Upper Room Daily Reflections - daily
words of wisdom and faith “Hope” Saturday, 30 November 2013
Today’s Reflection:
HOPE OPENS SOMETHING in the human heart.
Like shutters slowly parting to admit a winter dawn, hope permits strands of
light to make their way to us, even when we still stand in cold darkness; but
hope also reveals a landscape beyond us into which we can live and move and
have our being. With hope, closely held interior thoughts are gently turned
outward; deep desires, perhaps long hidden in secret corners of our heart,
might be lifted up to the light. At times, hope peels back the edges of our
imagination to free what waits underneath — a changed life, a new resolve, a
yes pregnant with possibility. In other moments hope dares us to unfold a layer
of desire — for relationship, for clarity, for courage.(Pamela C. Hawkins-Simply
Wait: Cultivating Stillness in the Season of Advent)
From pages 43-44 of Simply Wait:
Cultivating Stillness in the Season of Advent by Pamela C. Hawkins. Copyright ©
2007 by the author. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room
Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
For what do you hope in this season of
Advent?
Today’s Scripture:
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know
on what day your Lord is coming.(Matthew 24:42, NRSV)
This Week: pray for someone experiencing
time of lonely exile.
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Saints, Inc.:
This week we remember: Narcissa Whitman (November 29)
Narcissa Prentiss was born in 1808 in New
York. When she was eleven Narcissa had a conversion and joined the
Congregational Church. At sixteen, inspired by a female missionary to India,
Narcissa decided she wanted to be a missionary. She was trained and worked as a
teacher before offering herself as a missionary in 1834. Another would-be missionary,
Dr. Marcus Whitman, proposed marriage so they could work as a team.
The day after their wedding in 1836,
Narcissa and Marcus began the arduous journey west to present-day Washington.
They built the Waiilatpu Mission where Narcissa taught Native American children
and Marcus served as doctor and taught farming. After their daughter drowned,
the Whitmans opened their home to a family of seven Oregon Trail orphans and
other children.
Narcissa's inspiring letters from her
journey and the mission were widely published and inspired countless others As
a strong, articulate Christian and one of the first two white woman to cross
the continental United States, she influenced a generation of Oregon Trail
immigrants.
After eleven years serving the native
peoples of the Walla Walla area, Narcissa, Marcus, and twelve others were
massacred on November 29, 1847.
If Narcissa Whitman had taken the
Spiritual Types Test she probably would have been a Sage. Narcissa Whitman is
remembered on November 29.
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Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Isaiah 2: Climb God’s Mountain 1-5 The
Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
There’s a day coming
when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
let’s climb God’s Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between
nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of God.(The Message)
Psalm 122: A Pilgrim Song of David 1-2
When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,”
my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
inside Jerusalem’s walls!
3-5 Jerusalem, well-built city,
built as a place for worship!
The city to which the tribes ascend,
all God’s tribes go up to worship,
To give thanks to the name of God—
this is what it means to be Israel.
Thrones for righteous judgment
are set there, famous David-thrones.
6-9 Pray for Jerusalem’s peace!
Prosperity to all you Jerusalem-lovers!
Friendly insiders, get along!
Hostile outsiders, keep your distance!
For the sake of my family and friends,
I say it again: live in peace!
For the sake of the house of our God,
God,
I’ll do my very best for you.(The Message)
Romans 13: 11-14 But make sure that you
don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day
obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The
night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is
doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when
we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these
precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and
dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and
get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress
yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!(The Message)
Matthew 24: 36 “But the exact day and
hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the
Father knows.
37-39 “The Arrival of the Son of Man will
take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying
on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They
knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away.
39-44 “The Son of Man’s Arrival will be
like that: Two men will be working in the field—one will be taken, one left
behind; two women will be grinding at the mill—one will be taken, one left
behind. So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show
up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of
night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to
prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son
of Man is going to show up.(The Message)
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Upper Room Ministries
a
ministry of GBODPO Box 340004
Nashville, TN 37203-0004 USA
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