DAILY BYTE
People often query what shut the eyes of these Emmaus disciples so that they couldn’t see that it was Jesus who was with them all along. Was it magic? The devil? God?
Or was it just them?
Were they just so not expecting to see Jesus in this way that their lack of expectation blinded them? We always expect to see Jesus in life’s soaring cathedral moments but then are totally surprised to find him in life’s dusty, nondescript back-paths. This is really important for us to hear because it was their inadequate versions and concepts of Jesus that stopped them seeing the REAL Jesus.
Someone recently came up with the idea of taking Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists with a $3.5 million Strata Various violin made in 1730 and placing them unannounced and unbilled in a busy, subway station in Washington D.C. during rush hour.
Beforehand other great artists were asked what they expected to happen. They surmised that because Joshua Bell’s music was so transcendently beautiful that he would really touch people’s hearts. He would draw a real crowd and so some form of crowd control would be needed. One person even said that if Joshua Bell put out his violin case he would make a stack-load of money.
So they tried it. One of the world’s greatest violinists on one of the world’s greatest violins playing soul-stirring music in a busy, subway station ... and people just walked straight past him! There’s a video of it, it’s quite extraordinary because 1 097 people walk straight past him without hardly hesitating.
People are prepared to pay hundreds of dollars for a front row seat in one of his concerts, but only a few dozen actually stopped to listen for more than a few seconds, and when he finished not even one person clapped! The biggest note in his case was a twenty dollar bill.
The Kingdom of God is like a world famous violinist playing transcendently beautiful music in the middle of a busy subway station that no one recognises or stops to appreciate.
As G.K. Chesteron used to love to say: “A saint is one who exaggerates what the world neglects.”
For you see what is really important about this story is NOT what closed the Emmaus disciple’s eyes, BUT what OPENED them! Through conversations around Scripture, through the broken up bread of relationships, through the poured out wine of togetherness, through humility and openness they began to Jesus in ways they never had previously.
In this, they recognised that their faith should take them on a journey of redeeming not just themselves and their own personal interests, but also cause them to enter into a sacrificial and loving relationship with God and others where they might play a part in God’s plan to redeem the entire world.
As you grapple with this, may I leave you with one last encouragement? Many people wonder if all paths lead to God. Clearly not, as this Emmaus story shows, some faith paths, as sincere as they may be, actually take us no-where.
However, as William Young reminds us, there is NO path that Jesus will not walk down to find us on. Jesus can find you wherever you are. No matter how tired, confused or even burnt out on religion you may be.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you O God, for being prepared to walk down the most obscure life paths to find me. May you give me strength and encouragement and may my heart begin to burn with passionate love for you. I commit myself to serving not myself and my own selfish ends, but to become part of your great plan to redeem this entire world.. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 24.30-35 NIV
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Thurs 30 April – Jesus – our teacher and life shaper
DAILY BYTE
In one resurrection appearance, Mary calls Jesus ‘Rabboni’ which means teacher. Jesus was often called teacher on other occasions during his ministry. Today, we tend to see teachers as people who teach us how to spell and add, but the ancient Hebrews had a far more comprehensive view of teachers. This is because they understood very well the impact a good teacher would have on your life – how they could dramatically shape and alter you for the better.
There is a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honour the greatest person in his kingdom. When the big day arrived, four finalists had been selected and the king was due to personally choose the winner from these.
The first was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told this man was highly deserving of this honour because of his humanitarian efforts. He had donated most of his wealth to ingenious and sustainable projects for the poor. The second was a celebrated and brilliant physician. The king was told that this doctor was also highly deserving of this honour because she had rendered inspiring and self-sacrificial service to the poor for many years.
The third person was a distinguished judge who was noted for the courageous way he had served the cause of justice to even the most powerless and downtrodden. The fourth person presented, however, was an elderly woman whose manner and dress was very humble indeed. She hardly looked the part of someone about to be honoured as the greatest in the kingdom.
The king was surprised to see her there and wondered what possible chance she could have against the other three who had accomplished so much. Even so, there was something about her that struck the king for there was a look of love on her face, an understanding in her eyes, and a quiet confidence about her.
The king was so intrigued and puzzled by her presence that he asked his Chief Minister who she was. The answer came, “You see the philanthropist, the doctor and the judge? Well, she was their teacher.”
It really, really matters what or WHO we place our faith in – who we allow to shape and form us and to be our life’s teacher – because that will dramatically impact our own personal transformation.
This is what Jesus was trying to make clear to these Emmaus disciples – don’t live with inadequate versions of God because it really will take you nowhere! This is exactly what Luke’s Gospel is trying to make clear to us as well.
So ask yourself the question – do I live with inadequate versions of God? How can I allow Jesus to become my life’s teacher in this regard?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Gracious God, I invite you to shape and form me. I recognise how often my faith becomes selfish, and so I pray you would continually challenge me to follow Jesus and allow his presence to transform me utterly. Amen.
FOCUS READING
John 20.10-16 NIV
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
In one resurrection appearance, Mary calls Jesus ‘Rabboni’ which means teacher. Jesus was often called teacher on other occasions during his ministry. Today, we tend to see teachers as people who teach us how to spell and add, but the ancient Hebrews had a far more comprehensive view of teachers. This is because they understood very well the impact a good teacher would have on your life – how they could dramatically shape and alter you for the better.
There is a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honour the greatest person in his kingdom. When the big day arrived, four finalists had been selected and the king was due to personally choose the winner from these.
The first was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told this man was highly deserving of this honour because of his humanitarian efforts. He had donated most of his wealth to ingenious and sustainable projects for the poor. The second was a celebrated and brilliant physician. The king was told that this doctor was also highly deserving of this honour because she had rendered inspiring and self-sacrificial service to the poor for many years.
The third person was a distinguished judge who was noted for the courageous way he had served the cause of justice to even the most powerless and downtrodden. The fourth person presented, however, was an elderly woman whose manner and dress was very humble indeed. She hardly looked the part of someone about to be honoured as the greatest in the kingdom.
The king was surprised to see her there and wondered what possible chance she could have against the other three who had accomplished so much. Even so, there was something about her that struck the king for there was a look of love on her face, an understanding in her eyes, and a quiet confidence about her.
The king was so intrigued and puzzled by her presence that he asked his Chief Minister who she was. The answer came, “You see the philanthropist, the doctor and the judge? Well, she was their teacher.”
It really, really matters what or WHO we place our faith in – who we allow to shape and form us and to be our life’s teacher – because that will dramatically impact our own personal transformation.
This is what Jesus was trying to make clear to these Emmaus disciples – don’t live with inadequate versions of God because it really will take you nowhere! This is exactly what Luke’s Gospel is trying to make clear to us as well.
So ask yourself the question – do I live with inadequate versions of God? How can I allow Jesus to become my life’s teacher in this regard?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Gracious God, I invite you to shape and form me. I recognise how often my faith becomes selfish, and so I pray you would continually challenge me to follow Jesus and allow his presence to transform me utterly. Amen.
FOCUS READING
John 20.10-16 NIV
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Wed 29 April – Bless ME Jesus!
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we spoke about how the two Emmaus disciples had an inadequate version of God (a military Messiah) which left them wandering down a road to nowhere. Have you ever wondered what modern versions of God we might have that may be similarly inadequate?
I would like to propose one possibility. Let’s call it the ‘Bless ME Jesus.’ This is where we never really grow out of a childish (note childish NOT childlike) view of Jesus; where God exists to bless and endorse me no matter what. In this viewpoint the Christian faith only exists to make my life better. If there are any upheavals in my life, or dare I say it in my church, then I would rather move to where I can be comforted.
We too easily forget that Jesus seemed to challenge to the point of offense on an almost daily fashion during his ministry. Jesus challenged people on issues like caring for the poor and marginalised, and on not letting your religion be only for show to the point that he was eventually killed for it. Jesus was considered dangerous by the religious and political authorities of his day.
Of course Jesus will comfort us - he will love and heal us. But Jesus will also stretch us in some quite dramatic ways. Love others! Forgive your enemies! Share generously! We just cannot tame Jesus. We cannot squeeze him down into little self-seeking boxes of personal aggrandizement.
Essentially, this view of Jesus is remarkably similar to that of the Emmaus disciples, only that it is a little MORE foolish and slower of heart to believe because it is even more selfish. In the ‘Bless ME’ version of Jesus, all we are interested in is our own personal salvation – Jesus becomes nothing more than our passport to heaven and a bumper sticker to endorse my Ferrari-way of life. We forget that Jesus wants to use us as part of his great plan to save the entire world - he will bless us SO THAT we can be a blessing to others.
Faith in Jesus is meant to make us more not less. Faith is mean to take us beyond the borders of self and return us more fully into the image of God. In this Jesus is mean to be our teacher. We are meant to be formed in HIS image. This is a concept that we will discuss more fully tomorrow.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, forgive me for the times I make my faith all about me and my own personal benefit. Help me to hear your challenge to live in a way that reflects your call to self-sacrificial giving love. Amen
FOCUS READING
Luke 24. 25-27 NIV
He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Yesterday, we spoke about how the two Emmaus disciples had an inadequate version of God (a military Messiah) which left them wandering down a road to nowhere. Have you ever wondered what modern versions of God we might have that may be similarly inadequate?
I would like to propose one possibility. Let’s call it the ‘Bless ME Jesus.’ This is where we never really grow out of a childish (note childish NOT childlike) view of Jesus; where God exists to bless and endorse me no matter what. In this viewpoint the Christian faith only exists to make my life better. If there are any upheavals in my life, or dare I say it in my church, then I would rather move to where I can be comforted.
We too easily forget that Jesus seemed to challenge to the point of offense on an almost daily fashion during his ministry. Jesus challenged people on issues like caring for the poor and marginalised, and on not letting your religion be only for show to the point that he was eventually killed for it. Jesus was considered dangerous by the religious and political authorities of his day.
Of course Jesus will comfort us - he will love and heal us. But Jesus will also stretch us in some quite dramatic ways. Love others! Forgive your enemies! Share generously! We just cannot tame Jesus. We cannot squeeze him down into little self-seeking boxes of personal aggrandizement.
Essentially, this view of Jesus is remarkably similar to that of the Emmaus disciples, only that it is a little MORE foolish and slower of heart to believe because it is even more selfish. In the ‘Bless ME’ version of Jesus, all we are interested in is our own personal salvation – Jesus becomes nothing more than our passport to heaven and a bumper sticker to endorse my Ferrari-way of life. We forget that Jesus wants to use us as part of his great plan to save the entire world - he will bless us SO THAT we can be a blessing to others.
Faith in Jesus is meant to make us more not less. Faith is mean to take us beyond the borders of self and return us more fully into the image of God. In this Jesus is mean to be our teacher. We are meant to be formed in HIS image. This is a concept that we will discuss more fully tomorrow.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, forgive me for the times I make my faith all about me and my own personal benefit. Help me to hear your challenge to live in a way that reflects your call to self-sacrificial giving love. Amen
FOCUS READING
Luke 24. 25-27 NIV
He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Tues 28 April – The Jesus I thought I knew
DAILY BYTE
These two Emmaus disciples could have been perfectly described by today’s focus reading – as being tired, worn out and burned out on religion. They were despondent, confused and afraid. In many ways they are a powerful and very real picture of two ordinary people trying to make their way through a difficult time in life.
As they walked along they tried to make sense of the events of the last few days – Jesus’ crucifixion and now the strange rumours of his resurrection. As they walked they were joined by a stranger who enters into conversation with them, and as he does so, we begin to uncover further layers to their despondency. They were devastated because Jesus didn’t turn out to be who they had expected. They had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, and by that they meant that Jesus would drive out the Roman oppressors and return Israel to sovereign nationhood.
This is the Jesus they thought they knew - what they had been hoping for in a God and Messiah. But after the death of Jesus, and now hearing reports of a resurrection, it seems their expectations of God were further muddied and confused. So really, they were tired, worn out and burned out on religion.
Interestingly enough, the name Emmaus can mean ‘obscure’ or ‘nowhere,’ and it really seems as though these two despondent and disillusioned disciples were on a journey to nowhere. This leads us to the first important truth in this story I would like to emphasise; which is that it really, really matters what we believe and what we base our lives upon, because trusting in all the wrong things can take us on a journey to nowhere!
People often say that it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. Well, as Brian Mclaren says, people are well intentioned when they say that but they can’t really mean it, at least not literally.
Is it ok for a crazed cult leader to sincerely believe his sincere followers should join him in sincerely drinking poisoned Kool-Aid so that they can end up in heaven sooner rather than later? It is really ok for sincere religious fundamentalists to control the lives of millions through sincere intimidation, censorship, legislation and threats of violence? Was it really ok for Christians to sincerely take up arms in Crusades for Jerusalem property rights and end up killing tens of thousands?
