The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Sunday, 31 July 2016 – "Prayer Tip: The Power of Invitation and Interruption"
Daily Scripture
Luke 8:43 a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind him and touched the tzitzit on his robe; instantly her hemorrhaging stopped. 45 Yeshua asked, “Who touched me?” When they all denied doing it, Kefa said, “Rabbi! The crowds are hemming you in and jostling you!” 46 But Yeshua said, “Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out of me.” 47 Seeing she could not escape notice, the woman, quaking with fear, threw herself down before him and confessed in front of everyone why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 He said to her, “My daughter, your trust has saved you; go in peace.”
"Prayer Tip"
There is a fine balance between remembering that we are not each the center of the universe and keeping in mind that people do sometimes watch us when we’re not expecting it.
There is a country song called “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins in which the singer realizes his son is learning how to navigate life, in both positive and negative ways, by watching what he does. Regardless of whether we have kids or not, we need to remember that there is the potential, every minute we’re around others, for someone, young or old, to learn how Christians should act by watching us. When we do love people well, we glorify God. When we fail to respect others and treat them unfairly, we fail to show God’s love. In the song “Watching You,” after he sees how he’s unintentionally taught his son a bad habit, Atkins sings a prayer that includes, “Lord, help me help my stupid self.” Being more kind to ourselves than that, let our prayer today be one asking God to help us be mindful of how we are representing Christians and, ultimately, how we are representing God.
Holy God, we thank you for the perfect example of how to live our lives through your son Jesus Christ. We know we are going to mess up from time to time, but we ask your guidance so that we represent you well more often than not. Help us to be conscious of our actions so that those who are watching us – our family, friends, and strangers alike – can’t help but see you and know your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.[Angela LaVallie Tinsley, Funeral and Prayer Ministry]
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There is a fine balance between remembering that we are not each the center of the universe and keeping in mind that people do sometimes watch us when we’re not expecting it.
There is a country song called “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins in which the singer realizes his son is learning how to navigate life, in both positive and negative ways, by watching what he does. Regardless of whether we have kids or not, we need to remember that there is the potential, every minute we’re around others, for someone, young or old, to learn how Christians should act by watching us. When we do love people well, we glorify God. When we fail to respect others and treat them unfairly, we fail to show God’s love. In the song “Watching You,” after he sees how he’s unintentionally taught his son a bad habit, Atkins sings a prayer that includes, “Lord, help me help my stupid self.” Being more kind to ourselves than that, let our prayer today be one asking God to help us be mindful of how we are representing Christians and, ultimately, how we are representing God.
Holy God, we thank you for the perfect example of how to live our lives through your son Jesus Christ. We know we are going to mess up from time to time, but we ask your guidance so that we represent you well more often than not. Help us to be conscious of our actions so that those who are watching us – our family, friends, and strangers alike – can’t help but see you and know your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.[Angela LaVallie Tinsley, Funeral and Prayer Ministry]
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Sunday, July 31, 2016–The Art of Neighboring:
“The Power of Invitation and Interruption”
Scripture: Luke 8:43 a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind him and touched the tzitzit on his robe; instantly her hemorrhaging stopped. 45 Yeshua asked, “Who touched me?” When they all denied doing it, Kefa said, “Rabbi! The crowds are hemming you in and jostling you!” 46 But Yeshua said, “Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out of me.” 47 Seeing she could not escape notice, the woman, quaking with fear, threw herself down before him and confessed in front of everyone why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 He said to her, “My daughter, your trust has saved you; go in peace.”
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Salt of the earth, light of the world
Monday, 1 August 2016
Matthew 5:13 “You are salt for the Land. But if salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except being thrown out for people to trample on.
14 “You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don’t cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.
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Scholar William Barclay noted that the Greek verb translated “taught” in Matthew 5:2 meant
“repeated and habitual action, and the translation should be: ‘This is what he used to teach them.’” Most likely, Jesus frequently taught his followers to be the world’s “salt” and “light.”1
These two images show us key qualities we need to be truly good neighbors. Salt enhances food’s flavor, and can also help preserve it. Light destroys the darkness, revealing all the beauty of God’s world and helping those who may have been lost to find their way.
• Jesus told his followers, “You are the salt of the earth…the light of the world.” Rule-based morality too often brings gloom, criticism and fear. But as one preacher put it, Jesus did not say, “You are the vinegar of the world”! Have you known people whose warm-hearted goodness adds flavor and light to life? How can your allegiance to Christ make you “salt and light,” making your life and that of your neighbors brighter and better?
• Have you ever flown over a city at night? Or come out of a long, dark tunnel into the bright light of the sun? Even when astronomers dislike “light pollution,” it is because they want to be able to see the light of distant stars. What are the dark corners of your neighborhood, your city, and your world, which need to experience the light of God? What can you do to help shine God’s light into these dark corners?
Prayer: God, as I go about my life today, keep me ever mindful of the people who need to find your light in their world. Fill my heart with love for you so overflowing that I cannot keep it hidden. Amen.
1 William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 87.
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An invitation from a captured slave girl
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
2 Kings 5:1 Na‘aman, commander of the king of Aram’s army, was highly respected and esteemed by his master; because through him Adonai had brought victory to Aram. But although he was a brave warrior, he also suffered from tzara‘at. 2 Now on one of their raids into Isra’el’s territory, Aram carried away captive a little girl, who became a servant for Na‘aman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “I wish my lord could go to the prophet in Shomron! He could heal his tzara‘at.” 4 Na‘aman went in and told his lord, “The girl from the land of Isra’el said such-and-such.” 5 The king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Isra’el.”
He set out, taking with him 660 pounds of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold and ten changes of clothes. 6 He brought the king of Isra’el the letter, which said, “When this letter reaches you, you will see that I have sent my servant Na‘aman to you, so that you can heal his tzara‘at.” 7 When the king of Isra’el finished reading the letter, he tore his clothes. “Am I God, able to kill and make alive,” he asked, “so that he sends me a man to heal of tzara‘at? You can see that he is only seeking an excuse to quarrel with me.” 8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Isra’el had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king: “Why did you tear your clothes? Just have him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Isra’el.”
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A Syrian general named Naaman had a feared, seemingly hopeless skin disease. One sign of
how seriously he took the disease was that the haughty general was willing to accept a
suggestion from a captured Israelite slave girl. A nearly comic string of faulty notions followed.
Naaman went to Israel’s king, not the prophet (verses 5-6). That king seemed unaware of the
prophet’s presence in his land, and thought the Syrians were looking for a pretext for war.
• One of the Bible’s unsung heroes is the unnamed Israelite girl in this story. She had been dragged from her home by raiding soldiers, and taken to a foreign land, but she still wished good for Naaman and pointed him to the source of help. When has someone wished good for you and pointed you to a source of help? When have you been able to do that for someone else?
• If you were in the shoes of Naaman, the powerful Syrian general, how likely would you be to listen to an idea from a foreign slave girl? Are there people in your life, perhaps even neighbors, whose ideas you discount without even seriously considering them? Might God ever try to reach you through one of those unlikely people?
Prayer: Loving God, I want to become more and more like the amazing girl in this story. Help me to desire your good for all the people I deal with, and to know how to point them to you. Amen.
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A common-sense invitation overcame an ego tantrum
Wednesday, 3 August 2016
2 Kings 5:9 So Na‘aman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, who said, “Go, and bathe in the Yarden seven times. Your skin will become as it was, and you will be clean.” 11 But Na‘aman became angry and left, saying, “Here now! I thought for certain that he would come out personally, that he would stand, call on the name of Adonai his God and wave his hand over the diseased place and thus heal the person with tzara‘at. 12 Aren’t Amanah and Parpar, the rivers of Dammesek, better than all the water in Isra’el? Why can’t I bathe in them and be clean?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 But his servants approached him and said, “My father! If the prophet had asked you to do something really difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So, doesn’t it make even more sense to do what he says, when it’s only, ‘Bathe, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Yarden, as the man of God had said to do; and his skin was restored and became like the skin of a child; and he became clean.
15 Then, with his whole retinue, he returned to the man of God, went and stood before him, and said, “Well, I’ve learned that there is no God in all the earth except in Isra’el; therefore, please accept a present from your servant.”
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When things got sorted out, and Naaman finally came to the prophet Elisha, he expected a fairly elaborate, formal religious ceremony (verse 11). Offered a different, simpler approach, he prepared to go home in a huff. Rather bravely, his servants finally convinced him that there couldn’t be any harm in trying the simple way by bathing in the Jordan. God healed him in that unexpected way.
• Have you ever tried to tell God just how to help you? Read again the Syrian general’s
words as he prepared to storm back home, still sick: “I thought for sure that he’d come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the bad spot, and cure the skin disease” (verse 11). Are there any parts of your life where you are resisting “bathing in the Jordan” because you’d like God to work in a different way?
• Review the many points in this story in 2 Kings 5 at which fear of, or arrogance toward
someone from a different country or faith could have derailed God’s healing purpose. Do
any of your neighbors (or co-workers) trigger some of those feelings in you because they
are different? Ask God to help you find common ground, and watch for ways to bless that person or persons.
Prayer: Lord God, open my eyes, my ears and my heart to all of the ways you are at work in my life. Keep me from letting my expectations blind me to your chosen ways to help and heal me. Amen.
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Jesus invited Matthew, then Matthew invited…
Thursday, 4 August 2016
Matthew 9:9 As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, “Follow me!” and he got up and followed him.
