God be with you

FOCUS READING

Luke 2:1-7 (The Message)

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

DAILY BYTE

The scripture from Luke 1 for this week says that Mary is a ‘favored one’ – which simply means that God graciously gave her a beautiful life. Those words in Greek are only used one other place in the Scriptures. You’ll find it in the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. It says there: ‘He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.’

In other words, we are all favored by God, if we choose to accept his life growing in ours. And when we do that, our whole life is beautiful.
I noticed a strange thing this week, as I studied this scripture. Did you know that in Greek, the same word for becoming pregnant is the word for catching fish? I wasn’t sure what to make of that, really, and had a great debate about it with some friends.

I’m not sure I’ve got it 100 percent right, but I do have an imaginative thought about it to share with you. I wonder if it might not have something to do with the fact that when we allow ourselves to be filled to bursting with Jesus – expecting that God is going to do great things through our lives – that’s when we fully live out our calling as disciples to be fishers of people.

We are called to catch fish – to distract them with our beauty so that they will be drawn not to fall in love with us but to fall in love with the Christ they can see within us.

And so I hope that you have a truly beautiful Christmas – not because of the shiny things you see under the tree or because of how great you think you look in the photos you take, but because of the beauty of something new that is born in you.

And as this is the final day for the production of the BDC, I simply want to say to you for myself and on behalf of the other past writers of this devotional, thank you for the privilege of journeying with you. We pray that your life will continue to be richly blessed, as you grow in love of God and love of others.

Remember always that you are beautiful with God’s beauty. Beautiful inside and out. God be with you.


(It is with heavy hearts that we, at Manning Road Methodist Church, announce that this week’s BDC will be our last. With both Anna and Roger moving on and Gareth’s work commitments unable to allow him to continue this service, the decision was taken to bring it to a close.

HOWEVER, all is not lost!

The daily messages of “Faith For Daily Living” are available on an internet site specifically designed for cellphones. If you are able to access the internet on your cellphone and would like to make use of this service, SMS "MOBI FFDL" to 33978 and a link will be sent directly to your phone that you can add to your bookmarks for daily use.

Alternatively, type http://faithfordailyliving.mobi into your phone’s internet browser and access the site directly.

There is no subscription fee for this service, although there is a once-off charge of R1.50 for the SMS and your cellphone provider will apply its usual rates for accessing the web.

For those who wish to receive it via email daily, go to http://faithfordailyliving.org/Apply.html and enter your email address in the relevant box.

Another excellent resource is the Upper Room Daily Devotional available for mobiles and email and can be sourced from http://devotional.upperroom.org/emaildevotional - follow the relevant instructions.

Thanking you all for sharing this journey with us…

Manning Road Methodist Church)

Surprise! You’re pregnant!

FOCUS READING

Luke 1:46-48 (The Message)

And Mary said,

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!

DAILY BYTE

The Message version of the scripture today says that God took one good look at Mary, and look what happened – she’s the most fortunate woman on earth. God took one good look at her – in her scrawny, peasant, teenage state and said – yes, look how beautiful I can make you.

People often say that there is nothing more beautiful than a pregnant woman. I’m not sure pregnant women always feel that way, but I have to agree with the general sentiment that pregnancy is beautiful. Women do tend to have a special radiance when they’re pregnant – when there is life actually growing inside of them.

When Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord – she is not asking, does this baby make me look fat? She is not obsessed with her own image and what people will think of her, as an unmarried mother. She is doing everything in her power to point people to the beautiful thing that is happening inside of her, which is that God is growing in her and is literally about to burst out into the world.

The Message says she’s ‘bursting with God-news’ – not the latest tabloid trend – but God’s news about what is good and beautiful in the world. She contrasts how humble she is with how great God is – never boosting her own ego but always putting the focus on the beautiful and amazing thing that God is doing in and through her.

How many of us, honestly, look in the mirror and without worrying about our frizz or age spots or extra lumps and bumps – and without pompously building ourselves up because of our bulging muscles or huge eyes or lovely skin can peacefully and confidently look back, accept what we see, and then turn to face the world, with the knowledge that we are beautiful and that something miraculous is growing inside of us?

My prayer is that we can grasp this, particularly in this season of the year when we’re worried about so many other less important things.

I pray that you can grasp today that we all – even the men, even the barren, even those of you who are too old and too young – all of us are pregnant! We are expecting the birth of Jesus in ourselves.
This truth makes us all radiantly beautiful.


(It is with heavy hearts that we, at Manning Road Methodist Church, announce that this week’s BDC will be our last. With both Anna and Roger moving on and Gareth’s work commitments unable to allow him to continue this service, the decision was taken to bring it to a close.

HOWEVER, all is not lost!

The daily messages of “Faith For Daily Living” are available on an internet site specifically designed for cellphones. If you are able to access the internet on your cellphone and would like to make use of this service, SMS "MOBI FFDL" to 33978 and a link will be sent directly to your phone that you can add to your bookmarks for daily use.

Alternatively, type http://faithfordailyliving.mobi into your phone’s internet browser and access the site directly.

There is no subscription fee for this service, although there is a once-off charge of R1.50 for the SMS and your cellphone provider will apply its usual rates for accessing the web.

For those who wish to receive it via email daily, go to http://faithfordailyliving.org/Apply.html and enter your email address in the relevant box.

Another excellent resource is the Upper Room Daily Devotional available for mobiles and email and can be sourced from http://devotional.upperroom.org/emaildevotional - follow the relevant instructions.

Thanking you all for sharing this journey with us…

Manning Road Methodist Church)

Magnifying

FOCUS READINGS

Luke 1:28-33 (The Message) & Luke 1:46-57 (NRSV)

Good morning! You're beautiful with God's beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you.

She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus...

And Mary said,‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

DAILY BYTE

This week, we are asking the question, ‘Are we beautiful?’

