In step

[RiverOL]

Life in the Kingdom (3)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
When we obey God, we are sure that we know him. But if we claim to know him and don’t obey him, we are lying and the truth isn’t in our hearts. We truly love God only when we obey him as we should, and then we know that we belong to him. If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ.
(1 John 2:3-6, CEV)

Reflect:
Obedience is a high standard for love. Many of us don’t enjoy obeying speed limits, much less restrictions on our minds and hearts. But when we love, doing what our beloved wants is easy, and it is how we demonstrate our love.

Respond:
Whom do you love? Write down one person’s name. Then write down one thing you happily did because that person asked you to do it. If you can’t think of any, perhaps you should take a look at your pride. Does independence block your ability to love others? To love God?

Midday Meditation:
For Christians it’s always a love game: God’s love for the world calling out an answering love from us, enabling us to discover that God not only happens to love us (as though this was simply one aspect of his character) but that he is love itself.
(N.T. Wright, Simply Christian)

Evening Reflection:
Examine your day. Did your pride or independence block you from doing what someone else wanted? If so, what was going on that inspired your response? What change might you make tomorrow to free up your responses? When that change is “love more” you’ll be on the right track.

 

[RiverOL]

Rallying Cries

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith,
act like men, be strong—1 Corinthians 16:13

When we men gather, our gatherings should be about something. Without a something, brotherhood doesn’t last. There are, of course, plenty of possible such somethings: we gather to watch sports, play sports, talk sports, talk politics, discuss philosophy, drink coffee, drink wine, drink beer, hunt, fish, golf, bike, hike, and many other things. Some of us, though, believe there’s one something that stands well above the rest—a great cause—to follow our King, Jesus Christ, which includes fighting for ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, and engaging an enemy that “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

It’s an honor that we’ve been called to such a cause. But, just as men are apt to allow their attention to drift and to lose focus over time, so are groups of men. We must, therefore, be intentional about maintaining purpose, about maintaining alignment with one another, and about maintaining morale and increasing mettle toward opposition and hardship. One approach is to borrow an ancient technique: the rallying cry. It requires we simply consecrate, and then adopt, a few well-chosen words that capture what we stand for, words that reflect our agreed upon priorities, and that rally us always back to God’s (and now our) great cause.



Decide today what you and your brothers are about . . . decide your something. Ask yourselves, what brought us together? What’s our purpose in being together? What are our priorities toward one another? What do we care about? What makes us unique? If you’ve never thought about these things, now’s the time, brother. Keep it fun. Set aside some time to pray together and to listen. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then collaborate and iterate and formulate your group’s rallying cry.

 

[RiverOL]

Life in the Kingdom (4)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
Don’t let your right to eat bring shame to Christ. God’s kingdom isn’t about eating and drinking. It is about pleasing God, about living in peace, and about true happiness. All this comes from the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way, you will please God and be respected by people. We should try to live at peace and help each other have a strong faith.
(Romans 14:16-19, CEV)

Reflect:
Paul is reminding the Romans that different people have different customs and needs; quibbling over trivia blocks us from joy and peace. When we take an eternal perspective, most of what irks us is pretty trivial. God’s Kingdom has arrived, and we have better things to think about.

Respond:
As you go through your day, watch when your internal quibbler wants to correct or debate someone else. Then stop, really see the person and their needs, and let the way of peace flow into the situation.

Midday Meditation:
The dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption. . . All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities. . . that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
(C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

Evening Reflection:
A prayer: Creating and Sovereign God, we are right now eternal beings, all of us. Even me, and even the ones who annoy me the most. Help me to take the steps to live in your kingdom every moment. Help me to see that every person I encounter may be in my life forever. Restore my gentleness, that I may make eternity better for all of us.

 

[RiverOL]

The Wind in Your Sails
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. —Matthew 25:1-2 NKJV

When you and I have been born again, we are given a measure of the Holy Spirit that transforms our human spirit from spiritual death to spiritual life. (See John 20:22-23.)
But Paul writes that this is not enough. We must also “be filled with the Spirit.” (See Ephesians 5:18.) The form of the verb filled here is in present continuous, which means “to be filled,” like wind filling a sail, making the ship move.

The foolish virgins had just enough of the Holy Spirit to get through normal times. When they reached the limit of what was needed to get along in the world, they had no more. The wise virgins had supplies in excess of what they needed.
It is not one filling at one time but a continuous, moment-by-moment filling, all the time, moving you forward in God’s will for your life.

