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"Running in Faith" is an electronic devotional guide written by members of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church. Each week, writers use their personal interpretation of scripture to write an inspirational message they hope will help readers take their Sunday faith into weekday lives. Your comments are appreciated and, when related to a particular devotion, passed to the writer. We hope you will share these devotions with friends and coworkers. We are always happy to add new names to our e-mail list. Please contact us if you wish your name to be added. |
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Devotion for the week of May 1, 2005
The scriptures instruct us to be good stewards. A few years ago, Sunday School children were introduced to Pel-i-can who taught them that "stewardship" means taking care of creation: that which has been given to us by a loving and caring God. Adults must also learn how to be good stewards of God's earth; to use only what we need, give back what we cannot use, and leave more than we have taken. There is also the stewardship of our personal skills and abilities. Remember the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, discernment, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, diverse tongues, interpretation and each is given of the Spirit for the common good. We are all members of the body of Christ, and these verses tell us that all members are of equal importance. (I Corinthians 12:7). Too often, though, when we hear STEWARDSHIP, we think of financial stewardship -- or we translate it to mean, "We need more money!" In Chapter 12:48, Luke writes, For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. In addition to our financial support, we are given time and talents to be used in service to our Lord and our church. At one time a member of our congregation, a painter temporarily unemployed, contributed countless days of labor to repaint several rooms of the building in lieu of monetary contribution. A few people may remember Laura Hook, who weeded, watered, and coaxed into bloom the flowers that surrounded our building sharing her gift for growing things. Ann Oshman crafted several of the banners which still beautify our sanctuary. Louise Fitzgerald used her organizational skills to create the church library. Though they have entered the church triumphant, their gifts live on. In our congregationšs early years, members took pride in maintaining the church grounds as well as performing weekly chores of dusting, vacuuming and washing clergy and choir robes. Adult and child members who sing, add their voices to the choirs. Those able to teach help to guide the Sunday School children to a deeper understanding of God's ways. Those less able to participate in other activities help by telephoning to remind people of meetings, special events, or prayer requests. People blessed with computer skills spend hours maintaining this and other electronic ministries of our congregation. Find time to "labor in the vineyards of the Lord", whether it is helping with the office work and preparing mailings, cleaning out the refrigerator, assisting in the liturgy, preparing meals for sick and heartsick members. Members of the Altar Guild spend numerous hours preparing the chancel and sanctuary for worship. Whenever there is a workday at APLC, participants have a wonderful time together as well as carrying out needed service. Small regular gifts of canned and boxed food add to our support of food pantries. A visit to a food pantry could show how much these small items mount up to feed hungry people. Chores done which are not noticed would be noticed if they were not done. Time spent in prayer for congregation members, friends, and family needs to be respected, too. Visiting the sick and sorrowing should be a ministry of all members, in addition to the pastor and staff. Sometimes ways of giving time become line items in the budget. It is important that each one of us has the chance to serve in the capacities which utilize their God-given gifts and abilities. All offerings -- physical and spiritual as well as financial -- have comparable importance and acknowledgement. There is joy in serving by doing for others; there is satisfaction in lending a hand to those in need; there is fulfillment in working with and within the community. Children can be part of the on-going support of the congregation. Their efforts are not always perfect, but they ought to have a chance to participate if they are to grow to be effective adult church members. One Sunday morning a small child expressed a desire to serve as acolyte. The pastor picked him up and guided his hand to extinguish the candles. After a moment of a corporate breath holding by the congregation, the boy completed his task and the radiant joy on his face must have caused God and all the angels to smile. At that moment, he was not a child with a mental handicap, but a servant of the Lord, and an equal to all the saints. Not as we ought, but as we are able. (LBW Eucharistic Prayer)
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Devotion for the week of May 8, 2005
Songs of joy and grief, songs of sunlight and shadow, songs of insight and unknowing: These are our heart songs, the waves of thinking and feeling continuously streaming through our inner lives, the matrix from which all our actions spring. They are personal, unique to the individual, their particular quality dependent on the interaction of what we bring to life and all that we experience. But if our inner world remains merely personal, land-locked, as it were, with no inflow to refresh or outflow to get rid of impurities, it quickly become stagnant - dead thinking that never revises its theories, hollow feeling that lacks real relationship, and meaningless routines that are content with repetition. It does not matter how sophisticated the thinking, how intense the feeling, or how demanding the activity, if they remain self-contained and self-focused, they are of little use to anyone, even ourselves. The ability to rise above ourselves is key to both wisdom and healing, and is necessary for truly altruistic service. Such transcendence is possible only in an atmosphere of openness, when we turn from the noisy cacophony within and respond to the quiet voices that whisper to us from the world outside ourselves, without preconception, analysis, or judgment. Through active listening and intuition we can receive the thoughts and feelings of others - the people currently in our lives,those who have gone before, and those we know only indirectly. Through the imagination, we can relate to the images that flow through dreams, the natural world, and all artistic endeavours, their beauty and meanings available to all who care to appreciate them. And through inspiration, we can connect to the spiritual world, to all that exists beyond form, its riches freely given, ours by the simple act of breathing them in. Paradoxically, when we learn to embrace what lives outside ourselves, just as it is and not in relation to our own private and limited world, we become more fully ourselves. Our own songs become more authentic. At the same time, we draw closer to God, who is the source of all the bounteous gifts we receive, and gradually we learn to surrender our individual voices to His purposes. Only then are we capable of touching another in a quiet and genuine expression of love, without the need for personal recognition or reward.