We receive varied answers to this question from ourselves and from other people who have their own ideas of what beauty looks like. But the true answer to that question comes from God – our best mirror. The scriptures say we are made in the image of God. We are a reflection of God’s beauty. And so, it seems it is God’s voice that we should hear the loudest when God says to Mary and to us, ‘Good morning – you’re beautiful with God’s beauty – beautiful inside and out – God be with you.’

Mary’s response to this revelation is classic. She was ‘thoroughly shaken,’ wondering ‘what could be behind a greeting like that!’
She says, ummmm – who, me? Are you talking to me? With this face? This body with the hips that are slightly too wide and the pock mark by my nose and…’ Uh – what do you want from me?

It is hard to believe, isn’t it, that someone would think we’re beautiful just the way we are. So, I wonder, if Mary really wasn’t that pretty – what was it that God saw in her that was so beautiful? Why did God choose her to bring Jesus into the world?

Well, as I’ve read the scriptures, Mary has became more and more beautiful to me, too. The scripture that you see above is often called The Magnificat, or Mary’s Song, and it is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful and oldest songs in the scriptures. But it’s not just a beautiful song – it gives us a picture of beauty that we might be able to imitate with our own lives.

Magnificat means ‘magnifies.’ This does not mean that Mary has gotten one of those scary mirrors that magnifies the size of your face so that you can see every pore.

Mary is magnifying something beyond but including her outer beauty. She sings, my soul magnifies the Lord! We’ve lost sight of the meaning of soul. Our soul, in Greek, is our inner life – our deepest self. Remember that when Mary sings this, she is pregnant with God – which means that her soul - her inner life is alive with God. Her inner life magnifies, enlarges, literally shows the presence of God.

That must have been a beautiful sight to see. What might it look like for you to magnify God in your life?

(It is with heavy hearts that we, at Manning Road Methodist Church, announce that this week’s BDC will be our last. With both Anna and Roger moving on and Gareth’s work commitments unable to allow him to continue this service, the decision was taken to bring it to a close.

HOWEVER, all is not lost!

The daily messages of “Faith For Daily Living” are available on an internet site specifically designed for cellphones. If you are able to access the internet on your cellphone and would like to make use of this service, SMS "MOBI FFDL" to 33978 and a link will be sent directly to your phone that you can add to your bookmarks for daily use.

Alternatively, type http://faithfordailyliving.mobi into your phone’s internet browser and access the site directly.

There is no subscription fee for this service, although there is a once-off charge of R1.50 for the SMS and your cellphone provider will apply its usual rates for accessing the web.

For those who wish to receive it via email daily, go to http://faithfordailyliving.org/Apply.html and enter your email address in the relevant box.

Another excellent resource is the Upper Room Daily Devotional available for mobiles and email and can be sourced from http://devotional.upperroom.org/emaildevotional - follow the relevant instructions.

Thanking you all for sharing this journey with us…

Manning Road Methodist Church)

Good Mornin’!

FOCUS READING

Luke 1:26-28 (The Message)

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin's name, Mary. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:

Good morning!
You're beautiful with God's beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.

DAILY BYTE

So, it struck me, as I read this passage for the first time from The Message version of the Bible that when the angel Gabriel visits Mary, he says to her, ‘Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty. Beautiful inside and out. God be with you.’

Can you imagine, how great it would be – every morning when we wake up with bags under our eyes and matted down hair to hear, Good morning! You are beautiful with God’s beauty! And in fact, the Greek real translation for good morning here, is “rejoice”! In other words – Yeah!! – Woohoo!! – I am beautiful!!! Good MORnin!

I would love to have that at my house! Picture the scene in the Bible….
Gabriel is talking to Mary – a teenager – and no offense to any teenagers who are reading this, but let’s be honest – our teenage years are probably some of our most image-obsessed years...!

In the ancient world, Mary probably never owned a mirror – the clearest reflections she saw of herself were probably in pools of water or shiny pieces of metal, which don’t give a very accurate portrayal.

She lived in a time when, frankly, peasant people lacked great hygiene, so even though Mary’s often portrayed in pictures as pristinely beautiful with perfect skin and symmetrical features – I’m not convinced that Mary really was all that pretty, at least by our standards. She was probably a pimply, greasy-haired teenager who wondered to herself when she stared in that pond – am I beautiful?

What do you think about and say to yourself when you wake up in the morning? Is your first thought that you are beautiful? What might it mean for you to be ‘beautiful with God’s beauty’?

Stay tuned this week to discover what it might have meant for Mary and what it still may mean for us.

(It is with heavy hearts that we, at Manning Road Methodist Church, announce that this week’s BDC will be our last. With both Anna and Roger moving on and Gareth’s work commitments unable to allow him to continue this service, the decision was taken to bring it to a close.

HOWEVER, all is not lost!

The daily messages of “Faith For Daily Living” are available on an internet site specifically designed for cellphones. If you are able to access the internet on your cellphone and would like to make use of this service, SMS "MOBI FFDL" to 33978 and a link will be sent directly to your phone that you can add to your bookmarks for daily use.

Alternatively, type http://faithfordailyliving.mobi into your phone’s internet browser and access the site directly.

There is no subscription fee for this service, although there is a once-off charge of R1.50 for the SMS and your cellphone provider will apply its usual rates for accessing the web.

For those who wish to receive it via email daily, go to http://faithfordailyliving.org/Apply.html and enter your email address in the relevant box.

Another excellent resource is the Upper Room Daily Devotional available for mobiles and email and can be sourced from http://devotional.upperroom.org/emaildevotional - follow the relevant instructions.

Thanking you all for sharing this journey with us…

Manning Road Methodist Church)

Primping

FOCUS READING

Proverbs 4:3b (The Message)

Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding! Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won't regret it; never let her go—she'll make your life glorious. She'll garland your life with grace, she'll festoon your days with beauty."

DAILY BYTE

This past week, I had to have my photograph taken. I knew the photographer was to arrive in the morning, so I made sure I had my favorite clergy outfit on, and I stood in front of the mirror to primp and prod myself, as I, and, it seems, most of the rest of the world does every morning.

