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I'm sharing this journal entry from one of our sheep / shepherds for your encouragement and invite you to share your stories to keep us connected David
Thursday April 2, 2020: A journal entry:
JESUS WEPT.
A Morning mist of low cloud wrapped soft around the hills.
I read John 6 and tried to ponder on Jesus the living bread. But the mist beckoned and drew me outside, quickly enfolding me in its clammy embrace.
There was no pausing to choose direction. I headed straight up the hill blanketed in the foggy stillness, only birdcall echoing the inner certainty – she’s coming to pray.
Pray up the hill. I haven’t prayed up there for a while. I’ve prayed. But not there on God’s hill, my place of retreat.
At the summit, as cloud drifted and lifted, it was my heart that rained out its anguished plea, the cry for help with COVID19: LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER. Help us Jesus.
That was it. No wordy waffle. I perched on the rim of the damp bench, poised in grief and need; heart, mind and spirit turned to God, “Yet still do I praise you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Living God.”
A lull then settled over me, like a mute button had been pressed to hush the turmoil of my distressed thoughts and wretched emotions concerning the plight of the world’s people. Wait. Be quiet!
Jesus wept. The words from last Sunday’s reading came to mind loud and clear.
33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Judaeans who had come with her crying, he was deeply stirred in his spirit, and very troubled. 34 ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Master,’ they said, ‘come and see.’ 35 Jesus burst into tears. (John 11:33-35 NTE)
I too burst into tears, and as I wept, there at the top of the hill, I knew he was weeping with me. Weeping with all the world. Weeping for us all.
Turn to me. And I, turning, vision all awash, could see clearly, he was there. Feed my sheep. To this I shook my head, and thought, I’m no pastor. You are a minister of my word. Therefore, speak my word to others. Speak my word to one another. And suddenly understanding dawned. “You aren’t just saying this to me, are you? It’s your call to all of us: Feed your sheep. The responsibility is ours collectively.” And I pictured the scattered sheep, isolated from one another but belonging together and needing creative new ways of being church and speaking grace and hope to one another and others.
I plunged, then, down the hill, not following the worn paths but winding down the steeper slope, weaving through knee high weeds, around rocky mounds and patches of slippery flattened grass, to emerge at the wider base track.
Now is the time to forge new paths. Jesus is still the Way, the “base track” of my faith remains the same. It’s the network of familiar paths that represent how we have lived out our faith, that have fallen away, not God’s word or his kingdom, or his love.
I am thankful for this love that comes to us where we are: scattered sheep weeping in the mist of uncertainty. I’m thankful that Jesus wept and that his way isn’t set in stone. That he comes and calls us to discover a new and living way, today and tomorrow and the next day. Hallelujah! This is a new day! And the Jesus who weeps with us in our distress will renew us and lead us on beyond COVID19.
JESUS WEPT.
The autumn sun filtered a pale ray through the drifting grey. A reminder that the God who weeps, also sheds light as well as tears.
A loving, committed Father
by Charles Bertelsmeier
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Father to the fatherless, defender of widows – this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy (Psalm 68:5,6a).
Read Psalm 68:1–10,32–35
I can say that the above verses align with my personal experience. I had a very loving father, and I was able to transfer the wonderful positives of my relationship with him to my Heavenly Father. I have experienced God’s deliverance in threatening experiences and his liberation from severe negatives in my life.
But I know lots of people who have been failed or feel they’ve been failed by actual fathers and father figures, by absent fathers and fathers who died while they were young, and then seemingly by God also.
So how do we reconcile our experiences of people suffering severely and a loving God who says he loves and cares for everyone? Many people use this as an excuse for rejecting the Christian God (and any god, in fact).
From my reading of the Bible, and the stories of real people’s lives, I am one hundred per cent convinced that our loving Heavenly Father is working in the lives of every single person in this world to draw them into a relationship with the Heavenly Family (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Remember that God’s Son, Jesus, suffered the humiliating execution on a Roman cross for every single person who has ever lived, is alive now, and who will live in the future, to remove all barriers to them being welcomed into this heavenly family.
How God works in people’s lives is very specific to each person. God knows each person intimately, and out of his love for them, works in the way he knows best to reach them with the offer of his healing and restoring love.
Beyond that, I am not going to sit in judgement of God as to how he could have done a better job with any specific person.
However, I repeatedly surrender all that I am and have to God so he can use me as part of the way he works in people’s lives and change me so that I can be used by him more. I say ‘repeatedly’ because I also regularly take back control of my life, because I haven’t yet learned to fully trust God with my life, and often think I can do a better job. Thank God for his gracious love and mercy.
Heavenly Father, you have declared your love and commitment to every single person in this world, and you are working in their lives to bring them into a relationship with you. I surrender all that I am and have to you to use me as your hands, feet and voice of love to those I interact with each day. Amen.
