captive

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your word and your Spirit.  Help us to immerse ourselves in your truth, so that we become more and more like you every day.  Amen.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 10:1-5

Journal: What does it look like to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ?  How can we keep from doing the opposite?

Reflection: God’s desire is that we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), and, yet, what we seem to be doing in this day and age is to take God captive to our own thoughts of him and make him obedient to us.  Forcing him to bend to our own will and reason and intellect, to our own thoughts and feelings, in an effort to create a God that is more acceptable to our world, to our postmodern culture, and to ourselves than the God of the Scriptures.

     It is the tendency of the intellect to say, “Unless I can understand it, unless it makes sense to me, it must not be true.”  Which takes God captive, and subjects and imprisons him to our own ability to understand and comprehend him.  Or, as I am more often guilty of, to make God the captive of our feelings.  It is the tendency of the emotions to rest our certainty and our perception of what is true on whether it feels right and true or not. 

     The only problem is that any God who is created by us, is no God at all, but merely a fabrication, a creation of our own thoughts, feelings, and preferences.  The product of a manufactured theology meant only to suit our own tastes, an apologetic crafted to defend our own opinions, and a narrative spun to make God into who and what we want him to be, rather than allowing him to be the wild and free and untamable God that he is.  We must stop making God bend to us, rather than bowing down in awestruck wonder and dumbfounded amazement before him.  We must get back to taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive us, O Lord, when we try to make you the captive of our thoughts and feelings, rather than taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.  Help us to hold fast to your word and your truth, by the power of your Holy Spirit, so that we will become more and more like you, rather than trying to make you more and more like us.  Amen.

it is better for you

Opening Prayer:  O Lord, thank you for your Holy Spirit, who lives within the hearts of all who love you.  Help us, this day, to live our lives completely open and completely surrendered to his movement and his leadership.  Amen. 

Scripture: John 16:5-16

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today?  How would you describe the Spirit’s activity within and around you these days?

Reflect: What a gift the Holy Spirit is to us.  It is the Spirit of God who transforms us and makes us into the people that God intended us to be.  It is the Spirit who speaks and moves and stirs and inspires.  It is the Spirit who empowers and encourages and exhorts and enlivens.  It is the Spirit who convicts and disrupts and disturbs and uncovers.  And it is the Spirit who comforts and heals and caresses and allures.  It is the Spirit who reminds us that we are sons and daughters of God. 

     That’s why Jesus was able to say, “It is better for you if I go away.  For unless I go, the Counselor will not come.”  And the One who is to come will be with you at all times and in all places, because he lives within you.  Thus, you are never alone.  He is the paraklētos: the Counselor, the Comforter, the Helper, the Friend, and the Spirit of truth.  He is the one who comes alongside, the one who pleads another’s cause, the advocate, the guide, the companion.  Andrew Murray once even called him the very life of God.  Thus, through the Holy Spirit, God is able to live his very life in and through each of us.  Thanks be to God!

     Thank God today for the gift of his Holy Spirit.  Ask him to encourage and enliven your heart.  Ask him to disrupt and convict you, so that you might be more like Jesus.  Ask the Spirit to be poured out on your church, your city, your state, and our world.  Where do you currently see evidence of his Spirit within and around you?  Thank him for that.  Ask him to be poured out more and more in the days to come.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, this day, O Lord, to live by your Spirit, so that we might be, more and more, the people you created us to be.  Amen.

his desire is for me

Opening Prayer: O my Beloved, thank you that I belong to you and that your desire is for me.  Help me to live from that place of love and belonging and delight, this day and every day.  Amen.

Scripture: Song of Songs 7:10-12

Journal: What does it do within you to know that you belong to the Beloved and that his desire is for you?  Will you live from that place of love and belonging and desire today?

Reflection: “I belong to my beloved and his desire is for me.” (Song of Songs 7:10) The way of the Lord is the way of passionate love.  It is about fully knowing that we do, indeed, belong to the Beloved, and that his desire is for us.  Once we experience that, once we receive his kiss, the kisses of others simply will not do.  All other loves will pale in comparison to his love.  And it will change everything about us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Beloved, do not allow me to settle for anything less than the love and desire you created me for.  Amen.

abide in me

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you actually live in me and invite me to live in you.  Help me to never settle for less than that.  Amen.

Scripture: John 15:1-17

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today? What would it look like for you to abide in Christ?  What would it look like to live your life in him, rather than just for him or with him?

Reflect: A wise saint once said that some people live for God, some people live with God, and some people live in God.  Now, don’t get me wrong, living for him and living with him are great, but what God really desires is that we live in him—minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.  That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Abide in me, and I will abide in you.”  That’s the kind of relationship he’s looking for.  In fact, it is the only relationship that will bring about the fruit we were created to bear—the fruit of deep intimacy.  The fruit of abiding in his love.

     How amazing is that?  The God of all creation wants to live his life in us and wants us to live our lives in him.  He wants our lives to be the fruit of an ongoing, abiding, intimate relationship.  In fact, it is how his joy dwells within us and our joy is made complete.

     The saints referred to this “abiding” as practicing the presence of Christ.  It involves living in constant awareness of, and connection with, the life of his Spirit within us.  Pray today that God would continually make you aware of and attentive to the life of his Spirit within you.  Ask him to help you to do every task and speak every word out of a deep connection with him; that all you do, think, or say—no matter how mundane or ordinary or trivial it may seem—would be done for his kingdom and his glory.  In fact, give him your day right now.  Look forward to all that is ahead and pray through it with him.  And at the end of your day, spend some time looking back on all that has taken place and ask him to show you what he was up to and what wants you to see.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help me to abide in you today, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

he kissed him much

Opening Prayer: O Father, thank you that you love us so much that you can’t contain yourself.  Thank you that you see us, you run to us, and you kiss us much.  It’s just who you are.  Give us the grace to receive those kisses with humility and joy and gladness.  For those kisses are the things that transformation is made of.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 15:20

Journal: When was the last time you kissed someone much?  What did it do within you?  When was the last time you were kissed much?  What did it do within you?  What does it do within you to know that God longs to kiss you much today?

