Author Archives: smcalhoon
Lent Devotions
April 1: The View from the Seesaw
Posted: 31 Mar 2014 05:51 AM PDT
Read: Luke 16:19-31
At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus. (v. 20 NRSV)
One day, while riding a seesaw with my daughter when she was a small child, she got a thoughtful look on her face, and she declared: “When I am up, you are down!”
When it comes to food and resources, all the world rides a seesaw. One side is up; the other is down. One side is like the rich man; the other side is like poor Lazarus.
The seesaw runs pretty much along north-south lines, the fulcrum being the equator. With one or two exceptions, affluent countries are in the northern hemisphere–America, Europe, Japan. That’s the up side of the seesaw. Poorer countries tend to be in the southern hemisphere–Africa, Asia, the Indian subcontinent. That’s the down side.
The difference in lifestyle and consumption of resources from one end of the seesaw to the other is mind-boggling. Compared to most of the world’s peoples, Americans live like sultans.
Wealthy nations are not at fault for world hunger. It is not wrong to be prosperous. Affluence doesn’t make you bad. It makes you blessed. But there is something dreadfully wrong if those who are affluent can look at Lazarus starving at the low end of the seesaw and do nothing to help him. –Lou Lotz
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to see the poor. Open my hands to help.
Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.
Lent Devotions
Lent Devotions
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March 31: Mary Martha
Posted: 30 Mar 2014 11:17 AM PDT
Read: Luke 10:38-42
Mary has chosen the better part. (v. 42 NRSV)
So which one are you: Martha or Mary? We tend to identify with one or the other. Martha is active; Mary is contemplative. Martha achieves; Mary appreciates. The truth is, nobody is all Martha or all Mary. The tensions between the two sisters are inside each of us. All of us are both of them. I know a nun: Sister Mary Martha. That’s your name too. And my name. We’re all Mary Martha.
Your Martha part is active, achievement oriented. Martha is a fussbudget; always busy, always striving. Your Mary part is thoughtful, meditative. Mary likes to sit and listen.
If your Mary part dominates entirely, the basic physical needs of your life will not be met. For most of us, though, the danger of that happening is remote. The greater danger is that Martha will dominate. Anxious. Distressed. No time to listen. No time to think. No time to pray. No time to be, because there is too much to do.
What we have to bear in mind, as we deal with the tension between our Mary part and our Martha part, is that Jesus pronounced the Mary part to be the better part.
Slow down. Be quiet. Be calm. Don’t just do something, stand there! “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10). –Lou Lotz
Prayer: Lord, help me to balance my life.
Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.
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March 30: Come down from the Mountaintop Posted: 29 Mar 2014 11:28 AM PDT Read: Luke 9:28-36 Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings. (v. 33 NRSV) A few years ago I climbed a mountain in the Grand Tetons, in Wyoming. I sat on the summit, savored the view, devoured a cheese sandwich, drank some coffee from a thermos. Then I began my descent. You don’t stay long on a mountaintop. Mountaintops are inhospitable places. It’s cold up there. Your body aches. Breathing is difficult. Nobody would ever want to stay on a mountaintop. Except Peter. “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings.” Christ’s countenance is shining like the sun. His clothes are “dazzling white.” It’s a moment of holiness and majesty, and Peter doesn’t want it to end. “Let us make three dwellings.” Peter wants to stay on the mountaintop. He wants to prolong the experience. Bad idea. Peter made this comment, says Luke, “not knowing what he said.” Jesus, Moses, and Elijah don’t need dwellings. You can’t take something radiant and stuff it into a box. The danger in our mountaintop experiences is that we try to freeze them and make them permanent. And so a life which might have been a voyage of discovery and growth instead is chained to the past. A mountaintop is a nice place to visit, but you don’t want to live there. –Lou Lotz Prayer: Lead me onward, Lord. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
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March 29: The Pleasure of Your Problems Posted: 29 Mar 2014 06:13 AM PDT Read: Luke 8:26-39 What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? (v. 28 NRSV) What are you gaining from your problems? If you could be rid of your problems right now, today, what would you lose? Attention? Sympathy? An excuse? The demoniac wants to be healed. He falls at Jesus’ feet to worship him. Yet when Jesus commands the demons to come out, a voice snarls: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The poor wretch wants to be rid of his demons, yet he wants to hold onto them–and they to him. We do strike deals with our demons, for to be rid of them is to be rid of the excuses or the security they provide. We are like the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus looking to be cured of what ails him, yet when Jesus offers the cure the man goes sorrowfully away. He wants to be healed, but he doesn’t want to be healed. We are like that–attracted to, and repelled by, the grace of God. We want Jesus to help us, but help means change, and change hurts. Other than wet babies, nobody likes to be changed. Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t give up on the demoniac; he won’t leave until the man is healed. Please, Jesus, don’t give up on me. –Lou Lotz Prayer: Heal me, Lord. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
