Day 25: God’s Transforming Presence- Offering Christ to a Hurting World
Posted: May 18, 2013 Filed under: 40 Day Walk With God, Bishop's Blog | Tags: 40 day walk, bishop mcalilly, christ, Corinthians, holy spirit, jesus, paul, Second Epistle to the Corinthians 3 Comments
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
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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 21: God’s Transforming Presence – Offering Christ to a Hurting World
Posted: May 14, 2013 Filed under: 40 Day Walk With God, Bishop's Blog | Tags: 40daywalk, annual conference, bishop, bishop mcalilly, god, holy spirit, jesus, memphis, tennessee, TNUMC 1 Comment
John 14: 25-26 (Read verses 15-27)
I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.
We begin our Christian journey, as we respond to the invitation of Jesus to “Come, follow me.” Each of us in our own way responded, “Yes, I will follow you.” We never know where our simple response to the call of God in Christ will lead, or what it will offer to us in terms of challenge and fulfillment.
Jesus, who had compassion for the crowds, does not add another layer of “you should” to the invitation to follow him. For the invitation is first to “Come follow and come receive.” The promise is that through the power of the Holy Spirit we will be guided, taught, empowered, and sustained in every step we take with Jesus. So we claim our full inheritance as children of God and begin living a life of trust and fulfillment. The Incarnation is made real in us as we become a holy chalice to carry the Transforming Presence of God everywhere we are called to go.
The invitation of Jesus to every disciple is, “Come follow and together we will go where the wounds are.” That’s where Jesus always goes and there the Transforming Presence will heal wounds, and reveal God’s Kingdom. The invitation is “Come, walk with me, and see what the power of God can do when we walk together.” Our response? “I will follow you and share the Transforming Presence of God wherever you lead me, for I am yours.”
In Your Time of Prayer: Remember, reflect upon and give thanks for your call to follow Jesus. Give thanks for God’s love for you and desire to live with you and within you as you ask where God is leading you today. In joyful gratitude offer your life anew to God in Christ as you decide again to walk with Jesus for all time and wherever God leads.
Write and record your response and commitment so it will be remembered.
Bishop Reuben Job, Retired
Author and Leader in Spiritual Formation and Prayer
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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 13: God’s transforming presence – offering Christ to a hurting world
Posted: May 6, 2013 Filed under: 40 Day Walk With God, Bishop's Blog | Tags: 40 day walk, albin, annual conference, bill mcalilly, bishop, gospel, greater things, holy spirit, jesus, mcalilly, memphis, Prayer, tennessee, UMC, upper room 6 Comments
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
John 14:12
I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father.
In John’s gospel the “greater things” are rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ, “the Word become flesh…full of grace and truth.” We are created to “do the works” that Jesus did—preaching, teaching and healing—calling men and women to become disciples who make disciples. There is nothing more important, nothing more central, and nothing more urgent.
45% of the UM churches have not made a disciple in years. According the major study conducted before the 2012 General Conference, only 15% of our congregations are “vital.”
Jesus made disciples. We will never do thus until we repent of our disobedience and change. The first step to transformation is repentance.
Secondly, we are called to believe the gospel. In Jewish and Wesleyan teaching, belief is never separated from behavior. If we believe, we act in obedience. If we are not obedient and active, we do not believe.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that was in Jesus and is now poured out on all who ask and seek and knock. This Spirit is the reason that we are able to do greater things. The third essential is to receive the Holy Spirit.
Our response is joyful, intentional obedience. This is Christian maturity.
Prayer: Forgiving God, I repent of my failure to make disciples. I am called to this. I believe there is nothing more important. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower me for joyful obedience.
The Rev. Dr. Tom Albin
Dean of The Upper Room Ministries & Ecumenical Relations GBOD | The United Methodist Church
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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
Greater Things Are Yet To Be Done 