wine

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is no accident that the first way you chose to reveal your glory was by changing water into wine.  What does that tell us about you?  What does it say about who you are and what you are up to?  What does it tell us about what you most deeply want for our lives?  Lord Jesus, give our lives the fullness and the richness and the depth and the quality you desire them to have.  Then, when people taste your life within us, they will want it themselves.  Amen.

Scripture: John 2:1-11

Journal: Why water to wine?  And why did only the servants know what had really happened?  What does Jesus want to say to you through this passage?  What does he want you to see?  What does he want you to believe?  What does he want your life to be like?

Reflection: I once heard it said that God’s love is like fine wine; it is complex and robust and smooth and intoxicating.  And because it is like a fine wine, it goes unappreciated by most palates.  I think that is so true.  And maybe it partly explains why the first place Jesus chose to reveal his glory was by turning water into wine at the wedding of some friends.  Oh sure, it could have been simply because his mother asked him to, but I think it was more than that.  I think there is something about wine that is meant to give us a taste of God’s kingdom, his life, and his love. 

After all, wine occupies a pretty significant place in the scriptures.  It is present from the first miracle, to the Last Supper, to the final wedding feast of the Lamb.  It is used both to symbolize Christ’s redeeming blood and to help us visualize the life and movement of God’s Spirit within us and among us.  In fact, we are warned that if we try to contain its life and its fullness in old wineskins, they will simply explode.  I love that!  It fills me with such excitement and joy and hope.  Hope that I will one day be able to contain all of the fullness and life and love that God desires for me.  And that his life and his love would overflow from me in such a way that it would invite others into that fullness and life and love as well.  After all, isn’t that what the fullness is for in the first place?

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Thank you, O Lord, that your love is more delightful than wine. (Song of Songs 1:2) Help me to taste and see, today and every day.  Amen.

nathanael

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, see me today and tell me what you see, so that I can know myself as you know me.  Amen.

Scriptures: John 1:43-51

Journal: What does Jesus see in you today?  What does he want to say to you?  Listen deeply to him and then write it down.

Reflection: Jim, you are such a magnificently beautiful mess.  And I love that about you.  I love the way you feel things so deeply and wrestle with them so profoundly.  For it is in the mess and in the struggle that you encounter me.  It is in the mess and in the struggle that you are transformed.  Thanks for your continual willingness to go there.  I know it wears you out at times, but it such a necessary part of your spiritual life and growth.  So keep wrestling and keep struggling, and keep being willing to articulate it.  Thank you for consistently putting it on a page.  The page is one of your best friends.  It is so often where our life together—and your life in community—is hammered out.  It is your way of prayer.  Stay faithful to it.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that I am seen, known, and loved by you.  Amen.

haughty eyes

Opening Prayer: Lord, my heart is meek before you.  I do not consider myself more important than others.  I am content to not pursue matters that are over my head—such as your complex mysteries and wonders—that I’m not ready to understand.  I am humbled and quieted in your presence.  Like a contented child who rests on its mother’s lap, I’m your resting child and my soul is content in you.  O people of God, your time has come to quietly trust, waiting upon the Lord now and forever. (Psalm 131:1-3, The Passion Translation)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: Where do you see pride and haughtiness in you?  What is the difference?  What does it cause?  What does it look like to resist it?  How will you allow God to transform it?

Reflection:  “My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.” (Psalm 131:1) I don’t know about you, but I don’t typically use the word haughty a lot.  Thus, when I come across this word as I pray Psalm 131 each week, I’m not really sure what to do with it.  All I know is that having haughty eyes is something King David wants to avoid at all costs.  That’s probably because, as Proverbs 6:17 tells us, it is one of the things God hates.  Which are pretty strong words.

The word haughty, in the Hebrew, is ruwm, which means to be high actively, to rise or raise, to bring up or exalt (self).  It is very similar in meaning to the word most often translated proud, which is also in this psalm—gabahh.  Gabahh means to rise, or soar.  So the goal of both words is basically the same—the elevation of self—but how it goes about accomplishing that goal is subtly different.  To see the distinction, it is helpful to see the core meaning of the two words in English.  To be haughty, the dictionary tells us, means “to have a big attitude and act like you are better than other people.  A haughty person acts superior and looks down on others.”  So the key difference between pride and haughtiness is that pride focuses too much on self, puffing up, while haughtiness focused too much on others, looking down.  Pride has too high a view of who we are, while haughtiness has too low a view of others.

Strangely enough, it is haughtiness, and not pride, that makes the list of “six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him” in Proverbs 6:17, which is probably because of how haughtiness causes us to treat others.  While pride can cause us to be far too focused on ourselves, haughtiness can cause us to be cruel, dismissive, critical, condescending, and even judgmental of the very people God has called us to love and care for.  It can cause us to belittle them and see them as incapable, inadequate, and insignificant.  It is bad enough when we have a distorted or delusional view of ourselves, but when it causes us to mistreat those who have also been made in God’s image, then it has gone too far.  That is when it really draws God’s ire.

