Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! When we first got to Flagg Ranch and I looked down toward the Snake River I thought this place was kind of drab and boring and wouldn’t be a good place for a sunset. But as the sun fell lower in the sky, the light covered the valley with a garment of soft subdued color. It was so beautiful, the multitude of soft colors in the plants that sky.
It is just like that with God. When we bless God, bow down in adoration, then we see beautiful colors where we never expected to see them. Prayer Splendid and Majestic Lord, Transform our lives with your light. Bring the beautiful colors of your light into our lives. Amen
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For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Wonderful! Seeing a newborn baby is amazing, a beautiful new life. Yesterday our second granddaughter was born and she is beautiful. Knit together and wonderfully made in the image of God. His "works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Prayer Loving Father, Thank you for the blessing of children in our lives. Help us become good parents and grandparents. Amen But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. It was the spring after the fires in the park as we walked on the Cove Hardwood Trail. Everywhere were fallen and burned trees, but underneath them the spring flowers were beginning to bloom again. All varieties growing together after the devastating fires, pushing up from the scorched ground.
One of the most important things about being a part of a church is the strength that you draw from each other when you face fiery trials. When you walk in the light of Jesus, you find others who are following that light and you don’t have to walk alone. Like the flowers after the fire, you will bloom again. Prayer Father of Light, Thank you for the church and the people you put in our lives to walk with us in the light of your love. Cleanse us from our sins and grow us in the rich fellowship of your love in Christian community. Amen Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. As you can tell from many of my posts recently, I enjoy taking macro images like this one of the hydrangea in my front yard. From the sidewalk you just see clumps of white flowers, but draw nearer and you see that each clump is made up of many small white flowers.
When we draw nearer to God, he will reveal so many wonderful things to us. The more we move our focus away from distractions toward God, the more we see into our own hearts. Take time today to draw nearer to God. Prayer Great God, Draw near to me, cleanse my heart and make it pure white. Amen Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Truly seeing this sunset was a special time for me to stand in awe of the beauty and majesty of God’s world. But I have also stood in awe of God’s beauty in a flower so small that most people just walk by. God created a beautiful world and we need to always remember that this world is his, from the most majestic mountains to the smallest flower. And then we can only bow our hearts in praise to the greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty that is God’s alone.
Prayer Great King, We exalt you above all others, for everything is truly yours. Amen Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” I know what kind of flower this is because I watched the petals unfold over several days. With just this one image you won’t know for sure what this bud will become. You will only know when the bud is unfolded. The story of Nicodemus is a story of unfolding. He sees something in Jesus that is more than just a normal Rabbi. He comes to find out more by speaking directly to Jesus and what follows is one of the most oft-quoted scripture passages in the Bible. This is only the beginning of the story of Nicodemus. He is mentioned two more times in the gospel of John, once when he argued against arresting Jesus without a proper trial and then when he brings the spices to help in the burial of Jesus.
We don’t know for sure if he becomes a follower of Christ. We only know how his journey of understanding who Jesus is began to unfold. Our understanding of Jesus, like Nicodemus’, also unfolds. The more time we spend with Jesus and reading God’s word the more our understanding of Jesus grows. Prayer Jesus, Our Lord Open our hearts to hear your voice. Help our knowledge and understanding of who you are unfold a little more each day as we spend time with you and your word. Amen Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The water that flows in mountain streams looks almost alive. It jumps and flows and almost dances over the rocks. It brings life to the mountains. Jesus promised the woman at the well a water that was alive like the life-giving water in mountain streams. Only his water would never run dry like mountain streams sometimes do. He promised her and promises us that when we drink his water we will never be thirsty again. Indeed his water will well up in us to eternal life.
Prayer Life-Giving Lord, Teach us to seek you first to quench our thirst. Sustain us with your love. Amen For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. We see God in great and majestic mountains that remind us of eternal God who lives in the high and holy place. We also see God in the smallest flower. As a gentle rain revives the flower and provides the moisture it needs to grow, God also dwells with his lowly and humble servants.
Prayer Holy God Who Dwells in Lowly Places Show us your glory in majestic mountains and small flowers. Revive our weary lives with your beauty and take us to your holy place. Amen And one called to another and said: Until you see them you can’t really tell how grand they are. When we got our first glimpse of them I stopped at the first pull over and just stood there in awe. They are truly the Grand Tetons. They tell of a great and mighty God. And the amazing thing is that God loves us, so small in comparison to these mountains. Our only response is the one of Isaiah: “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Prayer O Great King, We bow in reverence. May we not ever loose sight of your majesty and glory. Amen When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. I have seen this waterfall in so many ways - full of water and just a trickle, surrounded by the green of summer and by the colors of fall. Every time I see it is always a little different. For me, understanding the Holy Spirit is like seeing this waterfall, each time different. Sometimes He fills us with power and other times he comforts. Sometimes his presence is so clear and other times his presence is a almost imperceptible. Whichever way He comes, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit would guide us into truth. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit. Follow his leading to truth and then share the truth of the love of Christ with others.
Prayer Holy Spirit Open our eyes, cast out our fear and prepare us for following Christ. Make our hearts receptive to your leading and may our lives bring your glory. Amen But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant I don’t know how many times I have been to Buzzard’s Roost in Fall Creek Falls State Park. We try to go at least once on every camping trip to watch the sun go down. And out on the ledge is this old pine tree, twisted by the wind but still standing strong. I hope that tree is always there for me to see at sunset but there may come a time when it falls to the winds that swirl up from the canyon below.
