Even though I walk through the darkest valley, The Lenten journey leads down a road through the dark valley of our sin. It won’t be easy, as it wasn’t easy for Jesus on his last journey to Jerusalem to face his death. We can only make this journey through the valley because Jesus walked it for us.
Prayer Great Shepherd Help us to look full on at our sin and then see the enormity of your sacrifice for us. Comfort us with your rod and staff and lead us into your amazing grace and love. Amen
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He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” We can not find our way through Advent without walking through the message of John the Baptist. We must heed his call for repentance and apply it to our own lives. The path has been cleared but it is a winter path with no leaves on the trees, no green fields, and a cold sky. It takes courage to walk through a path of self-examination; to see your need; to repent; to accept the grace of Jesus’ gift for you. This is especially true in our society that worships self-sufficiency. We tend to look down on others who need help rather than admit our own need. But true repentance means that following Jesus makes a difference in our lives. We need to find ourselves in the people who asked John what to do after hearing his message of repentance and do what he told them.
Prayer Great God Teach us to walk through the paths of winter, to look at our lives and see where we have failed to follow you. Give us the courage to admit our sin and our weakness and accept your grace and mercy. Amen During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, One of the traditions that my husband and I started with our family when the children were young was to make putting up the tree a celebration. Each child would find their special ornaments and put them on the tree. Afterwards we had a fancy meal with chocolate fondue for dessert. It was our way of preparing for the holidays. As much as I have enjoyed making this preparation for Christmas each year, this year I want to think more about preparing my heart. John the Baptist was called to prepare the way for Jesus and he did that by calling the people to repentance. The first step in preparing for Jesus is to carefully examine our lives and seek God’s forgiveness. Only then will we be able to make way for the Lord to come into our hearts.
Prayer Lord Jesus As we prepare our homes for Christmas, prepare our hearts for your coming. Help us to take time to examine our lives, realign our priorities and values, confess our sin, and seek your forgiveness. Amen Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ Slowing the shutter speed in a photograph of a waterfall lets the viewer see something that can’t be seen with the normal eye. It slows time in a way and the result is silky smooth water. And so it is with waiting that seems to slow down the passing of time. Waiting gives us time to see things in new and different ways, things we would have never seen without slowing down and waiting.
Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday of the new church year. The season of Advent is a season of waiting. Waiting is hard, especially in our technology ‘speeded-up’ culture. We wait today for God’s promises still yet to be fulfilled as we rejoice over the fulfilled promise of the Messiah. Take time during this season to reflect on what the promise of a Messiah coming into our world means to you and what it requires of you. Take time to think about the grace of God and to seek forgiveness. Prayer Righteous God Teach us to wait on your perfect timing. Teach us to slow down and use our waiting to seek more of you, to be amazed not by glittering lights of the season but by your steadfast love and grace. Amen For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Roses have thorns - something beautiful on top of something painful. God’s word is like this. It is both painful and beautiful. When we really study God’s word, it pierces our soul. It is difficult to truly look at your life laid bare. The beauty comes because we have opened our hearts to God’s word. We see our sin but we also see the great sacrifice of Jesus. Only when we see our sin do we see the need for Christ. Open your heart to the piercing of God’s word and then look to Jesus and see yourself through his eyes of forgiveness, grace, and love.
Prayer Great High Priest Use your word that is living and active and that pierces our souls and lays bare our hearts before you. Thank you for your gift of grace. Amen Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. I live among rolling hills and mountains, so seeing prairie grasslands on our trip out west was new to me. At first I thought I wouldn’t like the prairie, that it would be boring without green fields, trees, and mountains. But I was wrong, for I found beauty in the soft muted colors of the prairie. There was a gentleness there that I had to learn to see. As I have seen watching my young grandsons with their newborn sisters, gentleness is something that has to be learned. And it is only possible to learn gentleness when we know that we are dearly loved. Paul told the followers at Colossi that we need to clothe ourselves with gentleness. When we consciously put on love like we put on clothing then we can be learn to be gentle, forgive each other, and seek to love as Christ as loved us.
Prayer Gentle and Loving Father Remind us of how much we are loved. Teach us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Bind us together with your love. Amen This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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. When I opened the front door to the Caldwell house the back door swung open and light flooded the dark hallway. With the light through the doorway I could see the beautiful woodwork that makes this house so different from the other homesteads in the park. And just like this open door dispels the darkness and reveals the beauty in the Caldwell house, Jesus dispels the darkness of the sin in our lives. He bids us walk in the light with him and when we do we find forgiveness. With the light of God we are able to see the beauty all around us.
Prayer Father of Light, Open the door to our hearts and let your light flood our lives. Forgive our sins and dispel the darkness. Shine your light in our world so we can see your beauty. Amen And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Looking in one direction you see the clear blue skies and the promise of a joy-filled day in the the mountains. Looking the other direction you see the dark clouds and a possible storm that will send you running for cover. For the disciples, the days after the resurrection were like this. They had lost their Messiah on a Roman cross and they marveled at the stories of a risen Jesus. They thought they knew Jesus after three years of being with him every day. They thought he was the Messiah that would release them from the bondage of Roman captivity and set up an earthly kingdom. He wasn’t that Messiah, but he was the Messiah that would release them from the bondage of sin in a kingdom that would last forever. Now they had to come to know Jesus in a totally different way.