We look at our faces in the mirror, wondering, what can I do to make myself look more beautiful today...? Definitely wash my face. A comb would help. And a little blush and some lipstick... For the men, a little gel, and a haircut? No time for that now – but mmm – Botox? – really not an option, although ...?

We ask our reflection in the mirror, am I good-looking? Was I ever good-looking? Will I ever be good-looking? When you look at models on TV, they’re almost always in their twenties. I wonder when I see that – did I miss my moment? Is it too late for me to be beautiful? Am I beautiful the way I am? And if not, what do I need to do to become more beautiful?

There’s no question in my mind, as I stand in the queue at the grocery store, gazing at all the magazines, that we are an image-conscious culture. Just a little while ago, I heard a very beautiful little girl compare her face to that of a baboon. The young girls at a children’s home I work with smear their walls with magazine cutouts of anorexic Caucasian models – images that are totally unachievable for most of them because of their skin colour and body type. Who gave these young people the idea that their own bodies are ugly and should be replaced by something or someone else? I think we’re all somehow responsible.

And this message is for the guys, too! I go to gym – I know some guys who spend a lot more time in front of the mirror and picking out an outfit than I do. Guys who are very quick to critique their own features and plenty of other peoples’, too.

The drive to be good-looking or beautiful – however we define beauty – rages through all of us. We are obsessed with the image that we see in the mirror.

Do find that you are obsessed with your mirror image? Do you linger a little longer than you would like, examining your features in the morning, as you wash up and get dressed? Do your eyes critique those you see in public whom you decide are more beautiful or less beautiful than you think you are?

If so, keep reading this week.

This is, according to many, the most beautiful and wonderful time of the year, as we anticipate the birth of Christ at Christmas. And so, we’re going to look this week at why Mary was beautiful and what her beauty might have to teach us about our own.

(It is with heavy hearts that we, at Manning Road Methodist Church, announce that this week’s BDC will be our last. With both Anna and Roger moving on and Gareth’s work commitments unable to allow him to continue this service, the decision was taken to bring it to a close.

HOWEVER, all is not lost!

The daily messages of “Faith For Daily Living” are available on an internet site specifically designed for cellphones. If you are able to access the internet on your cellphone and would like to make use of this service, SMS "MOBI FFDL" to 33978 and a link will be sent directly to your phone that you can add to your bookmarks for daily use.

Alternatively, type http://faithfordailyliving.mobi into your phone’s internet browser and access the site directly.

There is no subscription fee for this service, although there is a once-off charge of R1.50 for the SMS and your cellphone provider will apply its usual rates for accessing the web.

For those who wish to receive it via email daily, go to http://faithfordailyliving.org/Apply.html and enter your email address in the relevant box

Another excellent resource is the Upper Room Daily Devotional available for mobiles and email and can be sourced from http://devotional.upperroom.org/emaildevotional - follow the relevant instructions.

Thanking you all for sharing this journey with us...

Manning Road Methodist Church)

Finding Forgiveness – Part 5

DAILY BYTE

But even after a whole week of focussing on the issue of forgiveness, you may still be struggling with it. Let me encourage you not to give up on that struggle because it is very important. You may not have reached a place of complete forgiveness but the very fact that you are striving really does mean something. In his book, ‘Letters to Malcolm’, C.S. Lewis wrote these words, "Last week in prayer, I discovered, or least think I did, that suddenly I was able to forgive someone that I had been trying to forgive for over thirty years."

We all know that forgiveness can be incredibly difficult at times. We know how difficult it can be to hand over that which grips our heart and seemingly won’t let go of us! So let’s just say straight up that there are no magic formulas or potions and there are no easy routes to forgiveness, instead like everything else in life, there is only choice. And what greater gift can Christians choose to give the world than the passing on of a gift so generously given to us – the legacy of extravagant and gracious forgiveness for all.

Make no mistake – it is a costly gift – it will cost us our pride, our right to be wounded, and probably much time and effort, but it is so necessary. For Jesus made it plain that in this case it is only in the giving that we will receive. In other words, in order to find forgiveness we have to first share it!

Jesus leaves us in no doubt that forgiveness is a law of God as fundamental to healthy life as is remembering to breathe, or to eat and drink. Forgiveness is a choice that begins and ends in the inspiration of God’s gift of forgiveness and Jesus reminds us through this parable to never forget what has been done for us by God. That the vast debt we owed God (a debt bigger than any human’s ability to deal with – remember the parable) has been totally and utterly forgiven through Christ on the cross. Never forget what has been done for us. Never!

For as difficult as forgiveness undoubtedly can be, the truth of the matter is that forgiveness is not only necessary for us to be free and alive but fundamental to all life itself. So perhaps the only hope for the future of our children is that we learn to break any chains of ‘ungrace’ and instead pass on to them that which has been so graciously poured down upon us by our Father in heaven – forgiveness and all the freedom, life and love that comes along with it.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord our God, we do pray that we would find inspiration to forgive in the forgiveness you have lavished upon us all. Even if we have to wake up every morning, and forgive the same person again and again, we pray that you would give us the strength, will and persistence to do so. For we know that we find forgiveness by sharing it out with others. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Read the whole Matthew 18:21-35 in your Bible.

(V35) "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Finding Forgiveness – Part 4

DAILY BYTE

The thing about un-forgiveness is that it potentially not only imprisons us but also those around us. The famous Christian author, Phillip Yancey, in a talk he gave last year in Durban, spoke about chains or cycles of ungrace. Ungrace is a word he made up to describe situations where we refuse to show one another forgiveness or grace.

Yancey illustrated this point by speaking of a situation where his grandmother could never bring herself to forgive her drunken, abusive father, even after he had cleaned up, become a Christian and asked for forgiveness. She said to him ‘I never want see you again’ ... and kept her promise. Her daughter (Yancey’s mother) grew up watching this, and when she and one of her sons (Yancey’s brother) came into a sharp conflict she repeated to him those words: ‘I never want to see you again’. And so far she has also kept her promise.

