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What we need to know… to survive the Monday’s of life….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. 26 I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. 27 I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from everything that defiles you.. Ezekiel 36:25-29a (TEV)
12 My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13 The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. 14 And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17 This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:12-17 (TEV)
2 God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration. Jesus is my intimate Friend (another rediscovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart. The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road. Consider this often: you are God’s… and God is yours.
This morning as I was working out, I hit a wall. I thought I was done, at 12 minutes into my final treadmill session i knew I couldn’t go on any longer. I looked for an excuse to quit. I looked for a reason to end my suffering. I didn’t want to endure. A little more than 20 seconds later, the wall was there imposing, I needed to quit.
I heard in the back of my head my high school P.E. teacher’s rasping voice crying out LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Like back then, it made me want to quit even more.
Just like Mondays, and all the other days in life that seem like Mondays.
You know the feeling, like when you are in a meeting that is going on forever, as all the same issues keep frustrating things keep being rehashed. as you do your bills, and wonder about the day when there will be money left over. It’s when the long awaited rain shuts down roads you need to use to get to work. It’s when all that was good and precious that you experienced in worship yesterday become a faded memory, choked out by the world….
It’s monday.
Or it might as well be.
There is only one hope on Monday, there is only one thing that will kill off the drama, the anxiety, the lows that we face.
It’s to realize that we, you and I, are the people God loves. the people that He claimed. That the Trinity in all of Their glory has called you to live life in their glory. They didn’t insist that you come to Them, they’ve come to us!
Look at the promise in the reading from Ezekiel – the promise of Baptism! Look at how God takes care of us, from eliminating the sin in our lives, to setting up shop in our lives, creating something quite incredible!
Look at the words of Jesus. I know there is much criticism of those that treat Jesus as their brother, as if that meant all we did was “play” with Him. But there is something far different in knowing Christ is our brother than that (check out yesterday’s sermon for one)
Look at the words of Josemaria, these blessed words which encourage us to really think through what it means for God to be our Father, Jesus our brother/friend, and the Holy Spirit to be our very needed comforter!
This is what the Christian religion is about. It is how we get through life, even as we despise its shame, we look for the joy of walking with God, and one day, seeing Him face to face. it’s how we get passed minute 12 in our journey, how the wall that we hit, exhausted and weary, is destroyed. we find His strength, and He comes to us and helps us get to realize that though there are “Mondays” that even those Monday’s become our Sabbath, our day of rest.
For we are God’s people…..
and that trumps any Monday.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 237-242). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
It’s Monday, Have You Prayed Yet???
Devotional Thought of the day:
17 Never stop praying. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT)
16 Ultimately, if we should list as sacraments all the things that have God’s command and a promise added to them, then why not prayer, which can most truly be called a sacrament? It has both the command of God and many promises. If it were placed among the sacraments and thus given, so to speak, a more exalted position, this would move men to pray. (1)
448 You haven’t been praying? Why, because you haven’t had time? But you do have time. Furthermore, what sort of works will you be able to do if you have not meditated on them in the presence of the Lord, so as to put them in order? Without that conversation with God, how can you finish your daily work with perfection? Look, it is as if you claimed you had no time to study because you were too busy giving lessons… Without study you cannot teach well. Prayer has to come before everything. If you do not understand this and put it into practice, don’t tell me that you have no time: it’s simply that you do not want to pray! (2)
Let’s be honest, most of us hate Mondays with a passion!
The trying to adjust to “reality”, the drudgery of work, the lack of “freedom”, the stress, and the fact that Mondays somehow seem cursed to have everything going wrong. The only thing that is worse, a Monday after a vacation.
If only there were a way to change the anture of Monday, to flip it on its side, to turn it from curse to blessing! We need to see it as a new opportunity rather than a drag. We need to somehow realize that Mondays, like Sundays and the rest of our weeks, is a day the Lord has made!
But it is Monday…. did I mention I hate them? Not because of their effect on me, rather, the effect they have on those I pastor. ( I simply lock myself in my office and study for next week’s sermon.) I see the frustration, the quickness to respond to defend, or attack, the cynical matures that peak, the sarcasm and struggles that turn into great burdens.
Even when what was heard yesterday was. “come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest...” It is as if we expect Jesus to say – well except on Monday – I take Monday’s off!
Here is the secret to Mondays. Sanctify them! Make them Holy! Set them apart as a special day for you to watch God at work in your homes, in your workplaces, in your appointments throughout the day. Spend the day in prayer, talking to God throughout it. Spend time praising His name, giving thanks, asking for His blessings and advice on each part of the day, and listening to that advice. ( I would suggest that you make sure it is consistent with scripture – that’s how you can confirm it is His voice you are hearing. )
That brings up a point – praying – using God’s name as He meant for us to use it, in our relationship with Him is not just a commandment, it is not law, it is the purest of gospel messages. It is a blessing beyond belief to realize we can spend our day walking with a God who comes to us, who will cleanse and restore and heal that which is broken, and that which we break. It is the blessing that transcends all others, this conversation that we have with God, this relationship where He is God and we are His children.
That is why Melancthon and the reformers considered Prayer a sacrament in the Apology… for then it might help men pray more often. . That is why St Josemaria, also noted the need for it to be the basic action of our life. This conversation, this relationship, it is who we are, what we are made for… praying will change us, change our lives, not because it is a forced, but because it reveals the presence of God… here for us.
It will even blow apart a Monday… even if you haven’t started it the right way… take a break… and start talking to Him.
Your Monday will change into a Sunday…
Start with this – Lord, Have mercy!
(1) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 213). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1986-1991). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Seriously, Does God Take Mondays Off?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
“I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day, right up to the end of the age” Mt 28:20, MSG
341 You told me that God sometimes fills you with light for a while and sometimes does not. I reminded you, firmly, that the Lord is always infinitely good. That is why those bright days are enough to help you carry on; but the times when you see no light are good for you too, and make you more faithful.
Deep faith is seen is us, when we can’t hear or see God, yet still we instinctively recognize His presence and trust him ( I don’t remember who he was quoting CS Lewis maybe, but I remember the Bible Study where Doug Dickey taught me this )
My son yesterday bought a computer game called Minecraft, which is a bit much for a 7 year old, even one as precocious as my son. He waited for it to download (he gave me the money to buy it with my credit card, ) and took the computer over. Even as I knew he would, he immediate found himself in a situation he didn’t know how to get out of easily. After a wile helped him with it, and then, when he got in a similar one, I had to let him struggle and insisted he did, rather than just start it over.
This morning the lesson was repeated, this time with a yo-yo, which he said didn’t work. (He got it as a prize at school, and despite flashing lights, was somewhat cheap) Again, showed him it could work, gave a little advice, and then let him struggle with it. He understood this lesson this morning, and achieved his goal of bouncing the you-yo ten times. He made the connection to last night – and said – this is why you didn’t let me restart? Why I had to keep going and work it out? Yes, son, and what would happen if I fixed everything the first time you got stuck? With a smile he replied, “I wouldn’t learn to do things myself”
Smart kid! (takes after his mom)
So now I am at work, and got 6 million things to do, all the while trying to recover from 2 days of grief, grief that I couldn’t get past, as this was the first Father’s Day without my dad. I know enough to know that grief can’t just be shaken off, or ignored, Scars open, scabs rip off – and sometimes the healing in complete, and sometimes we find it hasn’t really begun. We have to trust God through it all, and let the time pass…..
The lesson to my son now comes and slams home on me. The quote in blue above slammed it home to, as I am not as quick to pick up on things as my son is. There are days everything seems to click, where God’s presence is so clear, that I feel like I could figuratively reach out and hug him. There are other days, where from my perspective, I can’t see His light as clearly, where life obscures the glory He has invited us to share in forever. Where life seems to be a “Spiritual Monday”, and while we go through Monday, maybe God took it off like some pastors do?
I mean it – where is God on Monday? And why can we have a spiritual version of Monday on a Thursday, or a Saturday, or even a Sunday?
St. Josemaria and Dr. Doug were right though, that faith is seen and grows, when we learn to recognize God’s presence, even when we think it isn’t there. When we rely on His promises rather than our perception, When we reach out in faith, and receive the blessings of mercy and peace, and love. When we call out “Lord have mercy on Us” and we find our eyes opened, or maybe just our hearts, assured and calmed by His presence.
You see, what I know is this, as my son struggled with a computer game, as he got frustrated by “spaghetti string” on his yo-yo, his dad was there, watching, knowing there was a way to fix what was going on in both situations. Yet if he had really gotten stuck beyond his ability, I would be there, rescuing him, fixing things, restoring things. Even more so has God promised to do that, even more does He perceive where we are at, and care for us.
He is there, even when we can’t see Him. His presence, His protection, His comfort, His peace, His glory……
So rest, cling to the One who promised to be our God, who promised that we would be His people… and your heart will know what your mind can’t always process.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1584-1587). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Can I Really Be Holy on the “PERFECT” Monday?
Devotional Thought On ANOTHER MONDAY……
22 They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. “We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God,” they taught. Acts 14:22 (TEV)
77 Sometimes you feel that you are beginning to lose heart and that everything is getting on top of you. This kills your good desires, and you can hardly manage to overcome this feeling even by making acts of hope…Never mind: this is a good time to ask God for more grace. Then, go on! Renew your joy for the struggle, even though you might lose the odd skirmish. (2)
Have I mentioned before that I hate Mondays?
Probably, once or twice.
I get to my office, knowing that my office manager is out sick, A little frustration there, anxiety more ( I pray no little preschoolers get sick…) and I get to answer phones. Sigh
Go to turn on my computer – blue screens of death – call to help desk – their jammed – seems the new windows 8.1 update has some bugs? Sigh…
Finally get to my devotions… a time of peace, of calm.. (interruptions begin)
How the heck on a day like this, am I supposed to be holy, set apart to God, and example for those whom I pastor and shepherd towards His grace?
How can I trust that God’s will, will be accomplished, that He will be in charge, (that He will reign in MY life) Or will I be tempted to cuss and rant and basically act like I don’t believe He is here?
Grace – we have to keep remember the gifts, the promised and fulfilled gifts of God. We have to know He is here. That beyond our ability, beyond even our ability to conceptualize, He is working within us, through us. We don’t set ourselves apart to Him! He has already done this – in the very cross of Christ (read Rom 6:1-8) In His death, which is why we proclaim it as we commune with God.
That is how the Apostles strengthened the church, appointing pastors to care for them, encouraging them by pointing them to Jesus, helping them realize what happens in baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, What happens when we are assured that nothing separates us from God. For they taught we are His children, adopted, cleansed from the filth of the world, forgiven, loved.
We don’t have to do anything to earn this, but oh, how easily this knowledge can fade from our minds, can escape our lips, can be hidden in the depths our our heart… forgotten for the moment. We too easily let the comfort of knowing His presence fade as the challenges of the day overwhelm us…..seemingly crush us, distract and disillusion us.
Perhaps it would help if once an hour – I prayer the Lord’s prayer? Not that it is a holy act, but that I would remember that His kingdom has come, He is in charge here, that His will is being done here, among us, as Luther taught – among us. We need that. That God will provide, that He will show mercy and strengthen us against temptation and save us from evil. Again – this isn’t my act of piety, but my need to be reminded of the work God is doing here….the work we rejoiced in yesterday, as God makes a masterpiece, and reveals to us that we walk in Christ.
Prayer, especially this wonderful prayer that Christ taught us… the anti-dote for Mondays….
Lord, help us to realize you mercy… even…no, especially on Mondays!
(1) Luther’s Small Catechism: Developed and Explained.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 543-546). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
In Christ, we are victors, (even on Mondays)
Devotional and Discussion Thought of the Day:
18 But the LORD says, “Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. 19 Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there. 20 Even the wild animals will honor me; jackals and ostriches will praise me when I make rivers flow in the desert to give water to my chosen people. 21 They are the people I made for myself, and they will sing my praises!” Isaiah 43:18-21 (TEV)
20 But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, 21 and keep (guard/treasure) yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. Jude 1:20-21 (TEV)
616 Our life—a Christian’s life—has to be as ordinary as this: trying every day to do well those very things it is our duty to do; carrying out our divine mission in the world by fulfilling the little duty of each moment. Or rather, struggling to fulfil it. Sometimes we don’t manage, and when night comes, in our examination, we’ll have to tell Our Lord, “I am not offering you virtues; today I can only offer you defects. But with your grace I will be able to count myself a victor.”
As I was working through my devotions this morning, I struggled with it, you see, I need to get a jump on things. Part of today I lose to a doctor’s appointment – so I have to jam 10 hours of work in 8, and now that I am running late, make that 6 or so. Plus get a jump on tomorrow, because i host a pastor’s gathering here. I had to send a fax off – which made me look at my dad’s funeral bulletin, and I realize again, how much I miss him.. On top of that. and on top of that,, (what was the old song, rainy days and mondays ALWAYS get me down!) and I am to distracted to do my much needed time of thinking, and meditating – which is really what the blog’s devotions are about – my processing, more with heart than mind, what I am hearing from God….
And the distractions and business of the minsitry would quiet that voice, or at least distract me from it. God didn’t just make me a pastor, a husband, a father. Or make you to hold the vocations you have as you interact with church, and family and work. We were made to be God’s people, to relate to Him, to know His love…. You are made for Him, to be His people, to share and revel in His glory, as His children.
Pause. breath,… ralize that is who you are, this Monday… this day which seems to overwhelm us.
Keep praying, not within your own strength, but as the Spirit leads, as He moves you, we hear from Jude, and do this while treasuring your time in God. For that is where we find rest and joy and peace and realize God will sustain us, even on the busiest of Mondays.
The last think I posted, the comforting words of St Josemaria, which remind me that I am not perfect, there are going to be Mondays I fall flat on my face. But in Christ, even my defects, even the times I can’t get it all done… God will use, GO=od will redeem, God will somehow, miraculously make things right and holy. For that is what He does for His children. For In Chirst, we are victors, even on Mondays…
For we were made for God, to be His people, His children, and even mondays can’t steal that from us!.
In my Old Testament reading, the underlined words cause me to stop…
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2277-2282). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
616 Our life—a Christian’s life—has to be as ordinary as this: trying every day to do well those very things it is our duty to do; carrying out our divine mission in the world by fulfilling the little duty of each moment. Or rather, struggling to fulfil it. Sometimes we don’t manage, and when night comes, in our examination, we’ll have to tell Our Lord, “I am not offering you virtues; today I can only offer you defects. But with your grace I will be able to count myself a victor.”
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2277-2282). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Three Mondays This Week! Lord, have Mercy!
Devotional thought on my first day back in the office:
17 Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 (TEV)
Monday morning started early in Hong Kong, as I was up at 4:30 am. FInalize jamming things into a suitcase, jump in a taxi – then to the airport. A flight to Tokyo, where at five in the afternoon I boarded another plane. Eventually fell asleep about 6 hours later… to wake up on Monday morning, and landed at LAX. That was the second Monday literally, and here in my office, 16 hours later, I face the grind of a third Monday, getting the paperwork and studies down for the week….
Three Mondays… capping a 12 day tour – 5 sermons, 8 Bible studies, tons of encouraging and trying to help those who have sacrificed so much to serve God on the foreign mission field.
Let me be honest – its hard to get my desire up to kick into high gear… to get focused, to plan out my short week. And oh wait – a pastor’s conference coming up – Thursday afternoon through Saturday Morning.
And then, in devotions this morning – the above passage comes into my view…. and this..
If we really want to sanctify our work, we have inescapably to fulfil the first condition: that of working—and working well!—with human and supernatural seriousness. (1)
Part of me – wants to dismiss these things as if they are too pietistic, to hear them as law and thereby dismiss them, assuming that grace will overcome my lack of desire, and my lack of action. THe excuses flow quite naturally, from the old Adam. You’ve worked hard – you need time to rest, to recuperate, let others… and in my heart…. I know that is why Paul wrote Romans 6:1 – should I let my sin abound… no.
My only cure… my only way to get back in the groove…is too look to that supernatural seriousness – to realize that I am not working alone – that the Lord is with me. To realize that this work, whether it is doing prep work on a sermon, or visiting shut-ins, or looking through worship for this week and planning Lent… it is all about the greatest, most incredible thing I have ever heard, or experienced, the thing that sustained me on the foreign mission field, and now sustains us, as we work together in this mission field in the USA.
Something so basic, we begin and end every study here at Concordia with it… we use it over and over in our services, as if we need to be constantly reminded of this very things…
The Lord is with you! And with our spirits..>>
He is here…
Time to get back to work… with HIM!!!!!
What an incredible blessing – to see Him working!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2558-2559). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.(1)
On Surviving Mondays…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
“By yourself, if you don’t count on grace, you can do nothing worthwhile, for you would be cutting the link which connects you with God. With grace, on the other hand, you can do all things” (1)
Peter, James and John were on a short side trip with Jesus when the man came, looking for help. Desperate he was, to find some comfort, some rest, some refuge for his tormented son.
The apostles tried, but to no avail, what they had done before wasn’t working, for some reason they couldn’t help, they couldn’t find the power, the “dunamis” to cast out those oppressive spirits.
Mondays can be like that, as we come back to “reality”, to the grind of another week. Maybe the weekend was not a restful one, maybe it wasn’t what we expected, or maybe it was too much – and we need to recover from it! Either way, back on the job on Mondays is always difficult, even oppressive. I wouldn’t go so far as saying demonic… (well there have been some Mondays… )
But where do we find the strength for them. In the same place that Jesus instructed his men to find their strength.
“his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Mark 9:28-29 (ESV)
We were reminded on Sunday about this rtuth – that we must depend on Jesus, that we must entrust ourselves into God’s hands, to recognize that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Yet on Mondays, so often we forget this, so often we fail to remember this. We let the situations get the best of us, we look at everything with a darkened, pessimistic view, we approach life, if not paranoid, then at least a little hesitant – wondering which trauma, which challenge, which confrontation will next pop up to bash us like a storm.
Yesterday in Sunday School I used a long quote from another pastor. Not my usual thing – but this one – despite it’s somewhat archaic language rings so true. Even though it will extend this devotion out – it is good for us to read:
” ( God’s ) Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do. When thou art in trouble, why dost thou not tell him all thy grief? Has he not a sympathizing heart, and can he not comfort and relieve thee? No, thou art going about to all thy friends, save thy best Friend, and telling thy tale everywhere except into the bosom of thy Lord. Art thou burdened with this day’s sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: use it, saint, use it. Has a sense of guilt returned upon thee? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be proved again and again. Come to him at once for cleansing. Dost thou deplore thy weakness? He is thy strength: why not lean upon him? Dost thou feel naked? Come hither, soul; put on the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. Stand not looking at it, but wear it. Strip off thine own righteousness, and thine own fears too: put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to wear. Dost thou feel thyself sick? Pull the night-bell of prayer, and call up the Beloved Physician! He will give the cordial that will revive thee. Thou art poor, but then thou hast “a kinsman, a mighty man of wealth.” What! wilt thou not go to him, and ask him to give thee of his abundance, when he has given thee this promise, that thou shalt be joint heir with him, and has made over all that he is and all that he has to be thine? There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for his people to make a show-thing of him, and not to use him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on his shoulders, the more precious will he be to us. “(2)
In closing consider this – you look at Catholic Saints like St Josemarie Escriva, you look at protestant preachers like Spurgeon, or hymn writers like Wimber or Newton or Wesley and Luther – the one common thread they have – is that we have to trust – we have to depend on God’s presence in our life. Not just to get into heaven, but to enjoy the life eternal that starts when God makes us his…
Cry out Lord have mercy my friends, and know He has, He is, and He will…
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1282-1285). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening: Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.