Reflection: “He kissed him much.”  That’s the literal translation of what the father did when me met his lost son in the middle of the field. (Luke 15:20) He didn’t just see him, he didn’t just run to him, and he didn’t just kiss him.  He kissed him much.

     And every parent, or grandparent, gets it.  For, from the days our little ones were babes, they held a special and tender place in our hearts.  In fact, our hearts were so full of love for them that we simply couldn’t contain it.  And when they were younger we didn’t have to.  We just couldn’t keep our lips from their cheeks.  And we didn’t just kiss them once, we kissed them much.

     But somewhere along the line they grew up.  Somewhere along the line they stopped being like little children, and kissing them much was not acceptable anymore.  And it left a void in our hearts.  It made us get creative, and learn how to “kiss them much” in other ways.  But every now and then something happens, an event or a circumstance comes along—a victory, an achievement, and accomplishment, a graduation, a wedding—and allows us the permission to kiss them much once again.  

     I wonder how long it had been since the lost son had allowed his father to kiss him much.  Who knows, it might even have been a part of the reason he left in the first place.  Not because the father didn’t want to kiss him much, but because somewhere along the line the son stopped being willing to allow it.

     It makes me wonder if it is the same way with us and God.  I wonder if, buried deep in the heart of our God, there is still an intense longing to kiss us much, but somehow we have gotten too old to think it’s still appropriate.  Perhaps that is even part of what Jesus meant when he told us that we must become like little children.  Perhaps God’s deepest desire is that we recapture the beauty and the innocence of allowing him to kiss us much.  Because something tells me that if we were able to recapture than innocence, it would change everything about us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O God, that you are our Father, who loves us more than we can ever ask or imagine.  Help us to live in full awareness and assurance of that love.  Amen.

pour it out

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, may your great love and affection completely capture my heart and totally change my life.  May everything I have and everything I am be given to you as an expression of my love and gratitude.  Amen.

Scripture: John 12:1-8

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today? How will you show Jesus your love today?

Reflect: If you were going to express your love to the one you hold most dear, how would you do it?  Would you buy flowers and light candles?  Would you cook a great meal, turn on some soft music, and open a bottle of fine wine?  Or would you write a poem or sing a song or paint a portrait?  My guess is that whatever you did, you would give it your absolute best; you would give your beloved all you’ve got.

     That’s what Mary did.  She was so full of love that she simply couldn’t contain herself.  Thus, she took what was most valuable to her and she poured it out on the One who had captured her heart and filled her life.  It was an overflow.  It was her response to having been loved so fully and completely and passionately by Jesus.  She didn’t care about protocol and she didn’t worry about what people would think or say, she just poured herself out.  She didn’t consider what portion of this expensive perfume she should give, she just gave it all.  She poured out every drop on the feet of Jesus and it filled the house with the most beautiful fragrance you could imagine.  I’ll bet Jesus loved every second of it.

     How do you want to express your affection for Jesus today?  How will you try to bring a smile to his lips and joy to his heart?  What do you want to give him?  What do you want to do for him, or say to him?  Whatever you’ve got, whatever gift you have been given, give it fully to him today.  Pour it out on his feet and allow the fragrance of your love to bring delight to his heart.  Write him a poem or a song or a letter telling him how you feel about him.  Don’t hold anything back.  Give him everything you’ve got.  And then enjoy the smile on his face. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: What have I to give you, Lord Jesus, that would bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart?  Whatever it may be, help me to give it freely and extravagantly, to show you the depths of my affection.  I love you, Lord Jesus!  I love you so much!  Amen.

but now i see

Opening Prayer: O God, help me to see.  Help me to see those things in my life and my world that I am still blind to.  I cannot see them unless you show me.  So show me where I am still blind, O God, so I will not be like the Pharisees.  Amen.

Scripture: John 9:1-41

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today? What are you blind spots these days?

Reflect: Physical blindness is one thing, but spiritual blindness is quite another.  I mean, at least those who are physically blind know it, right?  The problem is that, oftentimes, those who are spiritually blind actually think they can see.  That’s the beauty of this passage in John, Jesus uses one to display the other.  He makes the blind man able to see and he shows the seeing men that they are actually blind.

     There was likely a time in each of our spiritual journeys where we would say, like the blind man, “Once I was blind, but now I see.”  There was a time, or a period of time, when somehow God turned the lights on for us and we were finally able to see things as they really are.  But the problem is that even after we are able “to see,” there are still things we are blind to.  It’s just a part of the spiritual journey; we all develop blind spots.  Thus, we all are in constant need of Jesus coming to each of us again and again, in order to help us see in new ways.

     Ask God to show you your blind spots today.  Listen carefully to his voice and write down what he reveals to you.  Ask one of your closest and dearest friends to enter into that process with you.  Lovingly tell each other what you see.  Ask that friend to tell you what they think your blind spots are, and be open and receptive to whatever God says through them.  Ask Him to help you to see.  What around you does he want you to see?  Who around you does he want you to see?  What within you does he want you to see?

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help me to see, to really see.  Help me to see things and circumstances and people and the world the way you see them.  For only then can I love others the way you love them.  Amen.