In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: I love to walk in the morning. My favorite path is straight and the way is easy. Someone has done the hard work of preparing the path for me. John the Baptist came with a call to the people to prepare the way, to make a straight path for the Lord to come to them, to repent. Preparing our hearts is hard work. We must listen to the Spirit, examine our lives, and confess our sin. When we do clear out a way for the Lord, he will come and walk with us. He will make our way straight.
Prayer Lord Jesus Help us clear a path for you each day. Remove the clutter of our lives and help us to focus on you so we can share your love with others along our path today. Amen
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Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. According to the tour book the Thunder Ridge Nature Trail leads to one of the most beautiful overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway. However when we arrived at the trailhead everything was just socked in with fog. We decided to take the trail anyway and while we didn’t see the amazing view from the overlook that we expected the fog created a serene, peaceful, and beautiful walk.
In those times in our lives when unexpected fog rolls in we can choose to stay the course and just keep walking. When we wait patiently Jesus will come to us. In him we will find a joyful hope because he has proven to be trustworthy every time. Patience is never easy but our best choice is always to stay the course and he will lead us out of the fog. Prayer Lord Jesus Develop in us a patient trust in your love. Help us to just faithfully keep on keeping on when we are surrounded by fog trusting in the promise of your love. Amen We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Every morning that I can I go to Cherokee Dam to walk on the cross-country trails. On some mornings the sunlight drenches everything in golden light and the sky is filled with color. It makes everything feel fresh and new.
I have heard this phrase, “walk in the newness of life,” at just about every baptism I have watched. During my walk this morning this phrase kept playing in my ear. I think I have heard it so often that I sometimes forget what an amazing promise it is. The Greek word translated as newness is kainotēs. It speaks of a life that has a fresh quality. Jesus’s resurrection provides for us not just more life but a new kind of life. Our sins are buried with him. Our burden of sin and guilt is lifted. Like my morning walks, Jesus brings us a fresh, new life each day as we walk with him. Prayer Lord Jesus Thank you for new mornings and new life. Help us keep the wonder and excitement of the newness of life as we walk with you through our day. Amen After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. This was my first time to visit the Caldwell House in the Cataloochee area of the Great Smoky Mountains. It is not like most of the other cabins that have been preserved in the park. Instead of logs and mortar, it is two stories with white washed clapboards and blue shutters. I walked up the steps and opened the door to see finished wood work and a carved stair case. As I stood in the hallway the sunlight was streaming through the slightly opened back door and it made everything appear golden. The only thing that I could see through the door was bright light.
As I stood there taking the picture I remembered the image of an open door in the book of Revelation. John tells of a day when in a vision he saw an open door standing before him. As he looked into heaven it must have been amazing to see the light and then to hear God say, “Come up and I will show you around.” This image of an open door to heaven is one that brings us hope. In our darkest days we have this promise that God has made a way for us to be with him. He will open the door for us and we will be with him forever. Prayer Loving Father In days of darkness, thank you for the bright light of your presence and the promise of the open door. Amen Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! Color is a complicated concept. While even a 2 year old can correctly name a color, to understand how we see color is difficult. A simplified explanation tells us that color has three properties: hue, the shade, e.g. red or green; saturation, the strength of the color; and luminance, the brightness of the color. When I took this image with my camera it recorded all the properties of color. You see the image in black and white because I changed the color properties with my image editing software. My software allows me to change any one of the color properties of the image and when I do it changes the whole image. For example I can take a fall scene and increase the saturation of the yellows and reds to make the trees stand out. Or, as I did in this image, I can de-saturation an image so that the green of the grass and the pine needles and the brown of the tree trunk become shades of gray.
When we say that someone is color blind what we are saying is that the person doesn’t see all the properties of color. He or she only sees saturation and brightness but not hue. The image a color blind person sees is incomplete. In the same way we can be color blind when we look at our world. Just like the properties of color we all have properties though which we look at the world - our race, our economic status, our neighborhoods, our politics, and even our religious beliefs. We develop a kind of blindness, our vision is incomplete. The result of all of our color blindness is division and disunity. The church at Corinth was having such a problem with discord and division. Paul wrote to them to help them get over their color blindness, to develop a complete vision. He admonished them first to examine themselves to look to see what properties were missing. If we are going to live in unity with all, we will need to begin by examining the way the properties of our lives influence the image we see. We will need to listen to those people whose properties are different from ours. We will need to see where and how we are color blind. It won’t be easy and will most likely be painful. We don’t like to think of ourselves as racist or prejudice but when we look carefully we will find that we are. Our vision is incomplete and our image of the world is missing something. While we don’t have editing software that will allow us to easily change the properties that we are using to see each other, Paul writes to the Corinthians that we have something more powerful - “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” This is the only way we can began to remove the divisions and walk in unity with each other. Prayer God Of All People Examine our hearts and show us where the properties of our lives keep us from seeing the unjust way we and our culture treat others. Give us the courage to reach out to someone whose properties of life are different from ours. As we listen to each other give us wisdom to find ways to seek justice for all who have been oppressed so we can live in unity. Amen Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. I have always loved Queen Anne’s Lace so I was excited when I saw this group in the gardens. When I looked closer I saw this tiny purple flower growing in between all the Queen Anne’s Lace. I liked this one especially that seemed to be poking its head in the center. It would have been easy to overlook without looking closely with my macro lens.
In this passage of scripture there is one phrase that can be easily overlooked, “along with the women.” In our modern culture when men and women routinely pray together we just skip over this little phrase. But, in this time, the idea that women and men would pray together in one room was something that just wasn’t done. It was because of Jesus’s love and teachings that both male and female followers of Christ prayed together. From this small group of men and women the church began to spread the love of Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit. In our country today we are divided: black/white, republican/democrat, liberal/conservative, rich/poor, wearing a mask/demanding our rights, and on and on. We seem to have lost the ability to think of anyone but ourselves, our side. We focus only on winning and end up hurting each other. We need to pray together again. We need to see things from the other side. We need to grow together like the Queen Anne’s Lace and the little purple flower. This will only be possible when we trust the Holy Spirit and allow him to convict us of our sin and show us how to walk in service to our fellow humans, especially those on the other side. Then, like the two flowers made more beautiful because they are together, we can find unity in Christ. Prayer Holy Spirit Give us a heart of love. Teach us to love our enemies. Give us wisdom to find ways to seek justice for those who have suffered injustice for so long. Give us courage to take one small step and reach out to someone on the other side, in the power of your love. 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