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First Steps – June 19, 2023

Someone once said, “Prayer accomplishes within us, within our spirits, deep within our souls, what is later lived out in the circumstances and conditions of our obedience.”  I like the quote.  It reminds me that I can’t outlive my prayer life.  It also reminds me of the connection between what many call the inward self and the outward self.
 
Prayer goes beneath the surface and superficial to breach one’s heart (identity).  Its purpose is to explore and cultivate the heart.  God, in His infinite wisdom, uses prayer as a conduit so that His spirit is infused with the heart of the one praying.  The inward self is being changed and transformed by God’s spirit.  This inward work of God has a purpose, for it becomes the power by which one is obedient. 
 
A person can do numerous good things even magnificent things without prayer.  But a prayerless life will result in gaping holes.  Sooner or later, in the depth and complexity of relationships where submission and commitment are required, the inward self will be exposed.  A prayerless life will always struggle with the pulls and demands of a selfish heart; therefore, pray so that the inward self is continually renewed.  It will later be lived out in obedience.


 
 
This Week’s Readings:
*Monday – Acts 2
*Tuesday – Acts 3
*Wednesday – Acts 4
*Thursday – Acts 5
*Friday – Acts 6

Prayer Requests:
– Families traveling throughout the summer.
_Our unwillingly absent members.
-Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
-Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
-Wisdom for our leaders as they navigate through uncertain times. 
-Guidance for those seeking to find their way.
-Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.

“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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A “Stellar” VBS for 2023!

This year’s Vacation Bible School centered around a space theme, with the motto “Shine Jesus’ Light.” Just like a star, we are reminded to continuously shine with Jesus’ teachings in mind. All astronauts enjoyed fantastic voyages each day with science, arts and crafts, story time, recreation, cinema, and of course, snacks!

Thank you to our volunteers! You made this happen! We want to send a “stellar” thank you to Molly Coleman, Anna Garcia, Rachel Williams, and Sara Rumph. Also, thank you to parents and children for your donations to the Ukraine Ministries! Because of your giving, our children in orphanages will receive $1512.71! We’d also like to announce that our Space Rangers group raised the most money for this important mission!

Thank you again for a successful week of VBS!

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First Steps – June 12, 2023


Lately, I’ve been reading and pondering the different prayers of Jesus.  Thankfully the different gospels record a few.  They mention Jesus praying multiple times but every now and then they give us the actual words prayed.  I love that about the gospels because when I pray those same prayers I feel a kinship with the originator—Jesus.  His most famous prayer was a response to the disciples’ ask of “Teach us to pray.”  Of course, we know his response as The Lord’s Prayer. 
 
In that prayer, the first few lines are successive imperatives: “Hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.”  The prayer gathers energy and increases in intensity only to explode outwardly— “on earth as it is in heaven.” 
 
What is equally significant is how Jesus modeled what he prayed.  If one were to fast forward to the end of each gospel, one finds Jesus living out that prayer in his betrayal, arrest, trial, and death.  In his life, he illustrated obedience.  He illustrated the glorification of God.  He illustrated submission to God’s will.  He understood his life and purpose as a means to fulfill God’s Kingdom. 
 
On one level, we see this as something only Jesus can do.  Granted there is a great deal of truth in that thought.  The uniqueness of Christ was confirmed in his resurrection.  Yes, there were and are some things only Jesus did and can do.  Yet, as followers of Christ, we are to walk his path.  We are expected, even commanded, to live as he lived.  We embrace those imperatives of Hallowed be your name, Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done so that they explode with the newness of life for all those around us to see.   The Lord’s Prayer is not something simply to be prayed, it is something to be lived. 



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

Prayer Requests:
-Our unwillingly absent members.
-Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
-Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
-Wisdom for our leaders as they navigate through uncertain times. 
-Guidance for those seeking to find their way.
-Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.

“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 – June 5, 2023

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of unity and how it is achieved and maintained.  To guide my prayers, I’ve reread John 17, which focuses on Jesus’ prayer for unity.  Verses 9-12 are important: 
 
I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  
 
Jesus prays for us to be one.
 
Eugene Peterson wrote profound ideas about John 17 and the concept of unity.  He says Holy Baptism is the sacrament that preaches the enactment of the Trinity, the ultimate form of unity.  This Trinitarian foundation is basic to all existence.  We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We become our true selves by entering the waters of baptism.  Our particular identity is affirmed and clarified in a personal name and in an intimate relationship with all the ways in which God is God.  We are not autonomous.  We are not ourselves by ourselves.  
 
A sin is an isolating act.  It separates us relationally from God, from God’s creation, and from God’s community.  Reestablishing the complexity of relationships cannot be accomplished by decree.  Personal, relational intimacy cannot be achieved impersonally.  There cannot be forced intimacy because that is often violent and degrading.  God can’t work in ways that are not in tune with Himself.  God is personal and free.  Therefore, whatever takes place in prayer is personal, freely given, and freely received.  Prayer is not a supernatural technique for coercion.  Prayer does not lump sinners and saints into separated piles of anonymities-–one pile assigned to damnation, and one assigned to salvation. In prayer, each person and thing is treated with absolute seriousness while freedom is preserved.  We can’t become one with one another or with God apart from freedom.
 
