I realized I started off backwards in the pilot "Harmonics" Post. Let’s start at the very beginning 🙂
As the year begins, I felt it would be great for us to have a common short devotional which can serve to unite our minds and thoughts. Please don’t see this as spam but rather reminders to prayer and meditation – the very basics towards a life of wisdom. Someone asked me about how to be closer to God this week, I’m sure there are many ways… and personal prayer and meditation of the Bible is surely one which we cannot miss. Of course, you can sign up for the Upper Room daily devotional yourself, but I’ll see whether I can add a line or two when I send it through Rumahpapa. 🙂 May I invite us for a 30day challenge? Stick with giving 5 minutes each day for reading through this until February 5. And see what happens? It has all the basic elements of simple prayer, meditation and concern for the world and everyday life. Doing it together also gives us a topics for conversations in LiFE Groups, and common pointers where we can prepare for the weekly worship and communion.
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we don’t like to talk about "sin" but I’m reminded of the consequences of "sin" in our own actions and the lives of others today. The response to sin is not loathing in it, but rather seeking forgiveness and power for change
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This struck me because we’ve renamed the weekly BLC Liveupdate (a name I took from anti-virus programs) and Papyrus (the material used for writing in the 1st century) to BLC WEEKLY MANNA (going further back to the Old Testament which we get the verse here today). For me the WEEKLY MANNA, is to also point us to the daily Manna and nourishment we need each day. After finishing 28 chapters of Matthew by Listening Mp3s from http://www.zondervan.com/tbe (available in BLC Library). The last three days have been especially full of the story of God – or good "feeding". I don’t remember exact details of what I eat daily, but its needed for that day. Similar ly, the daily feeding of scripture is not for rote learning but what is needed for the day. And that’s enough for me. What I fear is many of us are starving because of no nutrition from the Bible at all, or malnutrition of feeing on everything else apart from Scripture. HOpe these daily devotionals will help.
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My first thought was a replay of the movie "Pay it Forward" I watched years ago – where a little boy had this idea of whenever you get help from someone you "repay it forward" to help three other people and that will change the world. A couple of phrases emerged for me today from the main scripture text in 2 Cor 9:6-12 … "sow bountifully", "enriched in every way", "supplies the needs of the saints", "Thanksgivings to God."
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" Thank you, Lord God, for the gift of your written word and for the gift of your Son, to whom the scriptures lead us."
The above prayer represents my posture when it comes to reading-listening-feeding from the Bible. The "breakthrough" moment for me (again and again) is when the reading and meditating of the Scriptures create a space for me to enter conversation with Christ, deal with the self-talk inside myself, and helping to revise the way I look at the outside world.
a HIGH for me this past week, is listening to 28 chapters of Matthew while I was driving, and while I putting the kids to sleep, when I was waiting for the next appointment. It’s about 5 minutes each chapter … so a journey from my place to PJ for example, covers 20-30minutes and that’s 5-6 chapters. Amazing. The quantity is fine, but the major blessing was to simply meet Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew again. Plus, when I was listening I felt it was from the ear to the heart 🙂
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