10 While Yeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal. 11 When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” 12 But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 13 As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’[Matthew 9:13 Hosea 6:6] For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”
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Tax collectors like Matthew worked with Israel’s Roman occupiers, collecting taxes (usually excessive) from their fellow citizens. Jesus clearly, even shockingly, welcomed and loved people like that, individuals the “righteous” people of his day called “sinners.” (For another example of his behavior, cf. Luke 7:36-50.) Jesus refused to neatly separate the human family into “good” and “bad” members—he aimed to extend love to all.
• Matthew was an outcast from respectable society. So imagine the type of friends he had, who came to his house to eat with Jesus! (The Message paraphrased “tax collectors and
sinners” with vivid precision as “crooks and riffraff.”) Is there anyone in your neighborhood who might be seen as “tax collectors and sinners” in 2016? If so, how do you believe Jesus would treat (and have you treat) such people?
• When Jesus said, “I didn’t come to call righteous people,” who were the people he had in mind? Was he saying he actually considered those people “righteous,” or was he saying
ironically that THEY thought they were “righteous”? Is anyone, including you, so righteous that you do not need Jesus’ loving, merciful acceptance?
Prayer: Loving Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me to see others, especially my
neighbors, through your eyes, which lit with love and compassion at the sight of a “sinner.” Amen.
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Human need: more important than human schedule
Friday, 5 August 2016
Mark 5:25 Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years 26 and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. 27 She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; 28 for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. 30 At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. 34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
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As Jesus moved through an unwieldy crowd to respond to one appeal for help (cf. Mark 5:22-23), he sensed that another desperate person had touched him in a way that drew on his healing power. It was a woman whose problem would be serious today, but was worse then.
Jewish law (cf. Leviticus 15:25-27) saw her as permanently “unclean,” like a leper. She was forbidden to touch anyone; hence her furtive touch of Jesus’ garment. But “Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him,” and confirmed that her faith had made her whole.
• What a burden of shame this woman must have carried, along with her physical issues. Many people saw ailments like hers as judgments from God (see John 9:2) and treated her as an unclean outcast. Was Jesus being unkind when he called the healed woman forward—or was he freeing her from shame as well as from her physical disorder? Are there things in your life, or some of your neighbors’ lives, that people try to keep hidden?
• Commentator William Barclay noted that the Jewish Talmud offered cures for this woman’s
condition like “carrying the ashes of an ostrich-egg in a linen rag in summer and a cotton rag in winter; or carrying a barley corn found in the dung of a white she-ass.”1 Have you tried to deal with your own shame, guilt or pain, or that of others you know, on your own, using various self-help “folk remedies”? How can Jesus' love reshape your efforts in more effective directions?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, it was your mission to move the world back towards its intended
wholeness. Show me how to join in that mission, in big or small ways, to bless others. Amen.
1 William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Mark (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 129.
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“We love because God first loved us”
Saturday, 6 August 2016
1 John 4:7 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. 8 Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. 9 Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. 10 Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.
11 Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us.
19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.
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As John wrote about how we human beings treat one another, he likely thought about himself
and Jesus’ other disciples. They jockeyed for position, and got angry with one another at times (cf. Mark 10:35-45). Yet as they continued to walk with Jesus, he re-shaped their thoughts and actions. John knew from his own experience that loving others with Christ’s love doesn’t spring from a naturally warm human disposition. This kind of active love comes from God, “because love is from God.”
• John’s phrase “No one has ever seen God” (verse 12) feels at first like a misplaced
thought. But he went on to say, “If we love each other, God remains in us.” Gordon Jensen
wrote a song that says, “You’re the only Jesus some will ever see,” and that was what John was driving at. As your capacity grows to take in God’s love, to see yourself as loveable in God’s sight, how is this changing the way you see and relate to others? Do you ever tend to think of God’s love for you and your neighbors as conditional, as something that comes and goes depending on how you act? How does John’s vivid phrase “God IS love” (verse 8) point your understanding in a different direction?
Prayer: Dear God, you know that it’s not quite as natural for me to love as it is for you. Please keep loving me as I stretch and grow in my ability to reflect your love to others. Amen.
Family Activity: John Wesley’s rule states, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” Read Matthew 5:14-16. As a family, talk about Wesley’s rule and how you can apply it in your everyday living. Obtain a map of your neighborhood.
Using stickers or markers, mark some places you often visit. Decide together how you can do God’s work by doing good at each of these places. Also choose one or two new places to visit this summer. How can you do God’s work in those places? Pray and ask God to guide you as you do his work in your neighborhood.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Bob Carson and family on the death of his wife Patricia “Pat” Carson, 7/24
• Gladys Wayne and family on the death of her sister LaHunter Renee Liggins, 7/22
• Len Pfeifer and family on the death of his wife Elizabeth “Liz” Pfeifer, 7/21.
• Liz Thiel and family on the death of her father Harold Ostendorf, 7/21
• Vicki Konomos and family on the death of her husband Nick P. Konomos, 7/16
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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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