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From
Pastor’s Desk
I’d like to share with you a Lenten Devotional
written by Ron Buford from our National office in Cleveland. These
devotionals come to me every morning in my email. I encourage you to sign up
for them. If you haven’t already you can do so at:
http://i.ucc.org/ These devotions are
one of the ways our congregation serves the world through our gifts to OCWM.
Don't Be So Sure
Acts 9: 1- 20
Ron
Buford
After
Jesus was executed, buried, resurrected, and has departed the earth he
initiates a startling conversation with a man named Saul who is persecuting
Jesus' followers relentlessly.
Saul
desires nothing more than to honor the God of Abraham and Moses by stopping
a sect of law-breaking Jews from corrupting others with their radical new
idea. But then God steps in and places a huge comma in Saul's life--a comma
so big that Saul cannot get around it. Suddenly he is not so sure of the
most consuming thing in his life.
While
Saul waits and tries to figure it all out, God sends someone to pray and
bring instruction. Saul's eyes became opened to a new way of perceiving
God--an understanding so radical that Saul changes his name to Paul.
What
assumptions do we have about God? Are we operating on old ideas we have
never revisited? Have we held on to old theology half-learned or even
misunderstood as children and never revisited as adults? Have we done the
same with old relationships? What's holding you back? Anger, grief, fear,
the inability to forgive? Is the Jesus inside you trying to break through
your busy schedule so he can advocate for your own soul, asking, "Why are
you persecuting me?"
Prayer: Gracious God, take my heart and set it on fire for you, so that I
may hold nothing back, loving you with my whole heart, soul and mind, and
with the freedom and power to love my neighbors even as I fully love myself.
Amen.
Most of us do not see ourselves persecuting
Jesus; we attend church regularly and make a gift when the offering plate
comes around. But what is the Jesus inside you trying to set free? How is
God’s Holy Spirit speaking to you and convicting you? God’s Holy Spirit does
that you know; maybe in a still small voice, an ache in your heart, a
thought that flashes in your mind, in a word from a fellow sojourner; those
are a few of the ways that God is Still Speaking.
Today you and I do not persecute Jesus like Saul
was by arresting and jailing Jesus’ disciples, but that is happening in the
world––are we persecuting Jesus by ignoring fellow believer’s pain? We are
not stoning Jesus’ disciples like Saul was, but are we stoning people when
we use God’s word as missiles to promote hate, division and condemnation?
Maybe our greatest act of persecution is the way
we persecute ourselves through addiction to things like alcohol, food,
drugs, sex, tobacco, gambling, power. Maybe we persecute ourselves by
inhibiting our growth and service by a poor self-image. We persecute Jesus
in so many ways.
Jesus sheds a tear whenever he sees a sister or
brother in need; Jesus sheds a tear whenever he sees a sister or brother
ignore a need.
This Lenten season may your journey with Jesus
blaze in new and wonder-full ways as the flame of the Spirit touches your
heart. Say again the prayer our brother Ron Buford wrote in his devotion and
be blessed in the Spirit this season.
Your servant in Love ~ pastor john
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