Brian Mclaren ends up by concluding, and I couldn’t agree more, that it sometimes seems that having bad faith is more dangerous than having no faith at all. People often discard faith totally, not because they’ve discarded God as much as they have discarded other people’s unhealthy versions of God!
A university chaplain once reminisced that he would have several students a year visit him in his office who were struggling through a faith crisis. They would say to him that they didn’t believe in God anymore, but he would always respond, “Well, tell me about that God, because I probably don’t believe in him either.”
Bad faith takes on a journey nowhere. We see that in these two on their way to Emmaus. They were burnt out, not on God, but on their version of God and there’s a big difference that I hope you can now see. They had hoped in a military Messiah but as the mysterious stranger said: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe.”
God’s Kingdom enters earth not through violence, power or coercion but through love, grace and forgiveness. They were somewhat selfishly expecting God to save Israel, but they needed to understand that God wanted to use Israel to save the WHOLE world.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, help me to understand that sometimes my understanding of you is inadequate. Help me to humbly open myself up to knowing as much of you as I possibly can. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Matthew 11. 28-30 MSG
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
These two Emmaus disciples could have been perfectly described by today’s focus reading – as being tired, worn out and burned out on religion. They were despondent, confused and afraid. In many ways they are a powerful and very real picture of two ordinary people trying to make their way through a difficult time in life.
As they walked along they tried to make sense of the events of the last few days – Jesus’ crucifixion and now the strange rumours of his resurrection. As they walked they were joined by a stranger who enters into conversation with them, and as he does so, we begin to uncover further layers to their despondency. They were devastated because Jesus didn’t turn out to be who they had expected. They had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, and by that they meant that Jesus would drive out the Roman oppressors and return Israel to sovereign nationhood.
This is the Jesus they thought they knew - what they had been hoping for in a God and Messiah. But after the death of Jesus, and now hearing reports of a resurrection, it seems their expectations of God were further muddied and confused. So really, they were tired, worn out and burned out on religion.
Interestingly enough, the name Emmaus can mean ‘obscure’ or ‘nowhere,’ and it really seems as though these two despondent and disillusioned disciples were on a journey to nowhere. This leads us to the first important truth in this story I would like to emphasise; which is that it really, really matters what we believe and what we base our lives upon, because trusting in all the wrong things can take us on a journey to nowhere!
People often say that it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. Well, as Brian Mclaren says, people are well intentioned when they say that but they can’t really mean it, at least not literally.
Is it ok for a crazed cult leader to sincerely believe his sincere followers should join him in sincerely drinking poisoned Kool-Aid so that they can end up in heaven sooner rather than later? It is really ok for sincere religious fundamentalists to control the lives of millions through sincere intimidation, censorship, legislation and threats of violence? Was it really ok for Christians to sincerely take up arms in Crusades for Jerusalem property rights and end up killing tens of thousands?
Brian Mclaren ends up by concluding, and I couldn’t agree more, that it sometimes seems that having bad faith is more dangerous than having no faith at all. People often discard faith totally, not because they’ve discarded God as much as they have discarded other people’s unhealthy versions of God!
A university chaplain once reminisced that he would have several students a year visit him in his office who were struggling through a faith crisis. They would say to him that they didn’t believe in God anymore, but he would always respond, “Well, tell me about that God, because I probably don’t believe in him either.”
Bad faith takes on a journey nowhere. We see that in these two on their way to Emmaus. They were burnt out, not on God, but on their version of God and there’s a big difference that I hope you can now see. They had hoped in a military Messiah but as the mysterious stranger said: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe.”
God’s Kingdom enters earth not through violence, power or coercion but through love, grace and forgiveness. They were somewhat selfishly expecting God to save Israel, but they needed to understand that God wanted to use Israel to save the WHOLE world.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, help me to understand that sometimes my understanding of you is inadequate. Help me to humbly open myself up to knowing as much of you as I possibly can. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Matthew 11. 28-30 MSG
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Mon 27 April – Another Resurrection Surprise
DAILY BYTE
There’s an Easter story I would like to share with you. It’s about a 3 year old girl named Zoe, and her pet turtle which died. Little Zoe cried as if her heart would break. Her father would later become the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, but that day, in the face of his little girl’s tears, he didn’t feel very wise at all.
All his best efforts to comfort her failed. Finally, in desperation, he said, “I’ll tell you what; we’ll have a funeral for the turtle.”
Well, since Zoe was only three, she didn’t really know what a funeral was, so her dad tried his best to explain.
“A funeral is like a festival in honour of your turtle.”
Zoe didn’t know what a festival was either, so her dad tried once more.
“A funeral is like a party. We’ll have ice cream, cake, lemonade and balloons, and all the children in the neighbourhood will come over to our house to play; all because the turtle died.”
That finally dried up her tears and Zoe returned to her normal, smiling self. Not only happy, but now quite excited at the prospect of what was going to happen because her turtle had died. Then a quite surprising and unforeseen thing happened. Suddenly, the turtle began to move.
It wasn’t dead after all! The turtle began to crawl away and now Zoe’s dad really didn’t know what to say. But little Zoe did.
“Daddy,” she said looking up at him, “Daddy ... let’s kill it.”
I love that story because it is a reminder that life post-Easter and post-Resurrection is full of surprising and unforeseen things – because Jesus has risen, everything changes. This week’s Bible reading is a Resurrection appearance that is full of surprises. Like the two disciples who feature in it, we may find ourselves astonished by how Jesus appears to us. Just as little Zoe found with her turtle, we may find Jesus moving in our lives quite unexpectedly.
This is because it is a story about finding Jesus, or should I say Jesus finding us, and as he does so, having our perceptions, expectations and stereotypes of who we think God should be, challenged, expanded and maybe even blown out of the water.
Like many great Biblical stories, this particular one starts off with a journey. Two nondescript disciples are making their way to Emmaus. Only of them – Cleopas – is actually named, while his companion remains anonymous. Scholars think this companion could have been Cleopas’ wife or friend, but perhaps this non-naming is actually purposeful. Maybe Luke’s intention is for us to insert our names here next to Cleopas’ – to include ourselves in this particular journey.
Read through the complete story (Luke 24.13-35) and do exactly that. As you do so consider in what ways God may be speaking to you and write down any thoughts you may have.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Great and Gracious God, I acknowledge you as a God who is full of surprises. May you enter my life this week in a brand, new and wonderful ways. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 24. 13-18 NIV
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
There’s an Easter story I would like to share with you. It’s about a 3 year old girl named Zoe, and her pet turtle which died. Little Zoe cried as if her heart would break. Her father would later become the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, but that day, in the face of his little girl’s tears, he didn’t feel very wise at all.
All his best efforts to comfort her failed. Finally, in desperation, he said, “I’ll tell you what; we’ll have a funeral for the turtle.”
Well, since Zoe was only three, she didn’t really know what a funeral was, so her dad tried his best to explain.
“A funeral is like a festival in honour of your turtle.”
Zoe didn’t know what a festival was either, so her dad tried once more.
“A funeral is like a party. We’ll have ice cream, cake, lemonade and balloons, and all the children in the neighbourhood will come over to our house to play; all because the turtle died.”
That finally dried up her tears and Zoe returned to her normal, smiling self. Not only happy, but now quite excited at the prospect of what was going to happen because her turtle had died. Then a quite surprising and unforeseen thing happened. Suddenly, the turtle began to move.
It wasn’t dead after all! The turtle began to crawl away and now Zoe’s dad really didn’t know what to say. But little Zoe did.
“Daddy,” she said looking up at him, “Daddy ... let’s kill it.”
I love that story because it is a reminder that life post-Easter and post-Resurrection is full of surprising and unforeseen things – because Jesus has risen, everything changes. This week’s Bible reading is a Resurrection appearance that is full of surprises. Like the two disciples who feature in it, we may find ourselves astonished by how Jesus appears to us. Just as little Zoe found with her turtle, we may find Jesus moving in our lives quite unexpectedly.
This is because it is a story about finding Jesus, or should I say Jesus finding us, and as he does so, having our perceptions, expectations and stereotypes of who we think God should be, challenged, expanded and maybe even blown out of the water.
Like many great Biblical stories, this particular one starts off with a journey. Two nondescript disciples are making their way to Emmaus. Only of them – Cleopas – is actually named, while his companion remains anonymous. Scholars think this companion could have been Cleopas’ wife or friend, but perhaps this non-naming is actually purposeful. Maybe Luke’s intention is for us to insert our names here next to Cleopas’ – to include ourselves in this particular journey.
Read through the complete story (Luke 24.13-35) and do exactly that. As you do so consider in what ways God may be speaking to you and write down any thoughts you may have.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Great and Gracious God, I acknowledge you as a God who is full of surprises. May you enter my life this week in a brand, new and wonderful ways. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 24. 13-18 NIV
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Sunday 26th April - Sizanani
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.
The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.
Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.
Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.
Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357
Bank details:
Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.
The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.
Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.
Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.
Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357
Bank details:
Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926
Friday, 24 April 2009
Saturday 25th April - Sizanani
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.
The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.
Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.
Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.
Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357
Bank details:
Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Sizanani is the Zulu word for ‘help one another’. This project offers 22 weeks of basic sewing and pattern drafting training to people who are unskilled and unemployed, to enable them to become self employed. The growth of personal dignity, self esteem and spiritual well-being is also encouraged.
The basic course syllabus concentrates on skills like seams, gathering, putting in collars, sewing in zips, buttonholes and facings. The pattern drafting syllabus teaches students how to draft a basic skirt and shirt pattern; how to do variations like flares, pleats, puffed sleeves, etc. The students then design an outfit for themselves, which is modeled at their graduation.
Course costs R1 100.00 and students are provided with everything they need to complete the course. Training is in Zulu.
Sponsorship of a student or a group of students is welcomed.
Enquiries – sizanani@ptnmeth.org.za; Tel 031 7027357
Bank details:
Account Name: PMCMA – Sizanani
Account Number: 133 947 6681
Bank Name: Nedbank
Bank code: 133 926
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Friday 24 April - Resurrected Community
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we read that the scripture calls us to see the resurrected Jesus in one another. We also got an inkling of how difficult that calling can be. The more we read in the scripture, the more challenging this calling becomes.
Desmond Tutu spoke to a roomful of people a few weeks ago, and he opened our eyes to the fact that Jesus tells Mary to go back and tell the good news of his resurrection to her brothers. Jesus tells her to share the risen Lord with them and find the risen Lord in them.
So, the woman who had at one time been demon-possessed is supposed to go carry the risen Lord to the same people who had just betrayed and denied him.
This is a shocking party to celebrate the risen Christ, indeed.
But this broken group of people is the family that Jesus chose to become the church – the place where in the Book of Acts, they start describing their relationships with one another as brothers and sisters.
In his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson says, “The more we practice resurrection the less we are on our own or by ourselves, for we find that this resurrection that is so intensely and relationally personal in Father, Son, and Spirit at the same time plunges us into relationships with brothers and sisters we never knew we had: we are in community whether we like it or not. We do not choose to be in this community; by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus, this is the company we keep.”
Brothers and sisters, we remain in Good Friday if we don’t open our eyes and ears to see and hear the risen Christ in one another in surprising ways. If we fail to put on our resurrection glasses, our vision will remain fuzzy, and we will walk through life in a deathly haze.
But if you hear the voice of Jesus calling your name today, believing that with every moment of your life you are to celebrate the truly miraculous resurrection of Christ, then you are called to “be what you believe,” as former Methodist bishop, Peter Storey says.
William Barclay elaborates: “Christianity does not mean knowing about Jesus; it means knowing him. It does not mean arguing about him; it means meeting him. It means the certainty of the experience that Jesus is alive.”
Jesus is calling our names not only to see and believe but to live a resurrected life, being a community that looks and sounds just like the resurrected Christ – not hollow individuals weeping by an empty tomb, but a community of gardeners, admiring and planting grace, faith, and love in all people.
So, if you believe that Jesus was truly resurrected from the dead, where are you looking for the Lord? Christ is Risen – he is risen, indeed, and he is risen in us.
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Acts 10:34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ-- he is Lord of all.
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Meditate on this today, as you interact with every person you meet: Christ is risen. Christ is risen in you. Christ is risen in me.
Yesterday, we read that the scripture calls us to see the resurrected Jesus in one another. We also got an inkling of how difficult that calling can be. The more we read in the scripture, the more challenging this calling becomes.
Desmond Tutu spoke to a roomful of people a few weeks ago, and he opened our eyes to the fact that Jesus tells Mary to go back and tell the good news of his resurrection to her brothers. Jesus tells her to share the risen Lord with them and find the risen Lord in them.
So, the woman who had at one time been demon-possessed is supposed to go carry the risen Lord to the same people who had just betrayed and denied him.