Yancey tied this story up by saying that he recently was on the phone to this same brother discussing the brother’s divorce, when his brother said of his wife in an angry voice ‘I never want to see her again’.

Yancey described the stunned silence as both of them instantly recognized their own mother’s voice speaking through his brother (indeed their own grandmother’s voice). Chains or cycles of ungrace are passed down almost like genetic code! Forgiveness breaks these chains and it sets prisoners free.

When I was ministering at a previous church, there was a woman in the congregation who many years previously, had endured the trauma and humiliation of her husband cheating on her and then leaving her for another someone else. She struggled for many years to forgive him. This struggle made her and her children miserable. She eventually resolved to go to a colleague of mine for counselling and after much time, and many difficulties, she finally managed to forgive.

Then, unexpectedly one day, she received a phone call from her estranged husband. He had contracted AIDS/HIV, his medical aid had depleted, his lover had thrown him out and he had no where to go ... so she took him in. This woman cared for and nursed her cheating husband until he died. Now let’s get something straight – she wasn’t IN love with him any more, she wasn’t trying to recapture a lost marriage, she wasn’t trying to patch anything up. She had simply forgiven him and now was able to love him with a Christ-like love.

You may say what she did was crazy, or silly, or impossible. But let me ask you a question. What do you think she passed onto her children through that action? I think she passed on a God-like grace, a larger than life spirit, a generous heart & attitude, and a freedom from prisons. I think she made real men and woman of God of her children. And I think that through those actions she broke a potential chain of ‘ungrace’, and instead left behind her an inspiring legacy of love.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, it is our desire to leave behind us a legacy of love rather than un-forgiveness and hatred. Help us to understand that when we refuse to forgive, we potentially entrap not only ourselves but others as well, especially those who look to us for spiritual and moral guidance. Help us to live our lives in a way that is true to your amazing grace. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Read the whole Matthew 18:21-35 in your Bible.

(V35) "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Finding Forgiveness – Part 3

DAILY BYTE

You will remember that yesterday we left the crowds of people absolutely seething at the conclusion of Jesus’ parable: That they would be thrown into torture chambers unless they learnt to forgive their neighbours from the heart. We left them quickly counting up all the people they had heard Jesus teach were their neighbours – Romans, tax collectors, Samaritans.
‘Forgive all of them?!’ we hear them raging, ‘otherwise we too will know the torture chambers?! What kind of God would ask that?!’

Perhaps some of them might have walked out on Jesus and his story at this stage, fuming at the injustice of it all. But maybe later that day, while they were in bed at night, still tossing and turning angrily over what Jesus had said, something else about this parable might have struck them. That this is not a parable about a mean God who will torture you if don’t do what he says. But that this parable about a loving God who warns us of the grave dangers of an unforgiving spirit that potentially can bring prison-like consequences into our lives.

This point is incredibly crucial for you to understand: The torture chamber, in the context of this story and its message of unforgiveness is entirely SELF-INFLICTED. It is spiritual not physical. Jesus is not speaking of a hell to come that God will send you to but a hell in the here and now that we create for ourselves. A lack of forgiveness will warp us, diminish us, embitter us, and yes - imprison us. Dale Carnegie once said that: “When we hate our enemies we give them a power over us – a power over our sleep, appetites, and happiness. Our hate is not hurting them at all, but it is turning our days and nights into turmoil.” Lewis Smedes puts it this way: “The first and only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness…When we genuinely forgive; we set a prisoner free & then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.”

This is why Jesus refused to pull any punches in this parable because forgiveness is absolutely central to the Christian faith. It is central to the very heart of God, and therefore it is central to life itself. It is also, you will remember, at the centre of THE prayer Jesus taught us to pray – ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’

The only person we punish (torture) through a lack of forgiveness is ourselves! Spend some time thinking more directly about the people you are struggling to forgive. Write their names down for use in the following prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, as difficult as it may be for us, we do desire to forgive. We understand how a lack of forgiveness imprisons us, twists us and diminishes our spirits. We pray that you would help us to forgive [NAME/S]. Help us to let go of all anger, hurt or bitterness directed towards that person for what they have done to us. In the name of the Great Forgiver - Jesus. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Read the whole Matthew 18:21-35 in your Bible.

(V35) "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Finding Forgiveness – Part 2

DAILY BYTE

If you read yesterday’s parable carefully, you would have been struck by the fact that Jesus does not exactly mince his words here. He quite pointedly uses the word ‘torture’, and then even more pointedly says that this is exactly what will happen to each of us unless we learn forgive one another from the heart!

These are tough words that seem so very harsh. Quite frankly, some people have had absolutely horrible things done to them. What does Jesus mean if THEY don’t forgive THEY will be punished?! Many us probably really struggle with that statement – especially if we, or a loved one, have been the victim of someone else’s horrible act.

But, perhaps if we move into a careful discussion of this parable we might better understand what Jesus is actually saying and meaning here. You see when people first heard this parable they would laughed out loud at parts of it. In fact they probably would have chortled away throughout this story until that last bit about a torture chamber, and then, they, like us might fallen into a thoughtful silence.

The reason that people back then would have found this parable humorous was because of the sums of money used in it. For example the sum that the first servant owed was vast. It was beyond the budgets of whole Roman provinces, and perhaps beyond the comprehension of many in Jesus’ audience. Someone has actually taken the time to work out that at the average day’s wages for a servant, it would have taken this man about 125 000 years to pay back what he owed! It was ridiculous to the point of being humorous at the thought that any servant would firstly be in a position to incur such a debt, never mind actually pleading to pay it back. The servant owed 10 000 talents, the crowds would have choked with laughter; they would have got the joke.

