Advent Devotional - Day 3: by Char Klima

December 1st, 2009
READING: Micah 5:2-5

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are small among the clans of Judah,
Out of you will come for me
One who will be ruler over Israel,”
Micah 5:2

Seven hundred years before Christ, Micah passed along the message he received from God announcing his Son’s birth. Expect a baby to be born in Bethlehem (the Bethlehem six miles from Jerusalem) to rule over Israel. This king’s reign, unlike all the kings they knew, would be eternal—Christ was before time, Christ is even today, and Christ will be forever.

What a promise with every detail exact! What a God! All we have to do is to believe Him. And we should believe with confidence. Has our Heavenly Father ever deceived us? He has delivered on every promise throughout history exactly as He spoke it.

But God through Micah doesn’t stop there. Israel will suffer for its rejection of Christ until it “gives birth” to our Lord a second time when He returns to earth in glory to draw the faithful to Himself. What a magnificent promise! God is faithful and can be trusted! BELIEVE! Praise God who cares enough to give us believing hearts even in our uncertain world.

Heavenly Father,
We hear your word and still question things. Come into our hearts and open them to hear your word so we believe everything you have promised. Amen.

Advent Devotional - Day 2: by Shirley Evans

November 30th
READING: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

“… just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
1 Corinthians 1: 6-9

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This was a common greeting in the time of Paul and the early church. It’s a shame we’ve gotten away from such a warm and wonderful greeting. To know that we are blessed by God’s grace should fill us with peace and assurance of His love.

Next Paul thanks those at the church in Corinth because of the grace given them in Christ Jesus, for the way they’ve been enriched by the Holy Spirit and have testified to others of Christ Jesus. We too should thank God for each other and for the spiritual gift he has given us that we can share with one another. Our encouragement of fellow Christians is important, especially when life presents challenges and trials as we find in today’s world.

We can find peace and be strengthened in our faith knowing that God, through his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, will keep His promises and remain faithful to us.

Dear Lord, bless this day and let the knowledge of your gift to us strengthen my faith. Help me to encourage someone today who may be poor in faith so their heart may be filled with the wisdom of your grace and the warmth of your peace. Amen.

Advent Devotional - Day 1: by Evelyn Nasworthy

November 29th
READING: John 1:1-5

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
John 1: 1-2

God’s plan for us has been set since the beginning of time. Jesus was a part of it before we knew his name. The light sent to us shines in and through each of us to make our world a better place. That light shows us the path in the darkness of our lives. It NEVER goes out! Living in Our Lord allows each of us to spread this light. Can you feel the energy He gives you? Let your light shine…….God shares it with you. It is up to you to share it with others. Glow!! Glimmer!! SHINE!!

Lord Jesus, Allow me to shine your light in my life to others. Amen.

Raising the Roof of Faith - Placing God First

Week 6: November 7-13

Mark 12:28-34
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ 32Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; 33and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Commentary
We so easily get caught up in our legalisms. By the time of Jesus, the 10 Commandments which were the foundation of the Hebrew covenant with Yahweh, their God, had become a legal code of 600+ laws that had to be observed for one to be righteous. We see Jesus routinely getting in arguments with the Pharisee’s over these things. Working (gathering grain) on the Sabbath, healing on the Sabbath, eating with the wrong sorts of people (treasonous tax collectors and the dissolute), etc. By the letter of the law, Jesus was breaking the religious code and traditions of his people. Except that he wasn’t. The code was not fundamentally about do’s and don’ts...but about our heart towards the world. And this is what Jesus drives at in the story above. The point of the Commandments was this: love God entirely, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God. Love neighbor. How did it get so complicated?

Well...we like to measure things, we human beings. And so we start making the law even more specific so that we can measure whether we are really loving God or loving our neighbors, until we get so mired in our legalisms we can’t see our way to their original intent.

It’s all predicated on the idea that you and I aren’t intelligent enough to discern whether we are really loving God, loving neighbor or not. So we get specific, and lose it all altogether.

