Day 34: God’s Transforming Presence- Offering Christ to a Hurting World
Posted: May 27, 2013 Filed under: 40 Day Walk With God, Bishop's Blog | Tags: 40 day walk, bishop mcalilly, christ, god, jesus, Repentance, Second Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Comment2 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
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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 28: Missional Excellence
Posted: May 21, 2013 Filed under: 40 Day Walk With God, Bishop's Blog | Tags: 40 day walk, bishop mcalilly, christ, church, god, jerusalem, lord, Macedonia, Second Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Comment2 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
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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 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
Greater Things Are Yet To Be Done 