I’m With Him

•June 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Today is mine and Mr Pamsperambulation’s wedding anniversary.

All those years ago (26 to be precise – I know I’m not old enough!!), when we made our promises to each other, we declared that we were giving ourselves to each other – and therefore no longer free to give ourselves to anyone else.

Marriage is an exclusive relationship.  You cannot give yourself wholeheartedly to one person if you still really want to give another part of you to someone else.  When you make the commitment, you make a choice.

And so it is with life.  You can’t concentrate on one thing if you are still yearning for something else.

Paul speaks of this in terms of faith, and living by God’s rules:

Don’t you know that you are slaves of anyone you obey? You can be slaves of sin and die, or you can be obedient slaves of God and be acceptable to him.  Romans 6:16

If we give ourselves to God, we can’t also be giving ourselves to sin and living the way God doesn’t like.  We are either with God, or not, and our lives should reflect that.  When we choose to live for God, we can be free from sin, we no longer need to be looking for another way – we are with God!

Lord

day by day

in my life

help me to choose you

and your ways.

I have made my choice,

may I no longer flirt with other options.

May my heart,

my life,

my all

be given to you

and lived in you.

 

Posted in God, Jesus, Lectionary, life
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How are we doing?

•June 21, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Mystery Shoppers are used by many businesses to see how they are doing.  They want to check their customer care and the whole experience someone gets when using their business.  Someone unknown to those who work there will go and do what any normal customer would do and report back on how the experience was for them.  The process helps to maintain quality and the good reputation of the business, and finds out problems from the end users, and the bosses know what is really going on when they’re not there.  Will the staff behave as if they are serving the CEO themselves every time?

I think this is something like what Jesus is talking about in this weeks gospel reading:

Matthew 10:40-42

Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me. And anyone who welcomes me also welcomes the one who sent me.  Anyone who welcomes a prophet, just because that person is a prophet, will be given the same reward as a prophet.  Anyone who welcomes a good person, just because that person is good, will be given the same reward as a good person.  And anyone who gives one of my most humble followers a cup of cool water, just because that person is my follower, will surely be rewarded.

Those who follow Jesus are his representatives on earth. That is something to think of in our dealings with people. In fact, we should treat all people as if they were Jesus.

There’s a car bumper sticker that says

Jesus is coming – look busy!

Would we act differently if we thought Jesus was watching what we were doing?

Would we treat someone different if they were Jesus?

Well, Jesus tells us that if we welcome someone, we welcome him; and if we welcome him we’re welcoming God into the place where we are.

We should not treat people any different depending on who are what they are – we should be treating everyone as if they are God himself stood before us – because in essence they are.

Now how are we doing?

Lord,

so often I fail to see you

in those I meet.

I forget that the way I treat them

is a working out of my following you.

Lord

May I allow them

to reveal to me

more of you

and how I can serve you.

 

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In The Beginning

•June 15, 2011 • Leave a Comment

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was barren, with no form of life;  it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness.

But the Spirit of God was moving over the water.

The First Day

God said, “I command light to shine!” And light started shining. God looked at the light and saw that it was good. He separated light from darkness 5and named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.”

Evening came and then morning–that was the first day.

The Second Day

God said, “I command a dome to separate the water above it from the water below it.” And that’s what happened. God made the dome and named it “Sky.”

Evening came and then morning–that was the second day.

The Third Day

God said, “I command the water under the sky to come together in one place, so there will be dry ground.” And that’s what happened. God named the dry ground “Land,” and he named the water “Ocean.” God looked at what he had done and saw that it was good.

God said, “I command the earth to produce all kinds of plants, including fruit trees and grain.” And that’s what happened. The earth produced all kinds of vegetation. God looked at what he had done, and it was good. Evening came and then morning–that was the third day.

The Fourth Day

God said, “I command lights to appear in the sky and to separate day from night and to show the time for seasons, special days, and years. I command them to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. God made two powerful lights, the brighter one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. He also made the stars. Then God put these lights in the sky to shine on the earth, to rule day and night, and to separate light from darkness. God looked at what he had done, and it was good.

Evening came and then morning–that was the fourth day.

The Fifth Day

God said, “I command the ocean to be full of living creatures, and I command birds to fly above the earth.” So God made the giant sea monsters and all the living creatures that swim in the ocean.

He also made every kind of bird.

God looked at what he had done, and it was good. Then he gave the living creatures his blessing–he told the ocean creatures to live everywhere in the ocean and the birds to live everywhere on earth. Evening came and then morning–that was the fifth day.

The Sixth Day

God said, “I command the earth to give life to all kinds of tame animals, wild animals, and reptiles.”

And that’s what happened. God made every one of them. Then he looked at what he had done, and it was good.

God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures.”

So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women. God gave them his blessing and said:

Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth.

I have provided all kinds of fruit and grain for you to eat. And I have given the green plants as food for everything else that breathes. These will be food for animals, both wild and tame, and for birds.

God looked at what he had done. All of it was very good! Evening came and then morning–that was the sixth day.

So the heavens and the earth and everything else were created.

The Seventh Day

By the seventh day God had finished his work, and so he rested.God blessed the seventh day and made it special because on that day he rested from his work.

That’s how God created the heavens and the earth.

 

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

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