justice and righteousness

Opening Prayer: Lord, thank you that justice and righteousness are a big deal to you.  And thank you that you want them to be a big deal to us as well.  Show us how to do that.  Help us to be agents of your peace in this world of chaos.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Scripture: Isaiah 32:16-18

Journal: How are justice and righteousness concretely taking shape in your life these days?  How is that bringing about shalom?  How is God calling you to be an agent of his shalom in the world?

Reflection: In the kingdom of God, justice and righteousness are vitally and intimately connected.  Just look at the Scriptures, you hardly ever see one without the other. Justice (mishpat), at its core, means that all of the principles and standards of the covenant are applied equally and fairly to everyone.  And righteousness (tsedaqah) has to do with right standing and right relationship, first with God and then with one another.  Righteousness means that everyone and everything are living as they were intended to.  Thus, you can’t be righteous without being just, and you can’t be just without being righteous.

     And when you put the two together, you get peace (shalom).  And by peace, I do not mean merely a calm and serene feeling inside, but I mean wholeness. Shalom is always about experiencing the creation intent of God.  Shalom is about being exactly who and what we were meant to be.  It is about reversing the effects of the fall whenever and wherever possible and making space for God to usher in the kingdom once again.  For only when we experience true shalom can we ever have any real hope of finding the rest our souls most deeply long for.

     The tricky part is that only God can bring about true shalom, but we are all responsible to live justly and act rightly—by his power and his grace.  It is how we seek the peace of the city. (Jer. 29:7) In order to seek shalom for all, we must consider what it means for us as individuals to live in such a way that we do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) We can’t just sit idly by and hope that it will somehow magically come about.  It will take a lot of effort on our part.  It will take a lot of prayer and reflection and confession and conversation and repentance and reconciliation.  It will involve each of us considering what God would have us to do in order to make his shalom a possibility for all.

     What does that look like for you?  How will you take the first, or the next, step?  How will you live in such a way, this day, that you are an agent of God’s shalom in the world?  After all, “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others.  It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.  You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.” (James 3:17-18, The Message)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.  May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace, so that you might be agents of his peace in this broken and hurting world.  Amen.

what are you trying to prove?

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you offer us the invitation to come to you and rest.  Rest is such a fleeting and fragile thing in this world of achievement and accomplishment.  It seems that we are constantly being asked to prove that we are worth loving.  And that is so overwhelming, depressing, and exhausting.  It can wear us down and burn us out.  So help us to take you up on your invitation today, so that we might actually be able to breathe again.  That we might be able to truly find our rest in you.  Amen. 

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

Journal: What are you trying to prove?  How does it keep you from rest?

Reflection: “What are you trying to prove?  Why do you keep running around wearing yourself down, loading yourself up, and burning yourself out?  Why are you trying so hard to prove to yourself and your world—and even to me—that you are worth loving?  Come to me and I will give you rest.  Come to me and I will show you who you really are; I will show you who I made you to be.  I will show that it is not what you do that makes you valuable, it is who you are.  In fact, it is whose you are.  You are mine.  You belong to me.  I love you fully, passionately, and unconditionally.  Take that “yoke” upon you and you can finally stop running and performing and jockeying.  Take my yoke upon you and you will finally be able to stop and to breathe.  You will finally be able to recover the life of your soul.”

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Find rest, O my Soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Psalm 62: 5-8, NIV)

new wine

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, all too often we try to house the new work of the Spirit in old wineskins that cannot possibly contain it.  Help us to know what it looks like to create new wineskins that will enable the work of the Spirit within and among us to grow and expand and flourish.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 2:18-22

Journal: What new wine is the Spirit cresting in you these days?  How are you trying to hold it in old wineskins?  What would it look like to create new wineskins in order to make good space for that work of the Spirit to grow and expand and flourish?

Reflection: All too often I find that the new life God is trying to grow within me simply will not fit into the same old containers I try to put it in.  The life of the Spirit is dynamic, not static, and our practice should be the same.  Oh that is not to say that old practices aren't useful in the life of the Spirit, because they definitely are.  In fact, some of the best ancient practices have not been practiced for so long that they have a lot of new life to them. 