This is a shocking party to celebrate the risen Christ, indeed.
But this broken group of people is the family that Jesus chose to become the church – the place where in the Book of Acts, they start describing their relationships with one another as brothers and sisters.
In his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson says, “The more we practice resurrection the less we are on our own or by ourselves, for we find that this resurrection that is so intensely and relationally personal in Father, Son, and Spirit at the same time plunges us into relationships with brothers and sisters we never knew we had: we are in community whether we like it or not. We do not choose to be in this community; by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus, this is the company we keep.”
Brothers and sisters, we remain in Good Friday if we don’t open our eyes and ears to see and hear the risen Christ in one another in surprising ways. If we fail to put on our resurrection glasses, our vision will remain fuzzy, and we will walk through life in a deathly haze.
But if you hear the voice of Jesus calling your name today, believing that with every moment of your life you are to celebrate the truly miraculous resurrection of Christ, then you are called to “be what you believe,” as former Methodist bishop, Peter Storey says.
William Barclay elaborates: “Christianity does not mean knowing about Jesus; it means knowing him. It does not mean arguing about him; it means meeting him. It means the certainty of the experience that Jesus is alive.”
Jesus is calling our names not only to see and believe but to live a resurrected life, being a community that looks and sounds just like the resurrected Christ – not hollow individuals weeping by an empty tomb, but a community of gardeners, admiring and planting grace, faith, and love in all people.
So, if you believe that Jesus was truly resurrected from the dead, where are you looking for the Lord? Christ is Risen – he is risen, indeed, and he is risen in us.
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Acts 10:34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ-- he is Lord of all.
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Meditate on this today, as you interact with every person you meet: Christ is risen. Christ is risen in you. Christ is risen in me.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Thursday 23 April 2009 Teaching
DAILY BYTE
We read yesterday about a seemingly ordinary gardener in the resurrection story. Now, awesomely, out of his mouth comes Mary’s name. He calls his own by name, helping her see who he is and helping her remember who she is – a student, a friend, a grace-saved sinner, and a follower of the risen Lord.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when it takes us forever to find Jesus outside the tomb because even Mary Magdalene had to turn around twice before she noticed him standing right beside her. Perhaps though, she really wasn’t paying attention the first time, when she thought she was ‘just’ speaking to a gardener. But when that gardener speaks her name and she realizes that she’s hearing the voice of someone with whom she has a significant relationship, she gives him her full attention.
And she responds with a breathtaking word. Rabbouni, she says. Teacher. Even after the Lord’s death, he continues to teach that his love and presence are not defined by any human boundaries. His Spirit goes where it will and often inhabits the most surprisingly ordinary and downtrodden people and places. This teacher teaches us about where his body has been laid. It has been laid in the body of Christ – the community of people who believe in him. It is not enough simply to proclaim that the Lord is risen, and it is not even enough to go looking for where he is. It is the Christian journey to look for Jesus with one another!
The pastor theologian Jim Wallis says that “The purpose of God in Jesus is neither simply to redeem individuals nor merely to teach the world some new thoughts. God’s purpose in Christ is to establish a new community that points to the plan of God for the world.”
I heard a story about a preacher once who had been preaching sermons for a lifetime. Everywhere he went, in everyone he met, he saw a story for a sermon. But this preacher finally retired, and he found he could not stop looking at the world as though everything and everyone in it was an illustration of the gospel. And so, he wrote down sermon after sermon in books, even though no one would ever read them.
He had developed gospel resurrection eyesight to view the world, and he couldn’t stop seeing it and sharing it that way. I have since learned that this is what happens with sermon writing – that’s why you’re always taking a risk when you become friends with a preacher! You never know when your life might show up in the pulpit on Sunday…. But in all seriousness, I’ve found that what the eyes of my heart are seeking in the world shifts slightly when I am writing a sermon. And I have begun to wonder why my sight is not in resurrection mode all the time? Why am I not constantly seeing and acting out Jesus’ resurrection in the community?
This scripture calls us all constantly to be standing in the presence of the teacher, Jesus. When Mary leaves her teacher, she leaves with Jesus’ commandment not to hold onto him but instead to go to her brothers and tell them what she’s seen. She is told to keep her resurrection glasses on all the time and to witness to her community the surprising way she has seen the risen Lord. Are you striving for resurrection eyesight all the time?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE – John 20:16-18
Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…
Start up a conversation with someone with whom you would not normally speak. Talk and listen to someone whom you normally overlook or even look down upon. Approach them with a singular thought in your heart: Where do I see Jesus in them?
We read yesterday about a seemingly ordinary gardener in the resurrection story. Now, awesomely, out of his mouth comes Mary’s name. He calls his own by name, helping her see who he is and helping her remember who she is – a student, a friend, a grace-saved sinner, and a follower of the risen Lord.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when it takes us forever to find Jesus outside the tomb because even Mary Magdalene had to turn around twice before she noticed him standing right beside her. Perhaps though, she really wasn’t paying attention the first time, when she thought she was ‘just’ speaking to a gardener. But when that gardener speaks her name and she realizes that she’s hearing the voice of someone with whom she has a significant relationship, she gives him her full attention.
And she responds with a breathtaking word. Rabbouni, she says. Teacher. Even after the Lord’s death, he continues to teach that his love and presence are not defined by any human boundaries. His Spirit goes where it will and often inhabits the most surprisingly ordinary and downtrodden people and places. This teacher teaches us about where his body has been laid. It has been laid in the body of Christ – the community of people who believe in him. It is not enough simply to proclaim that the Lord is risen, and it is not even enough to go looking for where he is. It is the Christian journey to look for Jesus with one another!
The pastor theologian Jim Wallis says that “The purpose of God in Jesus is neither simply to redeem individuals nor merely to teach the world some new thoughts. God’s purpose in Christ is to establish a new community that points to the plan of God for the world.”
I heard a story about a preacher once who had been preaching sermons for a lifetime. Everywhere he went, in everyone he met, he saw a story for a sermon. But this preacher finally retired, and he found he could not stop looking at the world as though everything and everyone in it was an illustration of the gospel. And so, he wrote down sermon after sermon in books, even though no one would ever read them.
He had developed gospel resurrection eyesight to view the world, and he couldn’t stop seeing it and sharing it that way. I have since learned that this is what happens with sermon writing – that’s why you’re always taking a risk when you become friends with a preacher! You never know when your life might show up in the pulpit on Sunday…. But in all seriousness, I’ve found that what the eyes of my heart are seeking in the world shifts slightly when I am writing a sermon. And I have begun to wonder why my sight is not in resurrection mode all the time? Why am I not constantly seeing and acting out Jesus’ resurrection in the community?
This scripture calls us all constantly to be standing in the presence of the teacher, Jesus. When Mary leaves her teacher, she leaves with Jesus’ commandment not to hold onto him but instead to go to her brothers and tell them what she’s seen. She is told to keep her resurrection glasses on all the time and to witness to her community the surprising way she has seen the risen Lord. Are you striving for resurrection eyesight all the time?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE – John 20:16-18
Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…
Start up a conversation with someone with whom you would not normally speak. Talk and listen to someone whom you normally overlook or even look down upon. Approach them with a singular thought in your heart: Where do I see Jesus in them?
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Wednesday 22 April - Where are you looking for Jesus?
DAILY BYTE
After the disciples return home in the segment of the resurrection story we read yesterday, we are still with Mary, looking for Jesus. The gospel says she’s “standing” near the tomb weeping. Her “standing” in the Greek is a continuous motion – it’s as though she’s been standing, waiting forever for the Lord to rise with her, and she’ll continue standing, seeking him forever.
Two others have already confirmed that he’s not in the cave, but she still insists on bending down to look one more time. She says she wants to see Jesus with her own eyes! And having said this, she turns around and sees Jesus standing there - but doesn’t realize it is Jesus.
How often Рsometimes when our eyes are flooded with tears, sometimes when our hearts are hardened with prejudice and hate, sometimes when our minds are stunted by blas̩ attitudes - are we not realizing when we see the risen Lord?
We travel thousands of miles to visit an empty, cold tomb, and we think we’re looking in the right places – but, he is right in front of us, and we don’t see him.
He asks her – whom are you seeking? Jesus didn’t really need to know who Mary Magdalene was looking for – he is God. (He probably already knew...) The question is for us. Are you really seeking the risen Christ? Or, are you blinded, looking for someone else entirely?
I had been reading The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” by Kathleen Norris, and I was learning to see laundry as a way of meeting Jesus. I would somewhat “joyfully” haul the basket down three flights of stairs and deliberately swoosh the sheets over the washing line, all the while enjoying the God-created sunshine. It was a small slice of heaven.
But sometimes, I would go to hang my wash, and someone else would be there: a domestic worker, and oh, how she could talk. My pleasant little clothes-hanging-Jesus-in-the-sunshine world was interrupted with chatter.
But, she was unavoidable, and the more I saw her the more we talked so that every time I went out to hang washing, we found out a little more about each other. She found out I was a minister – a baby minister – as she calls me. I found out she is the wife of a minister, and I heard about her children, and I learned her name. If I came to the wash line singing – no matter what random Britney Spears song – she would say, “OHHH, are you singing for Jesus?” Every comment I made, she would respond with one about Jesus, usually ending our conversation with “It is good to work for the Lord, isn’t it?” No matter what kind of day I was having, I had no choice but to respond – yes – it is good to work for the Lord. Until I finally realized, she is not just the washing lady. My short time with her was time with the risen Lord.
Mary thought the voice she heard was just the voice of a gardener. Someone who was there because it was his job to be there. Someone ordinary, a servant. But she doesn’t really see him. God opens Mary’s eyes here to a stunning reality that Jesus is within the people around us – the people we often overlook. Jesus’ presence through the Holy Spirit shows no partiality. Every single ordinary person has the risen Lord in them through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Philip Yancey talks about how “Author Frederick Buechner is struck by the unglamorous quality of Jesus’ appearances after resurrection Sunday. There were no angels in the sky, singing choruses…. Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances… two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden….” Jesus is not showing off with his supernatural resurrection! Jesus is showing people like you and me how to be resurrected with one another.
GUIDING SCRIPTURE:
John 20:11-15
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
After the disciples return home in the segment of the resurrection story we read yesterday, we are still with Mary, looking for Jesus. The gospel says she’s “standing” near the tomb weeping. Her “standing” in the Greek is a continuous motion – it’s as though she’s been standing, waiting forever for the Lord to rise with her, and she’ll continue standing, seeking him forever.
Two others have already confirmed that he’s not in the cave, but she still insists on bending down to look one more time. She says she wants to see Jesus with her own eyes! And having said this, she turns around and sees Jesus standing there - but doesn’t realize it is Jesus.
How often Рsometimes when our eyes are flooded with tears, sometimes when our hearts are hardened with prejudice and hate, sometimes when our minds are stunted by blas̩ attitudes - are we not realizing when we see the risen Lord?
We travel thousands of miles to visit an empty, cold tomb, and we think we’re looking in the right places – but, he is right in front of us, and we don’t see him.
He asks her – whom are you seeking? Jesus didn’t really need to know who Mary Magdalene was looking for – he is God. (He probably already knew...) The question is for us. Are you really seeking the risen Christ? Or, are you blinded, looking for someone else entirely?
I had been reading The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” by Kathleen Norris, and I was learning to see laundry as a way of meeting Jesus. I would somewhat “joyfully” haul the basket down three flights of stairs and deliberately swoosh the sheets over the washing line, all the while enjoying the God-created sunshine. It was a small slice of heaven.
But sometimes, I would go to hang my wash, and someone else would be there: a domestic worker, and oh, how she could talk. My pleasant little clothes-hanging-Jesus-in-the-sunshine world was interrupted with chatter.
But, she was unavoidable, and the more I saw her the more we talked so that every time I went out to hang washing, we found out a little more about each other. She found out I was a minister – a baby minister – as she calls me. I found out she is the wife of a minister, and I heard about her children, and I learned her name. If I came to the wash line singing – no matter what random Britney Spears song – she would say, “OHHH, are you singing for Jesus?” Every comment I made, she would respond with one about Jesus, usually ending our conversation with “It is good to work for the Lord, isn’t it?” No matter what kind of day I was having, I had no choice but to respond – yes – it is good to work for the Lord. Until I finally realized, she is not just the washing lady. My short time with her was time with the risen Lord.
Mary thought the voice she heard was just the voice of a gardener. Someone who was there because it was his job to be there. Someone ordinary, a servant. But she doesn’t really see him. God opens Mary’s eyes here to a stunning reality that Jesus is within the people around us – the people we often overlook. Jesus’ presence through the Holy Spirit shows no partiality. Every single ordinary person has the risen Lord in them through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Philip Yancey talks about how “Author Frederick Buechner is struck by the unglamorous quality of Jesus’ appearances after resurrection Sunday. There were no angels in the sky, singing choruses…. Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances… two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden….” Jesus is not showing off with his supernatural resurrection! Jesus is showing people like you and me how to be resurrected with one another.
