Meditating on Scripture

By Phil Wood

In last Friday's devotional, Brooke Momblow quoted from Isaiah 55 and encouraged us to "pray Scripture." I heartily endorse that practice. I agree it helps us to be sure we are praying in God's will. It helps us open our hearts to the searching and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And it helps us discern the path that is best, most pure and blameless.

Isaiah 55 is perhaps my favorite passage in all of Scripture and I believe it not only calls us to pray Scripture, but it calls us to meditate on Scripture, memorize it, have it always ready on the tips of our tongues, drink it in, take it in like food, devour it, and let it nourish, sustain and transform us.

Come all you who are thirsty,

   come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

   come buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

   without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

   and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me and eat what is good,

   and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me;

   hear me, that your soul may live.

Do you not hear God himself breaking through the thin pages of Scripture, pleading with us to listen to him? Begging us to hear what he is saying, not just with our ears but with our hearts? Entreating us to take his word into ourselves, like food, and to be nourished by it?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

   neither are your ways my ways,"

   declares the LORD.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth

   so are my ways higher than your ways

   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow

   come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

   without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

   It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

Read that part again. Is this not what Dallas Willard was getting at when he said, "When we constantly and thoughtfully engage ourselves with the ideas, images, and information that are provided by God through the Scriptures...we are nourished by the Holy Spirit in ways far beyond our own efforts or understanding. This transforms our entire life."

And just listen to what God promises will happen to us when his word accomplishes its purpose in us...

"You will go out in joy

   and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

   will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

   will clap their hands."

Whenever I sit with the Lord outdoors these days, and I hear the wind blowing through the trees, it sounds like applause to me. All the trees of the field are clapping their hands for me, because I've taken God's word into my heart.

"Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,

   and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the LORD's renown,

   for an everlasting sign

   that will not be destroyed."

I have now committed all of these words to memory. I meditate on them day and night. I am in love with these words, they taste sweeter and sweeter as I continue to discover what God is saying to me.

And I pray that God's word will accomplish its purpose in you, that you will know this joy, this peace and, yes, the applause of all the trees of the field.

Panning for Gold

By Brooke Momblow

Alaska is beautiful. It holds a special place in my heart because I was born there. Summer in Alaska is my favorite. Tourists pour in from every country on earth. They want to hike mountains, look for moose and bear, watch a whale spout, fish for salmon, eat beer battered halibut, cruise past a calving glacier, buy a piece of traditional native artwork, and pan for gold. Such excitement occurs with the possibility of discovering gold.

Panning for gold is both easy and challenging. Learning from someone who has practiced the different techniques will save you from throwing your pan in the river in frustration. It can help you to see that there is gold to be found, you just need a little help discovering how to find it.

You have to learn to look at how the water flows to know where to place your pan. How much dirt and gravel do you scoop? Rocking the pan to create a swirl isn’t rocket science, yet it seems so difficult when you first try. Swirling the water separates dirt and rocks from gold. Separating takes patience to develop a rhythm so the murky water begins to clear, the dirt washes away, the gold emerges. You may have to repeat this several times to see gold in your pan, you may have to find a new position in the flow of water. But oh, the thrill! That first small glitter in your pan ignites such hopes and triumph!

For me, learning to hear God’s voice was a lot like learning to pan for gold. I was skeptical that there was really any gold to be found. That unfamiliar thought in my head sure sounded like my voice. A gut feeling of needing to do something for someone else felt like superstition, or acidic tomato sauce. People I respected shared with me their own stories of how they experienced God communicating with them. They also shared that they too sometimes still wrestled with knowing if it was God or not.

Again and again I see God speaking and revealing himself to those in scripture who seek him. ”I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.” Isaiah 45:19 As believers in Christ, we are the offspring of Jacob. We do not seek the Lord in vain.

Fourteen years ago my brother entered a faith based recovery program because he believed God had saved his life in answer to his own desperate unbelieving prayer during an attempt at suicide. In the woods where he slept during the first stage of his recovery, he cried to God because he had never heard the voice of God speaking to him, but so many around him claimed to act based on hearing God. Without anyone around to help my brother understand, the Holy Spirit began to communicate with him by allowing him to see small answers to the prayers he prayed, and through those answers the Spirit began to teach my brother to recognize the very often inaudible voice of God.

“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize his voice.” John 10:4-5

Recognizing our shepherd’s voice requires spending time with him. Knowing the words he has spoken in scripture, learning his character in scripture, understanding who he says he is comes from reading scripture. This is what helps us discern if something is originating from us or if it is the Holy Spirit’s leading. We all learn his voice differently, we all hear him in various ways, but we must learn it. We all battle inward doubts that we can actually recognize the Spirit’s leading, we act in faith trying to discover what it looks like. When we do think we’ve caught a glimpse of it for the first time, more doubts rush in to question what we know. Is that gold? Or is it only fool’s gold? It requires patience, a rhythm of seeking God and asking for confirmation, so that we can wash away the clutter to reveal what our soul longs for – communion with Christ.

