Recognition – Baby Step 13

READ: Psalm 88

My Song is Love Unknown Samuel Crossman (1664)

1 My song is love unknown, 
my Savior’s love to me. 
Love to the loveless shown, 
that they might lovely be. 
Oh, who am I that for my sake, 
oh, who am I that for my sake 
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

2 He came from heaven’s throne 
salvation to bestow; 
but they refused, and none 
the longed-for Christ would know. 
This is my friend, my friend indeed, 
this is my friend, my friend indeed, 
who at my need, his life did spend.

3 Sometimes they crowd his way 
and his sweet praises sing, 
resounding all the day 
hosannas to their King. 
Then, “Crucify!” is all their breath, 
then, “Crucify!” is all their breath, 
and for his death they thirst and cry.

4 Why, what has my Lord done 
to cause this rage and spite? 
He made the lame to run 
and gave the blind their sight. 
What injuries, yet these are why, 
what injuries, yet these are why 
the Lord Most High so cruelly dies.

5 With angry shouts they have 
my dear Lord done away;
a murderer they save, 
the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet willingly, he bears the shame,
yet willingly, he bears the shame,
that through his name all might be free.

6 Here might I stay and sing 
of him my soul adores:
never was love, dear King, 
never was grief like yours.
This is my friend in whose sweet praise,
this is my friend in whose sweet praise
I all my days would gladly spend.

https://youtu.be/oOEjZb-rHc0

The Daily Office from The Mission of St. Clare, June 17, 2016

PRAYER:

Oh, Lord, please break my heart as my body is broken, that I might see the gift of your Salvation. May I recognize my frailty as an opportunity to show ways I might run though lame, might see though blind, might be free though bound. Let me see the willingness of the Prince of Life to set aside his throne, take on the frailty of human life, and willingly allow Himself to be broken so I might be free. Let me find the freedom beyond my pain in praise. I would gladly spend all my days lost in wonder and praise. Amen.

Wake Up From Your Sleep

My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 is to take one step at a time. I hope you will join me on my journey.

January 4, 2016

Day four, step two: Wake Up From Your Sleep.

How easy it is to become distracted and at times even lazy. I teach piano and voice lessons. However, at what cost. Time to improve my voice and piano skills and that poor flute is sitting in its case for years. In the past, I even wrote a hymn inspired by a retreat in the Swiss Alps. 

I studied for years, yet it is so much easier not to practice, not to play, not to sing, not to write – except when required by teaching.

The readings from the Revised Book of Common Prayer the last few days have encouraged me not to let my gifts become sleeper gifts. To wake them up and use them not only to provide our needed extra income, to build others gifts, but to praise God with them and for them.

Good people, cheer God!
    Right-living people sound best when praising.
Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!
    Play his praise on a grand piano!
Invent your own new song to him;
    give him a trumpet fanfare. (Psalm 33:1-3 MSG) January 2

And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. (Colossians 3:17 MSG) January 3

Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20 MSG) January 4

Step two for 2016 is to carve out time each day to play the piano, to sing 
praises, to carve out Wednesday in such a way I have enough energy to attend choir rehearsal, to begin each Sunday helping to lead worship. Even set aside time to write – words and tunes. Set a priority. Create a schedule for regular practice.

However, start with baby steps. All at once and I am sure to fail.

·         Look at the calendar. Save enough energy to go to choir practice. Plan in a nap. Stay up past my usual bedtime this one day. Can I do it? I do not know. However, if I do not try, I will never know.

·         Sing the warm ups I assign to my voice students every day.

·         Get out the scale book. Play one scale on the piano six times each day for a week, just like I ask my students.

·         Play one hymn or praise song until I can play and sing it at tempo mistake free, just for God and me.

The gifts are God’s. Wake up! How we use them is entirely up to us. Wake up! What a shame to waste our gifts through disuse. Wake up! What gifts  are rusting from disuse? Wake up! Do not let your gifts be sleepers. Wake up! Share your plan.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
Photo: Matt Malloy - Time Lapse Sunset

Righteousness

There is value, great value, in living according to God’s law. Happy are those who avoid unrighteous behavior. The effect of the righteous life is one's unwavering commitment to God’s word. To be “righteous” is to have a “healthy relationship” with God, to live wisely.

To live righteously, is to live a decent life, that is reputable, moralistic, noble, principled, right-minded, and virtuous. To live righteously, is to live a good life that is virtuous, exemplary, guiltless, inculpable, innocent, irreproachable, and pure. Righteousness is doing that which is just, acting rightly or justly; conforming to the standard of the divine or the moral law; to be just and upright, free from sin.  When one lives righteously, one lives a life without prejudice; characterize by evenness.

I remember. when we did a “hunger weekend” with the youth group. On Friday night,  we went without supper and spent the night carrying everything we brought with us in large garbage bags. We moved from place to place in the church and read aloud the prophets, the psalms, and the gospels. The next morning we went to the local grocery store and gathered a box of vegetables left by the dumpster. I remember the turned up noses, the “eeww’s,” the “I’m not eating THAT.” We cleaned and cut off moldy places and soft parts and put them all in a pot with water to simmer. That was breakfast.

We went to a soup kitchen in a nearby town to help serve lunch. The smell of unwashed bodies was offensive. When a mother, in apparent drug withdrawal, brought her four- or five- year-old son through the  food line, one could see the righteous indignation on the faces of the youth group. We went back to the church fellowship hall.  We compared what we had seen and felt to the scriptures we had read. We talked about their outraged sense of justice, decency and fair play, their sense of righteous indignation.

Trusting God in different ways came out of that indignation. All of them have mentioned that weekend to us at one time or another. For some,  it helped God call them into ministry as pastors and social workers, but for all, it changed the way they viewed others.

Every day  is an opportunity to trust God in different ways. In the midst of daily life,one can increase  trust in God, confidently and faithfully, knowing one's life is enfolded in God’s attention and love.

God is a God of power, wisdom and authority, John Wesley saw over an over the spirit of bondage transformed to the spirit of adoption as we awaken to our sin. God does not force conversion on us. We must seek adoption. However it is only God who can complete the transformation.

It is God who, hearing one's cries and caring for all like a good parent, now infuses life with “heavenly healing light.” Hearts are strangely warmed, so one's consciousness is dominated no longer by sin and law, but by God’s capacity to love, heal and make new.

We have the experience of most adopted children: once we feel abandoned to the powers and principalities, but now we can count on the kindness and support of a loving parent. Once we were bound to fear, but now we are marked with the holiness and happiness of the family of God

The “good news” is the proclamation of God’s kingdom, manifested in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “Repentance” is not just a feeling of regret, but an ordering of one’s life as to be acceptable to God. Jesus himself receives baptism by John, joining this group of people who have ritually dedicated themselves to righteousness; to true religion.

We must not substitute rituals for Christ-centered faith. Instead, we should enter into  a life of rigorous discipline of study prayer and good works. True religion is a matter of the heart and is characterized by Spirit-inspired joy, holiness, and peace. To John Wesley, these were the irrefutable marks of the kingdom of God.

I encourage you to choose a short passage of scripture that stops or strangely warms your heart. Meditate on those words. Write them on a card and keep them  with you. Write them, with soap, on your mirror. To meditate on God’s word literally means to mumble or utter it under the breath.

Romanian Orthodox Chant - Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery

by danteselu•5 years ago•195,274 views

www.sfantulioanrusul.ro Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery, Romania 

God's Righteous Servant. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.defendproclaimthefaith.org/gods_righteous_servant.htm

 "An outline of a Bible-school curriculum". (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/stream/outlineofbiblesc00peas/outlineofbiblesc00peas_djvu.txt

Reflecting on Our Faith - UMC.org, http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2310045/k.4A66/Reflecting_on_Our_Faith.htm

(accessed January 14, 2013

Kim Hill - Psalm 1 Uploaded on Apr 30, 2007 Call to worship based on Psalm 1 Visit us at www.phillycgc.org

“righteous.” equitable." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Jan. 2013).

Monday, January 14, 2013

Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Isaiah 40:12-23

Ephesians 1:1-14

Mark 1:1-13

Daily Readings from The Voice, the internet web site of CRI/Voice, Christian Resource Institute, a global and ecumenical ministry dedicated to providing biblical and theological resources for growing Christians. www.crivoice.org Readings based on the Revised Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer.

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

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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.