Week 6

This week, I only did one day (see below)...I allowed other things to take over the time I had been setting aside for this spiritual practice.  First thing in the morning became more about snoozing, then I started eating a healthy breakfast and even working out here and there.  And before I go to bed, like now, I get overwhelmed by how much I have to read, write, debt I have to pay, and decisions I need to make that the smallest of tasks seem best to be swept into tomorrow.

This coming week will be my first Holy Week that I celebrate the week in addition to the Resurrection.  I will still keep my tradition of watching The Passion on Sunday.  I will also make the time this week to do my readings and writings each day.

Lord help me.

Day 34

Isaiah 58:1-14

Get my prayers off the ground and fly above it all

Isaiah's talk here is mirrored by Jesus during his sermon on the mount.  He cautions people from hamming up their fasting around others.  Their reward then congress from the attention or recognition they gain from others. Instead, Isaiah outlines that true fasting is not about showing others how holy you are, but about bringing about justice and God's healing to those who need it.

Also, Isaiah points out that Sabbath, when practiced as God intended, leads to a closeness to God and a joy that lifts you above the doldrums of life.

Week 5

Day 27

• Luke 15
• 2 Corinthians 5:21

Grieve and Rejoice

God's angels celebrate whenever a soul returns.  How do we react?  Sometimes like the Pharisees who could not allow their judgments to release the sinners from their sin.  Or, other times we are the lost sheep or coin.  Wandered off or not paying attention, or perhaps fallen out of "currency and into the bottom of the purse.  But we are all so much more precious than herds of sheep and houses full of coins.  And God restlessly sweeps the nooks and crannies for us.

Let Him find you, save you, comfort you after the frightening separation and clean you from your time in the dark unkept corners. The death Jesus died allowed for God's light to reach us all, not just the good.  Like Carolane, walk into the light.

Day 28

• Psalm 32
• John 3:14-21
• Running from the God light as though you are Adam and Eve in Eden
  The language in John is similar to the scenario in the creation story. As God called, his creation ran and his afraid of what they had done as well as what they understood.
  I've run from God and his people, at times without ever leaving my pew.

Day 29

• Ephesians 2:1-10
• Numbers 21:4-9
• Though Good sent the snakes, when the people repented, he sent a way to be saved. When we repent and run to God for the cure of sin, he wraps us in Jesus. His death on our behalf covers our son and allows us to have an intimate relationship with God-no Moses required.

Day 30

• Genesis 3
• Romans 6:15-23
• Who Told You You Were Naked?
  
  
  The choice for freedom is not as simple as you think.  To eat the apple or not?  To follow sin or not?  There was a snake involved, a lifelong partner listening and watching intently, and the first dissenting voice which caused a fissure between faith and reason.  Freedom is thought of as running through a meadow with a big smile and comfortable cotton clothes.  Doing whatever you want, answering to no one, and not having to do anything.  Like a "Sunday morning" (for those who either don't attend services in the morning or with a brick and mortar community at that time".  

Day 31
Mark 10

Here, in this miracle, it was the faith of the blind man that SAVED and HEALED him.  In other miracles, Jesus forgives the sinner/heals the person and tells them to sin no more to show that he has both the ability to forgive sins and heal.  This miracle is powerful, not only because a blind man has been given sight, but because it shows our faith can play a role in healing and saving ourselves.  

Day 32
Mark 11

Say something!

Jesus was quick to say something. Whether you were the natural fig tree or the human in the church, Jesus was no respector of sinners.  He was frustrated with how wrong we were getting everything.  But we weren't just getting things like the law wrong, it was our relationship with God and each other that brought it out of him.

Day 33

No reading

Week 4: Return

• Day 20
• John 4:5-42
• Psalm 11

The woman at the well is thirsting for the teachings of Christ, and the Psalmist writes that God is looking to straighten us so we can receive Him.

Who are the Samaritans in my society?  People that would be shocked that I invited them to church?

Where is God trying to straighten me out?

Day 21

• Exodus 17:1-7
• Psalm 95
• The people in the wilderness treated Good and tried Moses. They were thirsty, then hungry, lost, and basically "are we there yet"-ing Moses for 40 so much that he didn't even get to see the promised land himself and he was guiding them.
  There needs were met at every turn, but only after their complaining. The story would have been different if they had simply asked. I imagine the annoying passive aggressive friend who says, "we're going to the movies again? Didn't we go last week?" Even though you are paying and they never offer a suggestion of what to do themselves.  God is meant to be praised, not played into computing to our requests, however dire they may be.