Often we look for outward signs, but Jesus says that believing without seeing is blessed and even those who see outward signs still doubt what they see. Not sure about you, but an angel would get my full attention. However, since it hasn’t happened to me, I guess I have to wonder if I would act like Gideon in Judges 6.  “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you’ and Gideon replied, ‘Pardon me, my Lord, but if the Lord is with us, why…?’” Later the Lord tells him ‘go, I’m sending you’ and again Gideon says ‘Pardon me, my Lord, but…’ It’s almost like he doesn’t want to believe. He brings up all the supernatural things God has done for Israel in the past like an accusation but refuses to believe God wants to do something supernatural for Israel now. His attitude really isn’t an attitude you would have if you thought you were really talking to God himself. Gideon wants to be convinced, but he is arrogant instead of humble in his search. Finally he says, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign it is really you.’ When Gideon is convinced that it’s really God talking to him, he is shocked and then terrified.  

Gideon responds with fervor for God, builds an altar to God, and tears down the altars of other gods. And yet, when God gave him further direction, he asked for two more signs from God. God is so patient. Is a lack of faith the reason Gideon asked for confirmation? Or was he just making sure it was from God? For me it can be both. Also, if I’m being honest, having an encounter with God like that, where you are completely convinced it is God, that is thrilling and addictive. You want him to keep showing up that way. Gideon may have felt the same. It’s like finding gold in the bottom of your pan.

God desires relationship with us. He sent Jesus to make that possible. The Holy Spirit is here. Emmanuel.

“Flesh and blood may be the author of this: one man may give another an affecting view of divine things with but common assistance, but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of them.” ~ Jonathan Edwards

Rooted in Love

By Marilyn Travis

I’ve been sitting here in my corner of the house staring out the window, wondering what on Earth I could write about for this week’s devotional topic. It took me quite some time, I’m sorry to admit, before I asked the Lord to please help me out. After praying, more time passed……. So, barring any sudden brainstorms from the Lord, I just stared at the beautiful blue spruce in our front yard that spans the entire width of the view from my seat. I can only see the bottom third of the tree from where I’m sitting. Thirty years ago, when we moved into the house, this same tree stood six feet tall. We hoped it would survive. Now it is one of the most beautiful trees in Elizabeth. Suddenly, like a thunderstorm creeping closer from far away, it hit me! The tree! Trees are important to God. The Lord had been helping me for some time – I just didn’t hear Him! If only I had practiced aligning myself with God like this week’s Sunday School session taught us, I wouldn’t have missed the message!

Back to the tree.

According to Matthew Sleeth, "Trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any living thing other than God and people. And every major character has a tree associated with it...There's a tree on the first page of Genesis, the first Psalm, the first page of the New Testament and the last page of Revelation. Whether it is the fall, the flood, or the overthrow of the Pharaoh, every major event in the Bible has a tree marking the spot."

I'm not going to touch base on all of the above references, but now I'm seriously considering exploring the significance of trees in the Bible more thoroughly in my personal studies! No, I'd like to go back to our initial concern about whether our little six-foot tree would thrive.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

"This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

God wants us to be like a healthy, strong tree, rooted in His Spirit, fed by the living water of His Word. Our tree's branches blow in the wind, strain under the weight of heavy snow, and sometimes a branch will break with the stress. However, the tree itself stands strong, deeply rooted. If we align ourselves with God, acknowledging He is the source of our strength, our very life, and He alone can sustain us, then we can be like the tree, weathering the storms that come our way, and growing stronger and more deeply rooted each day.

Last week, Brooke Momblow suggested we pray the Scriptures. This passage is one of her suggestions. Let's pray together:

Ephesians 3:16-19

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Amen!

 

Going Deeper May 17

by Phil Wood

Considering the sermon by Bruce Spear on May 17, 2020

Scripture Readings: 1 Peter 3:8-9, 18-20, 4:6

Pastor Bruce's sermon this week was about good news. Bruce said that Peter's message in chapters three and four was good news not only for the early church scattered throughout Asia Minor but for us believers today who make up Elizabeth Presbyterian Church.

Just as Peter commended his congregations and all believers, so Bruce commended us, the people of EPC for our:

•   unity of spirit

•   sympathy (empathy for one another – sharing of mutual joy, mutual woes)

•   love for one another

•   compassion (tender hearts)

•   humble minds

•   like-mindedness (not necessarily agreeing on everything but linked by common purpose, with hearts set on unity)

As Bob Johnson suggested when Bruce was interviewing him, take some time to slow down this morning and walk at Jesus' pace – two mph! Think about specific times when you have seen the above characteristics in action at EPC. Try to jot down a name and a brief recollection of how someone demonstrated at least one of these characteristics (preferably more than one).

Bruce said this was good news because Peter was not commanding that we should be unified, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, etc., but he was commending us because, to a great extent, these characteristics were already in place. Review the notes you've just written, and reflect on how these demonstrations show the work of the Holy Spirit building us into a spiritual house.

