Do not be afraid - I am God Almighty

Read Genesis 35:9-20

“… from the voice of God to a baby’s cry and a mother’s last words.” From Warren Wiersbe Be Authentic

God appeared to Jacob and blessed him, and gave him a new name, Israel. "I am God Almighty and a nation and a company of nations shall spring from you (from Reuben to Benjamin - twelve sons, twelve tribes), and kings shall spring from you (David and Jesus)."

The midwife said, “Do not be afraid you will have another son.” As her soul was departing (for she died) she named her son Ben-o-ni which Jacob changed to Benjamin. Springing from Rachel's hard travail to Jacob's right hand.

Rachel, the beloved of Jacob, bore him two sons. Joseph, whose brothers would betray him and sell him into slavery and tell his father he died. Benjamin, who would be the ransom for his brothers' sins and through whom Joseph would repay those brothers with kindness and salvation from famine and death.

We never know how our story will be written. 

But, when we accept the free gift of salvation purchased through the death cry of his one and only Son, Jesus, God blesses each of us with a new name, “Christian."

Do not be afraid, your pain can also bring others to the foot of the cross. 

Prayer: Father, may I take joy in your call to not be afraid. May I take joy in the life I am called to live through the love of your son, Jesus. May I rejoice in each soul, known and unknown, that see you and recognize your love and salvation through my pain and my living out of my faith, no matter what tomorrow may hold. May your Son-rise shine down on the earth and bring peace among us. Bring me finally to Heaven to eternally sing your glory and love. Amen

"No Filter Needed" photo by Kiri Strouse, Williamston, South Carolina

PRAISE

Daily Reading Revised Common Lectionary

Epiphany and Ordinary Time until Lent

Monday, January 7, 2012

These readings are adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, Daily Readings for Year One

www.crivoice.org/epiphany1.html

Psalm 103: Praise for God’s mighty acts of love throughout the ages. The psalmist exhorts his entire being to praise God for forgiveness, healing, redemption, glorification, sustenance and renewal. The unending love of God extends to generations of faithful mortals.

Psalm 114: A Hallel (praise) psalm celebrating the Exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan

Psalm 115: A call and response Hallel psalm celebrating God’s lordship and blessing on Israel. According to John Wesley, “an idol is a spiritual phenomenon. One gives oneself to a substitute for God – it, him, or her – to find happiness, contentment, rest. But one finds peace and liberation only in adoration of the Father, Son and Spirit…. All is to be loved gratefully as a gift to be offered back to God who in Christ loves us to holy excess.”

Isaiah 52:3-6:  One of four oracles of hope addressed specifically to Zion/Jerusalem. “For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. Because those who oppress Zion howl my name,… Therefore my people shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.”

Revelation 2:1-7: “The prophetic word of Jesus to the church at Ephesus indicates that those in Ephesus have allowed their love of Jesus to diminish in the midst of their labors, from which they must repent or Jesus himself will come in judgment to remove the Sprit from the Church.”

John 2:1-11:  The first sign. Jesus is the bringer of God’s overflowing grace and end-time salvation, which the prophets depicted as a wedding feast and a time of abundant life are present now; indeed wine symbolizes the very presence of God.

The Wesley Study Bible NRSV, Abingdon Press, 2009.

                 PRAISE

Place me, Lord, in the heart of your blessing,

Raise in me a song of joy and hope.

Awake in me the awareness of your Holy name:

I yearn for your happiness, contentment and rest.

Speak forgiveness, healing, and restoration

Exhort my entire being to praise your name.

Provide peace and liberation;

Redemption and renewal.

Allow me to adore only you.

I need to love you to holy excess,

So I might be redeemed by your overflowing grace

Extended by your unending love as I live faithfully.

Presently living in your over-flowing grace

Resting in your end-time salvation

Adoring  Father, Son and Spirit

I hear your voice, I know you are here

Sustaining, liberating, blessing,

Even as I empty myself to be refilled.

Be Still

Daily Readings Book of Common Prayer

Sunday,  January 6, 2013

http://www.crivoice.org/epiphany1.html

Psalm 46 : Trust the Lord's saving presence in the midst of cosmic upheaval and geopolitical uproar. God is our refuge, our sanctuary. God calls us to "Be still and know that I am God."

Psalm 97 :  A song extolling God's glory. His incomparable greatness motivates praise. "For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth."

Psalm 96 : A call to praise and worship God in the sanctuary where God's presence can be experienced powerfully.

Psalm 100 : A call to give thanks in the temple. A call to come into His presence and celebrate God's goodness.

Isaiah 52: 7-10 : "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"

Revelation 21: 22-27 In the New Heaven and the New Earth the role of God, the Lamb is to be the temple and the source of all light.

Matthew 12:14-21 Jesus fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of God's chosen servant's desire for secrecy, and foreshadows and becomes key to the great commission where Jesus commands his disciples to carry the Good News to Gentiles and Jews alike.

The  Wesley Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Abingdon Press, 2009

Three gentile kings seek and find the King of the Jews, the holy child. They follow a new star that stops over the place where they child was. When they saw the star stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. We too can follow the Lamb who is become our light. His righteousness is become our righteousness, and we are called to "be still" and know that we are in the presence of God.

They knelt and paid him homage. They opened their treasure chests. They offered him gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh. God's incomparable greatness motivated their praise. In the temple, the sanctuary of the presence of the holy child, the Son of the Trinity, the magi were called into God's temple. They came into God's presence and celebrated God's goodness. We, too are called into our sanctuaries, our holy of holies, into Jesus who is become for us the temple. 