GUIDING SCRIPTURE:
John 20:11-15
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Monday, 20 April 2009
Tuesday 21 April - Running to Easter
DAILY BYTE
After Mary Magdalene goes to tell the other disciples that Jesus is missing, they decide they want to see this strange mystery for themselves! Many, many people rush to church on Easter, after having been absent since Christmas, in a strange urge to want to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection with their own ears.
And so we go running again – there’s running hardly anywhere else in the gospel, but here, there’s a flurry of activity, as we and the disciples in the scripture attempt to solve this mystery. We notice that one runs ahead of the other. Perhaps some people are more eager to figure out where Jesus is than others… Or, maybe some people are just more fit…
But the track star disciple reaches the tomb first, and he seems to hesitate. He peeps his head in the door, but won’t take the full step in right away to realize the resurrection. How many of us are actually content with a Jesus who is dead?
In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, the author, Philip Yancey says, “Surely, it would have been easier, and more natural, to honor a dead Jesus as one of the martyr-prophets whose tombs were so venerated by the Jews.” It would definitely have been more socially acceptable…
So, while we may rush to get to church on time on Easter Sunday because it feels like something we have to do, are we really fine with just reading about Jesus in books, gawking at pictures of him hanging on the cross, remaining in a Good Friday mentality for the whole rest of the year until Easter comes around again? Good Friday absolutely has its place, but we cannot be with Christ through his agony and death if we are not also with Christ when he is raised from the dead.
If we are claiming that we’re an “Easter” people, we must be unafraid to go into the darkness and death of the tomb, see that Jesus is not there, and then come back out into the joyful light to find him! It is not enough to say, “Christ is Risen!” We are called to seek out where he is, now that he is risen!
After Simon Peter and the other ‘beloved disciple’ finally go in and come out of the tomb, the gospel says, the beloved disciple believed! He is Risen! That’s great! So, what did they do? They went home. The Greek actually says, they immediately return to “themselves.”
They had this spectacular, shocking, radical, glorious news, and you would think they would at least jump up and down! You’d be sure that they would at least go tell someone – or look for him! But instead, it feels like that is the end of the story for them. They crawl back into their shells. Show’s over – Easter Service is over – what a miracle. Time to go home. Many scholars think that the beloved disciple’s statement of belief is the climax of the scripture, but I would beg to differ because the story doesn’t end there.
Have you been content this past week to return home after Easter Sunday without continuing to look for where Jesus is, now that he is risen?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE:
John 20:3-10
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Then the disciples returned to their homes.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Seeking God, you continuously seek after us. Help us to continue to seek after you. Amen.
After Mary Magdalene goes to tell the other disciples that Jesus is missing, they decide they want to see this strange mystery for themselves! Many, many people rush to church on Easter, after having been absent since Christmas, in a strange urge to want to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection with their own ears.
And so we go running again – there’s running hardly anywhere else in the gospel, but here, there’s a flurry of activity, as we and the disciples in the scripture attempt to solve this mystery. We notice that one runs ahead of the other. Perhaps some people are more eager to figure out where Jesus is than others… Or, maybe some people are just more fit…
But the track star disciple reaches the tomb first, and he seems to hesitate. He peeps his head in the door, but won’t take the full step in right away to realize the resurrection. How many of us are actually content with a Jesus who is dead?
In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, the author, Philip Yancey says, “Surely, it would have been easier, and more natural, to honor a dead Jesus as one of the martyr-prophets whose tombs were so venerated by the Jews.” It would definitely have been more socially acceptable…
So, while we may rush to get to church on time on Easter Sunday because it feels like something we have to do, are we really fine with just reading about Jesus in books, gawking at pictures of him hanging on the cross, remaining in a Good Friday mentality for the whole rest of the year until Easter comes around again? Good Friday absolutely has its place, but we cannot be with Christ through his agony and death if we are not also with Christ when he is raised from the dead.
If we are claiming that we’re an “Easter” people, we must be unafraid to go into the darkness and death of the tomb, see that Jesus is not there, and then come back out into the joyful light to find him! It is not enough to say, “Christ is Risen!” We are called to seek out where he is, now that he is risen!
After Simon Peter and the other ‘beloved disciple’ finally go in and come out of the tomb, the gospel says, the beloved disciple believed! He is Risen! That’s great! So, what did they do? They went home. The Greek actually says, they immediately return to “themselves.”
They had this spectacular, shocking, radical, glorious news, and you would think they would at least jump up and down! You’d be sure that they would at least go tell someone – or look for him! But instead, it feels like that is the end of the story for them. They crawl back into their shells. Show’s over – Easter Service is over – what a miracle. Time to go home. Many scholars think that the beloved disciple’s statement of belief is the climax of the scripture, but I would beg to differ because the story doesn’t end there.
Have you been content this past week to return home after Easter Sunday without continuing to look for where Jesus is, now that he is risen?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE:
John 20:3-10
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Then the disciples returned to their homes.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Seeking God, you continuously seek after us. Help us to continue to seek after you. Amen.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Monday April 20 - In the empty wonder of the tomb
DAILY BYTE
Last week we heard about the Gospel of Mark’s account of the resurrection of the Messiah. But, all four of the gospels contain descriptions of Jesus’ resurrection. So, not only do we have a miraculously risen Lord, but also we have four different ways of peering into the tomb with wonder – four slightly different ways of drawing us all into the story. Eugene Peterson says that the different gospels approach the resurrection “from different directions…but one element is common to them all: they all convey a sense of wonder, astonishment, surprise.”
The Gospel of John’s version particularly draws us in to this astonishment through the language of the story, and we will be exploring John’s account this week. In the Greek this part of the story is written mostly in the present tense, so as Mary Magdalene approaches the empty tomb, we approach the tomb with her:
It was a February morning in Jerusalem when I stepped through the entrance of the garden tomb into the cave. Other tourists were around, but it still felt cold to me. I looked at the stone bed, and there was an emptiness and a hardness to it. I tried to want to be in there – and I tried to imagine Jesus, as he would have been laid. But, no matter how hard I tried, it felt void of life in that tomb, and I could relate to Mary Magdalene - I was more than happy to make a quick exit.
There was a strange wonder to that place – one that we don’t really know what to do with. It reminds me of the same feeling I get when I visit the gravesides of people I have loved – a strange feeling of emptiness is there, even though you know that something completely life-altering has occurred, and the person who is gone really is there at the same time.
We respond to this mystery in many ways, don’t we? Sometimes we respond by rushing out of the hollow, empty tomb – trying to get away from the strange reality and the hollowness of death, no matter how wondrous it may be.
When Mary sees that Jesus is not in the tomb, she runs! And we get an immediate play by play, going through the actions with Mary and the other disciples. She sees, she runs! We see, we run!
But, when Mary sees that Jesus is not in the tomb, she doesn’t go looking in the places where he may be. Perhaps grave robbers were lurking. Perhaps, the mob would desecrate Jesus’ body and then come after Jesus’ followers, too. Perhaps, after all their denial, they would have to own up to the fact that they really were disciples.
So instead of going looking for Jesus, Mary goes back to the safety of her friends – Simon and the other disciple Jesus loved.
How often when we hear the wonder of the resurrection do we shy away because of its strangeness and the feeling of danger that arises when we realize that if Jesus is alive, life is going change? We can choose whether we want to run away to the hollow safety of a life we’ve always known or whether we want to be completely changed by what happened when Jesus disappeared from the tomb.
Do you want your life to be utterly transformed by the very fact that Christ is risen?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
John 20: 1-2
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
Last week we heard about the Gospel of Mark’s account of the resurrection of the Messiah. But, all four of the gospels contain descriptions of Jesus’ resurrection. So, not only do we have a miraculously risen Lord, but also we have four different ways of peering into the tomb with wonder – four slightly different ways of drawing us all into the story. Eugene Peterson says that the different gospels approach the resurrection “from different directions…but one element is common to them all: they all convey a sense of wonder, astonishment, surprise.”
The Gospel of John’s version particularly draws us in to this astonishment through the language of the story, and we will be exploring John’s account this week. In the Greek this part of the story is written mostly in the present tense, so as Mary Magdalene approaches the empty tomb, we approach the tomb with her:
It was a February morning in Jerusalem when I stepped through the entrance of the garden tomb into the cave. Other tourists were around, but it still felt cold to me. I looked at the stone bed, and there was an emptiness and a hardness to it. I tried to want to be in there – and I tried to imagine Jesus, as he would have been laid. But, no matter how hard I tried, it felt void of life in that tomb, and I could relate to Mary Magdalene - I was more than happy to make a quick exit.
There was a strange wonder to that place – one that we don’t really know what to do with. It reminds me of the same feeling I get when I visit the gravesides of people I have loved – a strange feeling of emptiness is there, even though you know that something completely life-altering has occurred, and the person who is gone really is there at the same time.
We respond to this mystery in many ways, don’t we? Sometimes we respond by rushing out of the hollow, empty tomb – trying to get away from the strange reality and the hollowness of death, no matter how wondrous it may be.
When Mary sees that Jesus is not in the tomb, she runs! And we get an immediate play by play, going through the actions with Mary and the other disciples. She sees, she runs! We see, we run!
But, when Mary sees that Jesus is not in the tomb, she doesn’t go looking in the places where he may be. Perhaps grave robbers were lurking. Perhaps, the mob would desecrate Jesus’ body and then come after Jesus’ followers, too. Perhaps, after all their denial, they would have to own up to the fact that they really were disciples.
So instead of going looking for Jesus, Mary goes back to the safety of her friends – Simon and the other disciple Jesus loved.
How often when we hear the wonder of the resurrection do we shy away because of its strangeness and the feeling of danger that arises when we realize that if Jesus is alive, life is going change? We can choose whether we want to run away to the hollow safety of a life we’ve always known or whether we want to be completely changed by what happened when Jesus disappeared from the tomb.
Do you want your life to be utterly transformed by the very fact that Christ is risen?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
John 20: 1-2
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Sunday 19th April - Ethelbert Children's Home
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Ethelbert Children's Home cares for 60 abused, abandoned and neglected children from various backgrounds and cultures. They come to us frightened and hurting, not knowing who to trust or what security is. We gather them in and start the process of healing, helping them to trust again and to feel secure and cared for. Our aim is to nurture them so that one day they may leave here able to cope with society and become worthwhile citizens, capable of contributing to the world around them.
A donation can be sent to:
Ethelbert Children's Home, PO Box 28119, Malvern, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 4055.
www.ethelbert.co.za
Thank you for caring.
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Ethelbert Children's Home cares for 60 abused, abandoned and neglected children from various backgrounds and cultures. They come to us frightened and hurting, not knowing who to trust or what security is. We gather them in and start the process of healing, helping them to trust again and to feel secure and cared for. Our aim is to nurture them so that one day they may leave here able to cope with society and become worthwhile citizens, capable of contributing to the world around them.
A donation can be sent to:
Ethelbert Children's Home, PO Box 28119, Malvern, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 4055.
www.ethelbert.co.za
Thank you for caring.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Saturday 18th April - Ethelbert Children's Home
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Ethelbert Children's Home cares for 60 abused, abandoned and neglected children from various backgrounds and cultures. They come to us frightened and hurting, not knowing who to trust or what security is. We gather them in and start the process of healing, helping them to trust again and to feel secure and cared for. Our aim is to nurture them so that one day they may leave here able to cope with society and become worthwhile citizens, capable of contributing to the world around them.
A donation can be sent to:
Ethelbert Children's Home, PO Box 28119, Malvern, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 4055.
www.ethelbert.co.za
Thank you for caring.
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Ethelbert Children's Home cares for 60 abused, abandoned and neglected children from various backgrounds and cultures. They come to us frightened and hurting, not knowing who to trust or what security is. We gather them in and start the process of healing, helping them to trust again and to feel secure and cared for. Our aim is to nurture them so that one day they may leave here able to cope with society and become worthwhile citizens, capable of contributing to the world around them.
A donation can be sent to:
Ethelbert Children's Home, PO Box 28119, Malvern, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 4055.
www.ethelbert.co.za
Thank you for caring.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Friday 17 April - Hope sets us free
DAILY BYTE
In his book “The Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens tells the story of a doctor who was imprisoned for 20 years in a French prison. Unable to practice medicine, he kept himself occupied by practicing as a cobbler and so for 20 years he could be heard in his little cell until late at night, tapping away while repairing shoes.