 

[RiverOL]

Life in the Kingdom (5)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
You are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens with everyone else who belongs to the family of God. You are like a building with the apostles and prophets as the foundation and with Christ as the most important stone. Christ is the one who holds the building together and makes it grow into a holy temple for the Lord. And you are part of that building Christ has built as a place for God’s own Spirit to live.
(Ephesians 2:19-22, CEV)

Reflect:
Have you ever felt adrift, or exiled, or just like you didn’t really belong? Has anyone not felt that way? Yet King Jesus invited us to be part of something bigger, something greater, and if we accepted that invitation, we are! You belong. You matter. You are seen and desired by the King. And that same King is right now cementing your place, and making you the kind of person in whom the Holy Spirit loves to dwell.

Respond:
Today we borrow an exercise from James Bryan Smith. Fill in the blank: 'I am (your name) in whom Christ dwells and delights.' Write it down. Put it on your screensaver, or on your bathroom mirror, or over your kitchen sink. Put it wherever you spend time. Each time you see it, say to yourself, 'I am (your name) in whom Christ dwells and delights.'
Midday Meditation:
To please God . . . to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness . . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.
(C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

Evening Reflection:
God creates you. Christ invites you. The Spirit dwells in you. Forget what you think you know about how awful you really are. You are God’s creature, beloved of Christ, in whom the Spirit dwells and delights. That’s the bottom line. That’s what is really true about you. Enjoy it.

 

[RiverOL]

Separated by Sin
Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” —Genesis 3:9-10 NKJV

What horror Adam and Eve must have experienced when they immediately realized that something in their lives had changed. What do you think Eve might have given for a do-over? She and Adam had gone from being God-centered to being Self-centered. Before sin entered in, they conversed freely with God.

Suddenly, Adam realized that their holy covering had vanished…that now they were naked. Their reaction was to cover their nudity with the leaves of the fig tree. The sanctity of the tabernacle in the garden had been breached by sin.
Having hurriedly fashioned aprons of fig leaves, Adam and Eve waited fearfully for their daily time of communion with God. The setting had not changed, but the two in the Garden had been changed forever.
Don’t allow sin in your life to separate you from the holiness of Jehovah God. Repentance is available now.

 

[RiverOL]

Life in the Kingdom (6)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a king gave a wedding banquet for his son. The king sent some servants to say to the guests, “The banquet is ready! My cattle and prize calves have all been prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the banquet!” But the guests did not pay any attention. Some of them left for their farms, and some went to their places of business.

Then he said to the servants, “It is time for the wedding banquet, and the invited guests don’t deserve to come. Go out to the street corners and tell everyone you meet to come to the banquet.” They went out on the streets and brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike. And the banquet room was filled with guests.
(Matthew 22:2-10, excerpted, CEV)

Reflect:
Our deepest identity is as an invited guest to the wedding banquet of the Son of the King. How often during the day do we accept the invitation? How often do we set it aside in favour of whatever it is that seems more important at the time? The miracle is that, though we may have tossed the invitation into the dustbin, God sends out servants to gather us in.

Respond:
Set an alarm on your phone or watch or computer to go off every couple of hours. When it rings, stop what you’re doing and ask yourself “what am I doing with God’s banquet invitation right now?” Then decide what your next move will be.

Midday Meditation:
The Great Dance does not wait to be perfect until the peoples of the Low Worlds are gathered into it. We speak not of when it will begin. It has begun from before always. There was no time when we did not rejoice before His face as now. The dance which we dance is at the centre and for the dance all things were made. Blessed be He!
(C.S. Lewis, Perelandra)

Evening Reflection:
A prayer: Sweet laughing Trinity, you spend eternity dancing together, feasting on the abundance of your love and community. You have invited me—me!—to join you. Tonight I reach out the hand of my soul to take yours. Draw me into your company, so that I might share your joy.

 

[RiverOL]

Prepared for God's Presence
For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

—Genesis 2:17b NKJV
Little has changed since that long-ago evening in the Garden of Eden. Mankind continues to make excuses, shift blame, and refuse to accept responsibility for his/her actions. Little personal responsibility is accepted, only a guilt trip laid on the one who was insulted. Apologists admit little if any wrongdoing, following the tradition set by Adam and Eve.

The two inhabitants of the Garden would soon know firsthand that sin required a blood sacrifice. Beyond that, they had no idea of the door that had been opened and how one bite—just one bite of the fruit—would affect mankind from that moment forward.
Was God forced, then, to turn His back on His creation? He cannot look upon sin; therefore, God had to provide a way to impute righteousness to those who were separated from Him. No longer could Adam and Eve sit at the feet of Yahweh and commune with Him. But there in the Garden, God initiated the first sacrifice.
Only when you accept Christ and put on His righteousness will you be fully clothed to stand in the presence of Jehovah.

