RSS

Author Archives: John D. Willome

Unknown's avatar

About John D. Willome

I post a blog of daily devotions that are my prayer journals based on scripture.

(Children Who Will Love) “While the Nations Rage” by Rich Mullins

26 May

“While the Nations Rage” by Rich Mullins

Why do the nations rage?
Why do they plot and scheme?
Their bullets can’t stop the prayers we pray
In the name of the Prince of Peace
We walk in faith and remember long ago
How they killed Him and then how on the third day He arose
Well, things may look bad
And things may look grim
But all these things must pass except the things that are of Him

Where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given
No, it remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage

The Lord in Heaven laughs
He knows what is to come
While all the chiefs of state plan their big attacks
Against His anointed One
The Church of God she will not bend her knees
To the gods of this world though they promise her peace
She stands her ground
Stands firm on the Rock
Watch their walls tumble down when she lives out His love

Where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But not so the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But behold the love
He has given
It remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage
While the nations rage

Well, where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well, the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given
Oh, it remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Rich Mullins

Dear God, this has never been one of my favorite Rich Mullins songs, but it came up on my playlist yesterday morning while I was mowing the lawn, and there was one line that caught my ear: In the hearts of the children who will love while the nations rage.

Oh, Father, where has our love gone? And when I say “our,” I mean the church. Your church. Your body. Where has our love gone? It feels like we have joined the fray with bullets and raging. With barbs. With “destroying” or “owning” each other. I’ve mentioned that I’ve been reading a memoir by Nancy French called Ghosted: An American Story. She is a ghostwriter, and she describes about ten years ago one of her jobs was to sit off camera at Fox News and feed zingers to her clients so they could “own the libs.” She is a great believer in you. Her love for you is deep and sincere. But she didn’t “love the libs” as Jesus would have commanded. She wanted to “own” them. She regrets it now. Especially since she fell out of step with the current makeup of the Republican party. Now she is the one they try to “own.” And sometimes it has worked. Sometimes, they have devastated her and her family. Of course, they claim to love and worship you too. Where is their love?

Now, before I get too sanctimonious on this topic, I could ask the same question of myself. Where is my love for those I oppose? Do I want to own them, or do I want to love them? Do I want to attack them or attract them? Do I want to fight them, or do I want to accept their attacks and meet it with love? Do I want their defeat, or do I want to comfort them? No, I make the same mistakes French describes she made. I get defensive. I get angry and then let that anger become something destructive instead of constructive.

Father, the nations are raging, but our nation is raging too. French described the difference between a Republican campaign rally in 2012 vs 2016. The anger and hate in 2016 vs 2012 was apparently remarkable. People arguing with security guards that they should be allowed to bring their guns in. Yelling at the press. Of course, chanting awful things about their opponent. Yes, right now, our nation is raging. Sometimes with real bullets. Sometimes with barbs of hate, superiority, and dominance. Even Rich Mullins, in a live performance of this song threw a barb at the Clintons (Rich died during Bill Clinton’s second term, so he was President when the song was recorded). It made me uncomfortable. I wondered if Rich could watch that now if he would regret it.

Father, I might have to take a principled stand at some point about political issues, whether they be local, national, or international. And it might cost me. My prayer is that, if it costs me, it be for a reason that glorifies you and sees me honoring you in my response to it. And while I’m here talking about the nations raging, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, China and Taiwan, etc. Oh, Father, please bring peace. Please bring solutions. Raise up your leadership to guide your will to be done. And be in our current elections from local sheriff all of the way up to President. Let nothing happen outside of your will, Father. And while you do that, I will worship you and not look to any outcome that I prefer as my idol.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 26, 2024 in Hymns and Songs

 

Tags: , , ,

James 5:13-15

25 May

13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

James 5:13-15

Dear God, this passage reminds me of the Rich Mullins song “If I Stand.” I heard him say once that he wrote it thinking about calling on you in the bad times and thanking you for the good times. Worshipping and celebrating you always.

I’ll confess that I feel a little flat this morning. It’s a Saturday morning, and while I have something planned to do at 10:30, I don’t really have anything planned today. What will I do? Will I take time to worship you? Or will I waste the day? Will I take time to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, or will I just be self-indulgent? Will I bring my hurts worries and concerns to you, or will I just feel sorry for myself?

Father, “if I stand, let me stand on the promise that you have pulled me through. And if I can’t let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you. And if I sing, let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs. And if I weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home.”

