Greater Things Are Yet To Be Done » bishop mcalilly

Day 34: God’s Transforming Presence- Offering Christ to a Hurting World

wtmcalilly — Mon, 27 May 2013 09:00:37 +0000

2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

I’m a person who likes change. But what does a change experience mean to someone who likes things the way they are? It can be painful. Moments of creativity seem less divine and more like hardship.

Where is God when change needs to happen inside and outside of us?

Change is uncomfortable. Change can also bring doubt, fear, and uncertainty. Change may mean death. If you’re not one to seek out change, you’re not alone. Change is hard. Christ says to be new in Him everything must be re-created. It must not stay the same.Change, faith and death connect us to God and allow us to know true presence of transforming power in Christ. If it weren’t for change, faith and death there would be no hope in resurrection and new life.

I believe faith is what gets us up in the morning. Hope and love are what pushes and pulls us through life. A life full of faith experience prepares us for death. Death sometimes happens while we are still alive. Death of our old self allows us to live a new eternal life. Change prepares us to meet God. Re- creation changes who we look like in Christ, because Christ makes all things new.

Are you “old” or are you “new”?
Are you “changing” or are you “staying”?

May you experience change, death of the old and life of the new, in and through Christ.

O God, be in me, and everything that needs to be new in me. May the re-creations you have planned for all your people and your church be realized through servant-hood, compassion and change. AMEN.

The Rev. Regina Proctor
Spiritual Formation Team-TN Conference

- – - – -
REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY | Use a program on your computer, a traditional journal, or feel free to use the comment section of this blog post to record your reflections as a conversation with others…
READ – What spoke to me as I read today’s meditation?
REPENT – Where is God showing me that I have failed to be obedient to the call to discipleship today?
RECEIVE – What words of redemption and grace is God offering to me?
REMEMBER – Who and what is God calling me to remember in prayer related to today’s reading?
RESPOND – How is God calling me to respond today?

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 33: Offering Christ to a Hurting World

wtmcalilly — Sun, 26 May 2013 09:00:24 +0000

I Peter 5:10
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you.

How long is “a little while?” When you are healthy, waiting “a little while” can be mildly uncomfortable. When you are suffering, enduring “a little while” can be excruciatingly painful.

Think for a moment about how the woman in Luke 8, with the issue of blood must have felt after suffering for a year, and then another, and then another ten years on top of that. Can you imagine the sense of hopelessness and desperation she must have been experiencing?

How about the woman in Luke 13, who suffered for eighteen years with back issues?

And what about the man in Luke 5, crippled for thirty-eight years? Yet, into each of their lives stepped the transforming presence of Jesus Christ.

Each had not suffered so long that they were beyond the limits of Hope. That is Good News both for our lives and our churches. The God of all grace can heal a twelve year illness, untangle eighteen years of dysfunction, and even break thirty-eight years of addiction.

Today, pray with thanksgiving, inviting the God of all grace to bring his transforming presence into areas of long suffering in our lives.

Prayer: Thank you, God of all grace, for restoring, supporting, strengthening, and establishing each of us and our churches. Amen.

Jonathan Dow
Executive Director, Aldersgate Renewal Ministries

- – - – -
REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY | Use a program on your computer, a traditional journal, or feel free to use the comment section of this blog post to record your reflections as a conversation with others…

READ – What spoke to me as I read today’s meditation?
REPENT – Where is God showing me that I have failed to be obedient to the call to discipleship today?
RECEIVE – What words of redemption and grace is God offering to me?
REMEMBER – Who and what is God calling me to remember in prayer related to today’s reading?
RESPOND – How is God calling me to respond today?

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 32: Missional Excellence

wtmcalilly — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:00:38 +0000

Galatians 5:13-15
You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!

God has created us with the ability to make many choices about our lives, including how we reach out to those who do not know Christ. Our role is to take what we’ve learned from God and pass it on to others.

Why? Because there is a hurting world out there. It is a world where the majority of people don’t know Christ, and don’t think they want to know Christ.

And we all get to choose what we are going to do (or not do) about the people in our own communities and throughout the world who don’t know Christ. We get to choose how we will reach out to offer help to those who need assistance, to those who need to know someone loves them and that someone cares.

When Jesus was being talked about by the villagers in Jericho for befriending Zacchaeus, note what Jesus said to the crowd on that day, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

This captures the heart and ministry of Jesus. Can we say the same? Is this our focus? We might ask ourselves the following: If people followed me – would they get to Jesus?