While I will not be sure that the tree will always be there, I know that I will never have to wonder if God’s love will be there. He loves us with an everlasting love, a love that can weather any storm. Prayer Loving Father, Thank you for the promise of your everlasting love. Help me to always keep your commands. Amen Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? There was a storm brewing in the sky on the day I took this image in Cades Cove. It was coming - darkness, sadness, sin. Today we mourn again for 9 children and 1 teacher who were killed in a Texas high school. We ask why this evil? How could someone hate so much as to kill innocent children and teachers? The Psalms are full of why questions asked of God. And like this Psalm, the only answer after the questioning was to hope and trust in a God who is sovereign and to seek the comfort only He can give to a fallen world that hurts and mourns. We look to Jesus who wept for his friend Lazarus and for us and then took the cross to defeat death. We sing a broken hallelujah and offer a a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15).
Prayer Comfort those who mourn. Renew our hope in days of darkness. Amen When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. Every so often, now more that I have my camera, I am amazed again by the beauty and order and wonder of God’s world. There are so many lessons to learn here. The coming of spring is a reminder that God provides for everything on earth. The bud of the flower tells us that something beautiful is coming. He is renewing the earth after the cold of winter. Just as the Spirit renews the face of the earth, he also renews our lives and brings us the promise of new life in Christ.
Prayer Great Lord, Renew our lives with your Holy Spirit. Bring forth beauty in our daily lives as you bring forth beauty each spring in the buds of flowers. Amen Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Light is essential to our lives. Without light there is no color, no beauty. The sunrise shatters the darkness of the night. Jesus, like the sunrise, dispels the darkness in out lives. When we walk with him we see color and beauty. We see the path that he has laid out for us. It may be we don't always see the whole path in the distance, but if we are trusting his light, we need only see one step ahead. What an amazing promise!
Prayer (From the hymn, Lead Kindly Light, by John Henry Newman.) Father of Light Lead, kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom; Lead thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on! Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene--one step enough for me. Amen If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, I love mornings in the campground. Usually I get up earlier than most campers and I sit and watch the sun gradually rise above the trees in quietness. The darkness of night moves into the brightness of day, most of the time. Sometimes there are cloudy days, the sun still rises, we just can’t see it for the clouds.
There are days of bright sunshine in our lives but also days that are filled with clouds. During those cloudy days it is easy to focus on our own problems and let a feeling of gloom fall over us.I have found in times of gloominess that when I find ways to help others I began to quite focusing on my own problems and I move from darkness into the light of day. Prayer Loving Father, On those days when we get lost only looking at our own problems, remind us of this promise of light that comes when we make the effort to help those in need around us. Amen Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:6-8, ESV Just about any place you hike in the Smokies in the spring you will see trilliums. There are many different types and colors of trilliums. But no matter their color or size, they will always have three leaves and three petals. Members of the body of Christ, like the trilliums in the Smokies, have a variety of gifts. We all are called to serve Christ using the gift that he has given. Even though we have different gifts we all have the same Lord and grow in the same soil of his love.
Prayer Lord Jesus, Thank you for the gifts that you have given each of us in the body of Christ. Help us to use those gifts to bring you glory. Amen But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” The little boy looked up at the great big tree along the trail and he wanted to climb it. What did he think about as he stood there looking up at it? Finally after some coaxing from his grandfather, he moved on down the trail.
I wonder, on this day of Ascension, if the disciples felt like the little boy looking up in amazement at that great big tree as they watched Jesus move out of their sight. Their wondering was stopped by a question and a promise. Jesus had given them a task so why were they looking up? After a short while, it would be time for them to follow the path from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. But they wouldn’t go in their own power for they would have the power of the Holy Spirit. They would also go with this wonderful promise - Jesus would return one day. We have that same task, power, and promise. We are to be witness to the saving love of Christ. Sometimes, like that little boy, we stand in amazement at the task before us. But we also have the promise, Jesus will come again. And so we move on down the trail with the power of the Holy Spirit leading the way. Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Give us courage as we set out to be your witnesses. Give us joy as we think of your return. Keep us close to you through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Amen For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. When people lived in the cabins that are now in the park, the only light they had was through windows and doors or oil lamps. In the early morning the light would flood through the cabin windows and dispel the darkness of night.
While all we have to do nowadays to have light in our houses is to flip a switch, we can still have spiritual darkness in our lives. We need to open the doors and windows of our souls and let God’s light shine in our darkness. Prayer Father of Light Fill the rooms of our souls with light and dispel our darkness. Amen And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” I have no idea what kind of flower this is. It is about knee high and grows along the road to my house. It could be some kind of thistle or other kind of weed. If you drive by it you might not even notice it. I only noticed because I was on my daily walk.
After the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven they went back to Jerusalem as he instructed - and waited. They didn’t know exactly what they were waiting on. They would have days ahead where they would have to make hard decisions about the way to follow Jesus. They would have to listen and let the Holy Spirit lead them to discern if someone or some practice was a weed that needed to be pulled up or a flower that needed to be watered and fed. They would have to walk slow and seek the Holy Spirit’s direction. We must also look at the things that are growing in our lives. Are they weeds or flowers? Slow down and spend time in God’s word. Wait on the Lord and listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Prayer Holy Father, Son and Spirit We wait for you to show us how best to serve you. Show us what things are weeds in our lives that need to be removed and what things are beautiful flowers that need to be nourished. Amen But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. This is one of my favorite spots along the lake trail. I always stop and rest here under these big, beautiful trees. They stand tall and strong and offer protection from the heat of the sun or a sudden rain storm. In my life I have known many people who stand tall and strong like these trees. I cherish the way that their love of God’s word has permeated their every day lives. They have taught me to take delight in the Lord and to make him a part of my life. While they are not wealthy as the world defines, they have prospered and developed rich, full, and happy lives.
Prayer Loving Lord, Thank you for the people in my life who have taught me to love your word. Plant my life by streams of water and grow my life into a strong tree that provides protection and rest for those that pass by. Amen |
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Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan