|
 | Devos |
 |
|
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Friends,
I wrote last week about going out and responding to the needs of the world: Haiti, locally, neighborhood, family....wherever.
But I didn't talk much about the "whys" of those choices.
Why on earth would people fly down to Haiti to help out? Why would you give your time on your days off from work to build a house for Habitat? Why would you stop on the side of the road for someone with a flat tire?
As Christians...we have a pattern to follow...one that began in the beginning, culminated on the cross and spread like wild fire when the Holy Spirit arrived in a new way on the scene. It's called the Spirit of God! And it transforms you.
We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12
But it would be arrogant to think that it's only Christians out there in the world doing all the good stuff. So what's the deal?
I used to work in Habitat for Humanity on the other side of New York with a guy named Mark. He claimed to be an atheist, but every time we worked together painting or putting up drywall, our conversations revolved around faith. I remember one morning asking him why he did this? Why did he show up once or twice a week to work on someone else's home? He said: "I think it's what Jesus would do." I thought that was a pretty odd response from the "I don't go to church or believe in God" guy. But he was looking at the basics of the story. He still wrestled with the "fully man/fully God/messiah/just a nice guy" thing about Jesus.
But as he wrestled...he didn't let it stop him from seeing a part...just the basic elements...of an amazing story. And those basics transformed his actions.
That's what I think Paul is talking to the Corinthian crew about: letting the Spirit of God transform you, so that the gifts we've been given can be shared with a world in need.
You don't need to have all the answers today. You don't need to be perfect. You don't need to have it all figured out. All you need is the Spirit of God...which by the way...you already have because of the power of God, not something you did!
So let that be your "why" today: why you can love your neighbor, the stranger, that friend...because maybe, it just might be what Jesus would have done.
Lord, fill me with that spirit and lead me to share. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Pastor Steve Biegner
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Friends,
I've been reflecting on the tragic situation in Haiti recently, as many of you do as well. And every part of my gut and being wants to run down there with some food and water and get to work!
I read this verse this morning in my devotional time: I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged. Ezekiel 34:22
And I thought...really? No longer be ravaged? Are ya watching the news Zeke? And then I snapped out of it again and said yes, really! Fully ravaged would mean that no one showed up to help in this Haitian situation...but many have already, the right people with the right training...with food, with water, with medical care and boats that are floating hospitals, and more. Is it a continuing tragedy that there is an amazing struggle just to get the food/water/medical care to the people who need it most? Yes. But as someone said on the news this morning: "It's like shoving an elephant into a straw!" Haiti just wasn't built for this level of relief work to enter into.
So here's what I encourage you to do:
1. Continue to pray for all those involved...that patience and human kindness would prevail down there and that the relief workers and medical care givers would not lose heart and have the strength they need.
2. Give financially to the organizations that you trust and that get a high proportion of your donations directly on site.
3. Be ready for this to be a long term need. Talk with your church, community organization, etc about how you can mobilize to go to Haiti to help when the time is right, which might be months or years from now.
4. Be careful of donation sites gathering "stuff." We do this with all the best intentions because we don't know what else to do. But the problem is, and I've seen this first hand in ice storms, 9/11 and plane crashes, too much of the wrong stuff shows up at the wrong time. And then someone has to spend their time onsite dealing with the arrival 237 mops heads that might never be needed, but seemed to someone standing in the store like a smart donation. Again, all the best intentions, but sometimes the wrong result.
5. And while you wait, DO SOMETHING NEAR YOU! Haiti is not the only place that is struggling. Yes, their scale is massive. But the inner city of Buffalo is a mess, my elderly neighbor probably has some stuff I could help her with at her house and the lady that got her car stuck in the Clarence Center Cemetery last week really needed me to stop, take 15 minutes and push her car out of a snow drift. What is right around you now...in your town...on a small scale...that is "ravaged?"
Because here's the deal, "stuff happens"...a lot...small and large scale...and will continue to And the promise from God is that those in the chaos won't be alone.
Maybe you might be the one that needs to show up and prove that fact to those who are in the chaos.
Lord, send me...far...and near. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Pastor Steve Biegner
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Friends,
Are you becoming a wild vine? For a moment? For a "longer than a moment?"
Yet I planted you as a choice vine, from the purest stock. How then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine? Jeremiah 2:21
We collect food out here at Zion Lutheran for our East Side and suburban food pantries. It's awesome! People are so generous and (hopefully) remembering that every time they are headed to church, they can grab a canned good or non perishable food item and bring it over. And just that easy....we feed the hungry!
Today, while I was loading food into the car of our Nutritional Transport Team (just made that name up for Lois!), we found a big ol' thing of dried Sweet Leaf Basil. And get this....it was opened, missing the top 1/3 of the contents and...here we go...had May 1990 as the expiration date! Yikes! Now I'm sure that the person bringing in the food wasn't just cleaning closets...I'm sure it was an innocent mistake and they just didn't want it to go to waste. Unfortunately, I believe that happened some 19 years ago.
And so I can't help but think...these poor little flakes of basil!! They had so much potential!!! I imagined them spicing up a big pot of spaghetti sauce or some Italian vegetable soup...warming my insides and pleasing my taste buds.
And now, because they sat on a shelf too long, they have just become "wild vines"...not living out their purpose and not up to their potential. Degenerate spices.
They were intended to be the purest...planted to be "choice"...and now they are past their shelf life.
How about you? "Planted for purest stock is what you are," `says Yoda.
And Jesus said the same thing too. The wild vine is the one that grows out of control, in the wrong direction and without pure purpose. A degenerate vine is one that screws other vines up along the way.
Maybe by going too wild. Or maybe by not going at all.
Are your spices on the shelf? The ones that God planted in you as he formed you?
If we use our spices...if we own the fact that we are choice vines....we will feed the hungry and more!
Lord, help me grow and be used. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Monday, 11 January 2010
Friends,
What do you expect will happen today?
We had a guest preacher this past weekend at Zion and he challenged us to realize that God is not in the business of meeting or fulfilling our expectations...instead, God is in the business of shattering them with unexpected and undeserved love and grace!
So in light of that, what do you NOW expect will happen today?
We have a pretty powerful God: One that opens the heavens and sent the Holy Spirit, One that gives his Son, One that saves us all, One that creates a world and sets it in motion for re-creation and recreation. "The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it -- you have founded them. The north and the south -- you created them." Psalm 89:11-12
So in light of that, what do you NOW expect will happen today?
When I pull my car up to a four-way stop intersection, I now expect someone to do something dumb. I expect that people will just stare at one another, all wave the others on, three people start at once, or one person will blow right through it. I have grown to expect stupidity at some points of life.
That kind of thinking and experience ends up tainting our relationship with God...thinking that God isn't bigger than whatever we are facing...thinking that God can only handle certain things in the world today and through certain ways.
But the deal is: God shatters all expectations and pours grace and hope out in ways we can never dream of.
So expect God to get you through this day.
Expect God to surprise you tomorrow...maybe even overwhelm you.
Expect God to be present.
Expect God to welcome you home.
So in light of that, what do you NOW except will happen today?
Lord, here we go. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
 |
| |