Prayer: God, give us a heart like the compassionate and caring heart of Jesus. Stir within us a passion and burden for those who do not know you. Help us to get out of our comfortable places and begin to see people like you see people. AMEN

The Rev. Daphne Moses
Chairperson, Order of Deacons-Memphis Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 31: Congregational Excellence

wtmcalilly — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:00:16 +0000

Colossians 3:12-14 (Read verses 12-17)
Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgiveeachother. Andoverallthesethingsputonlove,whichistheperfectbond of unity.

Henri Nouwen’s book, The Return of the Prodigal was my companion through the season of Lent this year. Reflecting on his personal experience of the parable and Rembrandt’s painting, Nouwen invited me to encounter “Love Divine” anew. For me, personally, the most captivating element in Rembrandt’s composition is the younger son tenderly embraced by the loving father; hands covering, comforting, receiving, and restoring. It seems to me the primary task of the church is to become the Father who runs from the house to receive and restore the wounded and broken.

“James” called our church and asked, “If I come to your church, will you love me?” As he arrived the following Sunday, I was struck and intimidated by his physical appearance. He was 6’4, wears a kafia (Arabic head-covering), a military vest, and carried a black bag. Others had received him, long before I met him, which created for me worry as to the actual answer to his question, “Will you love me?” Did we love him?

A few weeks later, while visiting James in his home following a hospitalization, I noticed a framed bulletin on the wall over his chair. “James, tell me about that.” “That’s the bulletin from my first Sunday at our church. That’s the day I found my family. That’s the day I found love.”

It seems to me that vital congregations answer the question, “Will you love me?” with a resounding, “Yes!” We, the Church, offer through our hands the comforting, restoring, and tender embrace of “Love Divine”. Our churches have been placed in communities where people are asking us, “Will you love me?”

Prayer: O, Love Divine, all loves excelling, renew in us ears to hear, eyes to see, and hands to receive those in our communities who long for your tender embrace. Clothe us with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, and may the deep mystery of your grace be revealed in and through our lives. In the name of Jesus the Christ. AMEN.

The Rev. Max Mayo
Cookeville First UMC- TN Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 30: Missional Excellence

wtmcalilly — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:34 +0000

Matthew 28:20b
“Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”

A commercial for the Arby’s Fast Food Restaurant shows a man running down a street. The city looks like a ghost town. The only sound that can be heard is an eerie blowing of the wind that scatters paper between the high rise buildings. As the man runs wildly down the street, he cries out, “Where is everybody?” A few moments later he frantically screams again, “Where has everybody gone?” Then he sees a stranger dressed in a long black coat and walking slowing down the street with his back turned. In exasperation he runs up to the stranger, grabs him by his shoulders, and says, “Where is everybody?” The stranger slowly turns around while eating a sandwich and says, “To Arby’s – roast beef sandwich sale.”

How often do we find ourselves like the man in the commercial? In times of crises how often have we felt alone, fearful and desperate? It seems as if everyone has gone to Arby’s or to a party, but we have not been invited. Instead we are left all alone with our violent thoughts, alone with our grief, alone with our uncertainties that rob us of our energies. Moreover, in recognizing our loneliness and despair how can we not remember others who are dying without a circle of support, children who are neglected, persons who are poor, hungry and depressed, those who are assaulted and left to die. In the midst of this pang of loneliness it may appear that God has abandoned us.

However, let us not lose heart. Let us not grow weary. Through the quiet and unrelenting presence of God’s Spirit, working through us, Jesus invades our lonely, yearning and bleeding world. Jesus becomes “Word made flesh” in the touch of a hand, in acts of compassion, in a hot and nutritious meal, in clothing the naked, in visiting the imprisoned, even in words of healing and sympathy. Jesus’ presence is made real to us in the ordinary day-to-day occurrences of life in order that we may know what the Gospel writer Matthew knows: God’s grace is with us, and Jesus is “with you always, to the end of the age.”

Prayer: Holy and Gracious God, what a blessed assurance to know that in the midst of our struggles, when the pressures of life mount from day to day, you will be with us, always. Thank you for your promise that you will never leave us all alone and forsaken. May your Spirit renew us with your everlasting grace and love. AMEN.

The Rev. Bettye P. Lewis
Director of Connectional Ministries – TN Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 29: Offering Christ to a Hurting World

wtmcalilly — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:28 +0000

Luke 10:36-37
“What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?” Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

When I was a girl my father on several occasions asked me to go with him to his clinic on a weekend afternoon to assist him with a patient who had sustained a cut that needed to be sutured, or a fishhook that needed to be extracted.As the only doctor in our county during my early childhood, he worked at the hours when his patients needed him.I recall my own inner struggle with the impulse to look away from the wounds, to avoid eye contact with the suffering patient who might be holding back their own tears. But most vividly, I realize that my father was cultivating my capacity for compassion: getting past the fear or revulsion about another person’s suffering or injury, moving into a helpful form of assistance that would promote healing, and leading me to meet Jesus Christ—the one my father had decided to serve long before he trained as a physician.

