Category: First Steps

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First Steps – February 21, 2022

 
For many, their greatest motivation in life is to avoid conflict and experience some type of inner peace, yet the road to peace is filled with conflict, disharmony, and even pain.  One cannot find peace by avoiding life.  Therefore, many oscillate between two sides of a dichotomy:  playing the peacemaker (avoidance) or playing the perfectionist (control).  

As the peacemaker, one loses their voice and acquiesces to whatever the situation is at the present time.  As the perfectionist, one overly criticizes, judges, and micromanages. Both approaches carry a heavy dose of anger if things aren’t controllable. The rub is that life isn’t controllable, and when one’s focus is on the external, other people, normally it ends poorly.  Therefore, the hard but fruitful work is an inward journey where the work of the Holy Spirit is most efficacious.

If you are reading this devotional and things seem chaotic, don’t focus on all that is going on around you.  Focus on your own heart, your own motivations, your own desires.  Ask God to form a heart anchored in his grace, covered in his mercy, and formed by the heart of Christ.  Seek a place where one is content, fulfilled, on the inside even if nothing around you changes.  Be filled with the joy of salvation and the hope that God is redeeming all things.  Trust that you rest in God’s hand even if tumultuous waves crash around.  Listen for the voice of God that says, “one can’t find peace by avoiding life but I can give you peace in the midst of life.”

 
 



This Week’s Readings:
* Monday – Acts 22
* Tuesday – Acts 23
* Wednesday- Acts 24
* Thursday – Acts 25
* Friday- Acts 26

Prayer Requests:
* Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.
* Strengthen our Country and Leaders, here and abroad.
* Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
* Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
* Give our leaders extra wisdom as they navigate this pandemic and economic uncertainty.
* Help those seeking to find their way.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6


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First Steps – February 14, 2022

As long as we stay in the dark about how we see the world and the wounds and beliefs that have shaped who we are, we’re prisoners of our history.  We’ll continue going through life on autopilot doing things that hurt and confuse ourselves and everyone around us.  Eventually, we become so accustomed to making the same mistakes over and over in our lives that they lull us to sleep (Ian Morgan Cron—The Road Back to You).

Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better—Flannery O’Connor.

Recently I shared these two quotes with my staff.  Inside the human condition is always a tug-a-war between who we are, what we project to others, and the person we desire to be.  If I had to guess, at different stages of one’s life, one of the above three is more dominant.  Carl Jung’s teachings on self-actualization and the interplay between the self and the shadow are perfect examples of this tug-a-war.  It is a universal struggle for every person.  

It is here that I think Christianity has a powerful voice in proclaiming a path to wholeness (salvation in New Testament).  The path begins with an honest acceptance of who one is.  Granted, there are various ways the New Testament illustrates this beginning step from examples of people who saw the Old Testament Law (10 Commandments) as a mirror revealing the nature of a person, gospels examples where people are confronted with Jesus only to realize their disposition of the heart (Zacchaeus), to another experiencing the resurrected Christ where all pretense is stripped away.  The path for each person begins with the same first step of identity, “I really am this type of person.”  

Thankfully, and this is the really good part, Christ is never content to leave a person where He meets him or her.  The objective is for the person’s nature to become like the nature of the Resurrected Lord.  Equally comforting, God is not a sadistic gym teacher that sets a bar too high to reach only to watch a person go crazy and burn.  The secret of God is that God joins the person through the mystical union of faith so that together, as a new creation (1 Cor 5:17), infused with the Holy Spirit, the person begins the path to wholeness.  A person might begin with an honest acceptance of who he or she is but that is not what they ultimately become. 

Thanks be to God for his rich glory and grace. Amen.

 
 



This Week’s Readings:
* Monday – Acts 17
* Tuesday – Acts 18
* Wednesday- Acts 19
* Thursday – Acts 20
* Friday- Acts 21

Prayer Requests:
* Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.
* Strengthen our Country and Leaders, here and abroad.
* Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
* Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
* Give our leaders extra wisdom as they navigate this pandemic and economic uncertainty.
* Help those seeking to find their way.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6


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First Steps – February 7, 2022

The Truth will set you free, but not until it is done with you.
 
