Category: Sister Judy (Page 268 of 271)

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book, Apprenticeship with Jesus

“All Christian power springs from communion with God and from the indwelling of divine grace.”  James Aughey

As the author speaks of communion I am grateful that at our new church we receive communion each Sunday. Communion  literally means, “Thanksgiving”. 
Even though Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection opened wide the gates of heaven for us, we still have to face our own personal cross.

We must be willing to choose the will of our Father over that of our own-several hundred times each day.  That’s tough.

 Our only hope is to have Him on our insides, alive, powerful, loving and acting through us.  This great sacrament is revealed not through the intake of the bread and wine but through the outflow of Christ living His life through us.

Let us pray that He will be a real and living presence in every atom of our body as we go through this day.  A breath prayer is suggested if you are facing a difficult task, “In this situation, live your life through me.”

Devotions from  Apprenticeship with Jesus by Gary Moon

Does our journey with the Lord sometimes become mechanical?
Have we exchanged salvation from being an exciting journey towards union with God into a legal transaction?

 Have we substituted the Four Spiritual Laws for the 2 supreme laws? What about loving God, self, and neighbor?
 We can go through the motions of discipleship of being a forgiven sinner and still not live as his apprentice.

We were designed to be members of a loving community, and being in constant companionship with the One who designed us.

May we live as many moments of the day as possible with God and in constant conversation with Him.
Jesus came to bring abundant life. ( John 10;10)
Let us quiet our thoughts and take time to listen to the One who desires to speak to us and give us transforming friendship and love.

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book, The Apprenticeship with Jesus

 A Quote from Anthony Hoekema ‘s book, Created in God’s Image:

“To be human in the truest sense, therefore, means to love God above all, to trust and obey Him, to pray to Him, and to thank Him.
Man is bound to God as a fish is bound to water. When a fish seeks to be free from the water, it loses both its freedom and its life. When we seek to be free we become slaves to sin.”

We are meant to live a “with-God” life and to become like Him.  That does not mean learning facts about Him but learning how to imitate Him by being with Him.

It means learning to be with Him throughout the day…An apprenticeship with God begins by being with Him, living connected.

Devotions for Gary Moon’s book, Apprenticeship to Jesus

Regardless of appearances, there is something amazing at the very center of each human being. It is marvelous for each of us has a seed of divinity planted inside, the image of God.

Being created in the image of God refers to all the God-like qualities that enable us to reflect His character.

Like God we can think, feel, choose, act, and relate.
“We are most like Him when all our components are working in harmony to produce a concerto of creativity, compassion, and community.”
Often, this God-seed, or divine spark, is buried very deep and is difficult to recognize.

Let us try to go through the day remembering  that every person contains the divine spark.  That will help us address every person with a sense of respect and dignity.

Most of us need to learn to let go of personal power and control and tap into the energy of God.

The result of sin in is to take matters into our own hands, to be in control, to obey ourselves.
When Jesus says, “Man does not live by bread alone, He is referring to the energy of God. He is saying, “I have energy (meat) that you don’t know about…the energy of God.

We can receive power beyond ourselves as we take the simple steps of a trusting apprentice, living in His kingdom.

Our natural tendency is to use our own power to manage each of our situations but we need His power.

Maybe the Lord will bring someone to mind tomorrow or a situation. Invite Him to move through you with His energy and power that is outside of yourself.

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book

God is very creative. HE designed every atom in our bodies and like Michelangelo, He can see the Imago Dei-the perfect image of Himself- buried inside of us. He uses life and a chisel of grace to hew away the rough walls that imprison that image so that others can see it too.  He particularly is good at redeeming beauty from the discard pile.

To be God’s apprentice is to be our most creative selves because He is creative.  That is why we take such spontaneous delight in all sorts of creative activities….like baking a new dish, expressing our emotions through dance, painting, writing etc.

God made us to experience joy in imitating, in a creative way, his creative activity.

May we realize that in the joy of creativity lies the spark of divine presence within.

You may want to think of ways you like to be creative and ask yourselves which of these is most life-giving for you.  Then block out time to be creative-with –God

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book, Apprenticeship with Jesus

George MacDonald said “There is nothing eternal but that which loves and can be loved.”

God’s simplest and highest name is love. God is Love.

According to Teresa of Avila , “The primary purpose of creation is to fulfill God’s wish to bestow love and teach love so that  creatures can share in the blessedness of divine life. And because we are created in the image of God, our mission statement is: “To love and be loved in return.”

People are most happy when they are “in the flow”, when they have forgotten about themselves. ” Our souls become sick when they fall out of similitude with God, and they are doctored back to health precisely when they begin to resemble the divine pattern of other-focused love.”
May we surprise someone today with a simple act of love, forgetting ourself.

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book, Apprenticeship with Jesus

The most fundamental aspect of becoming an apprentice is to be with that person for the purpose of becoming like them.

Re-visioning God as a loving relationship of three- best described as a joyous dance- draws us in.

Part of our apprenticeship to Jesus involves learning how to dance.

As we see God as a dancing Trinity, we become aware that He wants us to join in with Him.

“If we are created in the image of a loving community of other-centered love best described as a perpetual dance of joy, then we will only feel at home to the extent that we have joined the dance. We are to sign on as apprentices, roll out the step chart, and learn to dance to the music of self-forgetfulness.”

Sometimes we can know that we are on the verge of burnout and the cure is to step out from under the weight of the world and to fall in step with the dance of the Trinity. God does not want us to be puppets but wants us as His footloose friends.
The guidelines for abundant living is not pious productivity but learning to dance with God and value loving relationships.

Devotions from Gary Moon’s book, Apprenticeship with Jesus”

Jesus came to introduce His kingdom and invite us to approach life in a wholly different manner than the world.

He came to earth from a foreign culture to find followers who would be willing to exchange their ways ( those of the world) for his ( the culture  of the kingdom).

What a great contrast! 

Is our main reason for being here to experience  life as a transforming friendship with God?   He is looking for people willing to resist earthly rhythms and begin dancing to a Trinitarian beat.

I like this word from A.W. Tozer

    “ A real Christian is an odd number anyway.

He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen.

He talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see,

  expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another,

    empties himself in order that he might be full,

   admits he is wrong so he can be declared right,

      goes down in order to get up.

  He is strongest when he is weakest,

    richest when he is poorest,

  and happiest when he feels worst.
            He dies so he can live,

     forsakes in order to have,

     gives away so he can keep,

        sees the invisible,

      hears the inaudible,

and knows that which passes knowledge.”

It will take and interactive apprenticeship with Him so we will feel at home in the realm of our true home.

We are packing now to go to Kurt’s in Kansas early tomorrow morning. WE made a day of it today with baking, shopping, Inflatable Land, having lunch at the hospital with Leif etc.  We got to meet the other men in his CPE program and they are a great bunch. Please pray as we travel!