But just so we’re clear, Jesus wasn’t a legalist, and he didn’t want us to check our brains at the door. The law (or parts of Scripture) may say a thing, but anything that ever gets asserted as law (and a must do) must be weighed, not against itself or where it was found (such as the Bible itself), but against the Law of Love...and God’s demonstration of it given to us in the cross and resurrection. These in the end are the only valid measures.

Questions for Discussion
1. What are some modern examples of legalism in the church? Are these things helpful to our human community of Christ, or a hindrance? Do they help us love God more deeply, and our neighbors more authentically, or are these rules simply legalisms that make us feel good about ourselves?
2. How do you know when you are loving God? What does it look like for you as an individual? What does it look like for us as a Church?
3. How do you know when you are loving your neighbor? What does it look like for you as an individual? What does loving neighbor look like for us as a Church?

Raising the Roof of Faith - With God: On the Necessity of Prayer

Week 5: October 31 - November 6

Luke 11:1-13
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father,* hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.* 3 Give us each day our daily bread.* 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’*
5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for* a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to those who ask him!’

Commentary
Prayer is one of the hardest faith conversations we have. Prayer as practice and as concept comes with so much baggage attached to it that it is often hard to get at its deepest purposes. We learn as children the easiest of prayers -- how to kneel and hold our hands -- at dinner and at bedtime...physical actions set to prayerful scripts handed down through the generations. We learn to pray for ourselves and for others, and learn that prayer is especially warranted in times of great need. And perhaps this is the reason that there is so much disillusionment wrapped up in prayer. We pray for what we think we need and not what we really need and then are put out and discouraged when we don’t get what we want.

You have to be impressed by the disciples, though, who implore Jesus to teach them how to pray. The question isn’t, “why aren’t my prayers answered, Lord?” Instead its, “Teach me how to pray,” (e.g. What to ask for).

And Jesus’ answer is compelling. His answer has to do with the alignment of the person praying with the life of the Father and his kingdom where the kingdom is manifested fully today, God’s sufficiency is experienced today, his forgiveness is made real and alive today, and we are kept in a right relationship with the greatest purposes of God.

This hearkens to the version of the Lord’s Prayer we pray today. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
So the deepest purposes of prayer have to do with aligning our wills, minds, and hearts, with the will, mind, and heart of God...communion in the truest and deepest sense.

Prayer is not where our deepest wishes are manifest. Instead, prayer is where we as God’s children find ourselves manifest in the heart and very being of God and his purposes, and discover that there is no-thing on heaven or earth that can separate us from his real and powerful love. Ever.

Questions for Discussion
1. In Jesus’ response to the one disciple’s query on prayer, he uses an illustration of persistence to show us that the seeking of God’s heart and will I prayer is to be constant. If you struggle with regularity in prayer, what do you find is your biggest barrier to persistence? How might that barrier be overcome?
2. In your small group, share a personal story of un-answered prayer. Why do you think your prayer went unanswered?
3. In your small group, share a personal story of answered prayer. Were you able to recognize it as such at the time? Why or why not?
4. What other things do you notice in Luke’s story on learning to pray? What do you think the Spirit is saying to you? To the church?

Raising the Roof of Faith - Power of Commitment

Week 4: October 24 - 30

Mark 12:41-44a
And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Commentary
Commitment. You know, the four letter to “C” word! I believe, that we live in a culture that is commitment phobic. I believe this is the case, because commitment means accountability. And this means that there will be expectations of us. So rather than live with accountability, we run from it. Run the other direction, so that there will be no expectations of us. But our scriptures leave us no such latitude. The witness of the Bible over and over and over again is that commitment is part and parcel of faith. Anything significant that we will ever desire to do will require our utmost commitments and responsibility. These things will demand everything from us, if it really matters that much. Take the witness of this widow in the Gospel of Mark. For all of those who believe that they are giving generously, and that they are the picture of commitment, this woman walks into the treasury of the temple, gives everything she has, and puts everyone else to shame. She put them to shame, because she gives everything that she has. I wonder, if we have the same temerity and commitment that this woman demonstrates in the Gospel of Mark?

No doubt life is full of experiences that challenge our commitments. It’s just that our character gets tested when our commitment kicks into gear. It’s when we are asked to give it all, to give beyond it all, that we begin to measure the depths of our being and our passion for the thing at hand. I think that this widow, that we see in the Gospel of Mark, had to give everything she had because it was in her character to do no less. The Temple was the Temple of her God. She believed that her God deserved everything that she had, even her last few pennies.

Our commitment isn’t just a measure of our character, but also of the depth of our love. If this is true, then we should all be wowed by the depth of God’s love for us, revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus’s commitment took him to the depths of the cross and into Hell itself for this creation and the humanity that inhabits it. You simply can’t go any lower. There will never be any greater measure of the depth of God’s love, literally, for each of us.

Questions for Discussion
1. Jesus’s observation of the widow and his interpretation of her actions challenge Jesus’s disciples. As you read the story above, what do you hear God saying to you? What do you hear God saying to our congregation?
2. In your small group, share a personal story of radical commitment. This story may be something that you personally experienced, or a story you saw demonstrated in the life of another. How did the situation you just shared grow your character? What were the ramifications for those around this incident? If the story involved you personally, how did the opportunity to show commitment change you going forward?
3. What sort of commitments do you think that we as a church could make good on that would make God very proud of us? How do our commitments as God’s people reflect the nature and character of the God we serve?

Raising the Roof of Faith - Confronting/Overcoming Adversity

Week 3: October 17 - 23

Nehemiah 4:6-23
So we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height; for the people had a mind to work.

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

But Judah said, ‘The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is too much rubbish, so that we are unable to work on the wall.’ And our enemies said, ‘They will not know or see anything before we come upon them and kill them and stop the work.’ When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, ‘From all the places where they live they will come up against us.’ So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.’

When our enemies heard that their plot was known to us, and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and body-armour; and the leaders posted themselves behind the whole house of Judah, who were building the wall. The burden-bearers carried their loads in such a way that each laboured on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, ‘The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet. Our God will fight for us.’

So we laboured at the work, and half of them held the spears from break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, ‘Let every man and his servant pass the night inside Jerusalem, so that they may be a guard for us by night and may labour by day.’ So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his weapon in his right hand.

Commentary
Adversity is a part of life. As relatively autonomous individuals between the doorposts of birth and death, we can all be assured that as we interact with the world and each other, that we will face adversity. Some adversity is external. Nature. Economic circumstances. Viruses. War. Illness. Conflict with family; your spouse, children, or parents. Other adversity is internal such as the depression and hopelessness that come as we wrestle spiritually an psychologically with our place in this world--and are tempted to let circumstances overtake and conquer our spirits. But inherent in all adversity is the opportunity to exercise the strength of our spirits, flexing the muscle of our souls, and seeing and experiencing our human capacity to overcome.

On some occasions what we face externally or internally will be greater than we can rightly handle. I know that popular spiritual wisdom tells us that God never gives us more than we can handle. But this presupposes that it is God that is giving us the adversity in the first place. I don’t believe that this assertion can stand in the light and reality of Jesus. The cross was more than he could handle. It did in fact kill him. But the revelation in the midst of the adversities of life -- even those that will take our lives -- is that God has the last word. There is no adversity you or I will ever face that is bigger than him or his unique power to overcome. This is the good news: that even when we are overcome by life and its adversity, God is still greater.

Questions for Discussion
1. If you are willing to share, identify two kinds of adversity from you own life. First identify a situation that tested and stretched you but through which your own human spirit triumphed. Next, identify an experience where your human capacities were not enough to get you through and where you had to totally rely on God. In each situation, what did you learn about yourself and you Creator?
2. Where is God when the adversity in you life is greatest? How do you know where God is in these times?
3. If life sometimes hands us more than we can handle, then how do Christ’s cross and resurrection become good news for us?