TopekaStew

"Satisfy us this morning with your unfailing love that we might sing for joy and be glad all my days" - Ps. 90:14 I prayed for us this morning. For the past several years I've been trying to develop a morning routine. I awake to the screaching buzz of my alarm, click it off, and then bent over, hands on knees, I pray for myself so that I might remain upright and get moving in a Godward direction: "Satisfy me this morning with your unfailing love that I might sing for joy and be glad all my days" (Ps. 90:14, adapted). Yesterday, however, as I prepared a sermon about cultivating joy in Christian community, I was reminded that Moses's original prayer was not for an individual, but for the community of believers. Moses prayed "Satisfy us... that we might sing...." So, when the alarm screeched this morning, I prayed for us . And that really changes things. - Chris

Are we average? I really want to know. Let me explain. I read an article this morning in which the author suggested that the average American spends 28 hours in front of the television. I found that number striking. And then I began to wonder if we, as a church, are average. Would you be willing to share how many hours you spend per week watching television? (For the sake of transparency I will venture a guess: I average somewhere between one and 3 hours per week in front of the tube.) - Chris

"What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment?" - Job (Job 7:17-18) "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we might sing for joy and be glad all our days." - Moses (Ps. 90:14) "O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." - David (Ps. 5:3) Does time of day matter? I'm just asking. - Chris

In our Sunday morning Bible class we are studying Acts. Our teacher, Roger, has asked us to read Acts through each week. I decided to switch this week from the Bible I normally read to The Message to see what jumps out at me in a new version. Before I even got started on Luke's account the introduction caught my attention: "Because the story of Jesus is so impressive...there is a danger that we will be impressed, but only impressed. As the spectacular dimensions of this story slowly (or suddenly) dawn upon us, we could easily become enthusiastic spectators, and then let it go at that.... It is Luke's task to prevent that, to prevent us from becoming mere spectators to Jesus...." May we never settle into the role of enthusiastic spectators! - Chris

I love what Richard Foster has to say about "being" and the fruit of the Spirit. Foster talks about the fact that God's love has slipped into the heart of a Christian. He suggests that divine love sneaks into one's inner spirit and begins taking over habit patterns. Once that happens, Foster says, we begin to spontaneously bear the fruit of the Spirit: "In the unguarded moments there is a spontaneous flow from the inner sanctuary of our lives of 'love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithulness, gentleness, self-control' (Gal. 5:22,23). There is no longer the tiring need to hide our inner selves from others. We do not have to work hard at being good and kind; we are good and kind." - Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 9 (emphasis in original) That sounds attractive to me. I want to be free to just be. Lord, please work in me, work in us. Fill us with your Spirit so that we overflow with love and joy and peace and all that....

To begin the sermon yesterday Chris tried to communicate the utterly overwhelming nature of God's love. He began by singing a sorrowful note. But did you hear the powerful background music of joy? Listen again to the sorrow and the joy. The Sorrow God wants to cultivate the fruit of love in my life. And this is not a cotton candy kind of love. It is a Jesus on the cross kind of love. He wants to cultivate a Hosea to Gomer kind of love. Listen to how Eugene Peterson describes it: "Hosea is the prophet of love, but not love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God's love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it--a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way--goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love." ( The Message , In...