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March 28: Scarcity or Abundance Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:23 AM PDT Read: Luke 7:36-50 Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. (v. 38 NRSV) People approach life with one of two general attitudes: an attitude of scarcity, or an attitude of abundance. An attitude of scarcity says: there is not enough. Therefore I must conserve. I must hold back. I must live sparingly. People with an attitude of scarcity go through life with an eye-dropper, carefully measuring out the contents, fearful lest they spend a drop more of themselves than is absolutely necessary. Simon the Pharisee has an attitude of scarcity. An attitude of abundance, on the other hand, says: there is more than enough. There is plenty of everything. Therefore I can be openhanded, openhearted. People with an attitude of abundance go through life with an alabaster jar, lavishly pouring out the contents. The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet has an attitude of abundance. Listen: there is more than enough love in you. There is more than enough mercy in you, more than enough forgiveness. You’re not going to run out. Your account of goodness does not decrease when you use some. You can afford to be generous. You don’t need to portion yourself out with an eye-dropper, a bit here, a bit there. You have enough time to volunteer. You have enough money to give. Throw away that eye-dropper. Go ahead, be extravagant. Show some love! –Lou Lotz Prayer: Lord, help me cultivate an Attitude of Abundance. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
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March 27: The Cure for Hostility Posted: 26 Mar 2014 07:03 AM PDT Read: Luke 6:27-28 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. (v. 27 NRSV) I remember a Mother Goose rhyme from my childhood: That’s hostility. Hostility is the settled state of being enemies. Anger, appropriately expressed and properly handled, can be a sign of good mental health. But there is no health in hostility. Hostility ruins our mental health. I once heard of a psychologist whose first question to every new patient was: “Who is wrong with you?” Can hostility be cured? Not if we cover it up and pretend it doesn’t exist. Jesus didn’t say, “Pretend you have no enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies.” And how do we do that? “Do good to those who hate you,” said Jesus. Try doing something good for your enemy, and see if you can still feel hostile toward him. “Bless those who curse you,” said Jesus. Find something in your enemy that you can honestly praise, and then see if you can still feel hostile. “Pray for those who abuse you,” said Jesus. Pray, not once, but persistently. It is not easy to remain hostile toward someone for whom you pray on a daily basis. –Lou Lotz Prayer: Help me to love my enemies. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
Lent Devotions
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Posted: 25 Mar 2014 06:35 AM PDT Read: Luke 5:1-11 Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. (v. 5 NRSV) A college student studies all night and still fails the exam. A salesman doubles his sales calls and still doesn’t make quota. A cancer patient undergoes a rigorous program of chemotherapy only to discover, six months later, that the disease is back. Sometimes, like the disciples, we toil all night and have nothing to show for it. In the midst of our frustration it is often not the extraordinary, but the ordinary transformed, that brings results. Jesus tells Simon to do once more what he’s been doing all night without success. “If you say so,” says Simon. The nets are let down yet again, and what a catch! “They caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.” The point of the story is not that Jesus was with Simon in his success. The point is that Jesus was with Simon in his failure. If God is with us only in moments of success, then God is not with us very often, for most of us are more familiar with failure than with success. The good news is that God is with us when we toil all night and have nothing to show for it. Believing this does not mean we will overcome failure. It means that failure will not overcome us. –Lou Lotz Prayer: Lord, I trust you. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
Lent Devotions
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March 25: Washed in the Grace of Christ Posted: 24 Mar 2014 06:57 AM PDT Read: Psalm 36:1-9 With you is the fountain of life. (v. 9 NRSV) Prayer is like taking a shower. When I have been bathed in the love of God I am cleansed and renewed. When I take a shower I submit to the water and soap that makes me clean. When I pray I surrender to God allowing the living water, Jesus Christ, to cleanse me of all that hinders my relationship with God. I step into the shower of God’s love and grace. A quick shower is better than none. But I have to stay in the shower long enough for the cleansing and renewal I need to take place. I let go of all else for the moment as I receive the presence of God. As I consent to God’s presence I am refreshed. My soul is renewed in faith, hope, and love. Of course, taking a shower is not just for our own enjoyment. Our health depends upon it–as well as our social relationships! In prayer we become persons who express the love of Christ. We are called to demonstrate the grace of God. When we are cleansed by grace, we can be gracious. Immersed in the love of God, we become people of loving compassion ourselves. –David Muyskens Prayer: Fountain of Life, cleanse and renew me for your service. In Christ. Amen. Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/. |
Lent Devotions
Lent Devotions
March 24: Daniel’s Prayer for Forgiveness
Posted: 24 Mar 2014 05:55 AM PDT
Read: Daniel 9:1-10, 17-19
Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, . . . we have sinned and done wrong. (vv. 4-5 NRSV)
This beautiful and heartbreaking prayer is one of stark contrasts. Daniel has just learned that the exile of his people will continue yet for some time in the future. This is so overwhelmingly sad that he turns to God for sustaining mercy. The prayer acknowledges that all the things that have happened to him and his fellow exiles are appropriate because of their sin. It also declares the greatness and goodness of God. Daniel uses one of the most famous words in the Hebrew Bible in this prayer: the word for “righteousness.” Daniel says, “Righteousness is on your side, O Lord.” The word righteousness includes not only the idea of divine justice, but also God’s mercy and compassion, longsuffering and holiness; in fact, it includes all the characteristics of God that call out of us our best worship.
“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God,” Daniel begins. He goes on to list all the faults of the people and all the greatness of God. But in the middle of these stark contrasts, Daniel finds the perspective to sink his own roots in God. His own identity, and his people’s identity, is forever linked with Israel’s Lord. And all his hope is found in God. –Leanne Van Dyk
Prayer: “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay!” Amen. (v. 19)
Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.
St Croix Reformed Church 