When he was finally freed from prison, the doctor, strangely enough, found himself unable to cope with his freedom. He was unused to the brightness of the sun and the openness of the world around him. So he went home and prepared a room in his attic that was exactly the same size as his prison cell. Every evening he would lock himself inside and through the night would tap-tap away repairing shoes. There was a whole, open, bright world out there, but he was still consigned to his little prison because he feared to step out into it so much.
This story reminds me of how Jesus’ disciples were post the resurrection. Throughout this week I have mentioned that they only understood the complete Jesus story – his death, resurrection and ascension – in hindsight. At this stage they were still frightened, disillusioned and hopeless.
Even the news of Jesus’ resurrection did not immediately release them from these prisons of fear. This is surprising because one would have expected them to be so surprised and excited that they would have rushed out into the big, open, bright world and embraced the new Life that awaited them there.
However, like the doctor in Dickens’ story, this is not what they did. The Gospels make it clear that they remained hidden behind their locked doors, still too afraid to venture out. They were unsure of this new change in their lives. They were reluctant to embrace the Resurrection and all the hope it brought into the world because they weren’t clear on its implications.
We often live in similar ways. We live in prisons of fear, guilt, mediocrity and dysfunctionality. It may not be our fault that we originally found ourselves in those prisons, but we do have to take responsibility for STILL being in them. Through Jesus, we can know freedom, wholeness and brand new life. We can be set free to live to our full potential. Yet, we often are too afraid to seek healing and walk the difficult and lengthy journey towards wholeness, and so we rush back inside our prison cells. Strangely enough, we prefer the ‘safe’ comfort of their four walls.
Norman Cousins once said: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”. The truth of the matter is that when we allow ourselves to be imprisoned in such a way, we allow something within us to die. What are you allowing to die within you because of a self-imposed prison? What are you refusing to let go of? How are you allowing fear or guilt to constrain or restrict you?
Remember as mentioned yesterday, the hope of God needs to be responded to. Perhaps it is time you did so.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Jesus is Risen! O Lord God, we give thanks for the Good News of the Resurrected Christ. We pray that this Good News would resonate deep within our hearts and souls. That it would shake and rattle our prison bars and cell doors. Help us to move beyond our locked doors and self-imposed prisons and out into the wide, open Life that you offer us through Christ. Amen.
FOCUS READING
John 20:19 (NIV)
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"
In his book “The Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens tells the story of a doctor who was imprisoned for 20 years in a French prison. Unable to practice medicine, he kept himself occupied by practicing as a cobbler and so for 20 years he could be heard in his little cell until late at night, tapping away while repairing shoes.
When he was finally freed from prison, the doctor, strangely enough, found himself unable to cope with his freedom. He was unused to the brightness of the sun and the openness of the world around him. So he went home and prepared a room in his attic that was exactly the same size as his prison cell. Every evening he would lock himself inside and through the night would tap-tap away repairing shoes. There was a whole, open, bright world out there, but he was still consigned to his little prison because he feared to step out into it so much.
This story reminds me of how Jesus’ disciples were post the resurrection. Throughout this week I have mentioned that they only understood the complete Jesus story – his death, resurrection and ascension – in hindsight. At this stage they were still frightened, disillusioned and hopeless.
Even the news of Jesus’ resurrection did not immediately release them from these prisons of fear. This is surprising because one would have expected them to be so surprised and excited that they would have rushed out into the big, open, bright world and embraced the new Life that awaited them there.
However, like the doctor in Dickens’ story, this is not what they did. The Gospels make it clear that they remained hidden behind their locked doors, still too afraid to venture out. They were unsure of this new change in their lives. They were reluctant to embrace the Resurrection and all the hope it brought into the world because they weren’t clear on its implications.
We often live in similar ways. We live in prisons of fear, guilt, mediocrity and dysfunctionality. It may not be our fault that we originally found ourselves in those prisons, but we do have to take responsibility for STILL being in them. Through Jesus, we can know freedom, wholeness and brand new life. We can be set free to live to our full potential. Yet, we often are too afraid to seek healing and walk the difficult and lengthy journey towards wholeness, and so we rush back inside our prison cells. Strangely enough, we prefer the ‘safe’ comfort of their four walls.
Norman Cousins once said: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”. The truth of the matter is that when we allow ourselves to be imprisoned in such a way, we allow something within us to die. What are you allowing to die within you because of a self-imposed prison? What are you refusing to let go of? How are you allowing fear or guilt to constrain or restrict you?
Remember as mentioned yesterday, the hope of God needs to be responded to. Perhaps it is time you did so.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Jesus is Risen! O Lord God, we give thanks for the Good News of the Resurrected Christ. We pray that this Good News would resonate deep within our hearts and souls. That it would shake and rattle our prison bars and cell doors. Help us to move beyond our locked doors and self-imposed prisons and out into the wide, open Life that you offer us through Christ. Amen.
FOCUS READING
John 20:19 (NIV)
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Thursday 16 April – Hope on the Rampage!
DAILY BYTE
Easter should leave us trembling in awe with new and unexpected hope. Easter should bring back a sense of wonder to our hearts. Easter should remind us that no matter how gripping death is, no matter how much it may dominate the daily headlines of our newspapers, that it WILL NOT have the final stay. It will not be a full-stop. Despair need not be our final condition.
Easter reminds us that just as the Good News of new life appeared first to those women who were disregarded as small and inconsequential by society at large, so no one is too small, too insignificant or too sinful to go unnoticed. As Henri Nouwen once wrote, ‘The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that noting that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost.’
You will never get lost. You can be found. Death can’t drown you and failure can’t hide you from God’s embrace.
No matter how big the disappointments, failures and fears in your life may be, like that stone blocking Jesus’ tomb, they are NOT big enough to block God’s life-giving power. They can be rolled away.
Remember though, you have to respond. The Gospel story does not continue until you are involved and participating in it. You have to reach out to the God who is reaching out to you. You have to remember to open your heart in wonder to God and his Easter message.
For what a wonder Easter is. Easter is hope in rampage. It is life let loose. Death is large but Easter is bigger.
To paraphrase John Chrysostom, Easter is when Hell reached out for yet another corpse, and instead met God. Easter is when Hell seized earth and encountered heaven. Easter is when Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.
No longer does the fear of death have to dominate and control us. No longer do we have to live constrained and bound by that full-stop. We can be free of all that, released instead to tremble in awe at what is truly worth trembling over.
God Love. God Possibilities. God Potential. God Life.
Because the hope of God is alive and on the rampage through the world.
Because Jesus has risen and so everything changes.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Risen Lord, conqueror of sin and death, thank you for the way you so graciously reached out to us in our death, and how you so mercifully reached out to us in our sin, both freeing and forgiving us. Help me to live your life to the full with Resurrection wonder. Your hope is on the rampage through this world and may I be a part of it. In Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 118. 14-16, 23-28 MSG
God's my strength, he's also my song,
and now he's my salvation.
Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs
in the camp of the saved?
"The hand of GOD has turned the tide!
The hand of GOD is raised in victory!
The hand of GOD has turned the tide!"
This is GOD's work.
We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted—
let's celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, GOD. Salvation now!
Oh yes, GOD—a free and full life!
Easter should leave us trembling in awe with new and unexpected hope. Easter should bring back a sense of wonder to our hearts. Easter should remind us that no matter how gripping death is, no matter how much it may dominate the daily headlines of our newspapers, that it WILL NOT have the final stay. It will not be a full-stop. Despair need not be our final condition.
Easter reminds us that just as the Good News of new life appeared first to those women who were disregarded as small and inconsequential by society at large, so no one is too small, too insignificant or too sinful to go unnoticed. As Henri Nouwen once wrote, ‘The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that noting that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost.’
You will never get lost. You can be found. Death can’t drown you and failure can’t hide you from God’s embrace.
No matter how big the disappointments, failures and fears in your life may be, like that stone blocking Jesus’ tomb, they are NOT big enough to block God’s life-giving power. They can be rolled away.
Remember though, you have to respond. The Gospel story does not continue until you are involved and participating in it. You have to reach out to the God who is reaching out to you. You have to remember to open your heart in wonder to God and his Easter message.
For what a wonder Easter is. Easter is hope in rampage. It is life let loose. Death is large but Easter is bigger.
To paraphrase John Chrysostom, Easter is when Hell reached out for yet another corpse, and instead met God. Easter is when Hell seized earth and encountered heaven. Easter is when Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.
No longer does the fear of death have to dominate and control us. No longer do we have to live constrained and bound by that full-stop. We can be free of all that, released instead to tremble in awe at what is truly worth trembling over.
God Love. God Possibilities. God Potential. God Life.
Because the hope of God is alive and on the rampage through the world.
Because Jesus has risen and so everything changes.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Risen Lord, conqueror of sin and death, thank you for the way you so graciously reached out to us in our death, and how you so mercifully reached out to us in our sin, both freeing and forgiving us. Help me to live your life to the full with Resurrection wonder. Your hope is on the rampage through this world and may I be a part of it. In Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 118. 14-16, 23-28 MSG
God's my strength, he's also my song,
and now he's my salvation.
Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs
in the camp of the saved?
"The hand of GOD has turned the tide!
The hand of GOD is raised in victory!
The hand of GOD has turned the tide!"
This is GOD's work.
We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted—
let's celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, GOD. Salvation now!
Oh yes, GOD—a free and full life!
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Wednesday 15 April – Fear-of-the-Lord
DAILY BYTE
Mark’s Gospel leaves all disciples after these women hanging on the incompleteness of a sentence; hanging on the following possibility:
What if death needn’t end the story? What if this man Jesus would complete his Messiah-dom and bring in God’s Kingdom after he died?
Death is large. Death is huge, but what if it doesn’t have the final word? And what about, if like what happened to those women, we are transformed to live life without our deepest fear being death. What if our entire existence no longer needed to be determined by the great full-stop of death?
The other Gospels fill in the missing pieces for us on Jesus’ resurrection. We know that after Jesus’ death, his disciples did not give up and go home. Nor did they pin their hopes on another Messiah.
Because something had happened!
Something that they so deeply believed in that they were more than willing to suffer and die for it. And perhaps that is because they were freed from a fear of death when they witnessed a Risen Lord.
So let me ask you a question. What would happen to us if the fear of death no longer controlled us? Can you imagine how free we would really be?!
In fact, there is a different sort of fear to live by. One that Mark’s Gospel suggests when it reveals that the women who first witnessed the resurrection were ‘seized by terror and amazement.’ This fear was not rooted in the age-old fear of death, but rather in the complete surprise of Life.
It’s what author Eugene Peterson calls ‘Fear-of-the-Lord.’ It’s not fearing God in the sense of destruction, domination and trembling, abject fright. Rather it’s fearing God in the sense of sheer wonder and trembling awe because of his immense Love and Life. As Karl Barth once said, in this sense, it is blasphemy NOT to tremble before God.
In the scope of one resurrection appearance, these three women were transformed from the fear of death to awe of God. In the scope of all resurrection appearances afterwards, the disciples were transformed from hopelessness and despair to hopefulness and wonder.
And what a difference that made to them. Indeed, what a difference it made to human history.
What Mark’s Gospel challenges us is to do is never lose that – a sense of sheer wonder at the God-life which breaks through sin and despair, and which thrusts through boredom, routine and everyday blah-ness.
Interestingly enough, it has been recorded that over the last few decades, the average time spent gazing at museum masterpieces has shrunk from ten seconds down to three. We are in danger of losing our sense of wonder. If we lose that, then it should be no surprise that other things like death and despair begin to crowd and control us.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Great God, giver of all good things, bringer of life and hope and growth. I ask that you would open my eyes to see all the wonderful things you have filled this world with. Help me to live with a sense of Resurrection wonder. Amen
FOCUS READING
Mark 16. 8 NRSV
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid
Mark’s Gospel leaves all disciples after these women hanging on the incompleteness of a sentence; hanging on the following possibility:
What if death needn’t end the story? What if this man Jesus would complete his Messiah-dom and bring in God’s Kingdom after he died?
Death is large. Death is huge, but what if it doesn’t have the final word? And what about, if like what happened to those women, we are transformed to live life without our deepest fear being death. What if our entire existence no longer needed to be determined by the great full-stop of death?
The other Gospels fill in the missing pieces for us on Jesus’ resurrection. We know that after Jesus’ death, his disciples did not give up and go home. Nor did they pin their hopes on another Messiah.
Because something had happened!
Something that they so deeply believed in that they were more than willing to suffer and die for it. And perhaps that is because they were freed from a fear of death when they witnessed a Risen Lord.
So let me ask you a question. What would happen to us if the fear of death no longer controlled us? Can you imagine how free we would really be?!
In fact, there is a different sort of fear to live by. One that Mark’s Gospel suggests when it reveals that the women who first witnessed the resurrection were ‘seized by terror and amazement.’ This fear was not rooted in the age-old fear of death, but rather in the complete surprise of Life.