In Herod's court, the kings created geopolitical upheaval. The kings were perceptive enough not to return to Jerusalem. Joseph once again heeded the words of the angel of the Lord and fled with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. He must have pondered the angel's words that Jesus would save his people. That once again God would "call his son out of Egypt."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHf1p3C8iVw

We are called out of our places of exile, our positions of enslavement, our habitations of pain, back to the high hill. We are commissioned with all disciples to be the messengers of the Father to share the Good News of the Son, Jesus, King of Kings, the sacrificial Lamb. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are sent to the mountain tops to declare peace, good news, and salvation.

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28: 16-20 (NRSV)

Be Strong and Courageous

Sat Jan 5

am: 2, 110 pm: 29, 98

am: Joshua 1:1-9 pm: Isa 66:18-23

am: Heb 11:32-12:2 pm: Rom 15:7-13

John 15:1-6

John Wesley in his sermon "The Scripture Way of Salvation" (#43) Reminds us that wen we receive Christ, we receive him in all his offices:

• Prophet - differing from the earlier prophets of the Hebrews in being revealer in both word and deed, the Incarnate Word
• Priest - mediator who enters the holy of holies, intercedes for us, and becomes for us sin
• King - ruler, the King of the Jews from birth to crucifixion in earthly form, and according to the Revelation will come again as King of Kings and Lord of Lord

In the Creation, God's Voice calls order out of chaos. His power over the cosmos gives encouragement and hope for peace.

Each time I leave our room, I am reminded by the words on the door. Placed there on vinyl strips by my grandchildren who have the same words over their front door. "I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Under the words are two lions: the ones that lie in my den. Each lion carries one statement. The first is "write" - I am now doing that every day - one lion at bay. The other carries a number 135. A long ways from the 215-222 where my weight balances from month to month. Yesterday, we put the "Lose It" app on my phone. Oops, missed my calorie goal yesterday. Today I face the lion again.

Not only God speaking to Joshua and Daniel in the lion's den, but "so great a cloud of witnesses" set forth by Paul to remind us that others have fought the lions and won. "Let us run with perseverance the race set before us."

Encouragement. Hope. Hope that brings joy and peace in the present and expectation of the fully realized kingdom of God in the future.

Prayer is the gymnasium of the soul.

Lord, I write everyday, help me learn to eat only enough to sustain. Help me tame the lion of food for comfort. And please, could we talk about the gym with the heated pool we pay for every month another day?

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers - Daniel in the Lion's Den

Uploaded on Apr 11, 2011

Recorded by Alan Lomax on May 5, 1960 on St. Simons Island, GA
as part of his Southern Journeys recordings of native folk music.
Backing singers include: Joe Armstrong, Jerome Davis, John Davis, Peter Davis, Henry Morrison, Willis Proctor, and Ben Ramsay.

Living Relationally

Fri Jan 4

Psalms am: 85, 87 pm: 89:1-29

Exod 3:1-12

Heb 11:23-31

John 14:6-14

From the beginning, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are relational. God’s requirement for reinstatement of His favor is recognition of His life-giving, harmonious relationship. He shows us the meaning of relationship through His attributes: steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace.

God speaks peace and salvation. The result is justification through Christ and sanctification through the Holy Spirit. Christ redeems from the ultimate outcome of sin. Through the Holy Spirit, God renews the image of Himself in those whom He created.

God calls the faithful to turn aside, take off their sandals, to stand on holy ground. God is profoundly relational and desires a dynamic relationship with each of us. God interacts not to intimidate, but to prepare.

Faith requires action on our part. Believing is necessary, but from faith must come action. Even Jesus’s words and works were ultimately the Father’s, and after Jesus’s departure, He continues to do His work through His disciples when we call on Him to do so..

I am standing in line for my miracle. I watch for burning bushes. I keep my sandals loosely fastened. I walk slowly, too slowly most days. For me, it must be enough.

I am as I am. God’s requirement for restoration has nothing to do with my body or even with my pain. It has to do with my desire to learn and believe. It has to do with my willingness to accept and trust in HIS steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace.

God is profoundly relational. He deserves vital relationships with His people. A dynamic relationship does not require running or jumping or leaping. Yesterday it had to do with making the most-purple one-piece pajamas I have ever made. Not because of the hospital socks on the bottom of the footies. Not because of the 14” white zipper hidden inside a placket so we could use what we had.

No, it was an intensely relational time. A day spent with Meredith helping me pin the seams when she was not playing with the cat, or helping Papa make pie crusts, or all the other things that can distract a six-year-old.

A day spent with a daughter who worries if my feet have been down too long. Who does not look at the pattern instructions, not because she could not understand them, but because she knows I will not follow them and she does not like there to be any tension between us.

A day with a husband who feels free to learn to do all the things I used to do. Who is willing to figure out how to make a pie crust. Who sends a six-year-old agent to keep us posted, so we would know the pie was created, cooked, cooled and ready to slice.

A day spent with the people in whom I see true love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace. Something tells me I just may have felt God’s favor.

I heard Him speak a miracle through the hugs and kisses of a little purple clad  body. I saw Him speak a miracle through the extra hands and feet of a daughter. An engineer who chose not to be distracted by reading the directions I was not following. A daughter who made sure she equipped me to finish purple pajamas to be worn to bed last night. I tasted Him speak a miracle in a warm piece of home-made cherry pie.

I think that is the truest miracle. If there were no pain, if I could go in circles around everyone in the house as I used to, I would not be able to understand the importance of my relationship to the God who equips me to live relationally.