 

[RiverOL]

Life in the Kingdom (7)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth. You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory.
(Colossians 3:1-4, CEV)

Reflect:
One good reason to participate in communal worship, such as a Sunday church service, is to practise setting your mind and heart on things above. That isn’t always easy in churches, but it’s even harder in daily life. Gatherings of fallible, fragile people are perfect gymnasia to work the muscles of your mind and heart.

Respond:
Use an hour or two today to take your mind off earthly things. Every time your mind goes to earthly issues, draw it back to heavenly goodness. If you’re in communal worship, when your heart starts paying attention to bad song lyrics or clumsy sermon metaphors or the grumpy person next to you, set your heart on God’s love.

Midday Meditation:
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Evening Reflection:
A prayer: Generous and beautiful God, as the day disappears and darkness takes its place, here I am before you. I have been fed. I have been clothed. Though all that seems like the product of my own effort, if it weren’t for you I would have had nothing no matter how hard I worked. Let my heart rest tonight in the confidence that when I sleep, you’ve got things under control.

 

[RiverOL]

Stay Salty, My Friends

Woe to you, when all people speak well of you—Luke 6:26

Sooner or later our faith conflicts with friendship. Sooner or later our faith is tested against friendship. You see, the time will come, for each of us, when a friend needs us. He or she will take a dark path (as we all do, sometimes), a path leading away from God. It might be dramatic; it might not. When it happens, though, we’ll face a choice—to speak up and speak truth into his or her life . . . or . . . to ignore what’s going on, avoid conflict, and avoid the risk of forever altering the friendship or even losing it altogether.

The good news is that we’re designed for these kinds of things. We’re the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). For God gave us “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). But, salt can, over time, lose its taste—lose its saltiness. We men lose our saltiness when we choose popularity over truth, passivity over love. The problem is, salt that has lost its taste “is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet” (Matthew 5:13).



When the time comes, before you do anything, make sure you’re being driven not by judgment or resentment or jealousy. If you might be, go no further and simply entrust your friend to God. God’s able to reach your friend by other means. If, however, you’re sure that it’s love that’s driving you, more than anything else, then go ahead and speak. Put your friendship upon the altar and see what God does with it. Do it privately and gently. But be warned, it might not go well. These conversations are tough. That’s okay. Trust God to work it out in the end.

 

[RiverOL]

Serving Others (6 May 2019)
Morning Encounter:
Introduction
Right from the very beginning, it was always God’s intention that his people should be a blessing to others. Jesus so beautifully demonstrated this in both word and action- through the stories he told, the teachings that he gave and the gift of both listening to people and healing them. He declared of himself that he ‘did not come to be a served, but to serve and give his life to rescue many people’ (Mark 10.45). His sacrificial death on the cross was a unique and unrepeatable act of love. We too are called to many little deaths as we practice the disciplines of service in giving our self to others.

Read:
Every third year, instead of using the ten per cent of your harvest for a big celebration, bring it into town and put it in a community storehouse. The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do.
(Deuteronomy 14.28-29)

Reflect:
Deuteronomy is a record of Moses’ address to Israel on the eve of their entry into the Promised Land. It is a book that reaffirms their status before God and his covenant with his servant people. Every year they were to bring a tenth (or tithe) of their harvest in worship and every third year they were to give that tithe to support those who could not work including widows and orphans.

Respond:
Consider who you can serve today. Who do you know who is not able to work or support themselves? Who has been made redundant, off sick or recently had a baby and would benefit from your kindness and help today?

Midday Meditation:
‘Prayer in action is love, and love in action is service. Try to give unconditionally whatever a person needs in the moment. The point is to do something, however small, and show you care through your actions by giving your time … We are all God’s children so it is important to share His gifts. Do not worry about why problems exist in the world – just respond to people’s needs … We feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but that ocean would be less without that drop.’
(Mother Teresa)

Evening Reflection:
Christ was truly God.
But he did not try to remain
equal with God.
Instead he gave up everything
and became a slave,
when he became
like one of us.

Christ was humble.
He obeyed God
and even died
on a cross.
Then God gave Christ
the highest place
and honoured his name
above all others.

So at the name of Jesus
everyone will bow down,
those in heaven, on earth,
and under the earth.
And to the glory
of God the Father
everyone will openly agree,
“Jesus Christ is Lord!”

