John 15:26-16:4

“But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

“I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. This is because they have never known the Father or me. Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning. I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.”
John 15:26-16:4

Dear God, here is the phrase of this that caught my attention this morning when I read it: “…and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.” We are such fools. I would love to say that this doesn’t still happen, but of course it does. And it’s often those who are most convinced they are doing it in your name who can be the most dogmatic and problematic. The most dangerous.

But instead of sitting here and pointing fingers at others right now, maybe I should examine my heart and figure out how I might be one who thinks I am doing a holy service for you when, in actuality, I am advancing my own agenda out of what I think is my own “wisdom.” I’ll tell you where I tend to judge people is when I think they aren’t doing enough. When I think they are too selfish and not sacrificial enough. As if I know enough about them to make that evaluation or judgment.

Father, make me a refuge for the unjustly persecuted, a resource for those who unjustly persecute others so that they might know you, and, most importantly, a follower of you who is more interested in loving others than finding fault in them. Sweet, Jesus. I need you. I need your forgiveness for my sin. I need your patience for my foolishness. I need your teaching for my ignorance. I need your love for my insecurity. I need your perspective for my self-pity. I need your correction for my mistakes. I need your comfort for my pain. Thank you for offering me all of this through your Holy Spirit.

I pray all of this in the name of the one, only Triune God,

Amen

 

John 4:4-42

⁴ He had to go through Samaria on the way. ⁵ Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. ⁷ Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸ He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

⁹ The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

¹¹ “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? ¹² And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

¹³ Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. ¹⁴ But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

¹⁵ “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

¹⁶ “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

¹⁷ “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. ²⁰ So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

²¹ Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” ²⁸ The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” ³⁰ So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³² But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”

³³ “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.

³⁴ Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. ³⁵ You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. ³⁶ The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! ³⁷ You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. ³⁸ I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” ⁴⁰ When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, ⁴¹ long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. ⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Dear God, I listened to a really good homily this morning from Father Mike Schmitz on this passage. If there was an overall message to the homily, it was to see the person over seeing the group. Jesus didn’t see a Samaritan. He saw a woman. When the other Samaritans came, he didn’t see Samaritans, but individuals instead.

It reminded me of Hagar in Genesis 16:13 when she is pregnant with Ishmael, runs away, and you showed up to encourage her. From then on she called you the God who saw her. She was hopeless, but she knew you saw her and you gave her hope. The same is true for this woman at the well.

So there is a group of people right now who are frustrating me. And what frustrates me isn’t their hearts for doing what they think is right. I think, if asked why they are doing what they do they would give you a good reason. It’s the what they are doing that concerns me. Their tactics seem more destructive than constructive. It doesn’t feel like they are solving problems, but instead just creating more issues for good people. And what’s my response to them? Well, I tend to treat them as a group and resist them as a group instead of engaging them as individuals. But I’ve been feeling led by you to maybe engage with one of them as an individual and build a constructive relationship that can be about your mercy and love. Maybe we can find common ground and pursue making a difference in ways we can agree upon. It reminds me of the time you led me to reach out to someone else a few months ago. I was upset with you about the prompting, but I did it anyway and now I can see that it was a good thing.

Father, help me to overcome my pride, my sinfulness, and my judgmental attitude. Help me to see beyond the surface. Help me to know how to reach out to those whom I frustrate as well. I’m sure the group that frustrates me is frustrated by me and those who are likeminded with me. It’s all division. It’s all Satan’s plan. Father, let me be part of you thwarting Satan’s plan in whatever way you want to use me. And protect me in this. I know I’m setting myself up for attacks when I do this. Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, please be with me. Do it for the glory of your kingdom.

I pray all of this in your Holy Name,

Amen

 

John 13:33-38

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
John 13:33-38

Dear God, I obviously don’t know how verbatim this quote of Jesus by John is, but assuming John wrote this intentionally, I noticed something new this morning. Peter was so distracted by the idea of Jesus going somewhere he couldn’t go that the words Jesus spoke about the disciples loving one another got lost: “By this they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So what does loving one another look like? There is a patient at our clinic who we have been trying to figure out how to love, but she has boxed herself into a corner through a myriad of life decisions that has left us with very few options. We don’t know how to help her. Is it possible for us to show her live without being able to help?

