the blue book is now available on amazon

Exciting news!  The Blue Book is now available on Amazon! And not only that, but it also has a bunch of new content!  I've been working for the past year or so to write an opening reflection for each chapter and I'm really excited about the end result.  I hope you will be too.  So please spread the word.  Tell your friends that the strange blue devotional book that has always been so hard to find, is hard to find no more.

recognize

Opening Prayer:  Lord, Jesus, help us to recognize you.  For if we fail to recognize you, we will never be able to receive you into our hearts and lives, believe in your unfailing love and your constant faithfulness, and become all that you desire us to be.  Help us, Lord Jesus.  Amen. 

Scripture: John 1:10-12

Journal: What does God want you to recognize these days?

Reflection: “He was in the world, and thought the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:10-12) 

It all starts with recognizing.  So much of the spiritual life revolves around what we recognize and what we don’t.  We cannot receive someone (or something), if we do not first recognize that they are there.  And the receiving is vital to the believing and the becoming.

So maybe the question we should ask, as we come to the end of one year and the beginning of the next, is “What, O Lord, do you want us to recognize?”  How do we need to recognize what God has been up to over the year gone by, and how do we need to recognize what he wants to do in the year ahead?  How has God been at work within and around us?  What people or things or events brought us to life?  And what disrupted or disturbed us?  What dysfunctional patterns and habits need to be broken, and what godly habits and practices need to be cultivated?

For how can we ever hope to take God up on his constant invitation to a deeper, fuller, richer life, if we don’t stop and recognize, both the life we are currently living, and the life he longs to live in and through us?  So, let’s take some time over the next days and weeks to do just that.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, what do you want me to recognize?  Help me to stop, and to sit before you in silence today, so that I give you the time and the space to show me the answer to that question.  Amen..

 

 

grace and truth

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you were full of grace and truth.  Help us to be the same.  Amen.

Scripture: John 1:14-18

Journal: Do you tend to err on the side of grace or on the side of truth?  Why?  What does that look like?  How was Jesus a beautiful combination of the two?  How is he calling you to be the same?

Reflection:

 

grace and truth

 

grace and truth

are not contrary

but complimentary

not opposites

but two parts of

a beautiful whole

 

they must be held

together in union

to have their full

power and efficacy

 

grace without truth

is only pretense

a cheap nicety

civility at the expense

of substance and depth

 

while truth without grace

is merely brutality

disguised as goodness

a dangerous weapon

in the hands of a child

 

one without the other

is incomplete

both are essential

in order to live life

the way it was

intended to be

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, Lord Jesus when I see grace and truth as two separate things, rather than two parts of a glorious whole.  Help me to understand what it means that grace must have truth and that truth must have grace.  Otherwise the picture is distorted and incomplete.  Amen.

submission

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I try to set the agenda for my life and then ask you to follow along.  I am called to follow you, not vice versa.  Help me to do so today.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:41-50

Journal: Who sets the agenda for your life?  What would it look like for Jesus to do that?

Reflection: If I’m totally honest, I have to admit that all too often I set the agenda and expect God to act accordingly.  But that’s not how life with Jesus works, just ask Joseph and Mary. (Luke 2:41-50) He is the one who plans the itinerary, not me.  I am called to follow him, not vice versa.  It’s funny how often I get that backwards.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me, this day, to submit to your plans, your agenda, and your will.  Help me learn what it means to truly follow you.  Amen.

 

simeon and anna

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you came into our world in such a way that only those who were watching and waiting even noticed.  Help us to be like Simeon and Anna, who were awake and alert, longing for the day when you would come and console and redeem this dark and broken world.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:21-38

Journal: How is the Savior coming into your life and world these days?  What helps you pay attention to his coming?

Reflection: Of all the people in the temple that day, only two noticed.  What was it about Simeon and Anna that made them different?  Was it their age and wisdom?  Was it their experience, the fact that they had both seen a lot of life come and go?  Surely there were others in the temple that day who were the same age.  Or was it simply the fact that they were both watching and waiting?  They were both longing to see the consolation and redemption of God’s people.  They were not so wrapped up in their own needs and concerns that they failed to notice what was right before their eyes.  They were paying attention, while the rest of the world was not.  Somehow they were able to see the Savior wrapped in swaddling clothes.

O Lord, help us to be like Simeon and Anna.  Help us to live our lives with our eyes peeled for your arrival, within and among us.  Help us to not get so caught up in our own issues and agendas that we miss your coming, this day and every day.  For you are ever and always the God who comes.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help us to be like Simeon and Anna.  Help us to live our lives with our eyes peeled for your arrival, within and among us.  Help us to not get so caught up in our own issues and agendas that we miss your coming, this day and every day.  For you are ever and always the God who comes.  Come, Lord Jesus!

light

Opening Prayer: Come, O Light of the World, come into our broken world and drive the dark night of winter away.  Fill us with your life and love and hope.  Amen.

Scripture: John 1:4-5

Journal: How has the light entered into your darkness?  How do you still long for it to?

Reflection:

     light

the light shines

into the darkness

and the darkness

has not overcome it

has not

cannot

will not

do not be surprised

however

when darkness

puts up

a hell of a fight

just remember

that light wins

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Our world is dark and broken, O Lord, and in need of your light and your love.  Come, Lord Jesus, and fill us with your joy and your peace.  Bring light to our darkness, peace to our turmoil, and wholeness to our brokenness.  We are in desperate need of you!  Amen.

let every heart prepare him room

Opening Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.  Come into our hearts and lives and world.  Come live within and among us.  May we always make room for your coming.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:7

Journal: How are you preparing him room in your heart?

Reflection: “Let every heart prepare him room.”  The preparing of our hearts to receive our King is no easy matter; it is something that will take both thought and effort on our part.  It will not just happen on its own; we will need both intention and discretion.  There are things we will need to let go of and things we will need to hold on to.  It will mean having to say “no” to some people and things, in order to say “yes” to the One who comes and makes his dwelling among us.  It will take some decluttering and some rearranging.  It will take some sitting still and some being silent.  It will take the making of space and the taking of time.  It will take open hands and longing hearts.  After all, what good is the bringing of joy into our world, if the world is not paying attention?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to make room in our hearts and lives for your coming.  Amen.