It’s what author Eugene Peterson calls ‘Fear-of-the-Lord.’ It’s not fearing God in the sense of destruction, domination and trembling, abject fright. Rather it’s fearing God in the sense of sheer wonder and trembling awe because of his immense Love and Life. As Karl Barth once said, in this sense, it is blasphemy NOT to tremble before God.
In the scope of one resurrection appearance, these three women were transformed from the fear of death to awe of God. In the scope of all resurrection appearances afterwards, the disciples were transformed from hopelessness and despair to hopefulness and wonder.
And what a difference that made to them. Indeed, what a difference it made to human history.
What Mark’s Gospel challenges us is to do is never lose that – a sense of sheer wonder at the God-life which breaks through sin and despair, and which thrusts through boredom, routine and everyday blah-ness.
Interestingly enough, it has been recorded that over the last few decades, the average time spent gazing at museum masterpieces has shrunk from ten seconds down to three. We are in danger of losing our sense of wonder. If we lose that, then it should be no surprise that other things like death and despair begin to crowd and control us.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Great God, giver of all good things, bringer of life and hope and growth. I ask that you would open my eyes to see all the wonderful things you have filled this world with. Help me to live with a sense of Resurrection wonder. Amen
FOCUS READING
Mark 16. 8 NRSV
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid
Monday, 13 April 2009
Tuesday 14 April – Full-stop
DAILY BYTE
Today’s Bible reading speaks of a time when Jesus’ followers were pretty devastated. Like all the other Messiah candidates it seems as if Jesus had failed. He had died and we know that death is like a full-stop. Isn’t it?
Well, that’s certainly what the disciples originally thought. We have plenty of evidence that they only understood Jesus’ references to his coming death and resurrection in hindsight. So when Jesus died on the cross and was buried in his tomb, the disciples were crushed. All their hopes and dreams in Jesus the Messiah had been extinguished along with his last, gasping breath.
Like all the other followers of all the other failed Messiahs (remember yesterday), they were contemplating a bleak future, hoping that they too wouldn’t be violently wiped out and wondering just what the heck to do now. Because death is this full-stop. Isn’t it?
I mean, death is large. Death is huge. Death has this all encompassing grip on almost every human being. We know that inevitably it is coming for us, and so we fear it.
In studies done on human fear, it has been discovered that the fear of death seems to be at the bottom of all our other fears. We long to somehow escape it and its terrible life-stopping grip. So we have all these stories – fairy tales, legends and fables about life elixirs and fountains of youth.
Yet the reality is that we cannot escape death. It is too huge, too big, too inevitable.
This is why one dark, grey ‘full-stop’ kind of morning we find a small group of woman going to visit a tomb. A place where they expected to find death casting its icy grip over one who had brought such life and hope to others. And I guess, they thought that all hope had been extinguished with that life.
However, upon arrival, they found an empty tomb and an angel who brings them these words of comfort, ‘Don’t be afraid, because Jesus has risen, he is not here in this place of death, go and tell everyone the Good News.’
And then Mark’s Gospel does a fascinatingly strange thing. Barely a sentence later … it ends. In fact, the Gospel in the original Greek ends mid-sentence – ‘the woman went out from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, they said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for …’
And that’s how it originally ended. With a preposition, NOT a full-stop!
Get it?
I think this ending is a work of genius. Inspired. Later, some ancient Christians tried to give this Gospel a ‘proper’ ending and you can see it marked as such in your Bibles, but the style of writing is clearly different.
The English translation also tried to solve the problem of this ‘incomplete’ Gospel by moving the preposition – ‘they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.’ This solves the problem with a proper sentence and a full-stop. But what if the original author never meant for there to be a full-stop, because they wanted to make clear that death was NOT going to have the final word.
The genius of Mark’s Gospel is that it doesn’t wrap up the Easter story neatly, but leaves us somewhat on tenterhooks. It leaves us hanging because we are meant to enter into the story for ourselves at this point. Our lives are meant to meet up within it. This story is not complete until we participate in it!
Easter never happened.
It’s always happening.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, the Good News announced by the angel that morning was that death is no longer a full-stop to us, but more of a comma. It separates us, but only in a way that brings us into something new. Thank you Almighty God for saving us from death and sin. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Mark 16. 1-8 NRSV
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid
Today’s Bible reading speaks of a time when Jesus’ followers were pretty devastated. Like all the other Messiah candidates it seems as if Jesus had failed. He had died and we know that death is like a full-stop. Isn’t it?
Well, that’s certainly what the disciples originally thought. We have plenty of evidence that they only understood Jesus’ references to his coming death and resurrection in hindsight. So when Jesus died on the cross and was buried in his tomb, the disciples were crushed. All their hopes and dreams in Jesus the Messiah had been extinguished along with his last, gasping breath.
Like all the other followers of all the other failed Messiahs (remember yesterday), they were contemplating a bleak future, hoping that they too wouldn’t be violently wiped out and wondering just what the heck to do now. Because death is this full-stop. Isn’t it?
I mean, death is large. Death is huge. Death has this all encompassing grip on almost every human being. We know that inevitably it is coming for us, and so we fear it.
In studies done on human fear, it has been discovered that the fear of death seems to be at the bottom of all our other fears. We long to somehow escape it and its terrible life-stopping grip. So we have all these stories – fairy tales, legends and fables about life elixirs and fountains of youth.
Yet the reality is that we cannot escape death. It is too huge, too big, too inevitable.
This is why one dark, grey ‘full-stop’ kind of morning we find a small group of woman going to visit a tomb. A place where they expected to find death casting its icy grip over one who had brought such life and hope to others. And I guess, they thought that all hope had been extinguished with that life.
However, upon arrival, they found an empty tomb and an angel who brings them these words of comfort, ‘Don’t be afraid, because Jesus has risen, he is not here in this place of death, go and tell everyone the Good News.’
And then Mark’s Gospel does a fascinatingly strange thing. Barely a sentence later … it ends. In fact, the Gospel in the original Greek ends mid-sentence – ‘the woman went out from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, they said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for …’
And that’s how it originally ended. With a preposition, NOT a full-stop!
Get it?
I think this ending is a work of genius. Inspired. Later, some ancient Christians tried to give this Gospel a ‘proper’ ending and you can see it marked as such in your Bibles, but the style of writing is clearly different.
The English translation also tried to solve the problem of this ‘incomplete’ Gospel by moving the preposition – ‘they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.’ This solves the problem with a proper sentence and a full-stop. But what if the original author never meant for there to be a full-stop, because they wanted to make clear that death was NOT going to have the final word.
The genius of Mark’s Gospel is that it doesn’t wrap up the Easter story neatly, but leaves us somewhat on tenterhooks. It leaves us hanging because we are meant to enter into the story for ourselves at this point. Our lives are meant to meet up within it. This story is not complete until we participate in it!
Easter never happened.
It’s always happening.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, the Good News announced by the angel that morning was that death is no longer a full-stop to us, but more of a comma. It separates us, but only in a way that brings us into something new. Thank you Almighty God for saving us from death and sin. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Mark 16. 1-8 NRSV
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Monday 13 April – Jesus the Risen Messiah
DAILY BYTE
You know, he wasn’t the first Messiah to appear and nor was he the last. Around two thousand years ago, Palestine was this bubbling pot of seething resentment. The people chafed against Roman rule, and as a result their religious expectations of God’s impending deliverance were at fever pitch. They were waiting for a leader, a liberator, a person they called ‘the Messiah.’
Scholars count at least six significant characters who stepped up to this Messiah plate in the century either way round Jesus. Six men who people believed in, who promised Israel that soon they would be restored to a Kingdom. Every one of them ended up being killed by the Romans, or by some rival faction. And always what this proved to that guy’s followers that ‘He isn’t it, that means he mustn’t be the Messiah.’
If your Messiah was killed, you were left with two choices: Either you could give up, go home and just quit waiting for the Kingdom, or you could throw your hopes in with yet another Messiah candidate. This happened on numerous occasions. If your leader died, you could still love him, his memory could still inspire you, you could still believe he was alive somewhere held safely in God’s presence, BUT (and this is important) you didn’t follow him anymore!
No one follows a dead Messiah. This is because, as you may well have noticed by now, death kind of normally ends things. Death, in many ways, acts as a full stop on life.
In the middle of all of this came Jesus. A unique teacher that all his followers believed could well be the Messiah, but he was very different from the other Messiah candidates. Firstly, he seemed happy to include all sorts of odd people in God’s Kingdom like Gentiles, prostitutes, Roman soldiers and tax collectors. Secondly, he also totally resisted violence as an option. Instead he believed the Kingdom of God entered earth through love, forgiveness and graceful relationship. In fact, he even ran away from people who tried to seize him and make him king by force.
Yet as unique as he may have been, he ended up just like the rest of the Messiahs. Dead. Gone. Violently wiped from the face of the earth. And like the rest of them, that would of course mean an end to his Messiah-hood. Wouldn’t it?
Well, it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. For some reason, Jesus followers didn’t stop believing that he fulfilled Old Testament expectations of a Messiah. They didn’t give up on him, they didn’t pack up and go home and nor did they sign up with another Messiah.
Why?
Well, because he rose from death. Jesus was resurrected, risen and alive! Through the rest of this week, we will discuss in detail this event which has inspired Jesus’ followers to keep believing in him through thousands of years culminating in billions of people gathering yesterday in worship.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, Lord of death, life and everything in between. We celebrate the wonderful truth that Jesus is risen and that his Messiah-ship was not extinguished by death. Help us to understand more clearly what this Resurrection means for us through this week. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Corinthians 15. 3-8 NRSV
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
You know, he wasn’t the first Messiah to appear and nor was he the last. Around two thousand years ago, Palestine was this bubbling pot of seething resentment. The people chafed against Roman rule, and as a result their religious expectations of God’s impending deliverance were at fever pitch. They were waiting for a leader, a liberator, a person they called ‘the Messiah.’
Scholars count at least six significant characters who stepped up to this Messiah plate in the century either way round Jesus. Six men who people believed in, who promised Israel that soon they would be restored to a Kingdom. Every one of them ended up being killed by the Romans, or by some rival faction. And always what this proved to that guy’s followers that ‘He isn’t it, that means he mustn’t be the Messiah.’
If your Messiah was killed, you were left with two choices: Either you could give up, go home and just quit waiting for the Kingdom, or you could throw your hopes in with yet another Messiah candidate. This happened on numerous occasions. If your leader died, you could still love him, his memory could still inspire you, you could still believe he was alive somewhere held safely in God’s presence, BUT (and this is important) you didn’t follow him anymore!
No one follows a dead Messiah. This is because, as you may well have noticed by now, death kind of normally ends things. Death, in many ways, acts as a full stop on life.
In the middle of all of this came Jesus. A unique teacher that all his followers believed could well be the Messiah, but he was very different from the other Messiah candidates. Firstly, he seemed happy to include all sorts of odd people in God’s Kingdom like Gentiles, prostitutes, Roman soldiers and tax collectors. Secondly, he also totally resisted violence as an option. Instead he believed the Kingdom of God entered earth through love, forgiveness and graceful relationship. In fact, he even ran away from people who tried to seize him and make him king by force.
Yet as unique as he may have been, he ended up just like the rest of the Messiahs. Dead. Gone. Violently wiped from the face of the earth. And like the rest of them, that would of course mean an end to his Messiah-hood. Wouldn’t it?
Well, it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. For some reason, Jesus followers didn’t stop believing that he fulfilled Old Testament expectations of a Messiah. They didn’t give up on him, they didn’t pack up and go home and nor did they sign up with another Messiah.
Why?
Well, because he rose from death. Jesus was resurrected, risen and alive! Through the rest of this week, we will discuss in detail this event which has inspired Jesus’ followers to keep believing in him through thousands of years culminating in billions of people gathering yesterday in worship.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, Lord of death, life and everything in between. We celebrate the wonderful truth that Jesus is risen and that his Messiah-ship was not extinguished by death. Help us to understand more clearly what this Resurrection means for us through this week. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Corinthians 15. 3-8 NRSV
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Saturday, 11 April 2009
Sunday 12th April - Greyville Inner City Mission
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Greyville Inner City Mission
Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.
If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Greyville Inner City Mission
Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.
If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.
Friday, 10 April 2009
Saturday 11th April - Greyville Inner City Mission
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Greyville Inner City Mission
Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.
