Words from the book of John

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:2 

Verses to Remember When You're Sad...

 

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

Words from Psalm 119

 

I gave an account of my ways and you answered me;

    teach me your decrees.

Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,

    that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.

My soul is weary with sorrow;

    strengthen me according to your word.

Keep me from deceitful ways;

    be gracious to me and teach me your law.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness;

    I have set my heart on your laws.

I hold fast to your statutes, Lord;

    do not let me be put to shame.

I run in the path of your commands,

    for you have broadened my understanding. 

Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees,

    that I may follow it to the end.

  Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law

    and obey it with all my heart.

  Direct me in the path of your commands,

    for there I find delight. Psalm 119: 26-35

The Equation!

Then Peter came up and asked Him, “Lord, how often am I to forgive my brother if he goes on wronging me?”  As many as seven times?”  Jesus replied, “I do not say seven times, I say seventy times seven.“  Matt. 18:21-22 NEB

What does Jesus’ answer mean? I’ve always wondered how Peter understood Jesus’ answer to forgiveness as found in Matthew 18:21-23. I know I don’t understand it even recognizing that the equation of the perfect number, seven, is multiplied by ten times the perfect number, 70, which equals 490. Are we to keep a tally of how many times we forgive someone and then stop forgiving when we reach 491? What if we live a long time?  What then? Are we to stop forgiving? I’ve been trying to find an answer to that question for a very long time, but I haven’t found anything that makes sense to me. 

However, recently, I was introduced to the concept of the Alphanumeric aspect of the Hebrew language. That simply means that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a number value. Using that as a code, perhaps we can decipher new or hidden meanings in the scripture.

I’ve been watching a program on tv entitled, “God’s Appointed Times.”  In it, Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel is teaching the meaning of what he calls the Biblical holidays found in chapter 23 of the Book of Leviticus. As Christians, we know them as the Jewish holidays.   

Part of Rabbi Sobel’s explanation of Shabbat, the weekly worship service each Friday, was about “Bread.” He explains that the two loaves of bread on the table reflect back to the double portion of manna on Fridays during the Exodus. He says that Jesus equates bread to forgiveness and that every important thing that happened to Jesus happened on one of these biblical holidays.  

Where do the numerical values help us understand this. Each of these happenings has a numerical value. 1) Jesus is called “The Bread of Life” (490). 2) Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread, (490). 3) He was born in the Nativity (490). 4) He was perfect. The Hebrew word for perfect is Tamim (490). 5) He was the perfect sacrificial lamb on Good Friday (490). 6) He arose on First Fruits (490). 

Perhaps Jesus’ answer on forgiveness to Peter isn’t a definite number. Perhaps Jesus’ answer to forgiveness is Himself. Is it possible that Jesus is telling us to forgive as He Himself forgives us?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we praise You for all the ways you provide answers to our questions and we thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to set an example for us. His answers to our questions sound simple enough but provide difficult challenges for us on our journey of faith. We thank You, Jesus, for loving us and guiding us as we go. In Your name we pray, Amen. 

Judy Welch

Psalm 19

For the seventh year in a row, I’m writing a devotion on this page for Earth Day. I was tempted to write something about climate change and the drought that has affected much of the wildlife I head out to (potentially) photograph but have decided to use a recent lesson from the Wednesday morning study plus photographs of one of my favorite little migrating birds as illustration.

I’d like to focus on Psalm 19. This psalm was the final lesson in our recent Wednesday morning bible study, Pause: Spending Lent with the Psalms by Elizabeth F. Caldwell.

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens

    and makes its circuit to the other;

    nothing is deprived of its warmth. 

The law of the Lord is perfect,

    refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,

    making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

    giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,

    giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure,

    enduring forever.

The decrees of the Lord are firm,

    and all of them are righteous. 

They are more precious than gold,

    than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,

    than honey from the honeycomb.

By them your servant is warned;

    in keeping them there is great reward.

But who can discern their own errors?

    Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins;

    may they not rule over me.

Then I will be blameless,

    innocent of great transgression. 

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart

    be pleasing in your sight,

    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19

Commentary on the lesson included some paraphrasing that fits with the earth theme:

“Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening” is a great visual on this passage: “Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” What we can learn from nature? A lot, if we just pay attention.