Philippians 2.6-11 (CEV)

 

[RiverOL]

The Servant King
Morning Encounter:
Read:
Jesus knew that he had come from God and would go back to God. He also knew that the Father had given him complete power. So during the meal Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He put some water into a large bowl. Then he began washing his disciples' feet and drying them with the towel he was wearing.
But when he came to Simon Peter, that disciple asked, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t really know what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“You will never wash my feet!” Peter replied.
“If I don’t wash you,” Jesus told him, “you don’t really belong to me.”
Peter said, “Lord, don’t wash just my feet. Wash my hands and my head.”
(John 13.3-9)

Reflect:
Jesus is facing his death and preparing to leave his disciples. It’s the Last Supper and the disciples have been arguing over which one of them is the greatest (Luke 22.24). In a beautiful act of humility and leadership, Jesus provides them with an answer. Jesus takes the place of a servant and washes the dirty feet of his disciples.

Respond:
Take some time to reflect on these verses. What does it mean to lead with humility and in service of others?

Midday Meditation:
‘The disciples were keenly aware that someone needed to wash the others’ feet. The problem was that the only people who washed feet were the least. So there they sat, feet caked with dirt… Then Jesus took a towel and a basin and redefined greatness.’
(Richard J. Foster Celebration of Discipline)

Evening Reflection:
Jesus, my feet are dirty. Come even as a slave to me, pour water into your bowl, come and wash my feet. In asking such a thing I know I am overbold, but I dread what was threatened when you said to me, “If I do not wash your feet I have no fellowship with you.” Wash my feet then, because I long for your companionship. (Origen, c. 185–254)

 

[RiverOL]

Time in God's Presence
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise. —Psalm 51:17 NKJV

David longed for the presence of God to surround him, and he craved the blessing of Jehovah on his life. He coveted the relationship he knew would come with spending time in His presence and valued above all the closeness he found with the Lord, his Shepherd.

It is so easy in this life to get sidetracked in the pursuit of things—wealth, fame, the perfect job, house, or mate—that we fail to stop and spend time in the presence of God.
David had learned the value of beholding the beauty of the Lord, of seeking Him. He knew that God wanted a man whose heart was submitted to Him. When David lost sight of that pursuit and sinned with Bathsheba, he suffered the consequences of his actions—the death of their first son. With his life dedicated to pursuing God, David finally understood exactly what God wanted: Total devotion.
You and I can rest assured that God rewards those who are totally devoted to Him.

 

[RiverOL]

Humble Service
Morning Encounter:
Read:
The mother of James and John came to Jesus with her two sons. She knelt down and started begging him to do something for her. Jesus asked her what she wanted, and she said, “When you come into your kingdom, please let one of my sons sit at your right side and the other at your left.”
Jesus answered, “Not one of you knows what you are asking. Are you able to drink from the cup that I must soon drink from?”
James and John said, “Yes, we are!”

Jesus replied, “You certainly will drink from my cup! But it isn’t for me to say who will sit at my right side and at my left. That is for my Father to say.”
When the ten other disciples heard this, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called the disciples together and said:
You know that foreign rulers like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over everyone they rule. But don’t act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people.
(Matthew 20.20-28)

Reflect:
James and John along with Peter formed an inner circle of three who were Jesus’ closest disciples. In some ways the question of their status was only natural. Yet Jesus reminds them (again) that the kingdom belongs to the humble. Authority and greatness for Jesus’ disciples are the reverse of the usual pattern of the world; true greatness comes with great service. Selfish ambition, status and grasping at power are not of the kingdom of Jesus.

Respond:
How can you serve others today without being noticed, without applause and without selfish ambition?

Midday Meditation:
‘A leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love is a true spiritual leadership. Powerless and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them.’
(Henri Nouwen)

Evening Reflection:
From heaven you came, helpless babe,
Entered our world, your glory veiled;
Not to be served but to serve,
And give your life that we might live.

This is our God, the Servant King,
He calls us now to follow him,
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King.

 

[RiverOL]

Seeing God's Holiness
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. —Isaiah 6:6-7 NIV

At the time of Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6, Israel was at a crossroads. The people were economically prosperous but spiritually bankrupt. As one writer noted, Isaiah dwelled in the midst of “fat and happy sinners.”
The prophet, in the presence of pure holiness, realized his unworthiness. He was concerned with his own impurity when seen under the microscope of God’s purity. Isaiah realized he had no place to hide. He was doomed.

As he lay prostrate before the Lord God Almighty, he cried that he was a man of unclean lips and he lived among a people whose lips were unclean.
What is your reaction when you realize the holiness of God? A true encounter with God always brings inevitable change. Either your commitment to Him grows deeper, or you harden your heart and perish spiritually.