I don’t know who the first person was to coin this phrase, nor its context; however, it definitely echoes Jesus’ thoughts in John’s Gospel—Chapter 8 to be precise. When Jesus said the truth will set you free, it was in the context of those who abide by his words. The freedom that the gospels describe is not a life free from struggle, temptation, or pain.  It is a freedom that one experiences in the midst of their struggle, temptation, or pain. There is a world of difference between the two. I liken it to the difference between swimming with the current and swimming against the current. The current is there, it won’t go away…one doesn’t have to be controlled by it, but can actually thrive in the face of it.

Over my years of following Christ, I’m comforted and have drawn strength from how God is never satisfied until his nature is formed inside the follower. God won’t quit, won’t stop, but will continue until it is done, in this life or the life to come. His work will involve conviction, empowerment, comfort, or encouragement depending on what is needed to bring about his purpose. But, he won’t stop.  

I’m glad the truth will continue its work in me until the work is completed—that is real freedom.  Thanks be to God.
 
 

This Week’s Readings:
* Monday – Acts 11
* Tuesday – Acts 12
* Wednesday- Acts 13
* Thursday – Acts 14
* Friday- Acts 15 | Acts 16

Prayer Requests:
* Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.
* Strengthen our Country and Leaders, here and abroad.
* Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
* Give our leaders extra wisdom as they navigate this pandemic and economic uncertainty.
* Help those seeking to find their way.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6


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More about FIRST STEPS each week!

Did you know you can easily READ THE BIBLE IN A YEAR?!! If you’d like to follow Shane’s First Steps digital letter, published each Monday, just look for it on social media or call to be added to the list of recipients. You can START TODAY! In a year, you’ll have read the WHOLE BIBLE!! WOW!!

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First Steps – January 31, 2022

It was said that Alexander the Great had a completely artificial pedigree constructed from his lineage.  On one side of his lineage, he “traced” his origin back to Achilles and Andromache; on the other side, he “traced” his lineage back to Perseus and Hercules.  Perhaps he did this to strengthen his claim as world conqueror or to find some level of personal meaning.
 
The quest for personal meaning is frequently the reason people pursue genealogies.  Everyone longs to belong to something or someone.  There is something about belonging that gives purpose and meaning.  This is not lost on the Bible.  The central theme in both testaments is God’s love for human beings to belong to him.  I don’t know if you have read John 1 lately, but there are two interesting verses that I hope you will meditate on: 
 
“Yet to all who did receive him [Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. “(Vrs 12,13).
 
Do you know you are a child of God?  Spiritually speaking, this is your genealogy, your lineage.  The key is, do you know it?  Do you live it?  I hope you do.
 
 

This Week’s Readings:
* Monday – Acts 6
* Tuesday – Acts 7
* Wednesday- Acts 8
* Thursday – Acts 9
* Friday- Acts 10

Prayer Requests:
* Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.
* Strengthen our Country and Leaders, here and abroad.
* Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
* Give our leaders extra wisdom as they navigate this pandemic and economic uncertainty.
* Help those seeking to find their way.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6


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First Steps – January 24, 2022

William Tyndale translated the Bible into English during the 16th Century.  He believed every person could read and understand the scriptures if they had it written in their language.  Eventually, he gave his life for his beliefs.  In one of his sermons, he said:

“Love is not the cause of forgiveness.  Forgiveness causes love.  The more we are forgiven, the more we love…but when the gospel of Christ demonstrates how God loves us first, forgives us, and has mercy on us then we love again. As the saying goes, ‘Summer is near because the tree blossom.’  The blossoms do not bring summer.  Summer brings the blossoms.”

Reflecting on his sermon, I realize the order of things. Often, we think we are to generate love for others as if we have a vat of love that we simply draw from for our relationships. Unfortunately, I don’t think that vat exists—it would be nice if it did.  However, when we are loved first—the New Testament describes this love in the form of God’s forgiveness—then our heart changes to the point that love naturally flows out of that change.  

If it is difficult to love others, spend time focusing on forgiveness.  Allow God to love first, receive his love through his Spirit. Don’t worry about the relationship with others until you fully receive God’s love. Then, every other relationship will take care of itself.   
 
 


This Week’s Readings:
* Monday – Luke 21
* Tuesday – Luke 22
* Wednesday- Luke 23
* Thursday – Luke 24
* Friday- Acts 1

Prayer Requests:
* Continued Blessings in the New Year 2022!
* Strengthen the St. Paul United Methodist Church family.
* Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
* Give our leaders extra wisdom as they navigate this pandemic and economic uncertainty.
* Help those seeking to find their way.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6


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