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 25, 2024 in Hymns and Songs, James

 

Tags: ,

Romans 12:6-9

24 May

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Romans 12:6-9

Dear God, it was the “do it gladly” at the end of verse 9 that caught my eye this morning. Do it gladly. How many of us (and this definitely includes me) don’t do what we are called to do gladly? How many of us don’t live into our gifting gladly?

Leadership is one that kind of floats to the top here for me. First, I confess that I am one of those people who seems to fill the void if there is ever a leadership vacuum. For example, when I was only 27 I served on a jury and, even though I was one of the youngest, if not the youngest, person in the room, I ended up being a presiding juror (the word they used for foreman). It just kind of happens to me. And there are a lot of times when I find myself in a situation that needs leadership–that could use my leadership–but I am reluctant to do it because of the commitment. Will it require too much of me? Too much of my time? Like I don’t have mountains of time I waste every day. I’m not maxed out. I could give a little more. But when I am asked to do it, too many times I don’t do it gladly.

One of the things I really don’t do gladly that you call me to do is pray more–especially for others. I have a friend right now whose home and city were hit by a big storm. He has a lot of damage and no electricity. We texted about it, but it didn’t occur to me to pray for him about it until he said, pray for electricity to be restored. I thought, Oh, yeah. I should pray about that. There is a family in our town who tragically lost a child in an accident last Sunday. I’ve prayed for them a little, but I haven’t really, in a focused way. asked for you to just cover them in your Holy Spirit. To minister to them through your angels in the spiritual realm and your church and their friends in the physical realm. No, I don’t pray gladly.

Father, help me to embrace the gifts you’ve given me. I like to give. Help me to give gladly. I live to serve others. Help me to serve gladly. I have leadership gifts. Help me to lead, when appropriate, gladly. Help me to love my wife and family gladly. Help me to pray for all of them, my friends, my community, and my world gladly. Help me to carry your joy in my heart. Help me to do it all gladly so that I might experience the fruits of the Spirit you have for me, and I might take you to a world that is looking for you.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
1 Comment

Posted by on May 24, 2024 in Romans

 

“The Gentle Slope” By Fred Smith

23 May

Dear God, I woke up this morning and read Fred Smith’s blog post for today. He titled it “The Gentle Slope” which referred to the slope we are all tempted by. The most succinct description is the quote he used by C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: ““It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

My favorite part of his piece, which mainly focused around the Israelites’ experience in going back to the Promised Land after Egypt and not completely purging the Canaanites and their customs, was when he said:

There was no law in their hearts. They could not master themselves. They did what was right in their own eyes and, predictably, having no common standard for what was lawful, society disintegrated into small factions often at war with each other. What is right for you may not be right for me. Who is to say? What is right is set by whoever has the most votes. What is right is up to who can make people believe it is right. I read a good description of the Higgs Boson particle this week. It is the egg in a bowl of flour that makes it all stick together. A society with no common values is a bowl of flour with no egg.

A society that has no accepted standard of Law and a use for idols will always find itself in the same condition as Israel. Instead of being bound together we will inevitably be in bondage to the delusions of seductive idols. Israel could not resist the corrosive power of the idols around them and so disintegrated from within long before being conquered by others.

So this is what I want to pray about this morning: the egg that holds the flour together. I’d like to say that, as Americans, your church could be what holds us together. But Satan even seems to have successfully divided that. The church has lost its saltiness and so now there are parts of it that are trying to force itself on the unchurched which only drives the unchurched farther from you. A church built on worship of you, love for each other, and service to the world would be influential in making people want you. Put another way, I heard Andy Stanley say a few years ago (my paraphrase), “I understand people not being able to believe the story of Jesus from the Bible, but I don’t understand anyone who wouldn’t want it to be true.” Jesus on earth, even before the crucifixion and resurrection, was amazing. The only people he disappointed were the people who expected him to be in their image and not yours. If we were all like Jesus–if I were like Jesus–the world would be an amazing place.

Father, you are the egg in our batter. You are what ties all of the little pieces of flour together and make us one. Help me to be an instrument that brings peace, unites people to you, and then to each other. And let it start with me being united with you.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 23, 2024 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

Tags: , , ,

Galatians 5:11-12

22 May

11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

Galatians 5:11-12

Dear God, verse 12 actually made me chuckle this morning. Paul’s exasperation was funny. I wonder if he could have a do-over, if he would like to take that part of the letter out so that it wasn’t here for me to see 2,000 years later. But that’s part of the beauty of the Bible and how you chose to communicate with us. It was written by real people with real emotions.

