Thursday, October 16, 2014

Devotional Pts for Oct. 19 Week

Sunday-Ps  99- is in  a section of praise on the reign of god. We rarely see evidence of it.  In God’s power, the Psalmist notes presence, worship, forgiveness,  and justice as defining attributes. How would you put those attributes in 2014? Be as concrete as you are able, not abstract, please

Monday“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”Thomas Merton
Tuesday Leonard Sweet-A man in West Berlin who worked in the eastern sector of that divided city. He would ride his bicycle to work each day and carry a bag of sand. Each day the surveillance officer at the checkpoint, suspicious of smuggling, would inspect the worker and the bag of sand, but never found anything. After months of this daily routine, the exasperated guard finally bargained with the worker, saying he would let him smuggle whatever he had in the sand if he would only tell him what it was.To the guard’s chagrin, the West Berliner confessed that he had been smuggling bicycles.Most often Jesus is up to something right under our noses, and we can’t see it. Wendell Berry reminds us that the turning of water into wine is, after all, a very small miracle compared to the greater but forgotten miracle by which dirt (with water and sunlight) is turned into grapes.

Wednesday- I wonder how I too lessen God by creating a picture and an understanding of God that fits into my life. I create a god in my image and wrap it in layer after layer of support and explanation, all the time reflecting only my own wants and desires. But the reality of God goes beyond what I understand and what I can fathom. When I recognize this I am moved to worship, trembling with awe, and singing a new song of reality.How are you moved beyond what you know and understand about God into the mystery that breathes with who God is? Be embraced by the mystery and raise your voice in a new song!O great and glorious God, open us to the mystery, the One who moves us to reverential worship, and let us join with all creation in raising our voices in a cacophony of song. Amen.Scott Peterson
Thursday-“Seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). What you seek is what you are going to get. What you expect is what you will call forth and recognize. What you allow and what you’re ready for is what can come toward you. But it has to be in you first, at least in the form of desire, or you won’t see it or recognize it when it is right in front of you. What a mystery this is. Richard Rohr,
Friday-Humanity was never wealthier than today, yet even those of us who are relatively well off worry obsessively about not having enough. Miroslav volf

Saturday-What lies ahead of the human spirit can only be reached through the slow process of living our way toward it." (Laurens Van Der Post)

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