Day 22

Isaiah 6

A holy seed in the stump

Isaiah sees the Master himself and is humbled to his soul. He understands the utter failure of himself and anyone else in comparison to the Most High.

Even though an angel clears his sin with a coal from the altar, God describes a devastation that smacks of another Noah story without an arc.  God recognizes that everyone will be hard headed and won't listen or understand. Then, they will all be cut down like the Amazon. And, if a few manage to survive, the having away will begin again.

This imagery is difficult to swallow, as I'm sure the Jews felt when they first heard it.  I'd certainly want to suddenly listen real hard and understand if there was anyway to avoid this.  Man has been able to plead to God before in order to stay his hand from completely wiping out his creation. 

Noah and Lot were able to save themselves and their families from the destruction around them.  Who is pleading with God now? Who would be among the saved?

Day 23

• Psalm 93
• Romans 5

The container store of heaven

I like to compartmentalize my life. Have a place for every aspect, and every aspect of my life in its place.  Going somewhere like The Container Store or Ikea, you walk around thinking, if only I had these things, my life would finally be in order and I would be put together.

With my relationship with God and my faith, it is also tempting to think that specific actions or behaviors help me to stand out to God. As though, he would be impressed with how faithfully I attend services or how I give of my time or money.  The truth is, God is already attentively witnessing my life with a passionate and indescribable love the likes of which can only be poorly misunderstood. 

I should impress myself with Him and His ways.   The psalmist must have been inspired deeply by the nature around him, but many of us do not have the luxury of being near the widely considered gems of God's creation.  The ocean, mountains, forests, and the like are obvious choices to revel in the handicraft of the Creator. 

But how can we marvel in Midtown, on a crowded train, or a busy street?  It would be in the faces and testimonies of the people around us.  We are the most treasured of all God's creation.  As such, there is treasure and with in every person more valuable than the tropical rainforests or the last Beluga whale.

Day 24

Mark 7

As Christians, it is easy to look at the harsh words Jesus gave to the Pharisees and think, yea he was right to put Them on front street.  However, his harsh words are for all of us.  Just as there is no way for the Jewish people's ritualistic cleaning to clean their soul, there is also no affectation you as a human can practice that makes you more clean and holy.

Jesus, after being asked to clarify by the disciples, responds harshly as well. Apparently, they should be picking up much more of what he is putting down.

Day 25

• Mark 8
• Mark 9
• The feeding of four thousand and the conversation with Elijah and Moses are both wildly miraculous and tangible manifestations of the power of Jesus.  However, he asks the disciples not to share what they have seen.

Week 3: We Shall

Day 13

• Romans 4
• Genesis 12:1-9
• All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.
  I'm part of the earth, part of this dysfunctional, loving, hating, annoying, helpful, hurtful family.  And God arranged blessings for me through a man who lived thousands of years ago.  But it was not because Abram was particularly special as much as God was indescribably special and see Abram as a great vessel through which his creation could receive these blessings.
• Day 14

Psalm 121

Lord whatever this day may bring, your name be praised.

Jesus dealt with disciples who heard his truth but were still confused and he had to call the devil out.  Like the other spirits, as well as some of those he healed, Jesus asked that they not tell anyone.  

The Psalmist writes about a God that travels with them, shields and protects them, and takes the watch no matter the hour.  If I took a road trip with anyone I knew, I would most likely get annoyed with them at some point or another in the journey.  I'm sure God, as he travels with us (invited or not) he must see us doing things stubbornly, wrong, backwards, with the wrong intention, without the instructions (his word) and yet he hangs around and gently keeps us from driving off the road or getting irrevocably lost.  He keeps us from being ravaged by the dangers inherit in travelling and he does this all in spite of ourselves.  Like Peter, and the spirit within him, we do not know how God works but we are quick to jump up about what we think we know.

Day 15

• Philippians 3:12-21
• Philippians 4
• "...Lord hurry to my rescue" 
  
  
  "But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites."
   

Day 16
Psalm 70

The urgency of this call to rescue skips past buttering God up about who He is and what He can do and goes directly to asking Him TO do.
Day 17
Mark 6
The demons didn't want to leave, but the man, once of his right mind, couldn't wait to go.  This chapter has miracle after miracle, one inside the other.
Day 18
Mark 6
Surely, one of the siblings of Jesus had children.  As meticulously as the records were kept for genealogies, someone surely might have thought it important to keep up with the line.
Day 19
No reading