Of course, the bigger implication here is how we treat each other as Christians. Jesus knew it was rare for people to really love each other because he knew that the disciples loving each other would stand out to the world. At the same time, I’m sure he was looking around the table at this group of people and wondering how they would ever get along without him. They would argue about who would be greatest. How would they do after he was gone?

I think one thing that helped galvanize them together was the crucifixion, the time Jesus was dead, and then the resurrection and subsequent time until Jesus ascended. At the last supper with Jesus, they were on the precipice of the greatest refining fire of their lives up to that point. Of course, for each of them, martyrdom (except Judas Iscariot and John) would come later. This was only the beginning.

Father, help me to be prepared for the refining you have in store for me. Help me to not waste a thing. And most of all, help me to always automatically lean into you in every moment.

I pray all of this under your authority,

Amen

 

John 2:1-11

“The Wedding At Cana” by Paolo Veronese

The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
John 2:1-11

Dear God, I understand why Mr. Veronese put Jesus in the middle of the image, but I’d have much rather he placed him off to the side somewhere. Maybe a little more inconspicuous. I’m guessing the bride and groom are the ones on the far left, with the bride wearing a white gown. Maybe the mater of ceremonies is the man in the ornate white outfit standing behind the man pouring out the water jar int a wine container. I think he’s holding a glass. Frankly, there’s a ton to see here. I just looked up an article analyzing the painting and it was quite extensive. I don’t think I’ll spend too much time doing that here.

As a Baptist who has lived and worshipped with Catholics closely for 12 years, I now know that this is one of the stories they use to justify Mary’s influence over you, even to this day. Jesus didn’t want to, telling her it wasn’t there problem, but Mary ignored him and assumed he would listen to her anyway. I’ve always wondered if this was actually the right thing for her to do. Was Mary wrong to have pushed him like this?

I wonder what she expected of Jesus going forward. She knew he was in the new phase of his life. I’m sure she had seen him do miracles over the years. Almost like being Superman’s mom, knowing his secret. Was it time to let the secret out? Was it time to release Jesus on the world? Will the predictions of her Magnificat come true?

The truth is, she had zero idea how this was going to turn out. She, along with the entire Jewish people/nation, had a paradigm of freedom and victory. You were going to bring down princes from their thrones. You were going to humble the exalted. You would send the rich away empty, but you would fill the hungry. You would fulfill your promises. It just didn’t look like she thought it would look.

Now, I sit here some days and I try to parse out what I have been taught you will do in the world vs. what the evidence shows you will do in the world. In a macro look at history, we are in such a small part of the timeline right now, and, frankly, even though the Christians in country tends to have placed itself in the role as your chosen people, we are not Israel. We are only one more power on the earth that rose, and will, at some point, decline. Perhaps the decline has started already. I don’t know. All I know is that it is so easy to see the United States as so central to your plans when my only perspective is that of about 5% of the world who lives here–from within the country–but we need to remember that there are more Christians who live outside of the United States than in it. Maybe your people are no longer defined by an organized government. Maybe we are just supposed to be a society that lives and moves without caring about national borders.

Father, this has been a lot of talk to simply say that I don’t know. I don’t know what you are doing in the grand scheme of things. I don’t even know what you are doing in my tiny life. You have me on a need-to-know basis, and I don’t really need to know much. In fact, the less I know the less I’ll mess things up. So help me to be obedient to you today. Help me to do exactly what you want me to do tomorrow. Be glorified in my life and be my God.