It is interesting to see what they were 1.) persecuting Paul for and 2.) then trash-talking him in the opposite direction. So the Jewish people were mad that he was both saying that Jesus was the path to salvation through the cross and resurrection, and that he had absolved the Gentiles from needing to be circumcised to come into the completed Jewish faith. Then there was another group of people who were accusing him of the opposite. Apparently they were saying that Paul was preaching salvation through means other than the death and resurrection of Jesus and requiring men to be circumcised. Satan figured out a way to get both sides to call Paul a heretic, or to at least teach false doctrine using Paul’s name.

Division is an amazing thing. I’ve said for a long time that it is Satan’s Plan A and it’s such a good plan that he rarely needs a Plan B. I was talking with someone the other day and saying that our country is so divided that we cannot even agree on a common enemy when there is a threat. I thought at least we could gather around fighting COVID and the pandemic, but that only divided us more. I guess there is just something in our sin nature that loves to feel wronged and avenge ourselves in some way.

Father, help me to simply let go of my rights, do my best in any given moment, and then embrace what follows. I’ll admit I get riled up by certain people. I was reading a political flyer last night that upset me. The messaging was so–well, awful. Sowing fear. Sowing hate. Just so someone could get into an office they want against another person who probably agrees with them on 95% of the issues. It’s a primary. They are from the same party. But they choose to differentiate themselves from each other by trying to make me afraid. Father, walk with me today. Make me an instrument of your peace. Even for those who are against me or the things I might be trying to do through my service to you in our community. Give me wisdom. Give me discernment. Give me love. Help me to not be part of divisiveness.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 22, 2024 in Galatians

 

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

21 May

10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 11 For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. 12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”

13 Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. 16 (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Dear God, what role do I play in divisions? It’s probably more than I know. For example, there is a church in town whose message scares me a little because of its political overtones. How would I respond if I went to church there? How should I respond? Would I speak my peace to leadership privately and then join in worship? Would I silently disagree with what is happening and just try to be your presence? Would I let people know where I disagree and then sow dissent within the congregation? Heck. Even praying here right now, I’m not totally sure what the right thing to do would be.

Being a non-Catholic attending a Catholic church has actually given me a lot of freedom to silently disagree when I disagree. I know I’m the minority there. I know that the things I disagree about really don’t make much eternal difference. I know the people I’ve met there, nearly every single one, loves you deeply and worships you. So my disagreements are immaterial.

Perhaps that’s my answer. The way I live my life inside and outside of community (which hopefully is always the same) is going to say what I believe without me having to say it. And as long as I am in a church that preaches you, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, our redemption and reconciliation to you through Jesus life death and resurrection, then even something with a more politically active focus than I’m comfortable with would just be another flavor about which I might even be wrong.

Father, let there be peace within your church, and let it begin with me. Help me to love everyone who calls on Jesus as their savior and reconciler to you as my sister or brother. From there, make my life and my activities about encouraging Jesus in the lives of others. I was thinking about a coworker this morning who is such a good woman, but just needs to enjoy what can be possible by fully sinking into you and pursuing you with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength. Help me to know how to lovingly encourage that in her and everyone else with whom I come into contact today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 21, 2024 in 1 Corinthians

 

The Discomfort and Beauty of Community

20 May

Dear God, I was listening to the Holy Post podcast this week, and they were talking about technology making it easier and more convenient for people in the church to break from community and choose to take in Christian content in isolation. Even podcasts like theirs are a threat for some people to decide to make the Holy Post hosts as their pastors without ever having to engage with them. They were discouraging this, of course, and encouraging people to encage in church community, and maybe even consider a smaller church as opposed to a larger one so that relationships, both the comfortable and the uncomfortable, might be formed.

All of this made me think about a quote I had heard someone say Eugene Peterson said once. It was something to the effect of, ” The best way to find a church is to go out your front door and walk to the closest one.” I went looking for that quote this morning, and I found this from a City Church in Baltimore, Maryland:

For years, I’ve enjoyed reading Eugene Peterson. Peterson is best known for his books and for The Message, a unique translation of the Bible into modern speech. What has fascinated me most about him is the fact that he was a pastor for one local church for 27 years. A 27-year tenure for a pastor in one church is a rare commitment in today’s culture.

