Listen so that you may live

Isaiah 55:1  Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3  Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4  See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5  See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6  Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; :7  let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10  For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11  so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12  For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13  Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

This is a fabulous passage of hope and comfort. It contains familiar words that people of faith return to over and over again. These words originated during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586BC. They are words intended to bring comfort to frightened, disoriented, displaced people in exile: Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters... listen, so that you may live... For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace.  These words reassure people that they are not abandoned, but will discover that the ways of God are good: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  

God then answers their prayers through the Persian king Cyrus the Great.  In 539BC he conquered Babylon, and by 515BC the exiles begin returning to Jerusalem. God’s purposes have been fulfilled:  “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it”

As have many people before us - we too can appropriate these words for our lives. The God who carried the faithful through the tough times of Isaiah, is the same God who will carry us through our own ‘experiences of exile’. The God who guided the faithful home to Judah is the God who ensures that we do not get lost in a ‘foreign land’. And at the ending of our lives we will be guided safely home, where the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

For Thought

You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace;
the mountains and the hills will break forth before you;
there'll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field
will clap, will clap their hands!
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands,
the trees of the field will clap their hands,
the trees of the field will clap their hands
while you go out with joy. 

Composer:

Stuart Dauermann (1975)

The Third Sunday in Lent

Thirsting for God

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 118.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.   

I will bless you as long as I live

 Psalm 63:1  A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4  So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. 5  My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips 6  when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7  for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.8  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

This Psalm is set in a context: King David is in an inhospitable environment facing disastrous circumstances beyond his control. His son, Prince Absalom, has instigated a revolt against him, forcing him to flee eastward from Jerusalem through the Judean Desert to Mahanaim, on the other side of the Jordan River.[1] This psalm reflects David’s desire to worship the Lord even though he had been cut off from the temple in Jerusalem.

Here are words of faith in the face of difficulty. They speak of the willingness to praise God in the face of the threat to life:   “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”  This is the discovery that the worship of God is like a rich feast to the hungry; meditation strengthens the weakened hand.

We can discover echoes of Psalm 63 in our own experience: Lent becomes a moment to discover that as we lift our hands in worship the Divine Spirit invades our greatest moments of weakness and gives us strength.    

For Thought:

Thy loving kindness
Is better than life
Thy loving kindness
Is better than life
My lips shall praise thee
Thus will I bless thee
I will lift up my hands
Unto thy name.

© 1962 Singspiriation Music

Words and Music by Hugh Mitchell

The Third Sunday in Lent

Thirsting for God

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 118.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.   

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[1] 2 Sam. 17:24

Suffering

1Peter 4:12  Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13  But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14  If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. 15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. 16  Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. 17  For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18  And "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?" 19  Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

Suffering is an often repeated theme as the story of the early Jesus-followers unfolds. They were persecuted for their faith. They refused to allow Caesar to dictate their religious beliefs; they would not submit their ultimate loyalty to the Empire; and even in the province of Judah they challenged the way the leaders of the temple interpreted the law. And they suffered for this stubborn refusal to collaborate with the system.

This example has echoed as a challenge to Jesus-followers ever since: every time a human authority seeks to claim absolute authority over the lives of people, Jesus-followers are called to push back. And if denying human authority the right to ‘act like God’ results in alienation and suffering, then “do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name”.  

For Thought

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the solemn watchword hear;
If while ye sleep He suffers, away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil, within you or without,
Charge for the God of battles, and put the foe to rout.

Words: George Duf­field, Jr., 1858.

The Second Sunday in Lent

The Cost of Discipleship

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 112.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.   

  

Nothing but Joy

James 1:2  My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3  because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4  and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. 5  If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7  for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 9  Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, 10  and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11  For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away. 12  Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13  No one, when tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14  But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15  then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16  Do not be deceived, my beloved. 17  Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18  In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

The target audience of the book of James was the early persecuted church. It was written to encourage suffering Christians in the face of hardship and to strengthen them for Christian living. The antidote to suffering, and hardship, and doubt, and temptation, is joy. Such joy cannot be found in riches or power, but is rather a God-given gift.

For Thought

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!

Words: Charles Wes­ley

The Second Sunday in Lent

The Cost of Discipleship

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 112.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.    

Full of Grace and Power

Acts 6:8  Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9  Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. 10  But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. 11  Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." 12  They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. 13  They set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; 14  for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us." 15  And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Does Jesus bring change to religious customs and belief? Luke 6:14 suggests that some believed that Jesus “will change the customs that Moses handed on to us."  Yet Matthew 5:18 records Jesus saying he did not come to change anything: “not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” The truth is that Jesus did not come to change the law of God but to fulfil it.[1]  He came to help people understand faith as God originally intended it – and to rescue the faith from the twisted religious complexity that confronted the poor, the marginalized and the generally sinful.

Stephen grasped the essence of the Jesus-project...and suffered at the hands of the religious bigots who wanted to keep God as their private preserve. He is the inspiration for every Jesus-follower who would pursue the essence of a Godly life while avoiding the religious trappings that stifle faith. Let us commit ourselves to living an authentic faith, even if we risk condemnation of the religious experts.

For Thought

Ours is a simple faith
Life is a short embrace
Heaven is in this place
Every day

Trust is an open hand
Making an honest stand
Rooted here in the land
Every day

lyrics from song composed and sung by Mustard's Retreat

The Second Sunday in Lent

The Cost of Discipleship

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 112.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.   

         

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[1] Matthew 5:17

Jesus calls us

John 15:12  "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14  You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16  You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17  I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. 18  "If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19  If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world--therefore the world hates you. 20  Remember the word that I said to you, 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21  But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

“I have loved you...I have called you...I chose you...I appointed you...” The good news of our faith is the assurance that we do not go in search of God – instead God comes in search of us! But just when we are tempted to settle back into the contented comfort of being loved by the divine, we are challenged to hear that God chooses us “to go and bear fruit...to love one another”. This will be difficult, possibly involving hatred and persecution, but this is no more than was done to Jesus.

In short: God chooses us to become productive, loving Jesus-followers. This is to be achieved, despite hardships and obstacles – because God, our partner, calls us to it.

For Thought

1.    Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
Of our life’s wild, restless, sea;
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, “Christian, follow Me!”

2. Jesus calls us! By Thy mercies,
   Savior, may we hear Thy call,
   Give our hearts to Thine obedience,
   Serve and love Thee best of all.

Cecil F. Alexander

The Second Sunday in Lent

The Cost of Discipleship

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 112.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.   

    

A Mission Discourse

Matthew 10:16  "See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17  Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18  and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19  When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20  for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21  Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22  and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23  When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24  "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25  it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

...........................Matthew 10:34  "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36  and one's foes will be members of one's own household. 37  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38  and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39  Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 40  "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41  Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42  and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple--truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

Matthew 10 begins with Jesus sending his disciples out “like sheep into the midst of wolves”. They are warned that this would be difficult and dangerous, resulting in the division of families and alienation from communities. This flies in the face of many preachers who promise that following God will result in blessing, success and social status. Lent is a helpful reminder that the Christian life embraces struggle, hardship and even death as an integral part of our faith journey.

For Thought

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

Chorus

          There is hope for the helpless
          Rest for the weary
          Love for the broken heart
          There is grace and forgiveness
          Mercy and healing
          He'll meet you wherever you are
          Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight

Lyrics - Third Day - Cry Out To Jesus

The Second Sunday in Lent

The Cost of Discipleship

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 112.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.