 

[RiverOL]

The Service of Listening (9 May 2019)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
Do all you can for everyone who deserves your help. Don’t tell your neighbour to come back tomorrow, if you can help today. Don’t try to be mean to neighbours who trust you. Don’t argue just to be arguing, when you haven’t been hurt. Don’t be jealous of cruel people or follow their example.
(Proverbs 3.27-31)

Reflect:
Proverbs is a book of encouragement and often contains practical advice and wisdom for our daily lives. In these practical verses, we are invited to do our part in making good relationships with those around us. We are all guilty of hurrying people, half-listening and making false promises to help others. Let’s be honest before God today and confess our weakness in loving and serving others.

Respond:
Give someone the gift of your full attention today. Listen to them, engage and love them and refrain from coming up with answers and suggestions. Practice listening and being present to others today.

Midday Meditation:
'The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as ‘I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?’ True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself.'
(Timothy Keller)

Evening Reflection:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 

[RiverOL]

When the Rain Stopped
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
—Genesis 8:20 NKJV

Day after day, Noah and his family had lived with the pounding of rain on the roof and waves against the hull of their huge vessel. Finally one morning, Noah must have been awakened—not by the noise, but by the quiet that reigned. He raced to the uppermost level of the craft and threw open a window. The rains had stopped!

Noah began to fully comprehend what God had done in providing animals for food, clothing, and their very sustenance. In gratitude, Noah gathered stones and built an altar. He brought forth one of every type of clean animal and offered it as a sacrifice unto Jehovah. Noah had simply given back to God what he had been given, an offering in acknowledgment of Jehovah’s gracious provision.
Offer a sacrifice of praise to God today in return for all He has given to you.

 

[RiverOL]

Serving Together (10 May 2019)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
Then Joshua told the people:
Worship the Lord, obey him, and always be faithful. Get rid of the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived on the other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt. But if you don’t want to worship the Lord, then choose right now! Will you worship the same idols your ancestors did? Or since you’re living on land that once belonged to the Amorites, maybe you’ll worship their gods. I won’t. My family and I are going to worship and obey the Lord!
(Joshua 24.14-15)

Reflect:
Joshua succeeds Moses in leading the people of Israel. In this passage, he declares his intention to serve the Lord – the God who has chosen Israel, liberated them and provided for them. After Joshua’s death and despite his warnings, the people chose to worship other deities. Joshua’s household represented a minority who would remain faithful in their service to the Lord.

Respond:
Reflect on the phrase, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” In what ways might God be calling you to live out this promise and take this deeper?

Midday Meditation:
“If you can't do great things, do little things with great love. If you can't do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can't do them with a little love, do them anyway. Love grows when people serve.”
(Mother Teresa)

Evening Reflection:
God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living

that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Don't Forget the “Don'ts”
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…

—Exodus 20:4 KJV
The one thing many remember about the Ten Commandments is the “Thou shalt nots.” All too often, those are shunned in favor of the Gospels. Our human nature would prefer to know the “dos” rather than the “don’ts” and all too often we focus on the latter when studying the ten laws handed down on Mount Sinai.
God went to great lengths to present His laws to the children of Israel, even writing them with His finger on the second set of tablets. It is indicative of His eternal love and care for us.

Jehovah is concerned about our very lives; thus, He gave instructions for every aspect of our relationship with Him—from how we are to love Him to how we are to treat our next-door neighbor. He did not set us on this journey and then abandon us.
Even more compelling: Jehovah still offers His unfathomable grace to those who have transgressed His laws through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

 

[RiverOL]

Serving Without Speaking (11 May 2019)
Morning Encounter:
Read:
Stop all your dirty talk. Say the right thing at the right time and help others by what you say. Don’t make God’s Spirit sad. The Spirit makes you sure that someday you will be free from your sins. Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don’t yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.

(Ephesians 4.29-31)
Reflect:
In a chapter about unity, Paul instructs believers to control their tongues. In the book of Titus, he further instructs believers to ‘speak evil of no-one.’ (Titus 3.2). That involves what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the ‘least-practised form of servant hood today’: the ministry of holding one’s tongue. Holding our tongue, not having the last word, refraining from gossip can help us avoid all kinds of trouble. It can also lead to guarding another person’s reputation. It is a deep and lasting form of service.

Respond:
Ask God to help you speak well of people today. Consider taking up the practice of not needing to have the last word.

Midday Meditation:
‘Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words… It must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him.’
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Evening Reflection:
Through the dark hours of this night
protect and surround us
Father, Son and Spirit, Three
Forgive the ill that we have done
Forgive the pride that we have shown
Forgive the words that have caused harm

that we might sleep peaceably
and rise refreshed to do your will
Through the dark hours of this night
protect and surround us
Father, Son and Spirit, Three.