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Glimpses of Grace Daily Devotion for October 22, 2017

The winds in Glasgow, Scotland today have been particularly blustery, whipping flags and pushing pedestrians. While coming back from worship, suddenly a strong gust shot up the street stripping the hood of my jacket from my head and then just as abruptly turning around and tossing the hood back where it was! 

In the afternoon, as I read a book I looked out a picture window standing before me. I watched the ever-changing blue-gray clouds of October dance across the sky.  

Jesus once said  that the Holy Spirit is a lot like the wind. We can hear the sound of and even feel it. One moment it can buffer our progress, and the next moment it can push us forward as if to say, “Hurry! Onward!” 

I think that deep down many of us don’t trust the Holy Spirit. We are afraid of it. We are afraid of it because it is so wild, untamable, and free. Yet, it calls to us throughout all of the seasons of life; in the cool winds of spring, the warm lazy winds of summer, the changing winds of fall and the frigid winds of winter. 

If we can but go with this wind in all of our seasons, we can become a glimpse of grace.

Lord God, give me the courage to go where the wind of Your Spirit will lead me. Let me be not afraid. Amen.

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Glimpses of Grace Daily Devotion for July 25, 2017

Devotional Reading from the Daily Common Lectionary: Mark 4:21-34

Text: (Jesus) also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs.” (vss. 30-32a)

Several years ago I received a text message from a parishioner in a former parish. She ran into a friend of her now adult son. The friend went on one summer senior high mission trip with us in 2003. That trip, he said, changed his life! I’m embarrassed to say, that I don’t remember him as that was the only thing that he joined us in doing. But God knew that the trip was just what the young man needed.

There are no small events in life. As a matter of fact, often the most important events that occur in our life are things that were unplanned or even forgotten. A chance encounter leads to a new opportunity or a new life!

I believe that we can do no small acts if we live our lives to the glory of God. Everyday we sow little mustard seeds of God’s kingdom, and they spout in the most unlikeliest of places and in the most surprising ways.

Lord God, help me to never thing that something I do does not have eternal consequences. Life if too important and You are too great. Amen.

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Glimpses of Grace Daily Devotion for June 8, 2017

Devotional Reading from the Common Lectionary: Luke 18: 1-8

Text: (Jesus): And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

The longer I live the less I know. When I was a young man I had everything pretty much figured out, especially in “the ways of God”. And then Life happened, and I got knocked down a time or two.  I have had times of losing my spiritual balance. But in the process, I think that I am learning what it is to be “faithful”. Now I tell people that I don’t have a clue what God is up to, but I know that somehow God is in the mix and will bring something good out of our biggest messes.*

In the parable assigned for today Jesus used a comparison of contracts. God is not like the unjust judge. Earlier in Luke Jesus did the same thing when He asked the disciples, “What father would give their hungry child a snake or a scorpion instead of a fish or egg?” It’s a rhetorical question but the answer is obvious. No one.  We don’t have to “beat down the doors of heaven for God to pay attention to us. We cannot weary God with our prayers and desires.

The real question is, can we believe that in life and death we belong to God even when our prayers are not answered?**  Can we believe that God is somewhere in the mix and that we have to live by Faith rather than Sight***?

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.****Amen.

 

*Romans 8: 28

**Romans 14:8 and The Brief Statement of Faith” in The Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.)

***II Corinthians 5:7

****Mark 9:24

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