Just the other day, I listened to a podcast called “On Being.” This particular episode featured a conversation between Krista Tippett and Eugene Peterson, “Entering What Is There”. By now, Peterson is in his late 80’s and attends a small, 80-member church in a rural town of Montana. He now has had ample time to look back on his pastoral career. Towards the end of the podcast he offers advice to those looking to pick a church.

PETERSON: Go to the closest church where you live and the smallest. After six months, if it isn’t working, go find the next smallest church.

TIPPET: What is it about small rather than big?

PETERSON: Because you have to deal with people as they are. You’ve got to learn how to love them when they are not loveable.

I’ve worked in three different size churches; small, medium, and large. Each has had its strengths and weaknesses, its beauty and its flaws.

I now pastor the smallest church I’ve ever been in. Certainly, we hope to grow in our number, influence, and depth. But there is something beautifully communal about small church. For better or worse, we know each other’s names, strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies.  We know well and are known well.

Our culture is one of isolation, independence, and anonymity. We deeply desire community, but are afraid to let people in. We play this tug-of-war with community in our hearts.

Maybe, a little small church is just what we need.

When my wife and I started attending the local Catholic church, one of my criticisms was that we could get in and out of mass without talking with anyone. There is no adult Sunday school so we couldn’t build community that way. Thankfully, within a couple of years, they started couples groups, and we joined one of the two inaugural groups. There are six other couples, and the age spread is just about perfect. When we started 11 years ago, the spread was from about 30 to 65. My wife and I were 43 at the time and right in the middle. I am grateful that 11 years later we are still a group with all of the original couples. We have seen each other through different difficult times. We’ve also celebrated great things like the births of children and grandchildren. We’ve annoyed each other. Hurt each other. Forgiven each other. Blessed each other. In some cases, we’ve even worked together for community projects to impact our neighbors. I think it’s been an imperative part of our church experience over this time. I don’t know where I would be getting this kind of community without it. In fact, it’s given me my best friend.

I substitute taught at a different church’s Sunday school class a week ago. That church is going through a difficult time over the ordination of LGBTQ+ people. The denomination approved it, and the local church’s members were in disagreement. When I walked into the class, which I have taught a few times before, I noticed that there were noticeably fewer people in the room. Maybe as much as 40% fewer. It was Mother’s Day and there were also college graduations happening which might have taken a few people out, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many had decided to go with the new church that one of the former associate pastors of the church started as a result. It made me sad. As I talked to them about Peter baptizing Cornelius in Acts 10 and then having to answer for it to the angry Jewish believers in Jerusalem in Acts 11, I found myself wishing that we could be humble enough to realize none of us have you completely figured out and that there will be things we disagree on (e.g. women teaching in the church, drinking alcohol, infant baptism, guitars and drums in church, etc.), but we are united in our worship of you.

Father, thank you for the small couples group you have led me to within the large structure of the Catholic church. Thank you for growing me and stretching me my limiting me and challenging me through this group. Thank you for the love I feel from this group. Thank you for caring for my wife and me over the trials and successes of the last 11 years through this group. Thank you for the friendships. Thank you for the anger and frustrations. Thank you for the forgiveness. Thank you that you have provided this “Ruth” to my “Naomi.”

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 20, 2024 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

Tags: , , , ,

Acts 2:1-11

19 May

2 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”

Acts 2:1-11

Dear God, I think what strikes me about this story this morning is that when we least expect, you show up. The believers in Jerusalem, who were just about exclusively Jewish at the time, were waiting. The didn’t know what was next. They had no idea what you were about to unleash on the world—your presence manifest within us through your Holy Spirit! It was bigger than what happened that day in Jerusalem, in that room. It was bigger than what happened outside when Peter preached and thousands believed. The idea that your Holy Spirit would come to us to be a counselor, comforter, teacher, encourager, etc. was paradigm-shifting, and it is something that I now both take for granted and don’t fully utilize or understand the power of.

One of the challenges in our modern Christian life is to really sink into the idea that I do not have to be experiencing a great high at any given moment to be Spirit-filled. For example, my wife and I talked this morning, and she is currently needing some comfort. I prayed for her comfort. I know you are there to comfort her. To the outside, she might not look Spirit-filled, but she is.