When I see a ruby-crowned kinglet (similar species are golden-crowned kinglets, and, abroad, goldcrest and firecrest.), I can’t help but visualize God taking some items to “craft” this bird:

•          a sharpened but snipped-off pencil lead for the beak
•          a paintbrush dash in vibrant red for the birds’ head
•          a paintbrush dash in white to border each eye
•          the tiniest straws/pipe cleaners as their little legs 

Imagining God designing these tiny birds as a craft project is fun and puts the focus on Him as creator. I’m sure you can try doing the same thing when you see wildlife, especially those with “happily unexpected” details. What can we learn? Maybe this scripture comes to mind: Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? Matthew 6:26-27 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the beauty of our natural world. Thank you for caring for us, as you care for the creatures of the earth. Help us to pay attention to what we can learn from what we see if we just take the time. Amen. 

Donna Gustafson

(photos of ruby-crowned kinglets above taken by Donna. Click on photos to view larger.)

Seeds

 ...for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:23

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Matthew 13: 31-32

When I was a little girl, my grandmother gave me a necklace with a tiny glass pendant on it. Inside the glass was encased a mustard seed. She told me the parable of the mustard seed and its significance. Whenever I wore it, it sparked many conversations. I remember it often, and think how ironic it is that small things, even children, have endless potential. 

I did not fully come to be in wonder of this until I started following the stages of a young friend who recently became pregnant. Even at a few weeks' pregnancy, with the baby in its most rapid stages of growth, it was merely the size of a sesame seed. Yet in that thing barely visible to the naked eye, is the germ of a human being. 

This spring I planted a number of seeds, and most of them have been larger than sesame seeds; but they have grown into amazing flowering plants that will never be as large as I am. Yet that sesame seed-sized baby will become a fully developed human. (Please do not take any of this as an expression of a political or legal view.)

I believe that size does not matter in God's world. There is no limitation conferred on things in God's eyes. Little and big have no meaning to the God who counts the hairs on our heads or creates the universe. Little things truly do count. Small pleasures, moments of enlightenment, tiny miracles that advance us in our growth; because growth does indeed matter, even when size does not.  

I am fascinated, in the spring and summer, watching the stages of growth in nature. It is encouraging to believe that I am capable of infinitesimal growth during any moment on this earth. That, to me, is what being alive is all about. Seeds and atoms and other minutiae are the building blocks of life in the natural world, and their transformation, by growth or by gathering in community, is revolutionary. The process is exhilarating and powerful.

"For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction." Cynthia Occelli

Prayer: God in whose hands are many seeds, help us to understand big and small things beyond the condition of their size. Help us to see what matters, and to grow in communion with all the sacred things that flower in your world. Thank you for the miracle and wonder of transformation and growth and help us to experience those gifts as we grow in the true knowledge of your boundless creation. Become the smallest thing at our center, and the largest thing all around us. Amen.

Mollie Manner (reprinted from 2019)

The Mystery and Message of the Moss Rose

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40: 28-31

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 

My mom was a talented florist and gardener. I spent many an hour watching her “green thumb” work its “magic” in our family’s flower shop and her gardens at home. As I was growing up, I learned to appreciate and love flowers by watching her plant, and tenderly care for, a large variety of colorful annuals and perennials she nurtured each cool spring and hot summer. I, too, love to plant flowers each spring but I find I’m not as nurturing as my mom, especially as the summer grows hotter and hotter. So, I look for annuals and perennials that don’t require much attention and can thrive through our hot, and sometimes, very dry Nebraska summers.  One of my favorite annuals to plant, with these qualities, is moss rose.

Last May, I found some beautiful moss rose and planted them in the sunniest parts of our front yard. As usual, and in the extreme heat and drought of the summer, they flourished.  Not only did these plants flourish, several seeds mysteriously found their way to a crack in the hot cement of our driveway. Even in this inhospitable hot and arid place of the cement, they kept growing and growing and reaching their bright and beautiful heads to the summer sun. To me, they took on a quality of defiance, that against all odds, they were going to survive. As I watched these plants continue to grow until the first frost, I suddenly was struck by the message God was sharing with me through them. Their tenacity told me that, even in the hardest and driest times of my life, if I keep my focus on the Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior, and on God, the source of all my strength, I can, and will, continue to thrive and flourish, as well.

The following summer, in that same crack in our driveway, two moss rose plants once again thrived and flourished in the hot, summer sun even though no new plants were added to our yard that previous spring. The mystery and message of the moss rose continued.

Prayer: My Savior and my God, the source of all my strength, I praise and thank you for the messages you send to me each and every day in a variety of ways. May my eyes, ears, mind, heart and soul continually be watchful of, and open to, the mysteries, messages and revelations of Your Word in my life.  Amen

Patty Niemann (reprinted from June 2013)