They would have found it even funnier at the thought of this same servant, released from his tremendous burden of debt, (a burden beyond the ability of any one human to deal with), walking away from the king’s palace praising God and then seeing a fellow servant who owed another ridiculous figure (this time ridiculous because it was so small – just a couple of days wages) and then having him thrown into prison for his inability to pay. It’s like being let off a debt of 10 million rand and then imprisoning someone for owing you ten rand. Who would actually do that?

The crowd was probably still laughing at this point in the story, but their laughter would have soon quietened when Jesus got to the real punch line of the parable. The King hearing of this latest development, had the first servant thrown into a torture chamber and then the clincher, ‘This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother’s & sisters from the heart’. Stunned silence. Jaws would have dropped as people in the crowd quickly tried to count up all people they had heard Jesus say were their brothers and sisters: Hated Roman oppressors, thieving, traitorous tax collectors, heretical Samaritans. Silence as the crowd chewed over thoughts of broken r/ships, betrayals by loved ones, injustices served on them, great hurts caused by others. Forgive all of them?!

Ah … the scandal of God’s grace in operation again. Perhaps you might find yourself just as offended as Jesus’ original audience was by this parable? Does this mean we have to forgive murderers, thieves and child molesters? Who might you especially struggle to forgive?

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, sometimes we find your grace and love very threatening. We rejoice to hear that we are forgiven by you, but we sometimes struggle with the news that you also forgive people that we find reprehensible. Fill us with your loving Spirit once again and move us to a place where we can deal with this. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Read Matthew 18:21-35 in your favourite translation.

Finding Forgiveness – Part 1

(This week’s BDC was written by Rev Gareth Killeen)

DAILY BYTE

There is a lovely story set in medieval times of two monks who were on a long journey through a great forest. The first monk was middle-aged, had been in the monastic order for years and was renowned for his wisdom. The second monk was a young novice. As they walked along the forest’s winding path, the hours went quickly by, sometimes they were in conversation, and other times they were silent.

At one point they came upon a wide, rapid stream. Sitting at the edge of the water was a young woman who was evidently very distressed. When she saw the two monks, a look of relief crossed her face and she stood up to address the older of the two, "Father, you would be doing me the greatest of favours if you would agree to carry me across the river. The water is swift and I do not know how to swim. If I should slip I may drown.”
"Of course, my child," the monk replied, "I would most willing to carry you across."

The novice shot his companion a surprised glance, for under the rules of their particular order, they were strictly forbidden to even touch women. Nevertheless, the older monk took the woman in his arms, and carried her safely across. After she thanked them both she went on her way, and the monks continued in their own journey.

There was silence between them for an hour, and then two. Finally, the younger monk mustered up his courage to speak. "Father," he said, "you know that we are not allowed to touch women."

"Yes, I know that," he replied.

"Then how could you carry that woman across the stream?"

“My son," the older man replied, "I put that young woman down two hours ago. But you are STILL carrying her."

This story is very much like the parable in this week’s focus reading. Instead of a different focus reading every day, this week we will be concentrating on just one reading in an effort to thoroughly wrestle with and understand it. Please open your Bible and read through Matthew 18. 21-35 a few times before continuing with today’s devotion.

Now the reason the monk story is very much like that parable is because they are both stories about carrying things around in our hearts that are not healthy for us. When the first servant in this parable was faced with ruin and slavery, he begged the King for mercy. The King relented and forgave him. But like the young monk who could not let go of the woman, this servant still tightly gripped his own lack of forgiveness to his chest. No sooner had his debt been forgiven than he turned around and threw a fellow servant into prison until he repaid him a much smaller debt. We all know the end of this story. The servant’s lack of forgiveness lands him up in a torture chamber.

How do you handle forgiveness? Do you find it easy to let go of the hurts others have caused you, or do you struggle to let go? Is there something burning within your soul at the moment – some hurt you have received that you refuse to forgive? Perhaps you have been a victim of crime, or abuse and no matter what you do, you cannot let go of the anger and pain within? Or perhaps you have caused someone else grievous pain and have refused to ask forgiveness? Whatever it is, know that it is not God’s desire for us to carry that pain within us for the rest of our days. God’s own love and forgiveness offers to heal us and set us free.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, thank you for the incredible way you have always forgiven me of my sins. Help me to acknowledge where there is a lack of forgiveness within me, and bring me to a place where I can let go of the bitterness and hurt within. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 18: 21-22 NIV

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

WHAT exactly should we pray about?

DAILY BYTE

So we have dealt with the question ‘why’ and the question ‘who’. The last question that we will use to interpret this week’s text is WHAT. And perhaps this is the crux of all our conversation, the biggest of all our questions. WHAT exactly should we pray about?

Well, the simple answer is everything.

Absolutely everything.

We need to be REAL when we pray. The book of Psalms, for example, is filled with prayers that overflow with anger, disappointment, disillusionment, and even with shallow requests. Because prayer is about two hearts meeting, then bring everything that is on your heart to God, bring your anger, disappointment, lack of faith, fears, weaknesses, and yes, even bring your shallow requests.

But bring all these things knowing that the very purpose of prayer is to transform us and teach our hearts what they are really made for. Jesus talks about praying for our needs, like daily bread, but remember that all these prayers come after praying first that God’s will is done above our own. That part of the prayer sets the context for everything else that we pray about afterwards!

We will find that our prayers are changed from being us-centred to being God-centred, and in so doing we are changed from being us-centred to being God-centred. Now of course, when our prayers become God-centred, they still will involve ourselves but will just do so in an entirely different manner. We will have been taught what it is we truly want and need.
The movie, ‘Bruce Almighty,’ tells the story of a man (played by Jim Carrey), who’s life goes terribly wrong. He ends up ranting and railing at God, telling God that he could do a much better job of ‘being God’ if given the chance.

Well, it so happens (only in Hollywood), that God does give Bruce the opportunity to use his God-like powers to try and do better. At first Bruce uses those powers for purely altruistic reasons, but over the course of the movie he changes and begins to try to use his powers for good. When he does so however, Bruce is utterly overwhelmed by the extent of people’s prayers and needs, and so fires off one simple answer to all – yes!