Who is Jesus to you? Do you sometimes disbelieve with joy like the disciples? Have the stories of Easter become too familiar? Do you need to know Jesus in a new and deeper way? Speak your disbelief to him and just like he did with the disciples, Jesus will make himself real to you again and will turn your disbelief into joy. Prayer Risen Lord, Forgive us when we forget to marvel at who you are and try to keep you safely tucked away as just a story to tell on Easter. Show us your wounds, walk with us, and bring us joy in serving a risen Lord. Amen When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. Mark 16:1-2, ESV The only way to see a sunrise is to get up while it is still dark. The women who followed Jesus were up and ready to go while it was still dark for they had a job to do. It wasn’t going to be an easy job and they had no idea how they were going to do it. They had only been able to begin to properly prepare Jesus’s body for burial on that Friday. They had followed the command and rules for the Sabbath and could do nothing more that day or the next. I wonder if, in their shock and grief, they had eaten or slept any since they were forced to leave their job undone. When you actually leave in the dark and get to a place to watch the sunrise, there is a rush of joy as you see it come over the horizon. For these women, finally the sun was up and they had no idea the joy that was to follow. For when they got to the tomb, Christ was not there. Unbelievable! It took several trips to the tomb and seeing the risen Christ for his followers to begin to understand what had happened. He is Risen ! Rejoice! Prayer
Risen Savior, Fill us with joy this Easter Day. You have walked through the long dark night and conquered death for us. Remind us that true joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Give us the courage to share that joy with the world so that all may know the joy we have in you. Amen Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. Now they knew what Judas had done when he left the upper room that night they had eaten the Passover together. They had seen him greet Jesus with a kiss that dark night in Gethsemane. And they had run away in fear as the guards took Jesus away. This night and Sabbath day must have been the darkest time of their lives. Their Lord, the one they thought was going to be the conquering Messiah, had died on a Roman cross.
Prayer Crucified Savior, It is hard to look at your suffering and the weight of our sin that you carried on the cross. On this day of darkness help us not to turn away, for we can only understand your sacrifice if we look at you on the cross. We humbly bow, amazed at love we don’t deserve. Amen When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” Matthew 23: 20-22 ESV I took this image while I was walking alone on the lake trail last week. It had been a very unusual camping trip weather wise with a hail storm, tornado watch, lots of rainy, cloudy skies, and this day a half inch of snow. There was no one on the trail that morning so I walked to place I call the swamp. On this day, though it was filled with more water than I have ever seen. It was quiet and still which made for the reflections of the trees. I just stood there for awhile taking in this haunting image on this very unusual day.
The last Passover that the disciples ate with Jesus was also very unusual. They had eaten the Passover many times in their lives, this meal that always had the same pattern. But this time the meal didn’t go in the usual way. Jesus washed their feet; he told them he was leaving them and that this would be the last meal he would eat with them; he promised to make a home for them there; he prayed for them and for us; he took the symbols of the Passover and made them into the symbols of a new covenant. And then the most disturbing part of the meal was his news that one of them would betray him. Each one ask him and each other in sorrowful tones, “Is it I, Lord?” Someone how they each knew that it was possible for them to betray Jesus. And later that evening they did betray him as they all ran away and left him to face the temple guard alone. They were shaken and didn’t understand for this was not the image they had of the Messiah. Like the disciples on this day we must also ask ourselves, “Is it I, Lord?” For we all at times betray Jesus - when we don’t keep his Word; when we fail to share his love with the world; when we think more about getting than giving. On this day, this Good Friday, take time to look for times you have betrayed Jesus. Then as hard as it is to do, look to him on the cross and know that He hung there for you. Hear him ask his Father to forgive those who hung him there. Hear him promise the thief on the other cross paradise. Hear him give his mother’s care to his disciple. And finally hear him cry with a loud voice, “It is finished!” Humbly bow and seek forgiveness and Jesus will pour out a grace that is amazing. Prayer Crucified Savior, On this day give us a fresh realization of the love that you have for us, that you demonstrated as you hung there are on the cross. Overwhelm our hearts with your amazing grace that we can never deserve. Give us the courage to share this love with the world and live a life that seeks to serve rather than be served. Amen The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. I remember the night I took this picture. I decided to go to this place at the dam because I would have a good view to the east as the full moon would rise over the horizon. We know there was a full moon on the night of Passover because the way the Jewish calendar, a lunar calendar, was used to determine the time of Passover each year. So as Jesus and the disciples left the upper room to walk toward the Mount of Olives, they were walking toward the rising moon in the east, a full moon like this one over the lake. Matthew and Mark tell us that the last thing the disciples did after the Passover meal before they left for the Mount of Olives was to sing a hymn. We don’t know what hymn they sang but it was very likely that it was Psalm 118, the last of a group of psalms called the Hallel that were sung at festivals like Passover.