Father, help me to simply embrace you today. I spent a good bit of yesterday reading the Nancy French memoir, Ghosted: An American Story, and I got deep into the political part. It left me feeling icky. This whole political environment right now leaves me feeling, well, icky. But politics is not my God. You are my God. I worship you. I thank you for loving me. Please guide me today. Show me how to love my wife. Show me how to love my children. My parents. My siblings and nieces and nephews. My friends. Love through me, and help me to feel your Holy Spirit living within me. And help me to understand fully what that means.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 19, 2024 in Acts

 

Hebrews 6:1-3

18 May

6 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

Hebrews 6:1-3

Dear God, this passage this morning reminded me of when I was in middles school and high school. I never went deeper. I never went beyond repenting and placing my faith in you. I attended a Baptist church where I walked the aisle several times, including regular church services and revivals. I went to Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) regional and national conferences and walked the aisle there too. But there was no discipleship. No change. No maturation of my faith. I needed to “move forward to further understanding.”

For example, forgiveness. My wife and I are reading a book called Habits for a Healthy Marriage by Richard Fitzgibbons, MD. for our couples group at church. We were reading chapter 1 last night and it was on forgiveness. Frankly, it wasn’t resonating with us because it felt like it was treating forgiveness as something you can just decide to do, but it can take a lot of work to become a person who knows how to truly forgive. I highlighted this one part: “When anger develops from something of this sort, there are three basic options for dealing wit this complex and powerful emotion: (1) deny it, (2) express it actively and passively, or (3) forgive the perceived injury.” My wife stopped me when I was reading the aloud and said that she thinks oftentimes people will just deny they are angry about something and then think they are forgiving the offense. I reflected back to her that, yes, there can sometimes be a fine line between denial and forgiveness.

This morning, we were talking about it again, and she told me about a forgiveness meditation she uses that is done by a Catholic nun. In it, you go to the cross, but you take the person who offended you with you. It sounded like a good way to working through actual forgiveness, and not just pretending like something didn’t happen (denial).

I guess my point is that discipleship is so important. I have a friend who is pastor of a local church, and they have been having a lot of baptisms lately, which is great, but they are really helping the newly baptized learn discipleship skills. They are trying to actually change lives by helping people truly reconcile to you and grow in you and not just check them off as baptized and then move on. I greatly appreciate that.

Father, I am still on my journey. It truly started 37 years ago when I attended an FCA Leadership Conference and they talked to us more about discipleship training for a week than they did about getting us “saved.” I still consider that to be my baptism in the Holy Spirit moment. So help me to continue to learn about your character and nature. Continue to transform me into who you have for me to be. Love through me. Bring people closer to yourself through me. Help mem to be part of baptizing people in your Holy Spirit. And help me to truly forgive, and not just deny I am hurt.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 18, 2024 in Hebrews

 

Tags: ,

Romans 11:13-25

17 May

13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, 14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! 16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.

17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.

19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either.

22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. 23 And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. 24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.

25 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.

Dear God, the first passage I noticed this morning was the first sentence in verse 25: “I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves.” Then I started backing up to see what mystery Paul was referring to. Of course, it was about Gentiles feeling entitled and proud of themselves because they (we) are grafted in to your vine like the Jewish people are.

Pride in ourselves in an interesting thing. I certainly get it. I will pray to you. Ask you for things. Ask you to provide. Ask you to be with me when I speak. And then when it goes well, I am so ready to bask in the glory of it. Why is that? Why do I want or need this kind of praise–even if it’s only in my own eyes?

I’ve been sick the last 36 hours and it hasn’t been fun at all. And I have a lot to do. I also have a couple of challenging things to deal with and accomplish. I need your help to address them. Honestly, until I sat down and started praying like this right now, I hadn’t thought to really pray to you about it. But I really do need you. I need your guidance. I need your wisdom. I need to you prepare hearts to discuss what we are going to be discussing, including my heart. I need for you to use these struggles to make us better than we otherwise would be. I need you to forgive me for my selfishness. I’m so sorry.

Father, be with me today. Guide me. Strengthen me. Help me. And please be with my wife today and her health. She isn’t feeling great either. Oh, Lord, please wrap her body up and love her. Restore her to complete health. And thank you for all that you are doing in our lives that is good. While the hard things are difficult, the good is very good and I am so grateful to have it.

I offer all of this to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 17, 2024 in Romans

 
← Older posts
Newer posts →