Hope for today #9

Deuteronomy 1:10
‘The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.’

 
Growth is a blessing, but it brings its own challenges. The people of Israel had grown so numerous that their leader, Moses, was feeling overwhelmed. He decided to seek out wise and respected leaders from the different tribes to help share the load.

Reflection
Give thanks for the areas of growth in your life, and ask God’s guidance on how to manage the growth wisely.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
The world to come will be not simply a return to how things were in Eden but the completion and perfection of creation. … Whatever things will be like there, it will be more, not less, than the best we have known here.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 193)
 

Hope for today #8

Genesis 24:12
‘Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.”’

 
Abraham goes to a lot of trouble and expense to find a suitable wife for his 40-year-old bachelor son, Isaac. Abraham is too old to make the long and gruelling journey himself and sends his servant instead, someone he can trust, who knows him intimately and appreciates what is at stake. The servant is not only faithful; he is also God-fearing and wise, recognizing that he won’t succeed in his mission without God’s kindness.

Reflection
Be bold and ask God to make you successful today, relying on his kindness in all you do.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
… this faith is a received faith. It did not begin with us, and it will not end with us. … Like every good story, there is the expectation of a good ending.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 60)
 

Hope for today #7

James 4:13
‘Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”’

 
In these words James is challenging boastfulness which is something he refers to in verse 16. The attitude that declares, ‘I am in charge of my planned future and God can tag along if God wants.’ Now, James is not against forward planning but rather he wants his listeners to humbly factor in today what God’s will and purpose may be for their tomorrows.

Reflection
Is God only Lord on Sundays and not our other ‘todays’?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
[People] were able to keep singing, keep praying and keep showing up at worship services because their hope was anchored in God rather than in themselves.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 179)
 

Hope for today #6

Genesis 41:9
‘Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, ‘Today I am reminded of my shortcomings.’

 
Joseph is in prison. Two years earlier he helped someone, also in prison, by interpreting a dream which gave the cupbearer of our text hope for his future. Upon his release he forgets all about Joseph until the Pharaoh had a dream of his own that no one could interpret. When the cupbearer hears about this, he remembers his old cellmate, and his abilities, which will eventually lead to Joseph’s freedom.

Reflection
Does the state of the world around us remind us today of our own shortcomings to be hope and light?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
‘The fractured and broken world will one day be put back together again, and the church is a signpost now of what will then be.’

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

Hope for today #5


 

Jeremiah 11:7
‘From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.”’

 
Yesterday we left the Exodus people as they were about to enter the Promised Land with the choice of obedience or disobedience with its subsequent blessing or curse. Today, we find ourselves years later, about 530 years, with Jeremiah referring back to that moment. Sadly, it seems that God’s people chose disobedience and curse, despite King Josiah’s reforms (2 Chronicles 34), and judgement is coming.

Reflection
In our own ‘today’ what blinds us to God’s grace to us and God’s pleadings for faithfulness?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
In a postmodern world, where everything is reduced to the moment and being present in it, the church can offer the wonder of being part of a drama already in progress. More than that, it is a drama with a good beginning – a good God who made a good world.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 197-198)
 

Hope for today #4


 

Deuteronomy 11:26-28
‘See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.’

 
As with yesterday’s devotion we are in the world of the Exodus and the next footsteps will touch the Promised Land. But before God’s people is a decision, the consequence of which will result in either a blessing or a curse. It is worth noting that the word ‘known’ here suggests an intimate knowledge of someone rather than an intellectual awareness. Other gods do not know God’s people like God does, so the choice should be easy, yes?

Reflection
Our ‘today’ choices will have future consequences.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
All day long we are confronted with news of evil, we are hemmed in on all sides by the word of despair. Yet when the Christian comes to worship, she hears a different word. She enters a community that orients her toward a different future.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 3)
 

Hope for today #3


 

Hebrews 3:13
‘Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.’

 
Surrounding these verses is the journey of God’s people ‘in the Old Testament from Egypt to Canaan. They were moving toward promised rest, and in the same way we are moving toward promised rest when we will see Christ and be made like him.’ (Sam Perry) As the Exodus people struggled to keep faith, so the early church, and today’s church. Part of the solution is to trust in God and to encourage each other daily in our Christian walk.

Reflection
Today take a moment to pray for someone who needs encouragement.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Discipleship is … a faithful waiting for the imminent return of Christ.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 127)
 

Hope for today #2

 

Psalm 118:24
‘Let us rejoice today and be glad.’

 
Psalm 118 is quoted quite a bit in the New Testament and one of these times is Palm Sunday when Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem (Ps. 118:25-26). People on the road recognised that the King, and his Kingdom, they hoped and longed for had arrived as Jesus entered Jerusalem. So ‘today’ was a day to rejoice and be glad.

Reflection
Today reflect on a word or deed of Jesus that stirs your heart to praise.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Christians sing because we are people of hope.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

Hope for today #1


 
Welcome to the first of our Advent ‘Hope for today’ devotions, a collaboration between Rev Irene Bom and Rev Graham Austin, with visuals by Irma Gevers.

 

Matthew 6:11
‘Give us today our daily bread.’

 
These familiar words from the Lord’s Prayer remind us that we need to turn to God to sustain our lives. Regardless of whether this bread is to be taken literally or spiritually, in either case it is an on-the-day-every-day need that we are to pray for. Note these two things, this bread is a gift of God but also it is given for the community, ‘our’ bread.

Reflection
What ‘bread’ do you require today?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
In the future, it is the presence of God that will renew all things.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 181)
 

A taste of autumn


 

A generous harvest

inspired by 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

God, source of all life,
the northern autumn is all around us now, beautiful
in scarlet and gold.
We have heard the Spirit of God in the rustling
leaves and the rush of water,
and we are so grateful for a generous harvest,
for seeds of many kinds, sown and multiplied,
for the sufficiency we enjoy.

Sung (Taizé):
Bless the Lord, my soul
and bless God’s holy name.
Bless the Lord, my soul,
who leads us into life.

Creator God,
we are so grateful for the creation which nourishes
and sustains all that lives.
Renew in us the sense of its value
that we may not squander its riches,
or so bend it to our will that we find we have
destroyed it.

Bless the Lord …

Transforming God,
we cannot sow our seed with clenched fists.
Help us to open our hands, to let go of grasping,
that we too may scatter with hope and generosity
our seeds of justice, peace and joy.
So may the fruits of our harvest
be for the sharing of the earth
and the blessing of your love.
Amen

 
— written by Peggy M De Cuehlo, posted on re:worship

COMING VERY SOON

“Hope for today: Daily reflections for Advent”
A collaboration between Irene, Rev. Graham Austin and Irma Gevers of Scots International Church Rotterdam, with daily posts from 1 to 24 December.