This horribly backfires because some prayers are in direct conflict with needs expressed in other prayers. 5 people pray for one job, and they all receive the answer ‘yes’ but there is still only one job! Pandemonium results and Bruce’s self-righteous vision of utopia crumbles sending him in abject despair to confess his failures to God.

‘There were so many,’ Bruce says, ‘I just gave them all what they wanted.’
God, with a knowing smile, responds, ‘Yeah. But since when does anyone have a clue about what they want.’

Prayer, the act of prayer and engaging in prayer, is a way of teaching us WHAT we really want and WHAT we really need.

Bring everything that is on your heart to God, but do so in a manner that recognises everything will be set in its proper place by God’s Kingdom and God’s ways. This will radically change our hearts and redirect our prayers.

So perhaps there really are only two types of people in this world – those that can pray, and those that really struggle with prayer. And maybe they’re actually the same kind of person. But for all those who really find prayer to be a problem, please know that there is no great secret to prayer, a secret that is available only to the hyper-spiritual among us. No, prayer is just two hearts meeting, ours and God’s.

Prayer is us finding our heart’s true home in the heart of God, and prayer is the key that opens those hearts to one another.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Father, hallowed be your name,
may your kingdom come,
give us each day the kind of bread we need,
and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong,
and do not bring us to the test.

The important question of WHO?

DAILY BYTE

Today we will be moving onto a second question to interpret this week’s text - the question of WHO.

From beginning to end Jesus reminds us how deeply personal prayer is.

In fact, Jesus makes it clear that the WHO question is the very foundation of prayer. He begins his teaching on prayer in Luke 11. 1-3 with the word ‘Father’ and ends it with the image of a loving parent. We will really struggle to even begin praying and entering God’s heart if we do not believe that heart is loving and kind and deeply concerned with who we are in turn.

It’s like the little boy who got scared one night during a thunderstorm. He yelled out to his dad to come and sit with him. His dad came into his room to see him and said, ‘Don’t be afraid my boy. God is with you.’ To which the little lad replied, ‘I know, but I sure would like someone with skin on!’

Well, in this teaching Jesus ‘puts skin’ on God by reminding us of exactly WHO God is – that God is more loving and kind than even the most loving parents.

The term ‘Father’ had been used before in the Old Testament but the connotation was always that of a ruling Father, someone who was in charge and who gave orders. As far as we know, Jesus’ particular concept of God as a Father is utterly unique in spiritual history. Jesus often used the word ‘Abba’ to address God which is a term of intimate affection, like ‘papa’ or ‘daddy’.

It comes from the earliest babblings of Aramaic children. ‘Abba’, you see, is easy for a little one to pronounce, like ‘Dada’. The Talmud confirms this when it says that when a child is weaned, “ it learns to say ‘abba’ and ‘imma’ ” which means, ‘daddy’ and ‘mommy.’” Of course, since many Jews did not like to even address God by his name, this kind of familiarity might have been shocking to some.

Now this may get a little complicated but it is well worth the telling. Jesus begins with the vocative word for father. It is difficult for English speakers to recognise the power of the vocative because in English it is the exact same word as the nominative. For instance: ‘Father said for me to come,’ uses the same form of the word as in ‘Father, come!’ The form Jesus uses is the latter, ‘Abba,’ it is a call, a cry, a pleading. Father! Only the tone of the voice denotes the pleading in English, like a child crying out at night. Jesus is saying here, ‘Dad! Listen to us! Hear our prayer!’

This is all a reminder to us that prayer is not something abstract and impersonal like the writing of a formal letter to someone. Often we struggle to pray because we labour under the misconception that only beautifully worded prayers filled with words like ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’ are appropriate. By repeatedly using a phrase like ‘daddy,’ Jesus taught us that in fact, prayer can be deeply personal and therefore quite informal. Remember that informal does not necessarily equate to disrespectful. If you deeply love someone, you may use an informal nickname to describe them but it will always be said with tenderness and respect.

If we want our prayer lives to know depth and substance then we need to hold tightly onto those tender images presented to us by Jesus. The more we recognise just how much and how tenderly God loves us, the easier we will find it to pray.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Dad! Thank-you for the wonderful message Jesus brought of your love and care for us all. Help us to learn that we don’t have to know any fancy words or phrases to be able to pray properly. Help us to have the courage to speak to you like we would anyone else that we love and respect. Help us to learn to pray like Jesus prayed. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Luke 11:1-2 (NRSV)

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ’Father!’

Why Bother Praying At All?

DAILY BYTE

Another question ‘why’ that people often bring to this topic is to query why we need to bother praying at all when God sometimes seems not to answer our prayers. Jesus says that whatever we ask for in his name will be given to us, and that if we seek we will find and if we knock the door will be opened. Yet clearly, often what we directly ask for is not given to us. At other times it feels as if God is far away from us and that our prayers just disappear into thin air.

The thing is God DOES always answer prayers. It is just sometimes God says ‘no’. And sometimes God says, ‘not yet’ or ‘wait’.

This is where prayer can get so frustrating and difficult. We cannot understand the reason why God would be saying ‘no’ to requests that are heartfelt and genuinely unselfish.

Now the reason why God doesn’t answer some prayers as we expect is not something I can answer for you. I can only point you to the second illustration after the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. 1-13 where Jesus reminds us that God loves us even more than a good and loving parent loves their children.

If parents truly love their children then they will often say ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ to them - there will be limits to what they give them. Children get so frustrated with their parents over this but only because they cannot see the whole picture.

God may not always open the doors exactly as we would have them opened, but they will be opened.

Sometimes in quite surprising and wonderful ways.

In St. Augustine's ‘Confession’ he talks about how his mother, Monica, a committed Christian, was very concerned that as a young man, he lived a life of wild and irresponsible excess. Augustine was a very gifted, young scholar but soon realise that his home in North Africa did not hold all the opportunities for him that Europe would. He resolved to go to Italy that he might study more fully his chosen discipline of rhetoric. Monica, felt if he ever left her side, he would never come to know Christ.

