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Proper 14 B - Psalm 48

"This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." - Ps. 48:14

"He has kept and folded us from ten thousand ills when we did not know it. In the midst of our security we should have perished every hour, but He sheltered us 'from the terror by night and from the arrow that flieth by day' - from the powers of evil that walk in darkness, and from the snares of our own evil will. He has kept us even against ourselves, and saved us even from our own undoing. Let us read the traces of His hand in all our ways, in all the events, the chances, the changes of this troubled state. It is He that folds and feeds us, that makes us to go in and out, to be faint or to find pasture, to lie down by the still waters, or to walk by the way that is parched and desert."
~ H.E. Manning

"We are never without help. We have no right to say of any good work, 'it is too hard for me to do,' or of any sorrow, 'it is too hard for me to bear,' or of any sinful habit, 'it is too hard for me to overcome.'"
~ Elizabeth Charles

Proper 14 B - 2 Sam. 5:4 - New Direction Bible Reading Guide Volume II

"David was Thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years" (2 Sam 5:4)

"Those first three decades of David's life must have seemed like an eternity to the young man. Early in his life, he was annointed by the prophet Samuel as king. For many years, he carried that unfulfilled promise in his heart.

But David always knew that God is faithful to His Word. He knew that the Lord would fulfill all that had been prophesied and refused to try to find a shortcut to the throne. When he had opportunities to kill Saul, David refused to do so. He was willing to wait during all those years of running and hiding in the wilderness.

God kept his promises. David was crowned king by his people and reigned for a much longer time than his waiting period had been!

Often, we would like to hurry God along - to bring about His plans sooner than He wills it. We need to learn to have the patience and trust of David, knowing that God will keep His promises in time.

Direction for today: Trust God to keep His Word"

Burke and Knowles, New Direction Bible Reading Guide Volume II; Crossroads Christian Communications Inc.; Toronto, Ontario, 1986, Pg 213.

Proper 14 B - 2 Cor. 12:9 - The Ragamuffin Gospel

"...Grace calls you out: you are not just a disillusioned old man who may die soon, a middle-aged woman stuck in a job and desperately wanting to get out, a young person feeling the fire in the belly begin to grow cold. You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken, or potbellied. Death, panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not just that. You are accepted. Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.

Paul writes: 'The Lord said, "My grace is enough for you: my power is at it's best in weakness." So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me' (2 Corinthians 12:9). Whatever our failings may be, we need not lower our eyes in the presence of Jesus. Unlike Quasimoto, the hunchback of Notre Dame, we need not hide all that is ugly and repulsive in us. Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual but for the woobly and weak-kneed who know they don't have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazin' grace. As we glance up, we are astonished to find the eyes of Jesus open with wonder, deep with understanding, and gentle with compassion.

Something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person accepted by Jesus: when a harsh, judgemental and unforgiving sentence is passed on homosexuals; when a divorcee is denied communion; when the child of a prostitute is refused baptism; whem an unlaicized preist is forbidden the sacraments. Jesus comes to the ungodly, even on Sunday morning. His coming ends ungodliness and makes us worthy. Otherwise, we are establishing at the heart of Christianity an utterly ungodly and unworthy preoccupation with works..."

Brennan Manning; The Ragamuffin Gospel; Mulltonomah Publishers Inc.; Sisters, Oregon; 1990. Pg. 29-30.

Proper 14 B - Mark 6:2 - Living Powerfully One Day at a Time

"...What mighty works are wrought by His hands!"
~Mark 6:2

No psychiatrist, no psychologist, no behavioral scientist has had a greater authentic, documentable record of changing people deeply, permanently, or lastingly than have we who minister in the name of Jesus Christ and in the power of God.

Do people really change? Can you alter your altars? Some of you many remember Bill Sands, author of the book My Shadow Ran Fast. He was such a tough crook he was listed as incorrigible and not eligible for parole. He was sentenced to solitary confinement in Sing Sing. The warden at the time was a man named Duffy who believed he could transform people through his Christian love. He believed that the worst person could be totally tranformed and changed into someone beautiful, and he wanted to try to reshape Bill.

One of the chief executives in the prison had an arguement with Warden Duffy. It was turning into a real inter-office war. Finally Mr. Duffy's opponent said, "Leopards don't change their spots." And Warden Duffy said, "I don't have any leopards in Sing Sing. I only have people. And people change." Bill Sands did. He was completely, totally, and permanently changed.

Robert H. Schuller, Living Powerfully One Day at a Time; Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey; 1982. Pg. 158.