February 28 Devotion

On a recent long car trip to Texas to visit our three granddaughters (not to mention our son and his wife!) My husband and I noticed a truck that asked "Is what you are living worth Jesus dying for?" Of course the answer is no, it could never be enough. Psalm 49 tells us that "No man can redeem the life of another -- or give God a ransom for him -- the ransom of life is too costly, no payment is ever enough." Reading the old testament can be scary! Thank God we also have the New! Thank God for Jesus and the Holy Spirit! Thank God for grace!

God has made the offer, he is waiting for us with open arms. God promises, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." In every moment of our lives we choose between happiness and misery. Sometimes long-term misery comes disguised as short-term pleasure. Sooner or later most of us realize that our desire for happiness is much more than a desire for passing pleasure, and that passing pleasure will not quench our deeper desire for happiness -- happiness that can be sustained independent of circumstances -- success, money, possessions, opportunities, etc. Happiness comes from within -- from having God (the Holy Spirit) within and listening through prayer and meditation. It comes from trusting God, not our own limited resources. How comforting to know that no matter how difficult life is that "God has our back!"

"The Spirit Song"
Oh, let the Son of God enfold you with his Spirit and his love,
let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.
Oh let him have the things that hold you,
and his Spirit like a dove will descend upon your life and make you whole.
Prayer: Father, quiet our thoughts. Help us to really listen for your guidance as we pray. Give us the wisdom to make decisions that will bring us long lasting inner happiness, rather than short term pleasure. Holy Spirit, enter into our hearts and make us whole! Amen

Margaret Williams

February 27 Devotion

SOME THINGS I REMEMBER ABOUT EASTER

Since the forty days of Lent are a time of preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord, my thoughts go back to last year's Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. What a glorious Easter season that was. What are the things that make it so memorable?

Psalm 45 “From palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad”. Music makes me think of what always makes our worship of God on Sunday morning so meaningful, but especially on Easter. Psalm 47 starts with “Clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with cries of joy.” We should always be filled with joy, but most of all in this season.

Psalm 45 ends with “I will perpetuate your memory through all generations, therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.” Sometimes I think how can I really praise God, except by thanking him for all he does for me, and thanking him for those he has sent into my life. Yet many of the Psalms do just that and when I am at a loss for words, reading a Psalm helps me. Daily use of a 3x5 card, which contains two, verses (1 & 2) from Psalm 145; “I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever”, helps me to praise instead of just thanking him.

In our memories we remember that “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise (Psalm 48:1a)

In the past I remember fasting during the forty days of Lent, but medication limits us in a lot of ways. However, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary meaning 1. To abstain from food 2. To eat sparingly or abstain from some foods. Some people fast one day a week only drinking liquids, others fast by giving up an item during the 40 days of Lent. That is something I can do, such as giving up candy. Not only will I be honoring God, but also I just might lose some weight and that would be an extra blessing. Moses fasted for 40 days and forty nights. He “ate no food and drank no water” and I am sure that included Sundays. Then he “received the two tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Meanwhile the Israelites are making the Golden Calf, with Aaron’s help (Deuteronomy 9:4-12).

Hebrews 3:1-11 contains the message that: “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses (verse 3a). Verse seven says “So as the Holy Spirit says: "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” This is still a message for us.

When we think of Easter we think of palms that lined the street as Jesus was entering Jerusalem, we remember Jesus dying on the cross for us, and remember that he was resurrection on the third day. We thank God for THAT wonderful gift

Gloria Peek-Rosenblum

February 26 Devotion

Luke 9: 23-26

Take Up Your Cross
During this season of Lent, I encourage you to reflect/meditate about the meaning of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. You might need a focus point and I found that a carpenter’s nail would work for me. See, this nail, represents the nails driven through Jesus’ hands and feet on the cross, drew blood, inflicted pain and suffering. Carrying a nail around can be an inconvenience, get in the way, but also a good reminder to think about Lent. A nail is an awkward thing to carry around and to confront… just so is a cross! Awkward as it was Jesus carried his Cross for us. And awkward as it is, he calls us to carry our cross for him.

Suppose that instead of a nail you had been asked to carry a cross during Lent – not a miniature model, but the real thing??

“Take up thy cross”, the Savior said, “if thou wouldst my disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after me.”
Take up thy cross, let not its weight fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up, and brace thy heart and nerve thine arm.
Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, nor let thy foolish pride rebel;
thy Lord for thee the cross endured, to save thy soul from death and hell.
Take up thy cross and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down;
For only those who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown.

Words by Charles Everest

Amy Inghram

February 25 Devotion

From Disciples 2007:

Throughout the season of Lent, we become more acutely aware that temptation waits for all of us. It waits like an animal in the shadows ready to pounce upon its prey. This experience has always been so for the human family. Temptation waited for Cain before he slew Abel. It crouched until the right angry, jealous moment. Before Cain knew it, he had been overcome. Temptation also waits for you and for me when we are angry beyond words -- providing an excuse to do some harm to those who anger us. Perhaps for this reason, Jesus suggested that an angry person was just as culpable as a murderer.

