Holy Spirit Week: Spirit of Freedom
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
This week we are focussing on who the Holy Spirit is in Scripture in the lead up to the festival of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to all people of faith not just a special few. May you discover the richness of what God has given for you.
Prayer: For the Knowledge of God’s Will
Almighty and everlasting God,
in whom we live and move and have our being,
who has created us for yourself,
so that we can find rest only in you;
grant unto us such purity of heart
and strength of purpose,
that no selfish passion may hinder us
from knowing your will,
no weakness from doing it;
but in your light we may see light clearly,
and in your service find perfect freedom;
for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
Book of Common Order, 1940, Church of Scotland
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Galatians 5:13-25. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh(sinful nature); rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
(Galatians 5:13-25 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Keep in step with the Spirit; this is the life of freedom. Two things may sound odd to the average person:
1. That we walk with the Spirit and Paul the writer of the letter does not say Jesus here. I wonder why? Perhaps it is because Paul sees the absolute unity of Jesus and the Spirit in both presence and purpose.
2. The Christian life is described as freedom. Maybe this is because society’s idea of freedom sounds more like ‘doing’ what you want whenever you want including holidays, finding love, and trying out lots of pleasurable things. I think the Christian idea being portrayed in Galatians is about ‘being’ free to be the person God created you to be (fruit of the Spirit). On top of that this freedom is most enjoyed in a community of people who walk by the Spirit. Which freedom do you set your heart on?
May you walk with the Spirit today.
Holy Spirit Week: Spirit of Truth
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
This week we are focussing on who the Holy Spirit is in Scripture in the lead up to the festival of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to all people of faith not just a special few. May you discover the richness of what God has given for you.
Prayer: Fulfil our Request
Christ, our God,
who has made it possible for us to pray together
and who promised that
when two or three are gathered in your name
you will give what they ask:
Fulfil now our request,
(insofar as it is good and according to the special needs of each),
granting us in this world the knowledge of your truth
…
For you are a loving God
and to you we give glory,
to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
now and forever. Amen.
Adapted liturgy prayer
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
John 14:15-27. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you. Jesus shares with his disciples in the Upper Room the day before his crucifixion.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
(John 14:15-27 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
In a world in which everything is just opinion and every opinion is contested by another, what is truth? How would you recognise it? Is the opposite of truth deception or someone else’s personal truth? Or is the search for truth a yearning to know what is real and what is not real? Is Love at the centre of the universe or something else?
We humans need to know what life is about and how we fit into it. We invent philosophies and economies, advertising, and political ideologies to make sense of it or to imagine the world we would like to see, but what is real. Jesus says just before our passage that “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” But then he tells them that he is leaving (dying and ascending to heaven), so who will help us to discern what is real and true in life; the Spirit of Truth. She is not neutral towards us and our needs. Instead she is given as an ‘advocate’ to guide and defend us in this confusing world. And best of all, to help us recognise the Truth.
Holy Spirit Week: Jesus needs the Spirit
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
This week we are focussing on who the Holy Spirit is in Scripture in the lead up to the festival of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to all people of faith not just a special few. May you discover the richness of what God has given for you.
Prayer: A prayer for the Lord’s Day
Eternal and most glorious God,
you dwell in light which no one can approach,
and live and reign for ever and ever:
we bless you that you have brought us by your grace
to see the light of another day.
Help us, O Lord, this day
to commemorate the rising of our blessed Redeemer;
and let our hearts be raised to the heavenly world,
and to Jesus, who sits at your right hand in glory.
May the blessed Holy Spirit visit us with divine influence,
and remain with us in both public and private worship,
for without the blessed Spirit’s gracious assistance,
we can do nothing that is acceptable to you.
May we attend with cheerfulness and holy desire
on the ordinances of your house this day,
and may we find your presence in the assembly of your people.
May our souls be lifted up to you
in the prayers that will be offered,
and may our lips sing your praises with holy joy.
Let us come away from your house
under the light of your countenance,
satisfied with your love
declared to the world in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748 (abridged)
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 3:13-17. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
(Matthew 3:13-17 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Getting baptised and beginning the Christian life is strongly associated with repenting of your sins and symbolically dying to the old life and rising to the new. Less often, we also celebrate that when we begin this Christian walk we are simultaneously given the Holy Spirit to empower the new life. So we get confused by Jesus getting baptised. Did he have sins to repent of? No. However, he was starting a new life that needed the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Remember that when he became fully human at Christmas he had to empty himself of all power and be vulnerable like the rest of us. (Phil. 2:6-8)
His ministry and his encounters with people and his inner peace all needed the help of the Holy Spirit to make it happen and to make it fruitful.
If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to walk the Christian walk then so do his disciples. We will never make it on our own and we don’t need to.
Things that Endure
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: The freedom of serving God
O loving God,
you are the light of the minds that know you,
the life of the souls that love you,
and the strength of the hearts that serve you.
Help us so to know you
that we may truly love you;
and so to love you
that we may faithfully serve you,
whom to serve is perfect freedom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gelasian Sacramentary, 7th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 6:19-21. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
The more you look at these verses the more it makes you wonder. While Jesus is clear what earthly treasures are, it is less clear what treasures in heaven might be.
In the light of our LFC Thanksgiving Service today for the life of Murray you might be inclined to think Jesus is talking about an investment in the next life. But maybe that is only a part of the truth. Remember that for Jesus relationships are what he values most. Another treasure ‘the pearl of great price’ referred to in his parable is in fact a loving relationship with God.
Seen in this light maybe the treasure in heaven is your relationship with God. Here is something to be enjoyed in this life and the next.
Enjoy.
My Father’s House
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Hymn of the Resurrection
Christ, our Lord,
you have abolished the curse of sin by your cross.