I pray all of this in your holy Name,

Amen

 

John 6:24-40

 ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. ²⁵ They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

³⁰ They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? ³¹ After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^[g]”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. ³⁷ However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 6:24-40

Dear God, there are all of these great nuggets in this story. Well, I guess there is just the main point of it. Jesus perceives they are impressed with the miracles and want to see more of them. He tells them to focus on you and their faith and they reply, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Then Jesus says, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

We are such fools. “Show me this.” “Do that for me.” It reminds of of your words to Job in Job 38: “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?” I have something coming up in my life that I’m not happy about. I talked with a friend about it at lunch yesterday. I want to gripe and complain about it. I want to blame you for it, even. But maybe–unfortunately–your words to Job and the people talking to Jesus are your words for me: “Who are you to question my wisdom with such ignorant words? I only want one work from you: Believe in Jesus.” All else is about loving others into doing the same. That’s it. That’s all. It’s that simple.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I am good at certain things, but it feels like I fail at the most important ones. Help me to simply worship and love you and till the soil of my heart so that the thorns (pursuit of money and cares of this world) are cleared away and your Holy Spirit has good soil with which to work in my life. I offer myself to you. Love through me.

I pray all of this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen

 

Judas

Dear God, I was listening to the Catholic Bible in a Year podcast from Ascension Press by Father Mike Schmitz recently when he was reading from 1 Maccabees. As a Protestant Christian, it was my first time to hear any of the stories. While I was listening, something occurred to me. Judas Maccabeus was a Jewish military hero less than 200 years before Jesus was born. There were two of Jesus’s 12 disciples who were named Judas. I don’t remember reading the name Judas in the Old Testament other than Judas Maccabeus. Is it possible that Judas was a common name to give boys during this era in Israel? Finally–and this one is a big leap–could Judas Iscariot have been wanting to live up to his namesake and frustrated by this fact even more that Jesus didn’t seem to care about Rome’s rule over Israel?

After that, I decided to see who else in the New Testament was named Judas. Just how common was this?

• Judas Iscariot (we all know him)
• Judas (not Iscariot): John 14:22
• Judas, Jesus’s brother: Mark 6:3
• Judas, called Barsabbas: Acts 15:22 [I wonder if he changed his name because of Judas Iscariot]
• Jude (author of Jude)–some debate if this might be a duplicate–Jesus’s brother
• Judas of Galilee: Acts 5:37–rebel leader

Yeah, I think this naming your kid Judas might have been a thing at the time. Of course, that went away over time. Judas Iscariot has become as abhorrent in Christian circles as Benedict Arnold or Adolf Hitler have become in our modern times. I don’t know how many people in Germany currently name their son Adolf, but I would be surprised if it was many.

Father, I don’t know what is in this story for me, but it’s interesting to stop and think about how little decisions, like what to name our child, might impact their lives. I have a few things happening today. Help me as I prepare to go through this day. Let your Holy Spirit go with me. Go with me to work. Let there be healing. Go with me to Rotary. Go with me to San Antonio tonight. Go with me as we strive to bring you glory for all that you do in our lives. Help me to be part of you bringing your kingdom and will being done into the world.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 

The God Hole

[In the story “The Rocking-Horse Winner,”] author D.H. Lawrence describes a home where the young family is haunted by the unspoken phrase, “There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud.” The balance of the story is the sad account of how the young son, by rocking madly on his toy horse, discovers a way to predict the winners of horse races. Tragically, he eventually rocks himself to death because the voices never stop. There is never enough money.

Fred Smith, “The Overexamined Life”

Dear God, I read this piece from Fred Smith’s weekly blog this morning and pulled this paragraph from it. It made me think of a few things, so I thought I would pray about it.

The overall point of Smith’s blog post was about how he has noticed some people replacing the pursuit of money with a life of service, but even that seems like it’s never enough. People end up on the same treadmill the rocking-horse winner was on. Always trying to fill a hole in their lives. Always trying to fill what was described to me as a child as the “God hole.”

The God hole, as I understand it, is that shape in our heart that only you can fill. Anything else we try to put there will fall right through and never land. And I don’t fill that hole with you by simply believing in your, praying a prayer of repentance, and then moving on my way. No, I fill that hole with you by applying two of Jesus’s parables at the same time:

15 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:1-5

If I do not attaching the branch of my life to you and then give you the opportunity to prune me then I won’t produce fruit. It’s that simple. I attach my branch to your vine through prayer, scripture study and contemplation, worship, and Christian community–not necessarily in that order.