Smile. Praise God. Worship him in the Spirit and in truth.

The other piece of good news Bruce pointed out from these passages in 1 Peter was this: Christ the righteous died for the unrighteous. Even the people who had incurred God's wrath, and who had failed to observe warnings given by Noah, even those got a second chance when Jesus descended into hell.

"...the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that...they might live in the spirit as God does."

In the context of your own life, at this time in your life, how is this good news? Write down your thoughts and spend some time in prayer.

And later, if anybody asks you why you're so happy today, tell them you've heard some good news.

God be with you.

Praying Scripture

By Brooke Momblow

“So is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” ~ Isaiah 55:11

Praying scripture is a practice that is helpful and powerful. It can be used when we’re not sure what to pray. When we pray for God’s will to be done and not our own, praying his words can help us not interject ours.  

As we practice praying scripture together this morning, let’s start by creating a sacred space. Really that just means a place where you can clear your mind and focus, dedicate the time to interaction with Jesus. Your favorite chair with your dog, outside walking on a quiet path, or your car on the way to work are all sacred spaces when you observe them that way. 

Below are several scriptures you can use, or you may have one of your own you’d like to use. Pick one that stands out to you and pray it for yourself, then pick one to pray for someone who has been on your mind.

Before you begin, allow me to pray one for all of us:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” ~ Ephesians 1:17-18  

Amen.

Scriptures:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” ~ Psalm 51:10-12

“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:5

“For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” ~ 2 Timothy 1:6-7

“…He awakens me each morning; he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I did not turn back.” ~ Isaiah 50:4-5

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”  ~ Philippians 1:9-11

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith."  ~ 2 Thessalonians 1:11

“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” ~ Hebrews 13:20-21

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” ~Ezekiel 11:19

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” ~ Psalm 32:8

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” ~ Ephesians 3:16-19

Waiting for God

By Marilyn McGrath

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

There are times when these verses from James are hard to swallow. And I must admit that recently I have turned away from God to go my own way, because I want what I want, even if God does not plan for me to have it. And what has happened is – nothing. After a lot of running here and there, down blind alleys, following misinformation, I find myself right where I started. Except that I feel empty. I miss my conversations with the Lord. I feel directionless when I don’t lift my ideas and plans up to the Lord for His guidance. Now I understand why the psalmist starts a psalm complaining to or about God and ends the psalm singing the Lord’s praises and thanking Him for being his rock of salvation.

I find comfort in Timothy, when he reminds me that even if I am unfaithful, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is. (2Timothy 2:3). So, I can turn back to God, curl up at Jesus’ feet, and wait for His plan to come to fruition. I can add this hope to the list of things I wait for: for the virus to recede, to hug my children and grandchildren, to laugh with friends at Isabel’s coffee shop, to sit in church and see the people in person, the way Phil sees them in his mind’s eye, the people who make up our sweet body of Christ.

We are all waiting for something and we all know that waiting on the Lord is good. Even if it is a struggle.

Waiting reveals what we worship: What we focus on reveals what we value, and what we value determines what we worship.

Waiting is never wasted: God isn’t withholding His promise from us. Though His timeline is different than ours, in our waiting, God prepares us for the plans and purposes He has for us.

Waiting helps us focus on God’s faithfulness: God conquered death so that we can have eternal life. If we find ourselves growing weary from waiting, we can look for evidence of God’s presence daily, and look back on what He has already done for us. This helps me hold onto hope. Hoping in God is never wasted because the One who conquered death is still in control, and He is always at work in our waiting. I know in my heart that waiting for God is not in vain. My hope is in the Lord.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. Psalm 31:24

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11: 28

Trust and Obey

By Marilyn Travis

Our daughter Laurel drew this picture when she was four years old. She said it's “Jesus in our heart.”

  

When I came across it this week, it reminded me of the beautiful gift God has given us, Jesus Christ, and this gift is one a four-year old can understand! One of the first songs I learned as a child was “Trust and Obey.” Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.

As adults we tend to overthink. We need to know the details, the big picture. We often assume something must be complicated or hard to grasp if it is life changing. God, however, just wants us to trust Him and obey Him. He’s got this.

Matthew 18:2-4

He (Jesus) called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

What does it look like to trust and obey?

Proverbs 3:5-6 instruct us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Mother Theresa tells us, “Whatever you do, do it all for His glory and the good of His people. Always do small things with great love and be ready to take whatever He gives and give whatever He takes with a big smile.” Just trust Him. He loves us. He’s got this.

Henri Nouwen suggests we ask ourselves these questions:

Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.

Barbara Johnson says, “When we do little acts of kindness that make life more bearable for someone else, we are walking in love as the Bible commands us.”

I think Dallas Willard had the right idea. He suggests we just do the next right thing. Simple as that.

I don’t need to know the big picture. I don’t need to fully understand. I just need to trust God, obey Him, and do the next right thing. Baby steps, small acts of kindness, each one a part of God’s plan. He’s got this.