And so one night she was praying earnestly in a chapel that Augustine not leave her, when in fact, he was already boarding a ship for Italy. He went to Milan, and once he got there he was told that if he wanted to hear rhetoric in its finest form, he ought to go down to the cathedral every Sunday because Bishop Ambrose was recognized as the greatest practitioner of rhetoric in all of Italy at that time.

Well, as it turned out, the young man began to do that and lo and behold, through Ambrose's rhetoric, the wonder of the Gospel began to break in on the consciousness of Augustine. It was through this experience that God eventually brought Augustine to a profound conversion, which led to his becoming one of the great shapers of modern theology. The interesting thing is that Monica had no idea that of all the people in the world, Ambrose was better equipped to bear witness to her son than she herself.

And years later as Augustine looked back on that experience, he said of that night when she was praying so earnestly that he not leave her side, God denied her the form of her request so that God might eventually give her the substance of it.

Perhaps, when we question why our prayers just don’t seem to be answered, all we can do is trust that in God’s heart there is nothing but unambiguous goodness. Trust that the response to our prayers will come from the heart of a heavenly parent who loves us better than we love ourselves and who truly knows what is best for us.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, as difficult as it may be for us when our prayer seem unanswered, help us to always trust in your unambiguous goodness. Help us to trust that you have our best interests at heart. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Luke 11:9 (NRSV)

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Why do we need to pray?

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, I mentioned that we would be using questions to interpret this week’s text (Luke 11. 1-13). The first question we will be using is the question WHY. Have you ever wondered why we pray or why we need to pray? If God already knows everything about everything, then why do we need to pray all?

You may well have heard that old saying, ‘Prayer changes things’. Richard Foster changes that saying to read, ‘Prayer changes US’. God’s great desire behind prayer is more about changing us than about changing our circumstances. Of course prayer can radically and powerfully change circumstances; it is just that God’s highest priority is to change us first.

Let’s not forget that the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, (after the opening address of ‘Father’), are the words ‘Hallowed by your name. Your Kingdom come.’ Richard Rohr sums up this part of the prayer by saying that whenever we pray to God ‘your Kingdom come,’ we are also saying ‘and MY Kingdom go’. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed a prayer that was not answered, ‘Take this cup of suffering from me,’ but immediately after this he prayed, ‘yet not my will, but yours be done’.

E. Stanley Jones explained this concept by using the illustration of throwing out a boat hook from a boat and catching land and then pulling. He then queried that if we did so, would we pull the land to the boat, or would we pull the boat to the land?

In the same way, prayer is not the pulling of God into our will, but rather the aligning of our will to that of God’s. Prayer is not changing God’s mind on matters for Jesus makes it clear in Luke 11. 1-13 that God is already pure love and grace and already has our best interests at heart. No, the deepest and most profound purpose of prayer is that it changes our mind and our hearts.

Prayer is a process where God’s Kingdom comes and our kingdoms go!
Perhaps then the very nature of prayer is that it is MEANT to be a struggle.

Remember how often Jesus taught persistence in prayer (including the story of the friend at midnight). Perhaps it is because the very act of prayer, repeated and persistent prayer, is an absolutely indispensable part of our overall journey of change and transformation.

Prayer enlarges our awareness of God and of the universe. Prayer assumes that there is more to the world than we can experience just through our five senses. Just as blind people often develop a superior sense of hearing, and deaf people a superior sense of touch, so prayer is a way of developing a superior sense of the Spirit within us.

Prayer opens the eyes of our hearts.

In our busy, busy world filled with deadlines and stress, prayer is a way of keeping our spirits from being consumed and drained. Prayer reminds us what is truly important in life. Taking time off to pray is a protest against our society endless rush and busyness because souls can die from a lack of reflection!

Prayer changes us in some quite incredibly and profound ways – and that’s one of the most important reasons WHY we NEED to pray.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, teach us not only how to pray but also the importance of WHY we need to pray. Help us to be open to way your Spirit will change and transform us even us we open our hearts to you. We do truly pray that your name would be hallowed in our lives. We also pray that your Kingdom WILL come and that our kingdom will go. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Luke 11:2 (NRSV)

He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.’

Prayer Problems

(This week’s BDC was written by Rev Gareth Killeen)

DAILY BYTE

It has been said that there are two types of people in this world. Those that think there are two types of people in this world, and those that … don’t.

I must admit to falling into the second of these two camps because when it comes to prayer there really does seem to be two types of people in this world: those for whom prayer is a real source of sustenance and life; and those for whom prayer is just one big struggle.

Many of you, as you read this, would probably identify with the second sentiment: That you find prayer to be hard, confusing and even frustrating at times. We look at the great saints of church history and wonder what they had that we don’t – we wonder what their secret of prayer was.

If you are like this, if you have prayer problems, then please know that you are not alone in your struggles! The author, Trevor Hudson, quotes a needs survey done by one of South Africa’s largest denominations. This survey received 25 000 responses, and significantly, it was found that the greatest spiritual need people expressed was to learn HOW to pray.

And let us not underestimate just how incredibly important prayer is. In his wonderful book, called ‘Prayer,’ Richard Foster says that prayer is the KEY to our home, our real home, the heart of God. That’s a wonderful thought – prayer is the key to God’s heart – the home we were created to live, the place we were shaped for. If that is true, then it is vitally important we learn how to overcome our prayer problems. It is important that we learn how to pray for that is the key to God’s heart.

This struggle to pray is not unique to our contemporary society. In this week’s text, we find the disciples asking Jesus a question that has echoed down through the centuries until it finds voice on our lips as well: ‘Lord, teach us how to pray’. Jesus answered this question (in Luke 11. 1-13), by teaching his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, as well as two other well known stories – that of the persistent friend, and that of the loving parent.