The suffering of Jesus as he was tried, abused and executed was difficult for his disciples and his followers to confront. We see several responses, from hiding to standing by in anguish. We are called to follow Jesus into the suffering of our own journeys and to be present in love to the suffering of others. By not looking away, we grow the courage to address the suffering of our own neighbors in this world.

Together, all of us who follow Jesus are invited to behold His suffering in the events of Holy Week. We are invited to resist looking away, and then, beyond horror or curiosity, we are invited to behold with love and hope the suffering in our own families, communities and global human family.Where have you and I recently been tempted “to look away” or to escape from the wounds of our neighbors? As we follow this invitation of Jesus, let us pray that we will share in the resurrection power of new life and hope, as we bring the transforming presence of Christ into every situation.Prayer: Jesus, where can I behold you in the world I inhabit? Give me courage to love and serve you with compassion. In Your grace. AMEN.

The Rev. Diane Luton Blum

Spiritual Formation Team-TN Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 28: Missional Excellence

wtmcalilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:07 +0000

2 Corinthians 8:1-5
Brothers and sisters, we want to let you know about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia. While they were being tested by many problems, their extra amount of happiness and their extreme poverty resulted in a surplus of rich generosity. I assure you that they gave what they could afford and even more than they could afford, and they did it voluntarily. They urgently begged us for the privilege of sharing in this service for the saints. They even exceeded our expectations, because they gave themselves to the Lord first and to us, consistent with God’s will.

The Macedonian churches actually gave beyond their means as they responded to the desperate needs of their brothers and sisters in the Jerusalem church, even while they faced their own extreme hardship. Their extraordinary generosity far surpassed even the greatest hopes and expectations.

How were they able to accomplish this task?

They were not successful because of their abundant skills, compassion, or even a great love for their Christian brothers and sisters. No, the Macedonian churches excelled and did even greater things, because they gave themselves first to the Lord. They were able to reach out to others only through God’s grace and God’s provision.

God was not only primary, but in fact everything.

If we, likewise, are to be successful ambassadors for God, reaching out to bring the love of Christ to a lost, lonely, desperate world, then we also must surrender our all to God. We must humble ourselves before our omniscient Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, offering everything we have and everything we are, seeking His will, not ours to be done in His mighty Church.

Prayer: Almighty, gracious, and loving God, we come to you this day grateful and humbled by the overflowing abundance of your grace, love, and blessings in our lives. We relinquish ourselves and our gifts and abilities entirely to your service to do your will. We also come to you repentant for all the times and ways we have made your holy Church our church. We ask now that you will use us as your vessels to accomplish your perfect will. AMEN.

Theresa Johnson
Spiritual Formation Team-TN Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 26: Pastoral Excellence

wtmcalilly — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:00:23 +0000

Ezekiel 22:30

I looked for anyone to repair the wall and stand in the gap for me on behalf of the land, so I wouldn’t have to destroy it. But I couldn’t find anyone.

Why pray? Does prayer really matter? Won’t God do whatever God wants to do regardless of whether I pray? These questions, or other similar questions, have undoubtedly pricked the edges of most of our consciousness at some time or another. A candid walk through Scripture tells us otherwise. For some reason, God has chosen to invite us to carry the privilege, and, albeit, the burden and responsibility of prayer. God needs our prayers. Ezekiel 22:30-31, is nothing short of a call to arms, or knees, if you will. “But I found no one.” Ouch! What if my prayers really could make that much difference?

Greater things…what are those? Let us stretch our expectations. It was mid- morning when the knock came to my office door. A church member asked me if I could immediately join him and his wife in the sanctuary for prayer. She was already on her knees at the altar, as her husband whisked me to her side. Her son was the president of US Airways, and they had just received word that one of their planes had crashed into the Hudson River. She did not need to say more. We all know that when a plane crashes, lives are lost. The question is usually, how many? I immediately began praying with the authority entrusted to Jesus’ followers on the Day of Pentecost. I prayed for all of the obvious, including that her son would be given wisdom and discernment in dealing with the fallout and ramifications of this crash. What came out of mouth at the end of my prayer actually embarrassed me. With an authority that I did not know was in me, I declared, in the name of Jesus, that not one life would be lost in this crash! My body was covered in goose bumps. How could I possibly have asked for such an impossibility! I felt myself sort of silently breathing, “I am sorry, God.” We parted, and I went back to my office.

The world knows this story as, “The Miracle on the Hudson.” Could my prayer have really made a difference? Not one life was lost! I wonder. GLORY! God said, “If I can find one person to stand in the gap…” Is that person you?