If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
Greyville Inner City Mission
Greyville inner city mission (GICM) is an organisation which reaches out to the poor, homeless, destitute and broken people living in Durban’s inner city. GICM’s main activity is to provide these people with restoration, rehabilitation, shelter, food, and clothing and help them develop a real and life giving relationship with Jesus. GICM does this by providing 6 people off the street with shelter, food and assistance to improve their lives. GICM also gives a daily meal to all those in need at lunch and a dinner on Thursday evening which is usually accompanied by worship and a Christian message. The 6 people living at GICM assist in preparing and serving these meals and providing clothing to those in need, as well as maintaining the property. GICM is based in Greyville (a suburb of Durban) opposite Game City Centre and next to the KwaSuka Theatre.
If you would like to make a donation to or if you’d like to get involved please call Cecil on 082 444 8133.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Good Friday 10 April
DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Grieving
On this Holy and Good Day, we re-member, we relive with every part of our bodies, minds, and souls that on this day, the Son of God died a gruesome, passionate death. We remember that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem for just such a time as this. And we are in awe of that sacrificial courage and unbounded love.
We recognize that on this day, Christ took on the bonds of the cross’s suffering so that we could be free.
Quietly ponder this deep, mysterious, delivering love on this day through praying through the anonymously written words to one of the most haunting hymns of all time. As we strive to be authentic in our daily lives of prayer and worship, may these be your words of grief:
O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, thine only crown:
How pale thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does this visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!
What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
‘Tis I deserve thy place;
Look on me with thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
To thank thee, dearest friend,
For this thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord let me never, never
Outlive my love to thee. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 22:1-5
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
On this Holy and Good Day, we re-member, we relive with every part of our bodies, minds, and souls that on this day, the Son of God died a gruesome, passionate death. We remember that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem for just such a time as this. And we are in awe of that sacrificial courage and unbounded love.
We recognize that on this day, Christ took on the bonds of the cross’s suffering so that we could be free.
Quietly ponder this deep, mysterious, delivering love on this day through praying through the anonymously written words to one of the most haunting hymns of all time. As we strive to be authentic in our daily lives of prayer and worship, may these be your words of grief:
O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, thine only crown:
How pale thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does this visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!
What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
‘Tis I deserve thy place;
Look on me with thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
To thank thee, dearest friend,
For this thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord let me never, never
Outlive my love to thee. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 22:1-5
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Maundy Thursday 9 April
DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Service
On this Holy night, we commemorate the last supper that Jesus shared with his friends and followers before his crucifixion. This is the night when they shared bread and wine, which we now serve to one another, as the body and blood of Christ. This is the night when in one of the greatest acts of humility and service ever known Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
He washed all of their feet – even Judas, the betrayer. Jesus did not choose the feet that were the cleanest, the feet that belonged to the dearest friend or the holiest person. Jesus washed the feet of the betrayers and deniers. And praise God for that gracious act. When Jesus finished washing their feet, he said to his followers, “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).
If we are to be authentic servants of God and followers of Christ, people who proclaim emphatically, as the psalmist did, “O Lord, I am your servant,” we must ask ourselves whose feet we are called to wash. Whom does Christ require us to serve, doing justice to them and walking humbly with God?
The only way that the psalmist finds the “bonds” loosed – the only way he or she is set free – is through becoming the servant of the Lord in whatever ways God chooses. In other words, being bound to Christ and whomever Christ chooses as his friends is the only way to be set free of the bonds of the world.
And so, as Christ cleanses his friends in an act of preparing for death, we prepare to die with Christ, as well. Which friends will we bring with us? Whom will we humble ourselves to serve?
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
O God, by the example of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, you taught us the greatness of true humility, and call us to watch with him in his passion. Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his suffering; in his name and for his sake. Amen.
- W.E. Orchard, England, 20th Century
FOCUS READING
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”… What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will life up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
On this Holy night, we commemorate the last supper that Jesus shared with his friends and followers before his crucifixion. This is the night when they shared bread and wine, which we now serve to one another, as the body and blood of Christ. This is the night when in one of the greatest acts of humility and service ever known Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
He washed all of their feet – even Judas, the betrayer. Jesus did not choose the feet that were the cleanest, the feet that belonged to the dearest friend or the holiest person. Jesus washed the feet of the betrayers and deniers. And praise God for that gracious act. When Jesus finished washing their feet, he said to his followers, “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).
If we are to be authentic servants of God and followers of Christ, people who proclaim emphatically, as the psalmist did, “O Lord, I am your servant,” we must ask ourselves whose feet we are called to wash. Whom does Christ require us to serve, doing justice to them and walking humbly with God?
The only way that the psalmist finds the “bonds” loosed – the only way he or she is set free – is through becoming the servant of the Lord in whatever ways God chooses. In other words, being bound to Christ and whomever Christ chooses as his friends is the only way to be set free of the bonds of the world.
And so, as Christ cleanses his friends in an act of preparing for death, we prepare to die with Christ, as well. Which friends will we bring with us? Whom will we humble ourselves to serve?
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
O God, by the example of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, you taught us the greatness of true humility, and call us to watch with him in his passion. Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his suffering; in his name and for his sake. Amen.
- W.E. Orchard, England, 20th Century
FOCUS READING
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”… What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will life up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Wednesday of Holy Week 8 April
DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Confession
The psalmist writes, “Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me…” We are quick to point fingers and pass judgment about “the arrogant,” but perhaps, it is we, ourselves, who are arrogant. We fear judgment, and because we fear it, we prevent ourselves from being authentic with God and with others about our human failings, weaknesses, and sins.
But we are called in this Holy Week to show God who we truly are, warts and all. We are called to stop treading ourselves into the ground and instead turn our eyes toward the cross, the source of our forgiveness.
As we draw nearer and nearer to Good Friday, we must become more and more honest with ourselves and with God about the reasons that we need to be forgiven. Otherwise, Good Friday cannot be “good.” If we refuse to confess and ask for forgiveness, God’s grace is available to us anyway, but we may struggle to reach out and grab hold of it.
So, today, make a list of things that you have especially struggled to confess to God. This is not a time to be shy, squeamish, afraid, or embarrassed. Christ knows everything about us anyway. This is simply the time for you to admit honestly who you are so that you can know that the death and resurrection of Christ, whose love is truly steadfast no matter what we’ve done, is a death died and a life raised for you. This is the time for you to be real with God so that you may come to know that you are forgiven and given refuge in the shadow of God’s wings.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Most merciful God, we your Church confess that often our spirit has not been that of Christ. Where we have failed to love one another as he loves us, where we have pledged loyalty to him with our lips and then betrayed, deserted, or denied him, forgive us, we pray; and by your Spirit make us faithful in every time of trial; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hear this assurance today, as well: Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ. But Christ suffered and died for us, was raised from the dead and ascended on high for us, and continues to intercede for us. Believe the good news: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Glory to God. Amen.
- from The United Methodist Book of Worship
FOCUS READING
Psalm 36:5-11
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart! Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away.
The psalmist writes, “Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me…” We are quick to point fingers and pass judgment about “the arrogant,” but perhaps, it is we, ourselves, who are arrogant. We fear judgment, and because we fear it, we prevent ourselves from being authentic with God and with others about our human failings, weaknesses, and sins.
But we are called in this Holy Week to show God who we truly are, warts and all. We are called to stop treading ourselves into the ground and instead turn our eyes toward the cross, the source of our forgiveness.
As we draw nearer and nearer to Good Friday, we must become more and more honest with ourselves and with God about the reasons that we need to be forgiven. Otherwise, Good Friday cannot be “good.” If we refuse to confess and ask for forgiveness, God’s grace is available to us anyway, but we may struggle to reach out and grab hold of it.
So, today, make a list of things that you have especially struggled to confess to God. This is not a time to be shy, squeamish, afraid, or embarrassed. Christ knows everything about us anyway. This is simply the time for you to admit honestly who you are so that you can know that the death and resurrection of Christ, whose love is truly steadfast no matter what we’ve done, is a death died and a life raised for you. This is the time for you to be real with God so that you may come to know that you are forgiven and given refuge in the shadow of God’s wings.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Most merciful God, we your Church confess that often our spirit has not been that of Christ. Where we have failed to love one another as he loves us, where we have pledged loyalty to him with our lips and then betrayed, deserted, or denied him, forgive us, we pray; and by your Spirit make us faithful in every time of trial; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hear this assurance today, as well: Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ. But Christ suffered and died for us, was raised from the dead and ascended on high for us, and continues to intercede for us. Believe the good news: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Glory to God. Amen.
- from The United Methodist Book of Worship
FOCUS READING
Psalm 36:5-11
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart! Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Tuesday of Holy Week 7 April
DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Offering
In this Holy Week, we are offered the greatest gift humankind has ever been given: God’s own self sacrificed on a cross. It is freely given to us, we people who often cry out like the Psalmist, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me!” We beg for God’s offering to be known and real to us, as we so easily forget what has been given and the offering that we have the free will to receive.
We weigh ourselves down by focusing on the needs that we have instead of the sustenance that we have been given. We question what our purpose is, and what we are supposed to be offering the world. We forget that everything that we have to offer is made possible because of the salvation that has already been offered to us. We are called to be lovers of that salvation, making the choice daily to accept God’s saving grace, even if we don’t fully understand it.
How can we authentically offer ourselves – our talents, our gifts and our service – if we do not struggle first to accept the sacrificial offerings that Christ made for us? Think today about all that you have been given. Ponder the ways that God’s offerings to you and salvation for you can change the way you offer yourself to God and to others.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
You, you giver!
You have given light and life to the world;
You have given freedom from Pharaoh to your people Israel;
You have given your only Son for the sake of the world;
You have given yourself to us;
You have given and forgiven,
and you remember our sin no more.
And we, in response, are takers:
We take eagerly what you give us;
we take from our neighbors near at hand as is acceptable;
we take from our unseen neighbors greedily and acquisitively;
we take from our weak neighbors thoughtlessly;
we take all that we can lay our hands on.
It dawns on us that our taking does not match your giving.
In this Lenten season revise our taking,
that it may be grateful and disciplined,
even as you give in ways generous and overwhelming.
Amen.
- from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
FOCUS READING
Psalm 70
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. Let those who say, “Aha, aha!” turn back because of their shame. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
In this Holy Week, we are offered the greatest gift humankind has ever been given: God’s own self sacrificed on a cross. It is freely given to us, we people who often cry out like the Psalmist, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me!” We beg for God’s offering to be known and real to us, as we so easily forget what has been given and the offering that we have the free will to receive.
We weigh ourselves down by focusing on the needs that we have instead of the sustenance that we have been given. We question what our purpose is, and what we are supposed to be offering the world. We forget that everything that we have to offer is made possible because of the salvation that has already been offered to us. We are called to be lovers of that salvation, making the choice daily to accept God’s saving grace, even if we don’t fully understand it.
How can we authentically offer ourselves – our talents, our gifts and our service – if we do not struggle first to accept the sacrificial offerings that Christ made for us? Think today about all that you have been given. Ponder the ways that God’s offerings to you and salvation for you can change the way you offer yourself to God and to others.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
You, you giver!
You have given light and life to the world;
You have given freedom from Pharaoh to your people Israel;
You have given your only Son for the sake of the world;
You have given yourself to us;
You have given and forgiven,
and you remember our sin no more.
And we, in response, are takers:
We take eagerly what you give us;
we take from our neighbors near at hand as is acceptable;
we take from our unseen neighbors greedily and acquisitively;
we take from our weak neighbors thoughtlessly;
we take all that we can lay our hands on.
It dawns on us that our taking does not match your giving.
In this Lenten season revise our taking,
that it may be grateful and disciplined,
even as you give in ways generous and overwhelming.
Amen.
- from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
FOCUS READING
Psalm 70
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. Let those who say, “Aha, aha!” turn back because of their shame. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
Monday of Holy Week 6 April
DAILY BYTE- Authentic Worship – Praise
On the Monday of Holy Week, we pause to reflect on the joy we demonstrated yesterday, as Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem. We remember the festive waving of the palms, as we shouted, Hosanna! But on Palm Sunday, we also are introduced to the passion and cross of Christ.
Authentic praising and rejoicing, as Jesus sets his face toward the Holy City, does not exist without acknowledging suffering, pain, and sacrifice. While it is appropriate in many times and seasons, if we only engage in happy-clappy kinds of praise, we misrepresent the gospel. We do ourselves and one another a disservice by preventing the full range of emotions that exist in our personal, communal, and scriptural lives to be expressed in praise and worship to God.
There is holy space for all those emotions this week. Holy space for everything we need and want to express to God. Just as our lives can often feel like one big, unfolding drama, this Holy week is dramatic! It includes moments of pure joy, deceit, friendship, denial, the deepest love the world has to offer, and the deepest pain. The drama that unfolds in this week, as Jesus approaches his destination of Jerusalem, evokes so many thoughts, memories, guilts, griefs, and praises.
If we do not share them with God, it is only to our own detriment. God wants to hear them all. God’s ears are open to our praise, hearing the shouts, as we enter the city with him. God’s ears are open to our pain, as we slowly follow Jesus to the cross.
