We continue with our meditations through the end of September. Notice the “Think about it” section. I place a picture of a place you might be or an item you might use during your time of meditation. Find a place that you can sit quietly for a few minutes as you meditate on God’s Word.
9-25 2 Kings 6:1-23; Psalm 119:97-120; 1 Corinthiens 5:9—6:11; Matthew 5:38-48
Matthew 5:45 “He causes His sun to shine on evil and good and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Wouldn’t it seem reasonable that, if I give my entire devotion to living a Christ-centered life, I would not endure the same pain and trauma that non-believers experience? Perhaps early in our Christian walk we thought that the Lord would embrace us with a magic cloak that would hide us from the onslaught of evil around us.
Yet, here it says in scripture that the rain or sun falls on all of us . . . good, bad, indifferent. In fact, I know several people who want nothing to do with the Christian faith yet are kind, giving and truly live a charmed life.
The Gospel continues, “Be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect.” There is no way we can be ‘perfect.’ Yet, what if we translate ‘perfect’ as “continue walking in the perfect light of the Father, keep walking in the path of His Son, keep on keeping on . . . whether slogging through knee-high mud or romping across a grassy meadow with unabashed joy.
BE Perfect . . . is a continuous, active verb. It means, no matter what happens in our lives, keep going, keep calling on the Lord for help or with praise-filled words.
We all have good and bad days but our perseverance, our diligence in seeking the Lord’s provision, the Lord’s best, the ‘perfection’ of Christ, sets us apart from those who simply zoom through each day, rain or shine, with no acknowledgement of God.
Think about it: Do you slog through some days and
wonder why?
Do you react to a life-challenge with dread or do you call upon the Lord for help? Perhaps we can ask God, each day, to help us continue to grow into His perfection, not ours.
Each morning when you awake, rain or shine, ask the Lord to lead you into a ‘perfect’ place even if pain is involved. Sometimes pain and suffering toughens us up for those times when we truly need to be strong. God’s grace embraces us wherever we are and ever-so-slowly leads us into His Perfect Presence.
No need to work at being perfect as our humanness expects.
Let God’s Perfect Presence envelope you daily, like He is giving you a very long hug.
Allow the Lord to embrace you.
Simply BE.
See what happens.
9-26 2 Kings 9:1-16; Psalm 146,147,85,86; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-18
1 Corinthiens 6:13 The body is not for immorality but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. :14 The Lord will also raise us up through His power.
:18 Every other sin is outside the body except immorality, the sin against our own body. :19 Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you are not your own. :20 You were bought with a price so glorify God in your body.
Isn’t it interesting that moral challenges have existed well before this passage was written. God gave us emotions, feelings, the need to love and be loved and so much more. Our challenge is to direct emotions according to God’s will.
Decades ago, when I was a new Christian, I was single. I’d been very much a part of the secular world until then. When these verses were brought to my attention I was dumb struck. I thought, “If God calls me to be celibate for the rest of my life I can do so . . . because God will be with me, wrapping His grace around me and directing my path.”
If we are ‘called’ into celibacy because we are single or because God called us into a life of celibacy for any reason, then God is right there for us, giving us all the love, grace and direction we need for that period of time . . . or forever.
It was ten years before I met my prince charming (who is still my handsome prince after 30+ years of marriage),
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit which have been joined together forever by the holy sacrament of marriage. At that time our bodies were consecrated to the Lord as one, and became ‘one’, spiritually, emotionally and physically. We both give thanks that we were able to trust the Lord completely during that period of celibacy God mandated before marriage so that we could build a deep trust with one another, with God’s help, within our marriage.
Knowing that our bodies are the Temple of the Lord, since we carry the Holy Spirit within us, is a tremendous challenge and responsibility. We carry the presence of God within us. Tainting the temple of the Lord with our bodies goes against God’s best for us. Only repentance, turning away from that sin, can return us to God’s grace-filled love.
Think about it: Are you single and truly desire to live your life for Christ?
Pray that the Lord help you maintain your body as the Temple of the Lord.
Spend time communicating with Jesus in prayer, digesting His Word, and committing to a weekly growth group with other Christians.
Single or married, we all should commit to a Christian group that loves the same activities. If there is none, create one. Be creative with . . . Saturday biking, Thursday night art class, book group, or bird watching. End the activity with 15 minutes of sharing time: (1) Joy of the week (2) challenge of the week. Pray for one another according to what was discussed. Remind yourselves that “Your body is the temple of the Lord.”
9-27 2 Kings 9:17-37; Psalm 88,91,92; 1 Corinthiens 7:1-9; Matthew 6:7-15
Matthew 6:7 “And when you pray do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think that they will be heard for their many words."
Although nearly every word of Jesus’ sermon is food for contemplation, this small phrase sometimes gets buried in the midst of this volume of wisdom.
I was struck by the many ways these few words could be received.
Jesus is speaking to a mass of people among whom are plenty of Jews, including Pharisees, as well as gentiles. Jesus was referring to those pagan gentiles who prayed at the temple repeating long lists of gods. They never knew which god would help with their prayer so they may have named them all, dozens!
Jesus needed to bring the people back to our One God, who could be called on to answer any and all prayers.
After Jesus chastises those present, He immediately provides words that have such deep meaning that we repeat this “Lord’s Prayer” throughout the generations of Christians.
Every word or phrase of the Lord’s Prayer draws us deeply into the presence of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, IF we take time to think about what we are praying. If words do not touch the heart each time we express them, a prayer can become like the meaningless repetitions of the pagans.
There is nothing wrong with repeating memorized prayers often. It’s how our heart is touched when we express them that matters. We can sound like those pagan gentiles when rote prayers become words we spin off unconsciously.
Think about it: When you attend a worship service are there prayers that you know so well that they easily slip through your tongue?
Is your bed-time prayer the same?
Do you repeat the same prayers or scriptures in your daily quiet time? What about your prayer at meals?
Most of these prayers are lovely, heart-felt words of thanksgiving to the Lord. When words come forth slowly so that you can ponder each in our heart as they roll off your tongue, our soul fills with God’s presence and the words become a blessing . . . the same blessing as the nine beatitudes.
No matter how often we repeat words to God, pray that your heart catch its meaning and it presses into your soul as it is digested slowly.
Think about it: Jesus may ask the impossible. How could He possibly know our circumstances? The amazing truth is, God does know our circumstances.
Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146;
1 Timothy 6:6-19;
Luke 16:19-31
Think about it: If you die tonight, are you ready to live eternally with the Lord, thy God? Are you ready to join
those who have gone before you who are now singing with the angels in heaven? Have you made a commitment to forever live for Christ so that you can drink in the cool springs of His presence? Talk to the Lord about how you feel about eternal life. Call on the Holy Spirit to guide you into the arms of Jesus and cling to the life totally focused on eternal life, not death.
9-28 2 Kings 11:1-20a; Psalm 87,90; 1 Corinthiens 7:10-24; Matt. 6:19-24
Matthew 6:24 Jesus said,”No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Immediately after this phrase, verse 6:25 says, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; or for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Too often we do not consider the context of such statements or we do not read far enough to understand the depth of meaning. In the Sermon on the Mount, [Matthew 5,6,7] Jesus tells the crowd about those who are ‘blessed’ and explaines with parables. He reminds all that the Law is not to be obliterated but to be used as a ‘measure’ for all of us when we identify sin in our lives. Jesus then teaches the Lord’s prayer, one of many tools available for us to deepen our relationship with the Lord. THEN he tells us to let go of whatever is keeping us from total focus on the God.
“Wealth” might be a heart-treasure that keeps us from submitting to God’s best for us. Perhaps the fear of not having enough to live on or the anxiety of trying to be all things to all people or the challenge of giving enough time to every family member or . . . the list is endless.
Jesus says, “STOP, come to Me, I’ll take your anxiety away, I’ll show you how to live a single-minded life totally focused on Me.”
We are either all in or not.
We are either willing to live in Christ and through Christ or not.
Do you trust that God will provide all your needs even if your “wants” may have to take a back burner? Do you know the difference?
Do you trust your role in life as a disciple of Christ?
Can you let go of something that might get in the way of spending more time with God?
List some ‘treasures’ that might deprive you of a deeper relationship with the Lord. Hours of watching TV or interfacing on social media, shopping, more food than you need, wasted time when basic needs are to be met?
Let go. TRUST.
God knows your challenges.
Bring them to the Lord in prayer and ask specifically for the Holy Spirit to help with your intercessions. Ask for help to let go of that which gets in the way of your relationship with God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
9-29 16th Sunday after Pentecost
1 Timothy 6:6-19;
Luke 16:19-31
Luke 16:19-31 A rich man and poor Lazarus die at the same time. The river divides them: the rich man is in hades, Lazarus in heaven. Neither can cross the river to the other side. :31 If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”
Jesus was no different than any other Hebrew scholar, Rabbi, intellect writer of the day. He often used double meanings. The ‘rich’ man is indeed poor in spirit. The ‘poor’ man, Lazarus, is indeed rich in his eternal relationship with God. The ‘rich’ man may have thought he had the good life with no thought of what would happen to his soul until it was too late. Lazarus, on the other hand, chose to “die to self and live for Christ.”
It’s the same old story. If we choose to live outside the will of God and not desire to overcome death through the passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, why would we be given the opportunity to change our minds after we die?
Jesus takes us into a world unknown to those who live for self. He reminds us that ‘separation from God’ is eternal agony. Covering our sin nature with self-
indulgence, the high life, living for self, eventually fades away. Sin is always with us. Yet, the blood Jesus shed on the cross for those who choose to give our lives to Him, covers our sin nature in order to forever keeps us ‘on the other side of the river.’ The Lord will never leave us nor forsake those who, by faith, trust in the God of our salvation.
Jesus takes us into a world unknown to those who live for self. He reminds us that ‘separation from God’ is eternal agony. Covering our sin nature with self-
Endless stories in scripture speak of turning around, repenting, changing our lives even if it is an instant before we die. Learning to live for Christ and not for self takes time . . . on this earth . . . before we join the angels in the heavenly realm . . .before we see our Lord face too face . . . before we die.
Think about it: If you die tonight, are you ready to live eternally with the Lord, thy God? Are you ready to join
9-30 Saint Michael and All Angels celebrated today
Genesis 28:10-17; Psalm 103; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51
Revelation 12:7-12 Archangel Michael, a messenger of God, fought with the the devil [the fallen angel] and his
demons when they defied God. Thus, the devil and his fellow fallen angels were thrown out of heaven to earth. :10 “Now salvation, power,the kingdom of God and the authority of His Christ have come.
:12 Woe to the earth and sea because the devil has come down to you.”
Too often we forget that angels help us through the day and have been used mightily by God. Michale, the Archangel, fought principalities who defied God so that he could follow through with God’s orders. Michael means, “Who is like God,” a foe of the Devil and guardian protector of the Church. Angels are eternal and do only what God calls them to do. That means we can call upon God for help at any time and God will send our own guardian angel, or perhaps Michael if the battle is great, to our aid. Unfortunately, many of us do not even think to ask the Lord when we truly need help.
There are two other archangels mentioned in
scripture. Gabriel, which means “Power of God” is God’s messenger angel who brought the good news when he announced to Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” Raphael, which means “God has healed,” is sent by God for healing and companionship.
For over a year, the Lord has pressed into my heart the great need to call upon the power of His angels. I picture Michael, the archangel, as the one sent to fight the demons and principalities that are hindering the lives of specific young people I call out by name. About two dozen nieces, nephews and friends’ children, mostly millennials, are separated from the love of Christ. In fact, some have never entered a church. I ask for the power of these fighting angels to ‘hold on’ to these fragile souls with all their might and guide them into the loving presence of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Think about it: When you pray do you ever ask the Lord to guide the angel assigned to you to help you through the day? The fact is, Michael and all the angels in heaven, are waiting for us to simply ask. Ask for protection, ask for guidance, ask for discernment, ask for direction. Do we ask for help when we pray, that God’s power, through His messengers, fight the demons in our lives or our dear
ones’ lives?
Make a list of all those you know, especially those who have never had the seeds of salvation planted in their souls. Keep that list near you always until you’ve memorized every name. Pray for a few daily. Picture the majesty and power of God, through Michael the Archangel, protecting, leading and guiding those fragile souls into the arms of Jesus.
If you want to know more about angels, read “Angels” by Billy Graham or “Angels are for Real” by Judith MacNutt.
That's all for this month.
Hope you are enjoying the journey.
Hope you are enjoying the journey.
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