You have done away with the power of death by your burial.
You have illumined humanity by your resurrection.
Therefore we cry out to you:
glory to you, O Christ, our Lord and benefactor! Amen.
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
John 14:1-7. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you. Jesus is speaking in the Upper Room with his disciples on the night he was betrayed.
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
(John 14:1-7 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Most of us hate a nervous silence; the feeling that something is wrong but you are not sure what because you don’t understand what is happening. For many people that is how it feels when they think about death. I don’t mean the bravado you often hear where people say they don’t fear death. I mean what people really think when they are alone at night with their thoughts and their own death approaches.
Jesus doesn’t want you to feel that nervous silence. He wants you to fill that silence with knowledge; the knowledge that God has got you and its going to be ok. His words in this passage are not necessary for the disciples. Instead he is simply being kind. It is the character of Jesus that as the worst night of his life approaches leading to his own death, he is thinking about his disciples and what they think about death. He shares the peace and confidence he feels when he puts himself in God’s hands. That is his real gift to you.
I don’t know what the Father’s house will be like but I do know this; it will feel like home.
Co-workers
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Prayer for True Abundance of Life
Eternal God,
grant to us this day and every day
such readiness and delight in following Christ,
that whether our lives are long or short
we shall have lived abundantly;
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Source A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa quoted in A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
We human beings are a funny lot. Our reading continues yesterday’s theme of how Christians can take Jesus’ teachings and tweak it so that it misses the point. Today Paul the Apostle addresses the issue of people having their favourite leaders in church. As I understand it, Paul started up the church in Corinth from all new believers in Jesus Christ. But his calling was to plant new churches in new areas, so he eventually moved on after a couple of years.
Then Apollos moved into the area and pastored the church as it put down roots and became a more established community. But the sheer variety of personalities in that church pulled the church in all sorts of directions and some of those directions were against Christ’s teachings. Apollos did what he could, and Paul helped out with a few well-placed letters.
But with so many competing viewpoints, people developed favourites; some liked Paul’s theology and style better, others preferred Apollos’ style and theology better, and still others liked to go to their favourite, Peter.
Paul reveals to them what they have done. They have turned theology into a competitive team sport like football and turned on each other. Instead, Christ meant the variety to be complementary and necessary for the building up of a diverse group of people. As long as they shared the same foundation that is Jesus Christ as Lord, the variety is part of God’s grace to the church.
Do you see differences in belief and approach as a nuisance or a gift? When is a difference too much so that you can no longer share the same foundation of Jesus Christ is Lord? How would you know?
Most of our differences are part of God’s gift so that a greater variety of people can be communicated with. Who do you own as your co-workers that enrich by being different?
Predestined
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Sharing all Christ gives us
Christ of the new covenant,
give us the happiness to share,
with full measure, pressed down,
shaken together and running over,
all that you give us;
in your name. Amen.
(Source A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa quoted in A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Ephesians 1:1-6 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
(Ephesians 1:1-6 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
I was surprised to find a few years ago when my kids were at university that Christians were still arguing about predestination just as they were when I was at uni.
The two sides argued whether predestination overrode freewill. If so then it was dreadfully unfair on all the non-Christians pre-destined for hell. In my gut I knew there was something flawed and pointless in such arguments but struggled to put my finger on it.
Now, by simply reading what is in this passage and not projecting onto it what is not there, I find myself greatly encouraged. All of us were chosen for a wonderful destiny by God before the creation. God, the “Father from whom every family on earth derives its name” (same letter, chapter3) loves all his children just like a human parent. All of them are invited to receive grace but not everyone will accept.
But you accepted his grace through Jesus. Now is the time for praise not argument. You were thought of by name before the universe was made 13.8 billion years ago. Wow …
Clique or Peer Support?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Not one mould, but many
Creator God,
you have made us
not in one mould, but in many;
so deepen our unity in Christ
that we may rejoice in our diversity;
for the sake of Christ. Amen.
(Source A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa quoted in A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
James 2:1-8 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing right.
(James 2:1-8 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
When I was an older teenager, I discovered the wonderful Ashburton Uniting Church youth group. It was led by a highly spiritual youth pastor and many of the young people there were serious about their faith. Several became ministers and one became a missionary. There was only one tiny problem I had; it became clear after a while that I was not part of the inner circle of friends. There were distinctions between people that indicated who dearly loved and who was merely loved.
Don’t get me wrong, this was heaps better than what school clique groups and nobody was cut off and isolated. But I knew that this was not quite what Jesus imagined when he dreamed of the Kingdom of God ruled by the King of love. I have noted over the years that people vary enormously over how inclusive of others they are at church (I can’t tell what people are like when I am not around). The challenge to each of us is this, “What do you dream the inclusiveness will be like and will you commit to that dream no matter what where others set the bar?”
Jacob’s Mistake
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: A Prayer for True Abundance of Life
Eternal God,
grant to us this day and every day
such readiness and delight in following Christ,
that whether our lives are long or short
we shall have lived abundantly;
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Source A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa quoted in A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Genesis 28:10-19 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel
(Genesis 28:10-19 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Jacob fled his homeland after stealing his older brother’s birthright which was the blessing handed down since Abraham. During his escape he was overwhelmed by an encounter with God while asleep.
So what was Jacob’s mistake? He thought the place was holy when it was actually him who was holy. So he named the place Bethel. God knows better so later on he gave Jacob a new name, Israel.
Isn’t this a common mistake we make? We sense God’s presence during a worship service so we think the worship space is holy. We draw need to God during a certain song of praise so we think the song is holy. But it is all the wrong way around. It is you who is holy. You are the holy ground where God touches the earth.
What does this mean for you?