Jesus is in a wilderness for this particular time of temptation; temptation also waits for us in the wild places of life. Wild places take the form of circumstances so out of the ordinary that we could be persuaded to suspend the rules, to respond to the seduction of the moment, or to sin for the good of the order. Temptation waited for Moses in a wild place. In a wild moment of realization that life was not fair, Moses willingly looked, firs this way then that, before slaying an Egyptian. The wild places are many; the temptation to exaggerate, to bend the truth, to outright lie waits around every bend in the road.

Temptation waits for us, but we are not powerless. Jesus is not powerless. As a hungry mortal, he refuses the justifiable self-indulgence of turning stones into bread. As a person with hidden strength, he refuses an ostentatious show of power. As a person of royal destiny, he does not requires the attendance of angels to prove his worth to onlookers. The One who pitched a tent among us proved by example that yielding to temptation is not inevitable. Jesus teaches by example; neither moments of weakness or wild places need give way to temptation. Even in the wild places, temptation wait for Jesus in vain!

Submitted by Jim Ray

An Evening Prayer

Dear God,

During our Lenten Journey, we are reminded of the time Jesus spent in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. We remember that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove. Then he was led into the wilderness.

We know that when we are full of the Holy Spirit, we are vulnerable to the temptations of the world. We are tempted to take an easy way, rather than to stay on the straight and narrow path to your will. Although your grace is free, following your path is costly. We must give up ourselves, and take up a cross and follow you. Forgive us for our reluctance to give in to your will, to let go of the things that make us comfortable.

Although we know we will be tempted at times, we ask you to give us the strength to withstand temptation. We know we will experience time in the desert or the wilderness, Lord, and while we do not look forward to such times, we can look back at them and see how they strengthened us and prepared us, and we are able to give you thanks.

Prepare us anew, this Lenten Season, to be drawn closer to you, to be more like you, and to do your will with trust and selfless obedience. Lord, when we emerge from our journey we invite you to love through us; weep through us; and speak through us; that we may we live up to our calling as the Body of Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Jeff Taylor

February 24 Devotion

Psalms 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

HOPE!
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, defines hope as 1. trust, reliance 2. desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. Webster also defines faith as trust.

What is hope but a fulfillment of God's word to us of Grace. By accepting Grace we have hope that a better life is to be.I have witnessed in my life many instances where hope was what kept me going. The hope and faith that things will be better and they always are. Maybe not how I envisioned, but how God envisioned.

I have also witnessed many people that appeared to me to lack the hope needed to sustain a meaningful life. We've got to have hope. Hope that there is a "silver lining" and everything will be OK.

I wonder why we celebrate Easter in the season of spring when the trees are budding with new leaves, flowers are blooming all sorts of colorful beauty, people are getting out and about with the warmer weather, and life is just being renewed all around. Could it be that spring and Christ's resurrection is God giving us HOPE? I think so.

During this Easter Season I want to ask myself,
1. How can I show hope and faith to those around me?
2. What can I do to be a light of hope for the kingdom of God?

My dear gracious heavenly Father, thank you for the hope I carry in my heart every day. Guide me to be a beacon of hope to those around me. In thy gracious name I pray, Amen.

Kay Lewis

February 23 Devotion

Children’s Prayer
We pray for children
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never “counted potatoes,”
Who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus.
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blankets to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die.
Who can’t find any bread to steal,
Who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for those children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub.
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime.
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move but have no being.

We pray for children
Who want to be carried – and for those who must,
For those we never give up on,
And for those who don’t get a second chance,
For those we smother … and
For those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Author Unknown

Submitted by Melody Plumley

February 22 Devotion

John 6:60-66
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Christ’s Wilderness

Here we are in these forty days,
Soul-searching and repentance is the way.
It’s not a happy or uplifting time,
Imitating the Lord should be our prime.

Ashes begin this time of remorse,
Remembering The Last Supper is the end recourse.
Lent is there to make us think,
How our souls and Jesus should make a link.

Six weeks He spent out in the desert,
Praying to His Father was the only comfort.
So in this time of spiritful purpose,
Emulate Christ’s retreat into wilderness.
Jerome R. Guerrein
Copyright © 2007

Ash Wednesday (2007) Devotion

Our Youth Sunday school class was given the opportunity to create a devotion for Ash Wednesday. Huge amounts of gratitude are expressed to the Youth Sunday school teacher, Linda Summers, and to her class of Middle and High school students.

Below, we have listed the quotes and acronyms that they included in their visual devotion. To experience the entire devotion, please click on this link, where the images have been posted. (If the hyperlink does work for you, copy and paste this address into your Browser address window: http://www.geocities.com/jmadvent/Youth

Quotes:

How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?
--Shane Claiborne

Love One Another

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7)

Forgive us our trespasses

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19)

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, declare a solemn assembly. (Joel 2:15)


Acrostics:

ASH:
A lways
S eek
H im

FAST:
F eed
A nother
S oul
T oday

LENT:
L oving
E ncouraging
N urturing
T hanking

Youth Sunday School Class