     What Jesus seems to be saying here is that our practice should always be determined by the life and movement of the Spirit, not vice versa.  The practices of the faith (or the spiritual disciplines, or means of grace, or whatever you want to call them) are intended to make space for the Spirit to move, not to constrict or control it.  Therefore, it seems that our spiritual practice must be constantly adapted to what God is doing in our souls and in our community.  Holding on to old, lifeless, duty-filled, performance-based forms of spiritual practice (as in Mark 2:18-22) does not give the room that the new, vibrant, growing, expansive, spacious work of the Spirit requires for the current season.  And when we hold on to ritual, simply for the sake of ritual, it is like putting new wine in old wineskins.  When we are hell-bent on always having to do the same old things the same old ways, the soul actually begins to shrivel and die.  It becomes more about what we do than about what He does.  Not that these practices and rituals are always bad, there will probably be a season in the future where they will serve us well once again--or should I say where they will serve God well as he does his work within us.  Therefore, we must constantly examine our souls and our practice to try and make the best possible space within us for the Spirit of God to do his work. 
     What is the state of your soul these days?  What is God's Spirit doing within you?  What is the state of your current practice?  Is it producing good fruit?  Is it making good space for the growth that is going on within you?  If not, what will make good space for the movement of God's Spirit in your heart and life?  And how will you make those things a part of your normal rhythm and practice? —New Wine by Jim Branch

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive us, Lord Jesus, when we try to put the new life of the Spirit in the same old containers.  Give us new wineskins that can make room for all the life and the fullness and the vitality the Spirit desires to bring to us.  Amen.

training versus trying

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to know what it means to train ourselves to be godly.  Give us the strength and the wisdom and the courage and the grace to do so.  Amen.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Journal: How do you train yourself to be godly?  How is that different from just trying real hard?  What will you do this week in terms of training for the purpose of godliness?  What are your spiritual practices these days and do the fit more into the category of training or trying?

Reflection: “Instead, train yourself to be godly.” (1 Tim. 4:7, NLT)  There is a world of difference between training yourself to be godly, and just trying to be godly.  Unfortunately, all too often, in our spiritual lives, we just try to be godly without training ourselves to be godly.  And the trying without the training is destined to failure.

     Years ago a group of friends were sitting around talking about training for marathons, when one of the guys in the group made the statement that he didn’t need to train.  In fact, he said he could run a marathon “right now.”  At which point, every other guy in the group challenged him: “Okay, let’s see it.”  What ensued was pretty hilarious—the stuff legends and lore are made of.  But long story short, he tried, and though he performed valiantly and admirably, he failed.  No surprise.

     You see, trying can only get us so far.  Some further than others, mind you, but without training, trying is an exercise in futility.  How in the world could we ever think that we could become godly just by trying real hard?  We need practice at constantly turning to God for help.  We need to train ourselves to use his strength and his power to do the thing that we cannot do on our own—become like him.

     Training is much different, especially in the spiritual life.  Training definitely involves effort, but it doesn’t involve sheer willpower and determination.  Training involves teaching our soul and spirit to constantly turn towards God rather than ourselves.  Spiritual practice is nothing more than making time and space for God to move and to work and to act.  Spiritual practice, or the spiritual disciplines, are the things we do that help us to be the people God desires us to be.  They are the ways we train our soul and spirit to be open and receptive and obedient to God’s voice, God’s direction, and God’s will at all times and in all situations.  If we constantly train ourselves to turn towards God over and over and over again, then we will be able to do that when times of trial or temptation or disaster come.  When the “game” is on the line, our soul will be trained to use God’s Spirit and power, rather than trying to rely on our own.  That is how we become spiritually fit.       

Prayer

Closing Prayer: You alone, O Lord, can make us godly, but that doesn’t let us completely off the hook.  We too have a responsibility in this equation.  Help us to know what it means to train ourselves to be godly, and then help us to do it.  Amen.

free to love

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to never use our freedom to do whatever we want to do, for that is not freedom.  Freedom comes through loving and serving, not through manipulating and demanding.  Help us to find our freedom in you.  Amen. 

