, I am God's accomplishment in his eyes. Created in Christ Jesus to do good things? It truly is the way I want to live my life.
That other thing? I'll keep working on it. But even if I never get past it, I get God's grace.
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"One life rather than many"
Friday, 19 2018
Hebrews 9:24 For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.
25 Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like the cohen hagadol who enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer death many times — from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,[Hebrews 9:28 Isaiah 53:12] will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.
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“Hindus believe in reincarnation…this essence of God that is placed within us begins its journey as a very simple life form…. through a cycle of deaths and reincarnations we progress up the evolutionary chain…finally, after many lives, we are set free from the cycle of death and reincarnation.” * Christianity does not teach reincarnation. As the letter the Hebrews said plainly, “People are destined to die once.”
• Hebrews did not use the idea of “judgment” to instill fear, as too many Christian preachers have tried to do. Rather, it placed judgment in the context of the message that Christ did not need a repeated cycle to save us. He ‘was offered once to take on himself the sins of many people” (verse 28). What has helped you to internalize the saving power of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, to deliver you from fear of judgment?
• The Hindu view of many cycles seems to reflect a rueful recognition that a human life seldom even approaches a high enough state to accrue all good karma. Christians agree with that, but see the solution differently. “The answer to our problem is not within us but beyond us. We cannot make ourselves holy and forgive our own sins…. We need a Savior.” ** Did you ever see it as up to your own goodness and effort to save yourself? If so, what (if anything) changed that for you?
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, thank you taking the burden of my sins on yourself. Thank you that I need not fear meeting you at the end of my earthly life. Amen.
* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 41. ** Ibid., p. 44.
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“Where I am you will be too”
Saturday, 20 January 2018
John 14:1 “Don’t let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many places to live. If there weren’t, I would have told you; because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 Since I am going and preparing a place for you, I will return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be also. 4 Furthermore, you know where I’m going; and you know the way there.”
5 T’oma said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going; so how can we know the way?” 6 Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.
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Unlike Hindus, Christians do not believe that when this life ends (after however many cycles), we are united with the divine Brahman like a drop of water in an ocean. Rather, “we have a chance to see God face-to-face, to be known and to know those who have gone before us.” * In John 13:36, Jesus told his disciples, “Where I am going, you can’t follow me now, but you will follow later.” Jesus’ disciples seem to have been frightened by his talk of going away. So he added, “Don’t be troubled…. My Father’s house has room to spare.” He promised that he would return, and when he did his followers could always be with him. Archeologists say most homes in Galilee were small, with one room, two at most. But Jesus’ comforting image of the afterlife was a huge, warm family home where God always has room to spare.
• Madeleine l’Engle’s A Wind in the Door imagined a setting in which her young hero Meg demanded to know “Where are the ones who saved me?” The answer was, “Where doesn’t matter.” ** When Thomas asked where Jesus was going, Jesus said that he was going “to the Father”—a person, not a place. He emphasized that God, the personal God, was/is completely trustworthy. Our key to being untroubled about what comes after this life is trust. Have you ever struggled with the question of “where” you or a loved one goes after death? What has helped you learn to trust that “safe with God,” wherever that is and however that works, is the ultimate key that Jesus taught us to have peace?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the assurance that there will always be room for me in your Father’s house. Keep my feet steady on the path that leads to that eternal home. Amen.
* Adam Hamilton, Christianity and World Religions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, pp. 46.
** L'Engle, Madeleine, A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet Book 2), (p. 185). Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). Kindle Edition.
Family Activity: The major world religions value serving others as part of their faith. As Christians, with Jesus as our example, we share God’s love by serving others. How does your family work together to serve others? How does each person serve individually? Could you discover and commit to some new ways of serving? Ask an older child or youth to research some ways to volunteer in your area. He or she could explore the church website (www.cor.org, then choose your campus) for service opportunities that fit your family. Also consider brainstorming some less-structured ways to serve others with God’s love such as helping others in your neighborhood or at school. At a family gathering, ask the “researcher” to present these opportunities to the rest of the family. Ask God’s guidance as you discuss the possibilities. Choose one or two ways your family can share God’s love by serving others.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Joe Nesselhuf and family on the death of his wife Jolene Nesselhuf, 1/9/18.
• Sue Hess and family on the death of her husband Mike Hess, 1/6/18.
• Elsie Pickett and family on the death of her husband Jim Pickett, 1/5/18.
• Sue Scott and family on the death of her husband Greg Scott, 1/5/18.
• Theresa Hayes and family on the death of her mother Alpha Koonce, 1/5/18.
• Ashly Cooley and family on the death of her grandmother Alpha Koonce, 1/5/18.
• Randall, Fred, and Dave Rock and families on the death of their sister Denise Rock, 1/4/18.
• Shelley Hatton and family on the death of her father Jerry Drews, 1/4/18.
• Ashley Zugelter and family on the death of her husband Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18.
• Clarence and Margo Zugelter and family on the death of their son Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18.
• Kerry and Paula Drake and family on the death of their son-in-law Allen Zugelter, 1/3/18.
• Ed Bokern and family on the death of his brother Bob Bokern, 1/2/18.
• Marcie Jasper-Neal and family on the death of her grandmother Marcene Jasper, 1/2/18.
• Joline Rinard and family on the death of her husband Syd Rinard, 12/31/17
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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