Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship: April 3-9, 2011
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Discipleship, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation
During Lent and the first few days of Eastertide, Your COMPASS will cite portions of 2011 LENTEN DEVOTIONS, a guide published by the Worship and Music Committee of First Presbyterian Church, Wichita Falls, Texas. Copies of the full text are available at no charge by submitting a request to First Presbyterian Church, Wichita Falls.
Saturday, April 9, 2011 ‘NOT AS MAN SEETH’
Compass:
1 Samuel 16:7 ‘…Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.’
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
Map:
…As long as you look presentable on the outside, nobody knows the caliber of your thoughts. But God knows, because He doesn’t look on the outside, but He looks in our hearts. He knows our every thought, good or bad. He also knows how we feel about Him and if we are growing in His word.
Journey:
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your written word and for revealing it to us. Amen. ~ Rachel LeBeau (1978)
Tomorrow: FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT
Friday, April 8, 2011 PANIC
Compass:
Psalm 94:18 ‘When I thought, “My foot slips,” Thy steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.’
When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
Map:
…Do we act and react as people of faith or as those who are ‘slipping’? …The Psalmist has an answer — ‘even as I thought I was slipping, God’s steadfast love held me up.’ The moment of panic is wiped out in God’s almighty and loving presence.
Journey:
Prayer: Almighty God…, in times of panic and stress reassure us of Thy power and strengthen Thou our faith. ~ Sarah Culbertson (1978)
Tomorrow: ‘NOT AS MAN SEETH‘
Thursday, April 7, 2011 GOD’S POWER
Compass:
Psalm 51:10 ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.’
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Map:
When I am depressed and full of self-pity, …I will try ‘counting my blessings….’ [But it doesn’t always work.] One day…I fell upon the verse from…Psalms: ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.’ I…said a quiet prayer, asking God to do just that…. And…it worked!
Journey:
…If we trust the Lord and recognize His power within us, we can better work toward solving our problems. ~ Sue Staber (1978)
Tomorrow: PANIC
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 BALANCE
Compass:
Mark 1:35 ‘Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed….’
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Map:
The novice riding his [bicycle] must hold tight on the handlebars to guide the forward motion, but some experts ride without their hands on the handlebars. The secret is their skill in balancing.
Journey:
Life itself needs a good measure of balance if it is to make forward progress…. Activity needs a balance of quietness. ~ Allen Hawley Brown
Tomorrow: GOD’S POWER
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 PATIENCE
Compass:
Colossians 1:9-11 ‘…so that you may have great endurance and patience….’
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully
Map:
PATIENCE — the capacity of enduring hardship or inconvenience without complaint
Journey:
Jokingly, we say, ‘Never pray for patience’ because we might get more opportunities to learn it than we ever wanted…. How difficult it is to be patient. But in a reverse situation, do we not wish for others to show patience with us?
Tomorrow: BALANCE
Monday, April 4, 2011 THE PATH
Compass:
Philippians 1:6 ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion….’
…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Map:
PURSUE GOD, PRAY
ANSWER GOD’S CALL, ACT
TRANSFORM YOUR THINKING, CHANGE
HEART FOR OTHERS, ENCOURAGE
Journey:
THE PATH of discipleship is a pattern of living in Christ. Keep a steady PACE!
Tomorrow: PATIENCE
Sunday, April 3, 2011 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
Compass:
Psalm 67 ‘May the nations be glad and sing for joy….’
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
2 that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
5 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
7 God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Map:
The NIV lists the theme of Psalm 67 as follows: Joy comes from spreading the news about God around the world…. ‘Could the psalmist have looked across the years to see the gospel go throughout the earth? This psalm surely speaks of the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)….’
Journey:
Followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to spread the gospel. We are commissioned to share the Good News with all people.
Tomorrow: THE PATH
Photo Credit: Lonely Tree by Nikos Koutoulas