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not taking the call to prayer more seriously. May we walk in no other authority than the authority of love as we use that authority for your glory. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

Rev. Dr. Diana M. DeWitt
Chairperson, Spiritual Formation-TN Conference

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 25: God’s Transforming Presence- Offering Christ to a Hurting World

wtmcalilly — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:00:23 +0000

2 Corinthians 5: 16-17

So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

Paul knew at a visceral level the transforming power of Jesus Christ. The “old man” was a terrorist bent on destroying members of the Way. The “new man” was the most compelling ambassador for Christ in history.

For years, I carried the view of my Jewish father who renounced God after the Holocaust and bore deep resentments towards Christianity after experiencing much anti-Semitism. In high school I wrote a term paper about the hypocrisy of Christianity. I was known for my sharp and critical tongue. In college and in divinity school, I studied the psychological and sociological functions of the Christian faith with the aim of explaining it away. I disdained those with child-like faith. I even accused a Christian professor of the NT as being anti-Semitic.

Despite marrying Jay, a budding pastor, my struggles with Jesus continued for six more years. It was the brokenness of our marriage that finally drove me to my knees. I had a vision of Jesus on the cross, with the words, “Stop running, you who are heavy laden. Find rest in me.” Thus began a process of rebirth that continues to this day. I am becoming a “new creation” in Christ, Our marriage was also re-created, and within a year we were pregnant with our first child (previously I was afraid to be a mother). God helped my tongue become one that blessed rather than cursed others (James 3:10). He replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

We United Methodists face a Corinthian culture that is secular, indulgent, and success-driven. We, like Paul, encounter broken, desperate and devastated persons, yet there is the wisdom of our Wesleyan heritage and the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit to help others shed the “old life” and become the new creation. Let us step with Jesus into this ministry of transformation.

Prayer: Gracious Lord, we come to you with personal confessions of our own doubts and unbelief. Set us free to experience your transforming power and grace, and then to be agents of your transformational grace to others. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

The Rev. Christine Archer
Spiritual Formation Team-TN Conference

- – - – -

REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY | Use a program on your computer, a traditional journal, or feel free to use the comment section of this blog post to record your reflections as a conversation with others…
READ – What spoke to me as I read today’s meditation?
REPENT – Where is God showing me that I have failed to be obedient to the call to discipleship today?
RECEIVE – What words of redemption and grace is God offering to me?
REMEMBER – Who and what is God calling me to remember in prayer related to today’s reading?
RESPOND – How is God calling me to respond today?

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions

Day 24: Missional Excellence

wtmcalilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:54 +0000

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I wonder sometimes, if disciples of Jesus know and understand the importance of sharing the joy and thanksgiving of faith. In a world that is too often filled with gloom and doom, disciples need to bring the light of God’s love in Christ Jesus with joy and thanksgiving. After all, we are to witness and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus which is the Good News.

John 14:28, says in part, “If you love me you would have rejoiced …” I believe it is our responsibility as Christians to infuse and model for the world the joy and thanksgiving of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It seems to me the two, rejoicing and thanksgiving, go hand in hand. When there is joy and rejoicing there is thanksgiving, and when there is thanksgiving there is joy and rejoicing.

Recently, at the Pulaski District Training, Bishop Bill McAlilly shared a God story with us. You could literally feel the joy and thanksgiving in the sanctuary, along with the spoken, “Amen” and “Praise God” as Bishop McAlilly told his story. We need to tell our stories of faith, and give witness to the blessings of a life in Christ. We need to celebrate with joy all that God is doing in our lives and in the world around us.

May we remember that the Church is called to be faithful to God in Jesus Christ, rather than to be successful according to the standards of the world. Jesus told his disciples in Luke 15:7,“… there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” As we share our stories of faith, people will be drawn to Christ for redemption and salvation.

Prayer: Lord, help us to know and understand that “rejoicing and thanksgiving” is vital and important in expressing and witnessing to our faith. In the holy name of Jesus. AMEN.

The Rev. Ron Brown
Spiritual Formation Team- TN Conference

- – - – -

REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY | Use a program on your computer, a traditional journal, or feel free to use the comment section of this blog post to record your reflections as a conversation with others…
READ – What spoke to me as I read today’s meditation?
REPENT – Where is God showing me that I have failed to be obedient to the call to discipleship today?
RECEIVE – What words of redemption and grace is God offering to me?
REMEMBER – Who and what is God calling me to remember in prayer related to today’s reading?
RESPOND – How is God calling me to respond today?

RESOURCES:
> DOWNLOADS – 40 Day Walk prayer guide (.PDF), 40 Days of Doodles kids journal (.PDF)
> CLICK HERE for sermon starters/suggestions