Devotional Pts for Week of Jan. 19 2014

Sunday-Ps 40:1-11 is our Psalms selection for today’s service.I was struck by vv. 7-8’s notion of a summary of a life in a book. Is it a description or is is it a destiny? Do you sometimes feel as if you live in a script written by another hand, or do you consider yourself the author of your life experience? How much of your life experience is influenced by others and circumstance?

Monday -the end of Tennyson’s poem,often read at New year’s.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be. How could one use this as a guide for 2014? What would it mean to ring in the Christ tha tis to be?

Tuesday-Had he not come for baptism, Jesus would not be the one who knows human life completely. Had he not come for baptism, we would doubt that he understands how difficult and amazing, how confusing and delightful human life is. But Jesus—just as he had come fully into Mary's womb—came fully into the waters of the Jordan, and then continued on his way to show the world the very heart of God. Rachel Mittelman from God Pause, Luther Seminary

Wednesday-from Frederick Buechner-"For all your blessings, those known and those unknown, those remembered and those forgotten, we thank you, O Lord." How could we be thankful for forgotten or unknown blessings? Waht doe sit say about our perceptions that he could write this prayer in this way?

Thursday-"We are here to heal, not harm. We are here to love, not hate. We are here to create, not destroy." ~ A.D. Williams. This strikes me as a remarkable set of guideposts for our responses ot events. Is this not a good set of notions to examine before we speak or act?

Friday-John Philip Newell

For the freshness of this new day/thanks be to you, O God./For morning’s gift of clarity

its light like the first day’s dawn/thanks be to you. /In this newborn light/let us see afresh.

In this gateway onto what has never been before /et our soul breathe hope /for the earth

for the creatures ,for the human family. Let our soul breathe hope.

Saturday-This world, this reality, revealed by God speaking to us, is not the kind of world to which we are accustomed. It is not a neat and tidy world in which we are in control- there is mystery everywhere that takes considerable getting used to, and until we do, it scares us. —Eugene Peterson  What kind of world is Peterson imagining? How does it not comport with the world of daily news or daily interactions?