The next parable is as important:

¹⁸ “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: ¹⁹ The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. ²⁰ The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. ²¹ But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. ²² The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. ²³ The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Matthew 13:18-23

My biggest threat is verse 22: the seed that ell among the thorns. What am I doing to weed the soil of my life? What I am doing to give good soil to the Holy Spirit to work on my branch? Am I removing the “worries of this life and the lure of wealth?

I guess there’s one final thing that I think is the cherry on top of all of this. It’s what Paul says in Acts 20:24 when he is on his way to Jerusalem where he has a pretty good idea he will be arrested. People are warning him to not go and he replies, “I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. At the end of the day, if I died today and you had only used my 52 years to touch one person then that’s all that matters. I can let go of my own ambitions for my life. Peace is found through just submitting to you today, being obedient when I hear you speak and then praying your blessing on the work you have called me to do.

Father, I give you all of this today. I don’t want anything for myself. I just want to rest in you and work by your direction, with your blessing, and for your glory so that your kingdom might come and your will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 

“Yeshua Ha Mashiach” by Scott Wesley Brown

“Yeshua Ha Mashiach” by Scott Wesley Brown

The room was filled with people
Who had come to hear Him speak
A Simple man with callused hands
And dust upon His feet
Twelve men were gathered ’round him
Like they knew Him as a friend
But I had never seen Him
Though He said He’d always been

Unlike the other people
I had only come to see
But when He spoke I noticed
He was staring into me
I whispered to a woman
Who was listening by my side
Who is this man? and
These words she replied:

Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand

More than any other prophet
His words burned me deep inside
Exposing from my hardened heart
The truth I could not hide
For years I had been waiting
For Messiah yet to come
But long before I heard His Name
I knew He was The One

Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand

Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand

Jesus the Messiah
The Image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand

Jesus the Messiah
The Image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand

Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The image of I Am
The Mystery of Heaven
Come to earth a mortal man
Yeshua Ha Mashiach
The Lion and the Lamb
His eyes are warm and tender
But there’s fire in His hand
Yeshua Ha Mashiach

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Greg Wayne Davis / Gregory D. Fisher

Dear God, this is a song from the 80s that I hadn’t thought about for a while, but was reminded up a few days ago. I can’t remember what brought it to mind. I think it might have been another song that reminded me of it. Anyway, it has a great beat and it’s just a reminder of who Jesus was.

I was listening to the song this morning after I woke up and watched the video above. The actor playing Jesus is interesting because he doesn’t have the typical “Jesus look.” He’s a little more intense than I’m used to seeing. I’m used to gentle-eyed Jesus, but this one seems to have something different in his eyes. I’m not sure which image I like or lean to more. Okay, I know which one I like more. I like the gentle-eyed one. But have I missed something by not considering a Jesus who maybe looked a little more intense? I read last week about Jesus saying he came to burn things down, cause divisions, etc.

Well, I guess I’ll have to think about that. But what I want to look at is just the idea in the chorus that Jesus was your image. God come to earth. A piece of your nature here with us in physical form. The decisions. The mercy. The anger. The wisdom. The compassion. The exasperation. The joy. The peace. The patience. The forgiveness. The sacrifice. The power. The healing. all of it was in him. All of you was in him. To know him was to know you.

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

⁹ Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. ¹¹ Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

John 14:8-9

Holy Spirit, Father, Jesus, I need all of your being today and this week. This week, in particular. There are several things going on. Things in different areas of our community. We need your power. Your provision. Your protection. Your wisdom. Your intervention. Your redemption. In fact, we need everything that is you for everything we are. Help us to lean into you this week. Help me. Help each person on my heart right now. Help us to put on your holy armor so that in the face of trials and difficult decisions we might stand. Provide for us. Bless our work. Use all of this to draw each of us closer to yourself.

I pray this through Jesus,

Amen

 

10 Observations by Adam Neder: #2. American churches are becoming less politically diverse and more partisan.

I was reading an article from the H.E.B. Foundation Magazine Echoes this morning, and I came across a description of a summer retreat led by Adam Neder. The retreat was titled “Faith in the Ruins.” A description of the retreat in the promotional material for it sums it up: “…as challenges multiply, as the church perfects the art of discrediting itself, as friends leave the faith, many Christians are feeling exhausted, disoriented, and discouraged. Some wonder how much longer they can stick with Christianity–or even if they want to.”

That’s where the 10 observations by Neder came in. I looked at them and thought I would do a series of prayer journals on the 10 observations the article mentioned Neder covered during the retreat.

#2. American churches are becoming less politically diverse and more partisan.

Dear God, I would love to go back to the 1960s and see what the political makeup of American churches was back then. In retrospect, it seems like, from my limited perspective, that Satan used the abortion issue in the 70s to start to divide the church on political lines. When I think about the political divide now and how it has come into the church, it seems, frankly, hopeless. I don’t pray about it like I should, that’s for sure. A couple of weeks ago, I was praying through the verses about us all being part of one body and I asked you if it is possible for American Democrats and Republicans to be part of the same body. The answer is obviously yes because neither side is holier or has the monopoly on you. All political platforms are flawed and full of sin. All of us need to repent. All of us need to extend your grace to others and, even if we think we are absolutely right, allow someone else to be “wrong” as much as we expect them to allow us to be “wrong.” And when it’s important, we can discuss it and keep our minds open to see if there might be error in the way we are thinking or see an issue.

If I were a pastor, I honestly don’t know what I would do except go back to what I said for Neder’s first observation, and go back to emphasizing discipleship. I find that the deeper I get into you the less I need to be right because I realize step by step that I’m wrong so often. And then the more I look for your grace and mercy to be wrong the more I end up giving people space to either be, what I consider to be, wrong or allow for the idea that they might be right and I am wrong. Or, in the end, maybe neither of us are wrong, but simply have different opinions.

Father, Holy Spirit, please be with your church. As Jesus said in John 17:20-21: ²⁰ “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ²¹ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. This is my prayer for your church. Help us to repent from spending more time reading or watching news than with you. Help us to be in the world but not of the world. Use us as your vessels to love others, take your will and kingdom into the world, and be your ambassadors to a world that needs you. Speak to us. Comfort us. Counsel us. Guide us. Teach us. Motivate us.

I pray this through your son, Jesus,

Amen

 

John 15:9-15

⁹ “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ¹² This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ¹³ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

John 15:9-15

Dear God, I was thinking about Abraham this morning and the juxtaposition of his faith and love for you and the many bad kings that followed David in Israel. The idea was to end up after life in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). But they didn’t love you. They gave up on looking beyond themselves and their limited power. They clung to their pride. They didn’t want to submit and then go through the work of worship and relationship with you.

Are we any different? Am I any different? Oh, perhaps I’m a little different in that I continue, at least up to this point, to strive to worship you, pray to you, learn from you, and pursue relationship with you. But it’s all fragile. There are days when it feels easier to just sink into myself and gratify all of my own desires. It’s like marriage a little. It takes work on my part for a healthy relationship. The path of least resistance–the wide path–is to indulge my own selfishness, ignore my wife and her needs, and just…I don’t know…be a jerk. But the more difficult but fulfilling past–the narrow path–takes self-sacrifice, self-denial, and work. But at the end of the day, it’s the much more rewarding path.

How much more so is the narrow path worth it with you? I was listening to a discussion this morning on the theology around hell and the afterlife. I confess to you that I have no idea what all of that means. However, I am confident that relationship with you on earth and the fruits of the Spirit that come from loving you and obeying your commands are worth more than the fruits of the flesh described in Galatians 5. When I come to the end of my life, I’d rather look back on a life marked with love, joy, peace, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23) than a life full of “sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties” (Galatians 5:19-21).

Father, Holy Spirit, please be with me today. Pray for me. Pray for my friends. My wife and I spent some time this morning praying specifically for a friend with family issues. Please guide them. I know this couple does the hard work. I know they worship you. Please be their comforter and counselor now. Please honor their prayers. Please bring glory to the world through this pain. Don’t let it be wasted. And don’t let my day be wasted either. Show me what to do to bring glory to your name throughout the earth.

I pray this through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection,

Amen