Can you allow yourself to praise authentically this week? Can you allow the story of Jesus’ approach to the cross to touch and inform your life so deeply that it evokes all sorts of emotions and expressions of praise in your life? What are some of your praises? What emotions do these praises evoke in you? Throughout this Lenten series, we have explored what it means to set our faces to Jerusalem and how we are both enslaved and freed on that journey. How might God be freeing you to praise this week?
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Praiseworthy God, as we enter into this unfolding drama of your crucifixion and resurrection, free us to be honest with you about the ways we are dying and the ways we are rising in our own lives. Free us to praise you in whatever form that praise may take, as long as our expressions to you are authentic and true. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 71:1-14
In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together. They say, “Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.” O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace. But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.
On the Monday of Holy Week, we pause to reflect on the joy we demonstrated yesterday, as Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem. We remember the festive waving of the palms, as we shouted, Hosanna! But on Palm Sunday, we also are introduced to the passion and cross of Christ.
Authentic praising and rejoicing, as Jesus sets his face toward the Holy City, does not exist without acknowledging suffering, pain, and sacrifice. While it is appropriate in many times and seasons, if we only engage in happy-clappy kinds of praise, we misrepresent the gospel. We do ourselves and one another a disservice by preventing the full range of emotions that exist in our personal, communal, and scriptural lives to be expressed in praise and worship to God.
There is holy space for all those emotions this week. Holy space for everything we need and want to express to God. Just as our lives can often feel like one big, unfolding drama, this Holy week is dramatic! It includes moments of pure joy, deceit, friendship, denial, the deepest love the world has to offer, and the deepest pain. The drama that unfolds in this week, as Jesus approaches his destination of Jerusalem, evokes so many thoughts, memories, guilts, griefs, and praises.
If we do not share them with God, it is only to our own detriment. God wants to hear them all. God’s ears are open to our praise, hearing the shouts, as we enter the city with him. God’s ears are open to our pain, as we slowly follow Jesus to the cross.
Can you allow yourself to praise authentically this week? Can you allow the story of Jesus’ approach to the cross to touch and inform your life so deeply that it evokes all sorts of emotions and expressions of praise in your life? What are some of your praises? What emotions do these praises evoke in you? Throughout this Lenten series, we have explored what it means to set our faces to Jerusalem and how we are both enslaved and freed on that journey. How might God be freeing you to praise this week?
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Praiseworthy God, as we enter into this unfolding drama of your crucifixion and resurrection, free us to be honest with you about the ways we are dying and the ways we are rising in our own lives. Free us to praise you in whatever form that praise may take, as long as our expressions to you are authentic and true. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 71:1-14
In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together. They say, “Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.” O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace. But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Saturday 4th April - Udobo
Weekend Blurb
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
The Udobo School is a pre-primary school that gives hope through love and education to children from poor and marginalized backgrounds in the urban area of Montwood Park, Durban, South Africa. Some of the children are orphans as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The name ‘Udobo’ is the Zulu word for ‘fishing rod’ and is based on the adage, “Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day, teach me to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime”. The school program provides for social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of the children within a loving, caring, and safe environment. A Trust called ‘The Udobo Ed-U Foundation’ was established to receive funding on behalf of the school both locally and abroad.
The Udobo Ed-U Foundation
First National Bank of South Africa
Branch No. 221026
Branch Name : Mobeni
A/c : 62061351442
Forex SWIFT No. FIRNZAJJ762
The BDC is a weekday devotional aimed at anyone and everyone who struggles to keep up with the stressful demands of daily life.
This is why there are no weekend devotions prepared; however look out for your next update which will be this Monday.
Every weekend we will use this space to focus on a different mission project. This is an excellent opportunity to see how many people are striving to make a real difference in this country, and also how you might become involved.
The Udobo School is a pre-primary school that gives hope through love and education to children from poor and marginalized backgrounds in the urban area of Montwood Park, Durban, South Africa. Some of the children are orphans as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The name ‘Udobo’ is the Zulu word for ‘fishing rod’ and is based on the adage, “Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day, teach me to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime”. The school program provides for social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of the children within a loving, caring, and safe environment. A Trust called ‘The Udobo Ed-U Foundation’ was established to receive funding on behalf of the school both locally and abroad.
The Udobo Ed-U Foundation
First National Bank of South Africa
Branch No. 221026
Branch Name : Mobeni
A/c : 62061351442
Forex SWIFT No. FIRNZAJJ762
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Friday 3rd April - Everything is God's!
DAILY BYTE
So far this week we have learnt that our relationship with both money and possessions (stuff) is of crucial importance to our continuing spiritual health and growth. Understanding the realities of what we allow our hearts to treasure, and finding out what God’s heart treasures (values) in turn is a vital part of this process. However, if we had to boil all of this down to just one word that most succinctly describes our role in all of this it would be ‘attitude’. Allow me to explain.
There is a wonderful word the Bible uses to describe our role in God’s kingdom … stewards. I know the word sounds a little old-fashioned and, but it would be really sad if the church stopped using it. This is because the word ‘steward’, and the whole concept of stewardship, beautifully sum-up some of the reasons God created us and put us on this earth.
A steward is someone who manages something they do not personally own on behalf of someone else. Jesus told many stories about stewards, people who were appointed to care for things like money, or a farm, while the rightful owner was away. In the same way the Bible encourages us to see ourselves as stewards, and that God has given everyone of us responsibility to care for things on his behalf.
Jesus’ attitude towards possessions, money, and indeed all earthly things, is that we should NEVER see them as ours. Jesus emphasised that in fact, everything is God’s!
As Psalm 24:1 declares, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’ As difficult as this is to get to grips with, this includes everything we think we possess: from our money, to our gifts and talents, to even our most precious relationships. Jesus’ call to follow him includes the challenge to entrust everything we THINK we own over to God!!
God then entrusts us to care for these things on his behalf. I really am not exaggerating when I say that what we are discussing today is an essential Kingdom principle. There is a huge difference (spiritually, emotionally and psychologically) between actually owning something, or caring for it on behalf of someone else.
In a world which is so dominated by grabbing, owning and hoarding, it is in fact very freeing to acknowledge that everything we have is actually owned by God!
PRAY AS YOU GO
O’Lord, this whole earth is yours and everything in it! Forgive us for the times we sell ourselves short and live our lives trying to own, and possess, and hoard. We hand everything over to you. We pray that you would teach us to live as stewards of your good things. In Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
So far this week we have learnt that our relationship with both money and possessions (stuff) is of crucial importance to our continuing spiritual health and growth. Understanding the realities of what we allow our hearts to treasure, and finding out what God’s heart treasures (values) in turn is a vital part of this process. However, if we had to boil all of this down to just one word that most succinctly describes our role in all of this it would be ‘attitude’. Allow me to explain.
There is a wonderful word the Bible uses to describe our role in God’s kingdom … stewards. I know the word sounds a little old-fashioned and, but it would be really sad if the church stopped using it. This is because the word ‘steward’, and the whole concept of stewardship, beautifully sum-up some of the reasons God created us and put us on this earth.
A steward is someone who manages something they do not personally own on behalf of someone else. Jesus told many stories about stewards, people who were appointed to care for things like money, or a farm, while the rightful owner was away. In the same way the Bible encourages us to see ourselves as stewards, and that God has given everyone of us responsibility to care for things on his behalf.
Jesus’ attitude towards possessions, money, and indeed all earthly things, is that we should NEVER see them as ours. Jesus emphasised that in fact, everything is God’s!
As Psalm 24:1 declares, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’ As difficult as this is to get to grips with, this includes everything we think we possess: from our money, to our gifts and talents, to even our most precious relationships. Jesus’ call to follow him includes the challenge to entrust everything we THINK we own over to God!!
God then entrusts us to care for these things on his behalf. I really am not exaggerating when I say that what we are discussing today is an essential Kingdom principle. There is a huge difference (spiritually, emotionally and psychologically) between actually owning something, or caring for it on behalf of someone else.
In a world which is so dominated by grabbing, owning and hoarding, it is in fact very freeing to acknowledge that everything we have is actually owned by God!
PRAY AS YOU GO
O’Lord, this whole earth is yours and everything in it! Forgive us for the times we sell ourselves short and live our lives trying to own, and possess, and hoard. We hand everything over to you. We pray that you would teach us to live as stewards of your good things. In Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Thursday 2nd April - Beyond mothballs, corrosion and thieves
DAILY BYTE
The first thing Jesus tells us in respect to treasures is that to treasure things that are ‘upon the earth’ is not a smart strategy for treasuring. Treasure of the earth, by their very nature, simple cannot be held intact. Here is where ‘moth and rust destroys things, and thieves dig through walls and steal’ (Matt. 6. 19). Even cyberspace is not safe from ‘viruses’, power failure and the disappearance of backups.
This can be very depressing to think about if you know of no alternative. Leo Tolstoy has a very interesting journey to faith in this regard. As is well known, he fell into a lengthy, suffocating depression because of the vision that everything he valued would die or otherwise pass away. This was after he became one of the most successful authors the world has ever known. But the ‘world-view of the educated’ that imposed itself on him was one of utter hopelessness, much as it is today. Through the teachings of Jesus he found an alternative, and such an alternative as soon delivered him from hopelessness about life and from the meaninglessness of human work.
So the wisdom of Jesus is that we should ‘lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven’ (6:20), where forces of nature and human evil cannot harm what we treasure. That is to say, direct your actions towards making a difference in the realm of spiritual substance sustained and governed by God.
Invest your life in what God is doing, which cannot be lost.
Of course this means that we will invest in our relationship to Jesus himself, and through him to God. But beyond that, and in close union with it, we will devote ourselves to the good of other people – those around us within the range of our power to affect.
These are among God’s treasures! ‘The Lord’s portion,’ we are told, ‘is his people’ (see focus reading). And that certainly includes ourselves, in a unique and fundamental way. We have the care of our own souls and lives in a way no one else does, and in a way we have the care of no one else.
And we also care for this astonishingly rich and beautiful physical realm, the earth itself, of which both we and our neighbours are parts. ‘You have established the earth and it continues. All things stand this day according to your directions. For all things are your servants’ (Ps 119. 91). God himself loves the earth dearly and never takes his hands off it. And because he loves it and it is good, our care of it is also eternal work and a part of our eternal life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O God you treasure all this earth from your most majestic works of creation down to the tiniest little creature in the deep, blue sea. Help us to begin to treasure that which you care for so deeply – others, ourselves and your very creation. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Matthew 6:19-21 (MSG)
Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust, or worse, stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
The first thing Jesus tells us in respect to treasures is that to treasure things that are ‘upon the earth’ is not a smart strategy for treasuring. Treasure of the earth, by their very nature, simple cannot be held intact. Here is where ‘moth and rust destroys things, and thieves dig through walls and steal’ (Matt. 6. 19). Even cyberspace is not safe from ‘viruses’, power failure and the disappearance of backups.
This can be very depressing to think about if you know of no alternative. Leo Tolstoy has a very interesting journey to faith in this regard. As is well known, he fell into a lengthy, suffocating depression because of the vision that everything he valued would die or otherwise pass away. This was after he became one of the most successful authors the world has ever known. But the ‘world-view of the educated’ that imposed itself on him was one of utter hopelessness, much as it is today. Through the teachings of Jesus he found an alternative, and such an alternative as soon delivered him from hopelessness about life and from the meaninglessness of human work.
So the wisdom of Jesus is that we should ‘lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven’ (6:20), where forces of nature and human evil cannot harm what we treasure. That is to say, direct your actions towards making a difference in the realm of spiritual substance sustained and governed by God.
Invest your life in what God is doing, which cannot be lost.
Of course this means that we will invest in our relationship to Jesus himself, and through him to God. But beyond that, and in close union with it, we will devote ourselves to the good of other people – those around us within the range of our power to affect.
These are among God’s treasures! ‘The Lord’s portion,’ we are told, ‘is his people’ (see focus reading). And that certainly includes ourselves, in a unique and fundamental way. We have the care of our own souls and lives in a way no one else does, and in a way we have the care of no one else.
And we also care for this astonishingly rich and beautiful physical realm, the earth itself, of which both we and our neighbours are parts. ‘You have established the earth and it continues. All things stand this day according to your directions. For all things are your servants’ (Ps 119. 91). God himself loves the earth dearly and never takes his hands off it. And because he loves it and it is good, our care of it is also eternal work and a part of our eternal life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O God you treasure all this earth from your most majestic works of creation down to the tiniest little creature in the deep, blue sea. Help us to begin to treasure that which you care for so deeply – others, ourselves and your very creation. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Matthew 6:19-21 (MSG)
Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust, or worse, stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
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