One general thought that I would like to bring out of this teaching is that Jesus makes it implicitly clear that there is NO great secret when it comes to prayer, a secret available only to the more saintly among us. In fact, what we learn from his teaching is that perhaps the whole point of prayer is that it WOULD be something we struggle and wrestle with. Struggle is part of the very essence of prayer!

Now we could spend this week going through Jesus’ teaching point by point, line by line, and there would be much value in that process. But because we seem to have so many questions when it comes to the topic of prayer, I think it would be appropriate to use our questions to interpret this text. We will spend the rest of the week doing exactly that, but for now please spend some time in prayer (see prayer below).

PRAY AS YOU GO

Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening. Yes, Lord, I will pray - not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of corporate worship, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Help me to see myself in the light of your mercy and choose you. Amen” (Henri Nouwen)

FOCUS READING

Luke 11:1-13 NRSV

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’

Please Say Yes

FOCUS READING 1

Revelation 7:13-17 (NRSV)

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’

DAILY BYTE

Today, we notice a 3rd and final thing about the passage from Revelation we’ve been exploring this week. In verse 13 we hear that one of the elders speaks to John in his vision saying, “‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’

In other words – who are these people?

And John says to him, “‘Sir [which also can be translated in the Greek as Lord], you are the one that knows.’

Then this sir – this Lord says to John: ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal...”

What is that – the great ordeal?

It’s not found anywhere else in scripture, so we don’t know exactly what he was referring to.

But we do know, don’t we?

The struggle and temptation and pain of this life is a ‘great ordeal.’ Each one of us has experienced that ordeal in a different way.

The scripture doesn’t say that the people who made it to this glorious moment are the folks who never had any problems – who never doubted – never were tempted – never sinned. No, it’s the people who went through the great ordeal who come into the fullness of the kingdom of heaven.
Somehow, God welcomes those who’ve struggled in this life. Somehow, God hands us the washing powder, as a gift of grace, so we can become new and pure and sing about how miraculous his saving power really is.

Part of the great privilege of my job is that I get to be with people on their deathbeds. And I’ve noticed something through those experiences of being both with people who have been extremely faithful to God during their lives on earth and people who have shunned God and done some terrible things.

What I’ve noticed as I’ve looked at them is that they look to me a lot like children. Wide-eyed, resigned to the fact that they are no longer in control of their bodies and what happens to them. Totally vulnerable – like babies. And as I call to mind images of these people, a passage from 1 John 3:1-2 is like a caption beneath them – “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.... Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”

We are fragile creatures. Vulnerable. Children. Of the living God.
And I have to believe that because God loves the world so much and gave up his son for us that God is strong enough to find us in our vulnerability - that God will try for an eternity in this life or the next to get us to turn away from the things that tarnish us – that God will keep enticing us, wooing us in our stubbornness to let go of a life that fails to honour him and his beautiful creation – that God will never stop trying to show us how to wash away everything that’s impure and unholy about our lives so that we will be able and ready to participate in the goodness of the kingdom of God – today and in the life that’s still coming.

That’s the God I see in the scriptures – the God who is always faithful to us and never gives up on us. The God who says no ordeal is too great for me to penetrate it with my message of love.

So we don’t have to worry about who gets to heaven and judge who goes to hell. Jesus says, how I choose to save you is my decision.
But please, please say yes.

Salvation

FOCUS READING

Revelation 7:10-12 (NRSV)

They cried out in a loud voice, saying,‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing,‘Amen! blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

DAILY BYTE

Today, notice a 2nd thing about the passage from Revelation for this week.

When the huge crowd of people we talked about yesterday cry out in one voice together, notice what they are saying: “Salvation belongs to our God!”

In other words, the power and decision to save people belongs to God. Not to us. Not to our judgment – not to our timing. But to God’s judgment and God’s timing.

And thank God. Because with all of our tendencies toward racism and prejudice and greed – whether we claim these things for ourselves or not - I’m not so sure we’d be up to the task.

The fact that salvation belongs to God might be a relief for you, or it might make you a bit nervous...

Because if salvation belongs to God and not to us, that means there may be a possibility that we might find people who proclaim themselves to be atheists on earth, singing praises in heaven – that we might find people in heaven who profess on earth to be Hindu, like Ghandi, or any other religion.

It means that we may not find some other people who profess to be Christians – if, as Christians, we choose to hold on to attitudes like racism, sexism, and poor environmental stewardship.

I believe that these and many other ways of living based on hatred and injustice will not be tolerated in the fullness of the kingdom of heaven. God is clear in the Word that there will be things in our lives that he judges unacceptable for heaven.

And so our job as people who follow Jesus is to try and allow as much of heaven into our present life as possible. But, should we be so confident that other people who may not profess to have a personal relationship with Jesus – but who through their actions and love bring more of Jesus’ way into the world – are not a part of this multitude singing ‘Salvation belongs to our God’?

Is it possible for everyone that we love and agree with to get into heaven, but others we struggle to love, who may even have sinned against us, and others who don’t share our exact same beliefs, won’t be there? What if the person you’re thinking of as someone who’s on the ‘out list’ is the same person that someone else has definitely on their ‘in list’? How can someone be in their heaven but not in yours? If there is one true God, then surely there can only be one kingdom of heaven that includes everyone together that God desires.

It may have sounded from some of the things I’ve been saying like I believe there is room for more than one religion’s God. Let’s be clear – I believe the scripture we’ve read is talking about the one true God, known to us through Jesus Christ.

I’m not saying that Jesus is not the way, the truth, and the life.
That is, in fact, exactly what I’m saying.

That Jesus is the one who saves. And he decides how and when it’s done.
And Jesus is clear in his teachings that it is often the unexpected people – the sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes that are told – the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.

Do you believe that salvation belongs to our God?

PRAY AS YOU GO

As you contemplate today the mystery and enormity of God’s saving power and grace, meditate on the prayer, popularly known as the Jesus Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.