Number Our Days

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm Psalm 87 and 90
PM - Psalm 136
Gospel - John 8:47-59

For reflection: What in your spiritual journey might help someone who is honestly seeking God?

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Quick quiz: Who wrote the Psalms?

Most folks would say King David.  You get 1 point for that. And maybe a few could name Asaph as well.  Give yourself 5 more points for that.  But you get 100 points if you knew that the oldest Psalm in the Psalter was written by a famous shepherd who became the Israel’s greatest leader: Moses.

Now what kind of Psalm would you expect Moses to write?  Think about the things this man had been through with God:

• He had heard the Lords voice from a burning bush
• He had seen him take down the world’s greatest power with 10 plagues
• He had watched the Red Sea part
• He had watched the Red Sea swallow the Egyptian army

So what does a man like that say about God?  Moses’ beautiful words in Psalm 90 give us a sweeping picture of how big God is and how small we are.  He describes man as grass that grows up and is gone.  He describes God as “sweeping us away” like blowing leaves off a porch. It’s kind of scary how fleeting he makes our whole existence feel.  70 years or so and we are done! You finish the first section of the psalm and want to pull the covers over your head.

But then he gives us some of the best advice in the Bible. Really! Right there in verse 12, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”   Psalm 90:12

The reason he wants us to be aware of the comparative brevity of our lives. Only when we see how short life is and how precious each day is can we find true wisdom.  Do you hear that in his language?  “Number our days.”  He reminds me that my days on earth have a number.  There are a finite number of them remaining.  I don’t know what it is…but it isn’t infinity! That may seem morbid, but the truth is if we think that our time on earth is this long leisurely stroll, we will miss the value of each sunrise and each sunset.  And if we don’t see how big God is and how long eternity is we will un-wisely place our focus on the stuff that doesn’t matter, the temporal stuff.  When we do that, we become like children spending hours and hours on a sand castle, only to be shocked and dismayed when the ocean claims it again.

So let Moses guide you as we walk towards Easter Sunday. This life is brief: cherish each day, each loved one and each hug.  And eternity is long: put your focus where it matters!

It’s an ironic thing:  If we will think as much about eternity as we do about today, we will live wiser moment to moment!

Teach us, Lord to number our days and be wise!

Happy Easter season!

- Jeff Wallilng

Making Room for Jesus

Today's Readings:
AM - Psalm 88
PM - Psalm 91 and 92
Gospel - John 8:33-47

For reflection: What needs to be cleaned out of your life to make room for His word?

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Making room …when I hear these two simple words, a lot of things come to mind; things like, cleaning out a garage, a closet, a file, freeing up time and the list goes on and on and on. The real question is: What is the most important thing in one's life? It has been said that people will make time for what is important to them. The problem is we lose focus or never really understand what that “most important” thing is.  I wish I could say that I have it all figured out, but I don’t. I am still learning and growing.

What I do know is that having a relationship with Jesus needs to be at the top of my list. Psalms 91 and 92 provides some encouragement in this matter. John 14:1-4 also speaks to this as follows: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

The challenge I believe we all face is our busy schedules. Schedules that are full between work and activities that we are involved in, including church. What we must do is carve out a set time each day to spend in God’s Word, a time that we guard. This time needs to become second nature so that when it is missed we feel a void and quickly resume our time in the Word before we so easily fill the time with something else. For me the best time is early in the morning when my mind is fresh; for others it will be at the end of the day and others in the middle of the day depending on schedules. The bottom line, it is a discipline we all need and we must find a time that works for each of as individuals. May God grant us the courage to make it happen so we can grow in our knowledge of Him and His desire for our lives.

- Ken Brueshaber

Freedom

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 42 and 43
PM - Psalm 85 and 86
Gospel - John 8:21-32

For reflection: How do people you know misunderstand Jesus? How can you be a light-bearer to them?

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It’s amazing to me how many people demand to be free from the restrictions of others, yet insist on building their own cages , smaller and tighter than ever.

Whether it is by blind acceptance of supposed truths we learned long ago, or opinions that slowly grew into prejudice that gave way to intolerance, or selfishness that developed into self-centeredness and then into miserliness, some of us have continued to build walls around our hearts and souls over time until it will take a jackhammer to pound through.

Jesus provides a way out of our self-built prisons, if we will but trust Him and surrender our fears, beliefs, and attitudes to Him.  For He alone can truly set us free.

- Lee Thrasher

A Brave Prayer

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 119:97-120
PM - Psalm 81 and 82
Gospel - John 8:12-20

For reflection: Why does everything hinge on who Jesus really is and who sent Him?

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In Psalm 82, the Psalmist prays a brave prayer: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you.”  On the surface, it seems a brazen prayer—who would pray for God to come and judge?  Don’t we usually pray for God to forgive?  Then I look back at verse 3 of the same Psalm and notice what God’s judgment is: “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute.  Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”  God’s judgment is that the world ought to be a little more fair.  The people at the very bottom of society’s barrel, those with the fewest resources and the smallest amount of power ought to have someone advocate for them.  The orphans, the poor, and the weak have already been dealt an unfair hand—it’s wrong to make their situation worse.

