Today is Saturday, the seventh of May, 2022, in the third week of Easter.
May the peace of Christ find you today!
Day 23,431
Just in case anyone is wondering, we will be in the season of Easter until June 5, which is Pentecost. I’m pretty sure that, after that, we will be in “Ordinary Time,” until Advent. I’m still learning the liturgical calendar, and different groups of people have different Ordinary Time periods.
The Texas Rangers have already been postponed, again, today. They must be having some wicked bad weather up there in NYC. So now, there is a double-header slated for tomorrow, and a makeup game on Monday, where both teams were supposed to have an off day. The Rangers remain in fourth place, and still are working on a four-game win streak. They are a game ahead of Oakland, who has now lost seven consecutive games, apparently trying to catch up with Cincinatti in that column.
The NY weather must not be extending all the way to Boston, but I wish it had. They lost yet another game, last night, to the Other Sox, 4-2. JBJ made some great defensive plays, though, in the ninth inning. Boston has now descended into the cellar, embarrassingly behind the Orioles, who have won a couple games in a row. Boston is 10-17 for the season, and are now a half game behind Baltimore. They will attempt to get a win, today, against the Other Sox, at 4:10 EDT.
Speaking of Cincinnati, their game was also postponed, yesterday. In fact, there were six games postponed, yesterday, in total! There appears to be a huge storm system covering that whole area. Games were postponed in Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, and Cleveland. So far, only the NYC game has been postponed today.
Anyway, the Reds still hold the worst record in MLB, but it didn’t get any worse, yesterday. They have still lost nine consecutive (only two more than Oakland, at this point), and are 3-22 for the season. There are still five teams who have yet to win ten games, and Boston has the fifth worst record, in spite of not being one of those five teams.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. While many believe this to be a “Hallmark Holiday,” it actually originated, in the U.S., in 1907, on May 12, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday. However, there are instances of a similar “holiday” as far back as the Middle Ages, when people who had moved away visited their home parishes on “Laetere Sunday,” the fourth Sunday in Lent. This eventually became “Mothering Sunday” in Great Britain, where, according to Britannica, it still continues into modern times, even though largely replaced by Mother’s Day.
We will not be traveling, since my mother now lives with us. I will be cooking steaks and baked potatoes for lunch. C and I will have a couples’ massage tomorrow afternoon, my gift to her. We did not buy any Mother’s Day cards because they are almost $10 this year. That’s just ridiculous. We got my mother a new table to go between her bed and easy chair in her bedroom.
Today, we will be going to a friend’s house to help celebrate the one year birthday of her grandson, Charlie. Good times. Outside of that, there are no plans.
TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
Lord, I dedicate this day to You. May my feet walk only where You want them to walk. May my eyes see only what You want them to see. May my ears hear only what You want them to hear. May my mouth say only what You want it to say. May my mind think only what You want it to think.
Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the LORD, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing. Come, my children, and listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the LORD. (Psalms 34:8-11 NLT)
Today I am grateful:
1. that I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and I have experienced the joy of taking refuge in Him 2. for the closeness of the Holy Trinity, as I constantly experience the presence of Christ in me and around me 3. for the Name of Jesus, a light that the shadows can't deny, and that Name cannot be overcome 4. that reading Scripture devoutly allows me to listen to what God is saying to me and participate in the ongoing conversation that He is having with me 5. that reading Scripture devoutly will ultimately make me complete and equipped for every good work
“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.”
(Acts 17:24-25 NLT)
Today’s prayer word is “close.” I’m a little confused about the Scripture reference, but I’ll put it in here and see where they go from there.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?”
(Matthew 7:3 NLT)
The contextual meaning of the word “close,” for today’s reading, is the idea of being near something, “a short distance away or apart in space or time.”
Something being close can be good, or it can be bad. The writer of today’s reading, Buck, explains by comparing the closeness of his wife with her arms around him (definitely good) to a stranger in the plane seat right next to him, who has “dead rat breath.”
This is also where the Scripture verse comes into the picture, as Buck has a “conversation” with God in which he complains about the stranger’s breath and God replies with, “You think your breath is better?”
Even the closeness of God can be good or bad. It is certainly good to me, as I derive great comfort from the belief that God is always close to me. I love this quote from St. Patrick:
“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”
That is a wonderful example of “close.”
But the closeness of God is not such a good thing for those who either don’t believe in Him or are rebellious against Him.
(From Pray a Word a Day)
Father, I praise You for Your constant closeness. Realizing the truth of St. Patrick’s words, above, gives me great comfort and reduces, sometimes eliminates entirely, any fear that I might experience. When worry or fear assails the doors of my heart, I am always tempted to give in, and sometimes I do, because I forget, momentarily, how close You are to me. But then Your Holy Spirit reminds me, I call out Your name, and the fears are gone. Indeed, “Your Name is a light that the shadows can’t deny; Your Name cannot be overcome.”
Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.
(Psalms 37:5 NLT)
Unfailing love and faithfulness make atonement for sin. By fearing the LORD, people avoid evil.