Very wisely, David prayed against both, since one often feeds the other.  He prayed that he would not have an overinflated view of his own importance, or an underinflated view of the worth, value, dignity, and significance of others.  Only then could he be the leader God wanted him to be, a leader who cared more about God’s people than he did about himself.  A leader who was able to be still and quiet before his God, totally content and utterly dependent.  And maybe, just maybe, if I continue to pray his prayer, I will be too.  Well, a man can dream, right?    

Prayer

Closing Prayer: “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things that are too great and too marvelous for me.”  Please help it to stay that way.  Help me, O Lord, to “still and quiet my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.”  Quiet, peaceful, content, and dependent; trusting and resting in the loving care of your Divine embrace.  Then all of my hope will finally be in you and not in me, “both today and forevermore.”  Amen.

God is enough

Opening Prayer:  O God, you are enough.  Help me to live like I believe it.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6

Journal: How do the words of Psalm 23 speak for you or to you today?  Write a paraphrase of the psalm this morning, as it speaks to where you are in life right now?

Reflection: Lord, my shepherd, you are enough; I don’t need a thing.  Help me to live like it.  You invite me to stop scurrying around, trying to manipulate and control everything, and ask me to lie down with you in green pastures and sit still with you beside quiet waters.  For one of your greatest desires is the restoration of my soul to its creation intent.  You invite me to walk through life in a new way, attentive to your voice, and concerned only about your name and your kingdom, rather than my own.  Even though fear and anxiety are sure to rear their ugly heads again and again, I will not let them control me, for you are with me: you protect me, you provide for me, and you comfort me.  You invite me to pull up a chair to your table, you soothe my head with healing oil, and you make my heart overflow with love.  You relentlessly pursue me with your goodness and your love all the days of my life, so that I might live in your divine embrace forever.  How could I possibly say no to all of that?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help my life to always be lived out of love, not out of need.  Amen.

journey

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that every step in our journey is under your watchful love and care.  Thank you that you are even able to use the hard and chaotic stretches to make us more and more like Jesus.  Amen.   

Scripture: Psalm 107:1-43

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today?  Which of these vignettes can you relate to most?  Write your own little part of Psalm 107.  End it with, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. He…”

Reflection: Some were so busy trying to become themselves that they forgot that the whole point of the spiritual journey was to forget themselves and become more like Jesus.  So they turned to him in stillness and in trust, and surrendered themselves to his loving care.  They had no idea exactly where it would lead or what it would look like, but they knew it was the path to peace and joy and freedom, finally allowing them to love, instead of worrying about being loved.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.  For he is more patient and loving and kind with us that we could ever deserve; turning the lights on for us slowly, over time, because he realizes that we could not handle, or live, the truth all at once. —Jim Branch, August 22, 2020

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.  Amen.

 

need

Opening Prayer: My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 62:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 62:1-12

Journal: What do you really think you need in order to be okay?

Reflection: What do you need in order to be okay?  No, really?  And I’m not looking for the right answer here, but the real one.  Do you need success and achievements and notoriety?  Do you need affection and affirmation?  Do you need financial security?  Do you need others to think well of you?  Do you need to do a good job?  Do you need good health?  Do you need everyone in your family to be thriving and flourishing? 

So, let me ask you again, what do you really need in order to be okay?  The real answer to this question has so much to say about the way we live our lives, because need is not the best foundation to build a life upon; it is tenuous and shaky and ever-changing.  It can fill us with agendas and demands and expectations, often leaving us anxious or depressed or angry or frustrated or all of the above.  Thus, when we build our lives around what we need—or what we think we need—we place ourselves at the mercy of mood, whim, and circumstance.

But when we finally realize that all we really need is “God alone,” everything begins to fall into place.  Oh, not in circumstantial terms maybe, but in terms of our inner landscape—the state of the heart and soul.  The saints called this detachment.  It is the ability to be okay regardless of what is going on around us.  It is not allowing our well-being to get too “attached” to things that can, and will, change, but fully attaching our well-being to the One who never changes—God alone.  Only then will we be the people he created us to be, and only then will we be able to love the way he created us to love.   

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)

through

Opening Prayer: “Your path led through the sea, O Lord, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.” (Psalm 77:19)  Help me to resist the temptation to go around, because when I am willing to go through the sea, or through the mighty waters, when I am willing to trust myself completely to your love and care, then you can do amazing things in and through me.  O Lord, help me to trust in you.  Amen. 

Scripture: Psalm 77:13-20

Journal: How are you being tempted to try and go around the sea these days, rather than through it?  Where do you think God wants you to go?  Will you?

Reflection:

     through

   psalm 77:19

if i’m honest

i must admit

that there are times

i would rather just

go around

it’s easier

but your path is 

rarely the easy one

your path always seems

to lead through the sea

through the mighty waters

through must be 

better than around

because through is

the place of dependence

the place of surrender

the place of trust

so may i never miss

the beauty and goodness 

of the way through

by constantly trying

to find a way

around

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, give me the grace and the strength and the courage to go through the sea, and through the mighty waters, even when I cannot see your footprints.  Help me to live a life of unflinching trust in your unfailing love.  Amen.