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Devotion for the week of May 15, 2005 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Just last month Margot and I realized a long-held travel goal of cruising down the Mississippi River on a sternwheeler, the "Delta Queen." On our second day aboard we docked at Helena, Arkansas, a desperately poor little town on the bank of that river. Our four busloads of 150+ people visited a quite small African-American church, being treated to a special choral performance of gospel music and spirituals by their choir. During introductory comments by the tour leader we were told that none of the singers, nor the accompanying pianist, guitar player and percussionist, were trained musicians. But, how wonderfully, naturally talented they were! The pastor gave a brief moving homily, commenting relevantly about our visit and thanking God for His presence in our midst that morning. The predominantly white, and mostly Northern, "visiting congregation" clapped hands with the choir and rose to sing enthusiastically with them in their closing number, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." I will confess to you that my eyes were misty. ... but, of course, you know I love choral music! It was a one hour "concert" I shall long remember. Reflecting on that day, I think of a Lutheran hymn (LBW #555) that proclaims: How oft, in making music, we have found Well, you might ask, "what's this all about?" It reminded me --- and I probably do need reminding from time to time --- that God truly is everywhere. He is not just present in great cathedrals like St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, or at spacious suburban churches like Abiding Presence Church in New Jersey, but also at little clapboard Baptist churches like the one we visited one Saturday in Helena, AR. Dan Whitener, in a recent sermon, quoted a lady who observed, "There is not a spot where God is not." Yes, I knew this intellectually. ... just as every Christian knows that. But, it is knowing that truth spiritually --- in one's heart and soul --- that really matters. So, dear good friends in Christ, I have been reminded once again that a church is not a building, however grand and beautiful, it is we the people who congregate in that structure to worship and praise an omnipresent God that constitute the church. God's presence truly abides everywhere. Let us pray |
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Devotion for the week of May 22, 2005 The Lord is near to all who call on him, Are you familiar with a painting by Winslow Homer named The Dinner Horn? In it, a young woman stands with her back to the viewer, her left hand is on her hip, and her right hand is holding a horn that she is blowing. Workers are gathering hay in the distant field and she is calling them home to dinner. On my great-grandparent's farm, a similar practice was followed. My great-grandmother, Nancy Blair France, used a conch shell to call my great-grandfather, Nelson France, and the their field hands to the house for meals. The end of the conch shell had been cut off and polished so that it could be blown like a trumpet. In addition to using the shell to summon the workers in for meals, Nancy used the conch shell to call for help in case of emergencies. On their isolated farm, it must surely have been a comfort -- and assurance -- to her to know that her husband and their hired hands were near and would come to her rescue should she need them. My father told me a story about the conch shell. As boys, he and his older brother were visiting the farm and decided it would be fun to try to blow the shell. One of them, I don't know which, was quite successful. My great-grandfather, and the hired men, came running to the house believing they had been summoned for an emergency. Finding the call had not been made in "truth", both boys were punished and never played that trick again. I have no idea how a beautiful, pearly-pink conch shell from a warm tropical body of water traveled to a small, land-locked, southeastern Ohio farm. I know where the conch shell is today though. It sits on the floor in our living room the same way it did in my parent's home. Every now and then, I blow it. The sound is clear and loud and I have no doubt that the shell was used in the way family stories were told about it. In our lives, we too have the comfort and assurance that, when we call, help will come. Our God always hears our call. We don't need a horn, or conch shell, to summon him and our cry for help does not have to be loud. A prayer made in belief (truth) is all we need.
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Devotion for the week of May 29, 2005
Have you had a good crisis lately - when a whirlwind sweeps through your life, throws you around, and disrupts all of your best plans? Those crises makes us feel like we're in a barrel rolling downhill, being thrown all about. All of us will have crises come into our lives. But except for adrenaline addicts, not too many of us really like to have our lives invaded by crises. Before crises come, it's important to burn into your memory the fact that you will have an opportunity for more spiritual growth during a crisis than at most other times. It is during a time of crisis that God wants to do something in your life. The promise of today's passage is that no matter where you are, God will lead you. In Isaiah 43, the Lord declares that He will be with you through your times of crisis. Turn to that chapter, read it aloud. Did you hear the number of times God said, "I will"? The words appear more than ten times. Go back and notice what the "I will" statements apply to in this passage. A comforting thought is that He will not remember our sins. That is encouraging since for some of us there's a lot for God to forget! Many people feel that one of the most comforting "I wills" is in verse two: "I will be with you." Will you remember that when you are discouraged? Will you remember it when you are faced with a difficult ethical dilemma at work? Will you remember it when you feel that you're all alone and no one cares? Will you remember it the next time you have a crisis? These are words of comfort that can lift us at any time.
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