Frankly Devoted

Today is the first day of spring. The world is fresh and new and in bloom! Last Sunday, on a not quite spring afternoon, I took this picture of my favorite window at my church, featuring beautiful lilies and the birds of the air. In the Gospel of Matthew, right there in the middle of The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to "Consider the lilies."  He uses lilies as an example for us, a reason to to give up our worries. He says, "do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splend...

 

My Lenten Devotional for today, written for Saint Mark United Methodist Church's Lenten Devotional Guide:

Next week, we’ll start the Lenten Season. I received an email from Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity last week, with a devotion for each week of Lent. In the email, he writes: “We hope you will find it meaningful to reflect on what it means to follow Jesus personally and what it means for the ministry of Habitat for each of us to be faithful followers. As we look toward the cross, and ultimately the Resurrection, let us remember that trusting God enough to follow His call enables us to demonstrate the kingdom of God here on earth.” The theme for the Habitat Lenten Devotions this year is “Follow Me.” But what does it mean to follow Jesus? I am reading a book by Jossy Chacko who spoke at Willow Creek Global Summit Leadership Summit last year. His organization Empart desires to “reach the unreached” to truly live out the words of The Great Commission: Matthew 28: 16-20:   The eleven disciples went into Galilee to the hillside to which Jesus had d...

I wrote this devotional for Epiphany, to be included in St. Mark's 2016 Advent Devotional Guide.

We’ve entered the Season of Advent. Christmas trees are up, people are shopping. It’s the Season of Gifts. But we know “the reason for the Season” -- that God gave his son to be born on earth, giving up Heavenly Glory for the humble confines of a manger in a corrupt, broken world. Matthew and Luke have nice infancy narratives that tell the story of Christ’s birth -- reenacted each year in Christmas pageants in churches throughout the world. But I’ve always liked John’s description: John 1: 1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all t hings were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John goes on to say: John 1:14-17 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beh...