It seems the judgment the Psalmist is asking for is not a fire and brimstone kind of judgment.  The Psalm is not looking for a final pronouncement.  Rather, it asks God to step in and do something about the abuse of the powerless.  We see this kind of abuse today in a thousand different ways.  In response, we can pray with the Psalmist for God to rise up and do something about it.   And we know that at least part of God’s response to us is to tell us to use what resources we have to “give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute.”

- Tera Harmon

The Living Water

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 78:1-39
PM - Psalm 78:40-72
Gospel - John 7:37-52

For reflection: What evidence can you offer for the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? How is His presence like flowing water?

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Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." Have you ever been outside in the heat and come in to get a cool drink and found that you just couldn't get enough? You drink and drink and still want more.

That's how it is with the Holy Spirit. The more we drink in of God's word and receive His Spirit, the more we will want. It's as if we just can't get enough.

In fact it is just like that...we can't ever get enough of God's Spirit (at least not until Jesus returns and takes us home). For me, the Spirit has brought power to my life...power to overcome temptation, power to receive the healing of Jesus, power to live a holy life as we have been called to do. Time and again He has breathed life into the words on the pages of my Bible, so that God's truth is illuminated and I am taught, encouraged, or convicted. Sometimes all three at the same time!

His Spirit has comforted me when I thought my heart would break in two. His Spirit has guided me when I didn't know where else to turn or what to do. His Spirit has spoken to my heart and soul in a way that was so personal that it couldn't have come from anywhere else except the mouth of God.

And so I can't get enough of the Spirit and often pray that God would just bring it on! Whatever His Spirit wants to bring to my life, I pray I will be ready.

- Holly Barrett

Being Jesus

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 80
PM - Psalm 77 and 79
Gospel: John 7:14-36

For reflection: How does Jesus reveal Himself to you today?

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Many different images come to mind when I think of Jesus: perhaps the greatest of which is, of course, the one of His sacrificing His life for my sins. However, when it comes to day-to-day images of Jesus that really speak to me most of them revolve around His incredible compassion for others. Time and time again scripture points me to a Savior who simply cares about people. Stories such as the Prodigal Son, the Woman Caught in Adultery, the Woman at the Well, the Healing of the Ten Lepers, the Healing of the Blind Man, the Healing of the Centurion’s Son, the Widow’s Offering, the Death of Lazarus and His instruction to “let the little children come to me…” are just a few of the instances that we see Jesus showing us how to treat each other. With that in mind, I think that Jesus most often reveals Himself to me today when I see other people following His example of compassion.

Fortunately, I don’t have to look very far around our congregation to see Jesus in the hearts and deeds of so many of our flock. We have members who are actively caring for the chronically ill. During the winter months each week a different group cares for the homeless through the Room at the Inn program. One of our house churches has adopted an elderly lady who otherwise would have no one in Charlotte to provide much needed help and companionship. Another house church took it upon themselves to repair and paint a house for someone. Celebrate Recovery continues to work miracles every day for people who otherwise may have no hope of dealing with many of the challenges of life. We have a number of missionaries serving others in the U.S. and abroad, and we have countless members regularly making missionary trips to minister to people in Carillo Puerto, the Baja, City of Children, City of Angels, and Honduras. With each new birth, each death, each baptism, and each request for prayers, we see member after member laugh and cry and hug and care for each other over and over again – just like Jesus did.

When Jesus came to earth, He faced many challenges in establishing His church, but He never stopped loving people. We, too, have many challenges facing the Lord’s church and our congregation today, but I am confident that we will weather the storms we face because there are so many in our midst who just keep loving like Jesus did. Thank you to all of you who continue to reveal Jesus to me every day through the love and compassion you share with so many in need.  

- Steve Santa Ana

A Face Never Covered with Shame

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 93 and 96
PM - Psalm 34
Gospel - Mark 5:1-20

For reflection: How has Jesus shown mercy to you?

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Psalm 34:4-5: “I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”

God’s mercy hides our shame and guilt.  Shame is a sickness of the soul; a violation of our dignity as people created in God’s image.  In my life, I’ve lived with the shame of not feeling good enough; I call it ‘not good-enoughitis’.   I keep thinking that I can do enough to gain God’s favor.  It’s a sickness that only God’s mercy can cure.

I’m not the only one who suffers from this malady.  It’s an epidemic affecting many Christians.  When I feel a ‘not good enough’ episode coming on, I have to remember that God is sovereign; totally in control.  I have to remind myself that He is the one who made everything my eyes will ever see.  He answers when I seek His guidance and delivers me from my fears.  When I look to Him, my spiritual illness is covered.  He always has my back.  His Covenant with us is totally one-sided, and the resurrected Jesus took all my shame and guilt on his back.

I don’t know about you, but I just want to rest in that assurance.

- Sandy Welfare