Morning Meditation Moment

"I lift up my eyes to the hills-from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2)

God's true nature and activity

This morning's devotional and prayer-time centred around Psalm 103. The words have always been among my favourite in the Hebrew Bible. In verse 8, over against so many folks who think that the First Testament promotes only a war God of punishment, hellfire and brimstone; the psalmist declares the true nature of God vis-a-vis how God has been present and active in the psalmist's life and in the lives of the Israelites: "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." The psalmist goes on to give us a dose of reality concerning our mortality too, by contrasting the grass and flower, the latter of which is beautiful, yet very short lived; and the everlasting nature of God in verses 15-17. So appreciate and make the most of your flourishing today and rely on God's steadfast love to be all-sufficient and everlasting to carry you into the future.

Jeremiah and the prophetic life

Jeremiah laments by Rembrandt

 

 

Jeremiah had a most difficult life. He was called by God to be a prophet not only to the people of Judah, but also to the nations. His life was filled with suffering and rejection by his own people. Many of his prophetic oracles were "bad news." They were words from the LORD God that the people did not want to hear. Who, in their right mind, wants to be a bearer of bad news?! No one, that's who. Yet that is precisely what Jeremiah was called by God to do. 

   His was a lonely life because so many failed to accept him or the message he proclaimed as a servant of the LORD. There were times in Jeremiah's life when he was angry, depressed, and filled with grief and sorrow. In short, he was not "a happy camper."  Moreover, Jeremiah was not afraid to spill all of his thoughts and deepest emotions out to God either. In fact, there were times when he wished that God had chosen someone else to be a prophet.

   Yet, in spite of all the hardships and sufferings, misunderstanding, judgements and rejections he had to endure he could not give up the prophetic life. God's word was burning in him like a fire in his bones. A fire that, in all of its consuming power, destroys one's selfish, egotistic interests and purifies one's whole being so that God's will be done, come what may. Why? Because Jeremiah had one of the most engaging love affair relationships with the LORD God ever to be recorded in the Bible. A relationship that, come hell or high water, would stand firm, thrive, grow, blossom and flourish to the end. The integrity of Jeremiah comes shining through. Would that more of God's people have the courage, love, and faithfulness of Jeremiah.  

A brief prayer: The radiance of light

May the radiance of your light, O Christ, that bathes these trees and shrubs with life bathe me with life today.

A short, short story

Elias offers a prayer at the wall in Jerusalem for his people, especially the ones who live in daily fear of yet another bomb in the living room and children dead. 

   Abdulla throws rocks at the IDF soldiers who clear a path for a bulldozer to destroy his olive grove. He prays to his God too, that his enemy would be defeated and pushed into the Mediterranean. 

   A Coptic priest, named Joseph, prays for the safety of his parishioners, as their non-Coptic neighbours become increasingly suspicious by the day with the escalating conflict between the Egyptian army and the Muslim Brotherhood.

   Jews and Christians living for centuries in Arab nations are being ethnically cleansed and wonder what to do and where to go. Meanwhile, the Western media ignores them.

   All over Africa, Asia, and Latin America the little people like Lee and Kim, Seti and Ette, Jose and Maria are homeless and jobless thanks to large Western corporations developing natural resources for sheer profit, without any thought of the environment or the well-being of the peoples of these nations. 

   In the Western world, citizens like Harry and Janet continue to take their democratic freedoms for granted, shop til they drop, and buy cheap condos in warm and exotic places for the winter.  They can do this because they pay the least amount of money for groceries and clothing that come from nations that exploit their workers in sweat shops and slave labour agricultural estates owned by billionaires. 

   Meanwhile God continues to shed tears of sorrow at a world divided and falling apart, ignoring his love and super-abundant grace that envelopes the universe.