(Proverbs 16:6 NLT)
I am grateful, my Father, that You have led me down a path of trusting in You. I have experienced Your help so many times in my life, and have witnessed the truth of Psalm 37:5. Help me to have a better, healthy “fear” of You in my life, as I walk in Your kingdom. There are many things with which I am grappling, at this point in my life, in terms of truth and its relationship to humanity. I pray for Your Spirit to clarify things in my mind and in my heart. I commit the way of my future to You.
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 RSV)
The word “complete,” which is in most modern translations of these verses, comes from a Greek word, “artios,” which, according to Eugene Peterson, means “‘skillfully put together’–not thrown together haphazardly but carefully crafted.” In fact, the KJV translates the word “perfect.”
Many peoples’ lives appear to be haphazardly thrown together, being held together only by “a lot of foreign matter: drugs, hobbies, money, diversions, and fads.” It’s interesting that he chose to put “drugs” first, because I expected to see things like “alcohol, and sex” after that. But no, the next thing on the list is “hobbies,” so we are immediately humbled and stop that tendency of pointing fingers at the people whose lives are torn apart by substance abuse.
Says Peterson, “the skillful reading of Scripture is the means that God provides to put us together in the right way so that we are complete. It’s what he uses to shape, correct, and train us as human beings with dignity and eternity rather than as conditional consumers salivating at every commercial or as bundles of animal sensations enslaved to impulses of greed or lust or violence.”
Wow. That last sentence is kind of brutal, isn’t it? But when I look around, I see a lot of that, even among the people of God who have been led astray by the wiles of a greedy and capitalistic society.
“There are wrong ways to read Scripture, and Scripture is often read wrongly.”
Side note: I totally concur with this sentiment and have seen it in action. For example, I once had a conversation in which a more conservative person than I told me that he believed a woman couldn’t be a pastor because the Bible says that the pastor must be the husband of one wife. I challenged this by stating that, if that is true, then the pastor must also be married. He was not willing to follow his own logic to that end. I have little tolerance for such tomfoolery.
“Reading Scripture academically is only interesting. Reading Scripture superstitiously is merely silly. Scripture must be read devoutly so God’s Word will craft us from the inside out, shaping our awkward, ill-formed lives until we are ‘complete, equipped for every good work.'”
I know someone who basically only reads Scripture academically. He knows more about the Bible than I do, for sure. But his spiritual life is practically nonexistent. I also know people who pretty much only read the Bible superstitiously, searching the Scriptures for proof-texts to validate their wrong thinking about God.
Let’s be clear. I do not always read Scripture correctly, either. I used to be guilty of reading it academically, trying to memorize every nook and cranny. I have also been guilty of reading it superstitiously, thinking that, somehow, reading a portion of the Bible every morning would make my day go well. I have also been guilty of thinking wrongly about God, and probably still do about some things. And I’m getting quite weary of hearing from people who think that they’ve got it all figured out and are right about everything. Because only Jesus was right about everything.
Several things happen when we read Scripture “devoutly.” By the way, one meaning of “devoutly” is “in a totally committed and sincere way; earnestly.” So (my thinking, here) reading devoutly means that I am totally committed to allowing God’s Word to . . . what did Peterson say? “Craft [me] from the inside out, shaping [my] awkward, ill-formed [life] until [I am] ‘complete, equipped for every good work.'”
One thing that happens is that “we deepen and extend our involvement in the conversation that God has with us.” Yes, God is constantly having a conversation with us. We may or may not be paying attention to that conversation, but it is there. And He constantly invites us to participate in said conversation.
Another thing that happens is that “we become more at home with his ways of working and more familiar with the way his mind works.”
And the third thing that happens is “we are listening to God speak to us. His Word addresses the centers of our beings and calls forth responses that complete our lives into wholeness.”
Father, there is a lot of depth in this reading and a lot to consider/ponder. I am very grateful for Your Word and have loved it for as long as I can remember. As far as I know, I have been reading Your Word since I was able to read, and was always fascinated with it. As I grew and read it in different ways, my understanding changed (or perhaps lack, thereof). I do not claim to fully understand it, now, and know that I never will, at least not until I have shed this mortal coil and stand in Your presence in Glory. And then, if I understand correctly, at that moment, I will “know as I am known,” and all of the clouds and shrouds and fog will be lifted. Oh, what a day of rejoicing that will be. I will know all of the places where I was wrong and understand it all. And then, I am certain, I will fall on my face before You at that same moment, worshiping Your almighty and magnificent Name, for all eternity.
There will be no sorrow for the areas in which I have been wrong, only rejoicing to finally grasp and understand the totality of truth. Why do I believe that there will be no sorrow? Because Your Word tells me that that emotion will not exist in heaven. And, somehow, we will all be changed so that we will have no ill feelings toward everyone who disagreed with us on earth. That is almost incomprehensible! But I believe it will be true.
I pray for that day when I will be “complete and fully equipped.” I do believe I am moving in that direction, but really, really slowly. May Your Spirit work within me to help me read Your Word devoutly, every day, that I might become complete, for that is my heart’s desire. I ask for no riches or possessions, no fancy cars or homes, no more “stuff.” What I want is You, and to fully understand You, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:15-17 NIV)
Grace and peace, friends.
Reveling In the Overflowing Grace of God 