Responding to God’s call
by Charles Bertelsmeier
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
When they had crossed [the Jordan river], Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ ‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied (2 Kings 2:9).
Read2 Kings 2:1–12
The account of the lives of Elijah and Elisha can be found in the Bible from 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 9. Elijah and Elisha were both prophets of God, and the transition between them is recorded in 2 Kings 2. Soon after the exchange recorded in the Bible verse for today, Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.
When Elisha asked for a ‘double portion’ of Elijah’s spirit, it wasn’t actually Elijah’s spirit that he was asking for, but for Holy Spirit living in and working through Elijah. What Elisha was asking was that he would also be empowered by Holy Spirit living and working in him. As for the ‘double portion’, in Israeli society at the time, this was reserved for the eldest son in the father’s inheritance. So, Elisha was really asking that he be recognised as Elijah’s successor in carrying on his prophetic ministry.
Now, we need to remember that Elijah didn’t select Elisha as his successor, nor did Elisha decide that he wanted to become a prophet. We read in 1 Kings 19:16 that God told Elijah to find and anoint Elisha as his successor. We read in the subsequent verses that after his call, Elisha killed the bullocks he used in his profession as a farmer and made a fire using the plough and other farming equipment to cook the meat and have a feast. He then turned his back on his old profession to learn how to be a prophet as Elijah’s disciple.
Notice what happened here. God called Elisha into his service. Elisha let go of his past securities and committed his life to God’s purpose. As a result, his focus changed so that his goals and visions aligned with God’s goals and visions for him.
God’s call to us has many similarities. God wants us to let go of the things we cling to for our security and instead learn to trust his love and commitment to us. This is a learning and growing process and takes time. Generally, God’s goals and visions for us are to live as his children in the environments in which he has placed us: our families, our places of work and study, our church families and our communities. This means not looking at these as places that we use to better ourselves, but as places where we live out the other‑centred love that God has first demonstrated to us in the way Jesus lived his life. And we achieve this, not by our own abilities, but by Holy Spirit living in us.
And as for our ‘double portion’ inheritance, that is ours, too. As Jesus’ adopted brothers and sisters, we have inherited all that Jesus has – kept in trust for us.
Holy Spirit, thank you for coming to live in us and guiding us in how to live as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. We ask that you help us to find our security in our Heavenly Father’s love for us. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on telecommunications projects for the air force, army and navy. He lives in a retirement village in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together, they have four children and eight grandchildren, all of whom they love spending time with. Charles keeps busy caring for their pot plants and a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
Journeying with Jesus
by Charles Bertelsmeier
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Luke 24:51,52).
Read Luke 24:44–53
I find it interesting to contemplate the rollercoaster emotional ride the closest followers of Jesus had been experiencing. First, there was the excitement and adventure when they had first answered the call to follow Jesus. Then there were the challenges to their long‑held beliefs about what the promised Messiah would be, and even questions about whether Jesus was actually the promised Messiah. Then, after being with him for those three years, Jesus started talking about his impending death/execution. There would have been much unsettling confusion. Would the three years following Jesus have been a waste of their time if they had to go back to their old jobs after he left/died? And their future and security came tumbling down when Jesus was arrested, condemned and crucified.
They were afraid that they would be next, so they went into hiding from the authorities. But then there was the joy when Jesus came back from the dead and the 40 days with him as he clarified for the disciples what his ministry was all about.
However, when he left them again at his return to heaven, I would have thought that his followers would again descend into a time of grieving at his departure. But no. They went to the temple each day full of joy and celebration. Remember that they had not yet received the empowering of Holy Spirit – this was still 10 days away at Pentecost. But they had been transformed. Their fear of the authorities was gone, and they had the confidence that God was in complete control and that he was implementing a plan. They would play a part in God’s ongoing plan, even though they were unaware of many details. Any thoughts of returning to the lives they had before meeting Jesus were now completely expunged from their minds.
When a loved one who knows Jesus personally dies, we, of course, grieve their departure. But in a similar way to the followers of Jesus celebrating his return to heaven, we can celebrate that our loved one has also gone to join Jesus in heaven. And as his followers got on with their lives with the assurance that God had a plan and a future for them, so we too can, still in our grief, have confidence that our loving Heavenly Father will be with us through Holy Spirit in us. His presence helps us focus on God’s ongoing plans for our lives after our loved one is taken from us.
Loving Heavenly Father, thank you for your promise to be with us always, through all the experiences of life you take us through. Please take away our fear of the future, because we know it is all part of your loving plan for us. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on telecommunications projects for the air force, army and navy. He lives in a retirement village in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together, they have four children and eight grandchildren, all of whom they love spending time with. Charles keeps busy caring for their pot plants and a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.