As I think about that night, the night of his betrayal, I wonder what it was like for him to sing this Psalm knowing what he would face the next day. He knew the time had come to fulfill the purpose for which he had come to earth, that "this is the day the Lord has made." He knew that he was about to be rejected and all his disciples would leave him. It was the time of Jesus’s deepest anguish as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Go out this evening and look at the full moon and think about Jesus walking east toward the place of his betrayal and remember his great sacrifice for you. Know that it is because of his great love for us that we can truly say these words, “This the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Prayer Suffering Savior, When we look at what happened this night of betrayal, “it is marvelous in our eyes.” We are amazed at your love for us and can rejoice only because of the anguish that you walked through that night. May we make you the cornerstone of our lives. Amen If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. I John 1:8-10, ESV You can’t really see the change, but each drop of water that flows in a mountain stream is gradually wearing the rocks away. In our lives, sin can be just like the drops of water over the rocks. We give in to one little temptation and then another. We try to justify each sin but before we know it our relationship with God is worn away.
There is good news, God will restore our relationship. We begin the process of restoration by confession. Confession isn’t easy. We must look hard to see the sin in our lives, especially the little ones that we think aren’t really that bad, and admit that we have sinned. During this time of Lent look closely for the sin in your life, and be amazed at a love so great that Jesus paid the price for each sin on the cross. Accept his grace and forgiveness and walk close to him. Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Show us the truth of our sin. We humbly bow in gratitude for your faithfulness to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus spoke these words he had just been met by a crowd shouting praise as he entered Jerusalem, but his soul was troubled. The crowd just didn’t understand the kind of Messiah he was, even after a voice called from heaven. Their vision was limited to a Messiah that would free them from the darkness of Roman occupation, but Jesus was coming to provide freedom from a much greater darkness, the darkness of sin.
As we sit in the darkness of our sin, we must let the light of Jesus shine into our darkness as the light from this window spills onto this pew in the Smokemont Baptist Church. We no longer have to sit in darkness. Ask Jesus to shine through the open window of your heart and into the darkest part of your life. This won’t be easy for there are some things we want to keep hidden. But only after we expose our hearts to the light can we begin to let the light of God’s love forgive our sin and break into our life. Prayer Dear Jesus, Messiah of Light, Shine your light into our hearts. Teach us to trust your loving light and follow you out of our darkness to walk as children of light. Amen The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. The temple in Jesus' day was magnificent and beautiful, but it had lost its function. It was no longer a place of worship and sacrifice but had become a place of commerce. People came to fulfill their religious duties and the businessmen were there to help them meet their religious obligations. The sense of holiness and awe were gone. Just like the people of that day, we can loose our sense of holiness and awe. Going to church can become a routine obligation rather than a time of true worship. Our lives and our worship can become cluttered. We need to let God's light shine through the windows of our heart like it shines through the windows behind the simple altar of the Missionary Baptist Church. Prayer
Lord Jesus, Break into the altar of our lives with your light. Clear away the clutter and cleanse our lives of sin. Scripture:
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. Isaiah 44:22 About This Image: This image of the Cascades at Fall Creek Falls taken on this foggy morning is a very different picture than one taken from the same place on a sunny day. The fog has softened the image and given it an ethereal beauty. However, the fog dissipate with the heat of the day. God has promised that he will take away our sins like the mist of a foggy day. He has redeemed us through Jesus Christ. We need only turn to him and ask forgiveness. Scripture:
Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:12-13 About This Image: The Blue Springs Lutheran Church in Mosheim, Tennessee no longer has a congregation. The building is watched over by a historical committee that recently succeeded in having the building added to the National Register of Historical Buildings. I happened to see it from the highway on the way to somewhere else, abandoned on the hill, no longer severing the purpose for which it was built. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. It is a time for us to "rend our hearts." In the ancient times, people would tear their garments as a sign of grief. Lent calls us to do more than just a quick, forgive-me-of-my-sins prayer, but take time to mourn and confess our sin. So that as we move through Lent we open our hearts again to what Jesus did for us on the cross. If we don't rend our heats and confess our sin, then our walk with Christ will become like this abandoned church - still standing, looked after by an historical committee, but no longer serving its purpose. Prayer O Great King, Grow my desire to follow you, with a deeper understanding of the price of my redemption. Show me the purpose you have for me and fill my heart with your love. Scripture:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12 About This Image: Sometimes it is easy to tell that water is dirty because it is brown and mucky. Other times, when the water is clear and flowing like this image of water flowing over the cascades at Fall Creek Falls State Park it is hard to tell if the water is really clean and pure. Our sin is like this - sometimes we see it clearly, but other times we don't want to look. David wrote this Psalm after he committed adultery and had an innocent man killed to cover this sin. He didn't see his sin until the prophet Nathan pointed it out to him. We can be like that too. We need to ask God to create a clean heart in us. Only then can we live in the presence of the Holy God and rejoice in our salvation. |
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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