DIGGING DEEPER DEVOTIONAL JUNE 22, 2024
Christianity
Digging Deeper Devotional June 21, 2024
Digging Deeper Devotional: June 18, 2024
PREPARE YOUR LOVE PT. 2
This year our church has been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“
seven prepare statements will be broken down into three brief devotionals a piece to give us 21 devotionals to share over 21 weeks.
TODAY IS DAY 20- Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open.
Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48
We are being called to prepare to love those who disagree with us. I will be the first to point out that just because a person disagrees with us on something, that does not necessarily make them our enemy. But in our hyper-tribalized society, we are quickly becoming a people who view it that way. In fact we are raising up a generation that thinks that in order to love someone you must agree with and accept everything they think. That, of course is not the truth. Love is something that flows through agreement or disagreement equally well, because it is not based in our comfort, logic, emotion, or will. It moves through those things but it is based in and flows from the Spirit.
WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO LOVE THROUGH A DISAGREEMENT WITH RIGHT NOW? PRAY FOR THEM? WHAT GROUP DO YOU HAVE THE GREATEST DISAGREEMENT WITH RIGHT NOW? PRAY FOR THEM.
DIGGING DEEPER: JUNE 17, 2024
Father’s Day: An Unexpected Journey
Father’s Day started with big plans.Kristine was up at 5 A.M. cooking the lechon and cilantro lime chicken for our Father’s Day Feast this afternoon. Melanie was to bring the tacos and guacamole. So the day started out peacefully enough as we all got ready for church. BELOW IS THE LINK TO OUR CHURCH SERVICE WHICH WAS ENTITLED “RISE UP.”
We had quite a few visitors and I got to meet them all at the end of the service! Amanda and I stayed to close up the church while Melanie and James and Joe and Kristine went home to get our feast ready. As we were waiting Amanda told me she had been having some chest pain through Children’s Church. That in itself was concerning, but she also had major surgery a few weeks ago and chest pain was one of the symptoms she was told to look out for.
We locked up the church and drove to The Vicarage to get her doctor’s number in Concord. The doctor was quick to call us back and to send us off to the Emergency Room at Emerson Hospital in Concord.
So Amanda and I put the feast aside and went for testing.
It was about an hour and a half before Amanda got in for testing, but once she was off to XRAY I went to The hospital cafeteria for a belated lunch. They didn’t have Mexican food so I opted for some clam chowder, salad and a coffee.
After another hour and a half or so the tests all came back negative so the doctor sent Amanda home with her mystery pain and instructions to take Tylenol, to go to bed and to “come back if things get worse.”
Through this whole time I kept going back to part of our teaching in yesterday’s leadership training.
We were having a discussion about suffering and blessing and how those two things are just two sides of the same coin. Our suffering (trials and difficulties) and our blessings are both tools to bring us deeper into the presence of God if we allow them too. As I was sitting in the cafeteria eating my clam chowder I was thinking how quickly an expected journey of blessing turned over into an unexpected journey of difficulty and I began to remind myself that this unexpected difficulty like the expected blessing is just a tool to be used to bring both Amanda and myself deeper into God’s presence.
As Julian of Norwich said, All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”. We just have to continue to believe that by faith through the difficulty and through the blessing.
We got home. Amanda took her Tylenol ate a bit of taco meat and gave me her Father’s Day presents a mixed gift bag from The Vermont Country Store. In it were two whoopee pies a jar of orange marmalade and some beautiful bamboo wind chimes which I immediately hung in my outdoor prayer chapel.
Melanie and Joe gave me their gifts too and fed me cilantro lime chicken and cake!!!
It was an unexpected Father’s Day. It started in blessing circled around to difficulty and came back to a blessing just like most good stories in our world today. It was an adventure and I am learning I do really love those.
HERE’D TO THE ADVENTURE OF TOMORROW!
DIGGING DEEPER DEVOTIONAL JUNE 15, 2024
DIGGING DEEPER: JUNE 14, 2024
Digging Deeper June 13, 2024
SHARING MY WORLD ON JUNE 11TH
THIS POST IS WRITTEN IN RESPONSE TO PENSITIVITY’S SHARE YOUR WORLD CHALLENGE.
You can read all the responses to this challenge by clicking the link above. My answers to this week’s questions are below.
What is/has been your favourite job/occupation? I am really enjoying the work I am doing now. I have been ministering in churches since 1991 in all kinds of different capacities. I have been a youth pastor, organist, choir director, worship leader, children’s minister/ director, fellowship and visitation director and assistant to the pastor. Up until three years ago I had avoided the work of being a lead pastor because there were aspects of the job I was afraid of. Then the call came three years ago to step into this role. I am not good at all of it, but I am enjoying every bit of it even those parts where I am on a big learning curve.
Is there a job you would never consider doing? There are lots of jobs I would never consider doing: Astronaut, Marine biologist, Mountain rescue, Fireman, Policeman, Physics teacher, Airplane pilot, Circus acrobat, lion tamer and the list goes on. I admire those who can and do all of these jobs. I know they are beyond me.
Did your family own a business and expect you to join the ranks when you got older? My family did own a business. I did join the ranks, but I was never forced to it. I settled into it. Then my father passed away and then I realized I was not suited to the business and moved back into the field I was created for.
Did/do you have a career requiring qualifications or did you learn on the job and work your way up? This job of ministry has both educational requirements and on the job training that is necessary. Bible college is absolutely necessary, but I have never met a Bible college graduate that was “ready” to minister to a congregation on the day they got their diploma or certification. There are so many non-tangibles to this work that cannot be taught only caught. I would recommend to anyone considering this work to enter this ministry as an assistant first before trying to take or build their own church.
GRATITUDE: I was so blessed by this incredible weekend of ministry.It was a great weekend of adventure.
Notes From the Vicarage 