In the scripture passage, this is why it takes so long for these people (and us) to become ‘one, as we are one.”  Unity can’t be forced or rushed.  No matter how many are shaped by Jesus’ prayers into this Trinitarian unity, it is always a process. There are no shortcuts or no assembly-line efficiencies permitted.  Automobiles can be made that way, but not saints.  The work of sanctification (and unity) is never a finished product that any single congregation can test drive and, if satisfied, sign up for.  True Unity is not a model to be copied; it is a Trinitarian relationship—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—of reciprocity to be entered.  
           
Trinity is comprehensive and intricate, fusing the One and the Many.  To understand and participate in all the operations of the Trinitarian God requires a lifetime of sacrificial adoration and patient submission to Jesus’ patient prayers that all shall be one.  The church, which provides visibility through the lives of particular men and women in particular places at particular times, is not an idea nor is it ideal.  It is a historical reality existing in time.  It is constantly in formation.  Like a piece of music, it takes time for the church to become what it is.  All the notes must be played by all the instruments assigned to play them before it is what it is.  If we willfully refuse to be part of the orchestra, if we insist on everyone playing the same note over and over, or if we find a single melody or chord of the music that we particularly like and play that, the results are not likely to be anything imagined by the composer or the conductor.  Neither are they likely to be satisfied with the music.

Being a church is intricately complex and demanding, but no more difficult than anything else that is worthwhile.  The church is the large, healthy, Trinitarian gathering ground where we let God be the way He wills to be God.  We let Jesus pray us into participation in the dynamic unity revealed between Father, Son, and Spirit that is, precisely, glory.  The church is the primary arena in which we learn that glory does not consist in what we do for God but in what God does for us.  It is the pruning field where we submit ourselves to death and dying–that is, Jesus, dying on the cross and our daily dying. I’ll add, it doesn’t happen by force but by a willingness to live sacrificially.



 
 
This Week’s Readings:
*Monday – Luke 16
*Tuesday – Luke 17
*Wednesday – Luke 18
*Thursday – Luke 19
*Friday – Luke 20

Prayer Requests:
-Our unwillingly absent members.
-Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
-Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
-Wisdom for our leaders as they navigate through uncertain times. 
-Guidance for those seeking to find their way.
-Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.

“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 – May 29, 2023

 The other day I had a young person ask me this question, “Do I think Jesus prays for him?”  A little caught off guard because of the depth of the question, it took me a minute to reset.  My answer was “Sure he does.”  Figuring I needed to firm up my answer, I referred him to Hebrews 7:24-25, “…but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” 
 
In this passage, Jesus continually intercedes for us.  Even as you read this devotional, Jesus intercedes for us.  When we wake up, go about our day, go to sleep, and do it all over the next day…Jesus intercedes.  He is constantly and continually interceding.  If Jesus is interceding for you right now, wouldn’t prayer be part of intercession?  When we intercede for another, we pray.  Same with Jesus—continually interceding, continually praying.
 
For me, this brings me great comfort.  Often, we live with a one-and-done theology.  Jesus’ sacrificial act on the cross and God’s raising him from the dead—one-and-done.  Justification by God for the person who believes—one-and-done.  Though these are true, there can be an assumption that Jesus’ act of intercession is a one-and-done act.  After those acts are completed, we think Jesus goes on to something else.  Nope!  He continually intercedes. 
 
As you go about your week, do so with the understanding that Jesus is interceding for you.  He interceded yesterday, he is interceding today and will intercede tomorrow.  Allow this hope to guide and direct you.


 
 
This Week’s Readings:
*Monday – Luke 11
*Tuesday – Luke 12
*Wednesday – Luke 13
*Thursday – Luke 14
*Friday – Luke 15

Prayer Requests:
-Our unwillingly absent members.
-Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
-Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
-Wisdom for our leaders as they navigate through uncertain times. 
-Guidance for those seeking to find their way.
-Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.

“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 – May 22, 2023

 I recently read an article about Vincent Dransfield.  What drew me to this article was that Vincent just celebrated his 109th birthday.  He is still very active in his community and drives his car every day.  With my interest piqued, I wondered what was his secret to longevity.  

I expected to read that he ate a healthy diet, never smoked, exercised frequently, and did all the things suggested by physicians.  To my surprise, he didn’t focus on his diet, smoked for a long portion of his life, and seldom exercised for much of his life.  In the article, he actually joked about someone who frequently runs.  

However, there was something that stood out as his secret—He spent much of his life doing what he loved.  He served in his community which brought him great joy and fulfillment.  In addition, he surrounded himself with friends and family.  Even at 109 he still spends much of his day staying connected with neighbors and family.

The Bible has long illustrated the importance of service and fellowship.  For the Christian, they are characteristics of a Gospel-Driven life.  As one has received, he or she gives in ways that not only glorify God but better God’s world.  Likewise, the bond of faith binds people together as one family sharing in the body of Christ.
 
Who knows how long another will live for the odds are it won’t be 109 years.  However, how we live does determine the days of our lives.  It might not determine the number of days, but it definitely determines the quality of our days.  Therefore, live a life of service and fellowship.  Surround yourself with people you love enjoying the closeness of each other and give yourself in ways that better your world.  
  

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

Prayer Requests:
-Our unwillingly absent members.
-Heal those who are sick and protect those who are not.
-Comfort those who are grieving and in distress.
-Wisdom for our leaders as they navigate through uncertain times. 
-Guidance for those seeking to find their way.
-Continued Growth Inside and Outside the Walls of St. Paul UMC.

“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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