Upper Room Daily Reflections ~ “True Wealth” ~ Monday, 4 November 2013

Upper Room Daily Reflections ~ “True Wealth” ~ Monday, 4 November 2013

Today’s Reflections:

AT SOME POINT, we all dream of being wealthy. It is an enticing dream, for it carries the illusion that one will never have to worry about finances or financial planning again. The truly wealthy tell us that this is not the case. Being wealthy is a full-time occupation. It carries tremendous risk, and those who have more money than we can dream of often worry more about their financial situation than those who live within their average means.

[John] Wesley shared this wise principle for dealing with money: Stop chasing after money. Truth be told, you will never have quite enough or feel satisfied with the extent of your assets. … If you were to plan to live within your means, whatever they may be, where would you consider your true wealth to be? Perhaps it is time to start placing your focus elsewhere. You may find that family or interests – even God – may not require you to spend more money than you have, but do require you to be present, pay attention, and invest time in them.~-Wessel Bentley ~ Facing Financial Struggle

From pages 50-51 of Facing Financial Struggle: 28 Days of Prayer by Wessel Bentley. Copyright © 2010 by Wessel Bentley. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question:

What do you consider your true wealth?

Today’s Scripture:

Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?~~Haggai 2:3, NRSV

This Week: pray for police officers.

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Did You Know?

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Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember:

Antoinette Brown Blackwell

November 05

Antoinette Brown was born in New York in 1825 and grew up active in the Congregational Church. As an eight year old she decided to become a minister after hearing a visiting preacher. Church leaders made it clear that this career was not open to women. Brown graduated from Oberlin College in 1847 and studied at the Oberlin Seminary, but was refused a degree or ordination because of her gender. She served as an itinerant pastor before she was appointed pastor of a Congregational church, the first woman to serve as an appointed church pastor in the United States. A Methodist minister ordained her. After ten months serving the church Brown resigned, citing poor health.

Antoinette continued to lecture and write extensively, working for women's rights, abolition of slavery, and temperance. She married Samuel Blackwell in 1856; they had seven children. Antoinette continued to write and attended the 1860 National Women's Rights Convention. She became a Unitarian in 1878; her ordination was recognized, and she was later elected minister emeritus.

In 1920, ninety-five year old Brown Blackwell, the last surviving delegate of the first national women's rights convention, voted in the presidential election open to women. She died November 5, 1921.

If Antoinette Brown Blackwell had taken the Spiritual Types Test, she probably would have been a Sage. Antoinette Brown Blackwell is remembered on November 5.

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Lectionary Readings:

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Haggai 1:15 in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.~2:1 In the seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month, the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing? 4 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says the LORD of Hosts. 5 This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived among you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ 6 For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations. The precious things of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the LORD of Hosts. 9 ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of Hosts; ‘and in this place will I give peace,’ says the LORD of Hosts.”(Messianic WEB)

Psalm 145:A praise psalm by David.*

1 I will exalt you, my God, the King.

I will praise your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will praise you.

I will extol your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised!

His greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation will commend your works to another,

and will declare your mighty acts.

5 Of the glorious majesty of your honor,

of your wondrous works, I will meditate.

17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways,

and gracious in all his works.

18 The LORD is near to all those who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him.

He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

20 The LORD preserves all those who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD.

Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.(Messianic WEB)

2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and our gathering together to him, we ask you 2 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, saying that the day of Messiah had come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God. 5 Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?13 But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth; 14 to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.

16 Now our Lord Yeshua the Messiah himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.(Messianic WEB)

Luke 20:27 Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 28 They asked him, “Rabbi, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 29 There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 30 The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”

34 Yeshua said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. 35  But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. 36  For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37  But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ✡ 38  Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”(Messianic WEB)

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