Thursday Talk Story 4-30-09 #11 Silence "For God alone my soul waits in silence..." Psalm 62:1 Silence is a vanishing commodity. Where can we find a moment of peace and quiet today? In our cars? In bed at night? In a library, monastary, cabin in the woods? Silence is the room where we can meet God. God comes to us in all the time, but we don’t know it because we are preoccupied. My mom often said she needed to have her "quiet time" in the morning. Before everyone else was at the table for breakfast or late in the evening she would read her devotions and her Bible. When we kids were in junior high and high school, she tried to have a "family quiet time" after dinner, but often we three would distract her silence, readings and prayer with our antics. But her example had its effect. She made room for a Word from God each day. Like the Psalmist, mom knew that an intentional time of silence allows God’s Word to meet us. As we let His Word and Spirit in, God speaks to our hearts. That encounter is spiritually powerful and strengthening. The disciples learned that truth after the Resurrection. The risen Christ met them as they were silently hiding behind locked doors of fear. He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Jn 20:21 They were transformed! His Word and Spirit made them new people. As we read Christ's Word in silence He empowers us to be his people today.
Then as we go into our day, everything becomes new. His forgiving Word launches us into a new way of life marked by peace, friendship and service to God and others. The past is dead and gone…the new life has begun. A moment of quiet with the Risen Word can change everything.
Risen One, thank you for giving us your peace today as we open ourselves to your Word in silence. Thank you for redeeming, equipping and sending us forth into the world as your people. Amen.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thursday Talk Story April 23, 2009
“Lead me to the rock that is higher than I…” Psalm 61:26
Life often leads us to lower levels than we want. An accident, an illness, a bad choice, a great loss can take us down a road to harsh places of fear, anxiety, regret, even despair. What can we do? How can we respond when such troubles come? How can we get back on higher ground?
Some would say, “When tough things happen in life the tough get going”. Others think, “What’s the use, I quit…I’m just a failure.” Still others muse, “I can’t take it anymore…I’m getting out of here as fast as I can.”
We can feel like fighting, quitting, fleeing or giving up when hardship hits us. Those are our natural responses. Or we can ask for God’s help.
God always wants to lead us to a higher place than we presently inhabit. Jesus’ resurrection certainly lifts us to a higher place of hope than we ever knew before. Peter had it right when he wrote,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials…” (I Peter 1:3-6 NRSV)
Now we stand on the higher rock of hope where we see that we will enter eternal life with God when we die. We will know a glad reunion with family, friends and neighbors there. We will see God face to face. This hope changes how we live in the present. As we trust that God will always lead us to higher places now, we try to live by Christ’s higher values in the present. In heaven our Lord will rule with justice, mercy and love and wipe every tear from our eyes. In anticipation and hope of that day, we choose to live in ways that show God’s compassion, justice and mercy to others here.
Many of you give food and clothing to local food pantries and thrift stores. We visit the sick. We pray for the troubled. We worship together. We visit with neighbors to show God’s love by listening and caring. In these ways we point others to the Risen Lord who leads us to the Higher Rock of Himself.
Thank you God for sharing the hope of Christ’s Resurrection blessings with the world. (More about the Presbyterian Church visit: www.omropres.com)
Life often leads us to lower levels than we want. An accident, an illness, a bad choice, a great loss can take us down a road to harsh places of fear, anxiety, regret, even despair. What can we do? How can we respond when such troubles come? How can we get back on higher ground?
Some would say, “When tough things happen in life the tough get going”. Others think, “What’s the use, I quit…I’m just a failure.” Still others muse, “I can’t take it anymore…I’m getting out of here as fast as I can.”
We can feel like fighting, quitting, fleeing or giving up when hardship hits us. Those are our natural responses. Or we can ask for God’s help.
God always wants to lead us to a higher place than we presently inhabit. Jesus’ resurrection certainly lifts us to a higher place of hope than we ever knew before. Peter had it right when he wrote,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials…” (I Peter 1:3-6 NRSV)
Now we stand on the higher rock of hope where we see that we will enter eternal life with God when we die. We will know a glad reunion with family, friends and neighbors there. We will see God face to face. This hope changes how we live in the present. As we trust that God will always lead us to higher places now, we try to live by Christ’s higher values in the present. In heaven our Lord will rule with justice, mercy and love and wipe every tear from our eyes. In anticipation and hope of that day, we choose to live in ways that show God’s compassion, justice and mercy to others here.
Many of you give food and clothing to local food pantries and thrift stores. We visit the sick. We pray for the troubled. We worship together. We visit with neighbors to show God’s love by listening and caring. In these ways we point others to the Risen Lord who leads us to the Higher Rock of Himself.
Thank you God for sharing the hope of Christ’s Resurrection blessings with the world. (More about the Presbyterian Church visit: www.omropres.com)
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