Month: October 2024 (Page 1 of 4)

Hope you had a good weekend! We enjoyed a meal after church yesterday served by the youth who are raising money to go to FLY. Today I plan to do to Aldi’s and Exercise class and a Halloween party here. The community room is already decorated, and Al and I are going as Kansas State fans. Not scary but he will wear his jersey with pajama pants! 

One such spiritual discipline that I was reminded of is called the Examen and it is a very old tradition (over 500 years old) but I have not thought of doing it for some time. A Jesuit priest, Ignatius, was the one who proposed it and suggests we do it twice a day for about 15-20 minutes. There are 5 steps to it but if we sense God’s grace on a certain one, we can linger there for the entire time, as we make it our own.

Step one begins with gratitude, and we think over our past hours and how God may have blessed us, and we spend time thanking him. Perhaps we got an uplifting email of hope, we thank the Lord. Step 2 is to ask the Holy Spirit to heal us of our blindness, deafness, and hard-heartedness as we review our life since we last prayed. Step 3 is to listen to those times God was present and challenging and urging us to respond in a particular way that would manifest His love. Was He present in our daily routine? Step 4 is all about forgiveness and expressing sorrow for regrets we may have in how we responded and then listen for His response of compassion and forgiveness. Step 5 is to renew and reaffirm our intention to be prayerful and attentive to the Lord’s invitations in our ordinary moments.

This is only one spiritual discipline and there are so many but the real question is, am I awake to the Lord’s presence and will I recognize the many ways He will come to me today?

Hope you are having an enjoyable refreshing weekend. It is the season of parties and one more coming up here on Monday evening, a Halloween party.  Today I plan to clean!

When our pastor was recently sick and unable to preach, one of the elders at the last moment, shared for the sermon time. He mentioned the 7 different churches in Revelation and said perhaps our church was most like the church in Laodicea. That church wasn’t poor but they had become lukewarm and were given the message to repent and open the door to their hearts for the Lord knocks. Perhaps this is a word for each of us, for we can sail along in our Christian lives and slack off in our daily devotions, get lukewarm in our prayer lives and take for granted the Lord’s presence and power. We can become shallow and superficial and neglect what is most important.

How we live our lives each day has a direct response to our time with the Lord. When we spend time in the Lord’s presence, we are sent out into our day to share Him with others in the various ways He puts before us. He may come to us disguised in the life of our co-worker who needs a word of encouragement. It could be He comes to us in meeting a physical need of an impoverished family, or maybe helping at a soup kitchen or shelter. Let us be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when we feel the knock at our heart’s door that we quickly open to Him.

Happy weekend to you! Today is party day here and we will be going to pick up the cake and then celebrate the October birthdays. Later I am going to church for a Women’s night out with supper and special speaker. 

I would like to share another story from the book, Food from Ravens, as told by Margaret Wall. She was a missionary serving as a parish worker in Nairobi, Kenya, and blessed when she visited patients on the wards of a large hospital. There was freedom to speak openly of God, even among the non-Christians, but one day she was totally rejected by a woman, BiBi from a northern tribe in Turkana, Kenya. When Bibi saw Margaret coming towards her bed, she had a look of terror and recoiled. Margaret had no idea why she was afraid of her, but the nurses told of how this patient had come alone on the plane in great pain from her body being torn by unqualified helpers who forced labor on her in and abnormal pregnancy. Bibi needed someone who spoke Turkana and Margaret prayed for such a person, calling many people and trying to find that someone. One day she heard a voice in her spirit telling her, “Go down to the Christian bookstore for help.”  She obediently went and asked at the bookstore if anyone spoke Turkana. The clerk asked at the nearby office and finally in a loud voice asked if anyone shopping in the store knew of someone who could speak Turkana. You guessed it, the person behind Margaret said, “I do!” It was Jon who was a Turkana evangelist with a missionary pastor, in line at the bookstore. He had come a long way to the bookstore and was the answer to a prayer that had not yet been prayed.
Jon went to the hospital to Bibbi’s ward, and everyone watched as he communicated with Bibi in her language. Her countenance changed and her fears were melted away as Jon shared Jesus with her and later made cassette tapes in Turkana telling the gospel stories. Everyone wanted to know why she had been so afraid of the missionaries and Jon found out she thought they were going to kill her. Bibi found the Lord and freedom from her fears and Margaret was in awe of how the Lord answered her prayers.

Perhaps what prompted this was a conversation I had with a friend at my exercise class recently who had just attended two funerals that week of neighbors who had died. She told of the one man who had been confined to bed in the Nursing home and one morning as the nurse came into his room, she found the man not only out of bed but kneeling by the bed. He was dead but fixed in a kneeling position praying to the Lord. I just got goose bumps as I thought of what a way to go! What a message that sends to his loved ones of Who was most important in his life to the very end.

When a loved one dies in peace it is consoling and a gift to all of us left behind. None of us know what the dying process is like for we have not been this way before. It is unknown but we do know that the Lord will be with us and we will be ushered into glory. When someone dies in bitterness and anger what they leave behind is harmful and toxic but if they die in peace, it is nourishing and a gift that warms our heart even in our grieving. I know when my parents come to mind, I am left with such warmth and gratitude for all they left behind.  Let us live with the desire to leave a spirit of peace for our family and friends and not a burden.

 I have one more prayer from Whitney Hopler and will just quote part of it so I can finish with her conclusion. She prays a Prayer for the Vulnerable and Marginalized people.

“Dear God, we bring before you the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our society during this election season We pray for those who are often overlooked and whose voices are not heard. Protect and uplift them, God. Please make sure their needs are considered and addressed by all the people who are elected to serve Psalm 82:3-4 urges us to: ‘Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Whitney finishes by saying:

“In conclusion, as we go through this challenging election season, let’s remember the power of prayers and the importance of seeking God’s guidance. God can show us ways to move forward into a better future for all Americans- despite our political differences. By lifting each other up in prayer, we welcome God’s love and power to flow through our lives and heal our nation. Let’s continue to pray for the candidates (president and all the other electoral offices), our neighbors, and ourselves, trusting that God will lead us through this tumultuous time and into a better future

As we pray and stay committed to a free and fair democratic process, we can help bring about positive change for the common good. Psalm 33:12 tell us: ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for his inheritance.” May God reign in our hearts and in our nation”