Scripture: Galatians 5:13

Journal: What is freedom?  How do you define it?  How do you know when you are really free?

Reflection: “It’s absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life.  Just make sure you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.  Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. (Gal. 5:13, The Message)

     Where did we ever get the idea that freedom was doing whatever the hell we wanted to do.  It is not!  Freedom is about love and care.  Freedom is about the ability to stop being so self-centered and self-consumed that we are finally able to love and serve those around us, rather than extort love out of them.  We are free men and women when having our own needs met is not the driving force behind all of our relationships and behavior.  For only then are we really free to love.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to live as free men and women: free to love, rather than demanding to be loved; free to serve, rather than demanding to be served; and free to be others-centered, rather than constantly being self-centered.  In other words, help us to be like you.  Amen.

more is not better

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you have made us free.  Help us to have the strength and the grace and the courage to live in that freedom and not be drawn back into the yoke of slavery.  Amen.

Scripture: Galatians 5:1

Journal: Where in your life are you choosing bondage over freedom?  How does buying into the “more is better” mentality play into that?  Does it lead you to freedom or bondage?  How will you choose freedom today?

Reflection: If I have learned anything in these last few months of quarantine and pandemic, it’s that more is not better.  It’s just not.  But, unfortunately, we live in a culture that says it is.  We live in a world that is addicted to more.  But my guess is that in the past few months, where more has not been an option, the value of less has kind of snuck up on us, surprised us, and maybe even delighted us.  In fact, in many ways we might have actually discovered that less is more.  Less work means more quality time to be with those who are nearest and dearest to us.  Less activity means more conversation, rest, and reflection.  Less frenzy and chaos and hurry means more peace and joy and contentment.

     But what happens when things finally get back to normal?  Do we jump right back in to our “more is better” mentality?  Or do we take the lessons that less has taught us and weave them into the fabric of our lives?  Do we proceed in a different way and at a different pace and with a different perspective, or do we mindlessly plunge back in to the demands and busyness and hurry?

     “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free,” Paul tells us in Galatians 5:1. “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  What if the last few months were about bringing freedom?  What if the last few months were an opportunity to experience a different way, so that each of us might choose to proceed differently?  What if God is trying to get our attention, as a people and as a culture, and say, “More is not better. See!  Less is the better, deeper, and more live-giving way.  Choose less.  Don’t allow the desire for more to rule over you.  Don’t allow it to make you its slave once again.  Because the constant pursuit of more will actually make you less; and doing less, will actually help you to become more.  Everything is topsy-turvy in the kingdom of God.”

     The only question is, will we choose freedom, or will we choose bondage?  Whether we believe it or not, the choice really is up to us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you want freedom for us, but you will not make us choose it.  That choice is up to us.  Help us, Lord Jesus, to choose freedom, every minute of every day.  Amen.

free indeed

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that because of you we are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters.  Help us to live like it.  Amen. 

Scripture: John 8:33-36

Journal: Do you live more like a slave or more like a son or daughter?  What does it mean that Christ have made you free indeed?  How do you live like it?

Reflection: We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good.  His inscrutable love seeks our awakening.  True, since this awakening implies a kind of death to our exterior self, we will dread His coming in proportion as we are identified with this exterior self and attached to it.  But when we understand the dialectic of life and death we will learn to take the risks implied by faith, to make the choices that deliver us from our routine self and open to us the door of a new being, a new reality.

     The mind that is the prisoner of conventional ideas, and the will that is the captive of its own desire cannot accept the seeds of an unfamiliar truth and a supernatural desire.  For how can I receive the seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and an opposite desire?  God cannot plant His liberty in me because I am a prisoner and I do not even desire to be free.  I love my captivity and I imprison myself in the desire for the things that I hate, and I have hardened my heart against true love.  I must learn therefore to let go of the familiar and the usual and consent to what is new and unknown to me.  I must learn to “leave myself” in order to find myself by yielding to the love of God. —Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for setting us free.  Help us not, although free, to enter the chains of bondage and slavery once again.  Help us to live as sons and daughters of God.  Amen.