Mosaic: Regrets

    As much as regrets can come from a time when we have made a mistake, often the most damaging type of regret takes hold in our lives when we bear the burden of things that we have had no control over. We buy into the lie that if only we would have done more or would have been more vigilant the circumstances would have changed, effectively letting other people off the hook for this sin and instead shouldering it for ourselves.
   That type of regret can damage not only our relationships with other people but also our relationship with God. It can separate us from God as we have on a Savior complex or thinking that God did us wrong.
   Today is the day to set aside all of our regrets. To leave them at the foot of the cross and find forgiveness and healing from our Savior.

Mosaic: Regret Devo

February 25th, 2018

Devotional

“Mosaic: Regret” - Psalm 51: 1-15 and Luke 19: 1-8

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “Have Mercy” - Psalm 51: 1-2

Psalm 51 is believed to have been written shortly after David had taken another man’s wife as his own. The story goes that David, King of Israel, stayed behind for some unknown reason when his men, his troops, were off preparing for battle. He caught the site of a married women, Bathsheba, bathing on a roof, and he had he brought to the palace where he lied with her. Then she became pregnant. In order to attempt to cover up his sin, David called for Bathsheba’s husband to come home from battle and tried to convince him to sleep with her - only he refused, for it was improper for him to sleep with his wife when other men were in battle.

Finally, David went Uriah back to the front lines of a battle with a letter for his commanding officer, essentially stating to make sure Uriah gets killed in battle. Which he did. And David took Bathsheba as his wife.

David’s priest Nathan came and spoke to him about what had taken place - telling the story of a small lamb that was taken by a man who had all the lambs in the world. David became enraged until Nathan pointed out that he was the man who stole the lambs - he had taken Bathsheba as his wife after having her husband killed. This Psalm is written after all of that had taken place - and David is guilt-ridden, calling out to God for forgiveness and mercy.

However, what was moving about all of the voices reading his psalm together echoing off of the walls was that, while it was certainly written in a particular time in David’s life, can we not find ourselves in it as well? When we hear the words of this Psalm does it not remind us of our own fallenness and entanglement in sin?

What does mercy mean to you?

How are forgiveness and mercy related? 

Prayer: Jesus, we come to you today, and like David cry out for mercy. We know that mercy is a gift, Precious Lord, not something that we can earn. We ask for your forgiveness to rain down upon us and refresh our weary souls. Amen. 

Tuesday: “Transgressions” - Psalm 51: 3-5

So David’s prayer also becomes our prayer. Blot our our transgressions in your mercy. Wash us throughly of our iniquity. Brothers and sisters, none of us are free from the hold of sin in our lives. Since the days of Adam and Eve, when they intentionally made the choice to rebel against the ways of God, we have been making the same choices. We have been choosing to not love God and not love our neighbor with our whole hearts. 

David didn’t feel guilt about what he had done until Nathan called him out and invited him into a time of repentance. He was perfectly happy not examining his actions or how they damaged his relationship with God and his relationship with others. So it is with us. We need the season of Lent to bring our transgressions before God and ask for forgiveness anew. 

What or who invites you to examine your actions?

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the people in our lives who do not want us to stay entangled in sin. We thank you for their faithfulness in inviting us to repent. Free us from our transgressions we pray. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Desire Truth” - Psalm 51: 6-9

Even if we want to pretend that we don’t know our transgressions, want to pretend that there aren’t consequences, we know they exist. We need a time to let them come to the surface in order to be cleaned out.

God wants to create in us a clean heart. A heart where we can proclaim that we are yes, sinners, but that we are saved by grace. Have you ever noticed that folks tend to focus too much on one side of this statement or the other? People either become focused on their depravity, forgetting God’s gift to us, or become so caught up in the gift of grace that they forget why we need it in the first place. Today we stand before God saying that we are sinners, in need of God’s grace, and then we accept that beautiful and powerful gift with open hearts - allowing God to clean and transform us from the inside out. God not only saves us from our sin, but gives us new lives!

What is the truth that God is inviting you into this day? 

What does cleansing look like in your life?

Prayer: Lord, we confess that sometimes we do not desire your truth in our lives - in fact, we run from it. Help us to embrace your truth this day, the truth that can set us free. May we honor you with our lips and our lives, Almighty God. Amen. 

Thursday: “Restore Me” - Psalm 51: 10-12

When I was little one of the things I hated the most was having scraped knees. For with scrapped knees came the peroxide - that nasty feeling of the dirt and grime in the wound bubbling to the surface. But I also knew that the wound had to be cleaned so it didn’t become infected. Friends, today begins the season of letting the dirt and grime of our lives come to the surface, through confession, so that God can bring healing. Sin is not just on the surface of our life, it is deep within us and needs to be purged. Ignoring our sin only causes it to fester and bring more pain, more hurt.

Where are those places in your life where you need deep cleansing? Where you need restoration? What do you need to confess? What sin needs to come to the surface so God can blot it out? Where do you need to ask God to change you? Where do you need to seek reconciliation in our relationship with God and with others. Because the truth is, we all need to seek to be renewed and made new in the love and mercy and grace of our Lord. 

What do you need to bring to Christ this Lenten season?

What does restoration of your soul look like for you?

Prayer: Lord, we come before you this Lenten season to confess, be cleansed, and to be restored. We bring to you our brokenness and look to you for healing. Restore us, we pray. Amen. 

Friday: “Deliver Me” - Psalm 51: 13-15

This season, may we remember that during this season we are in need of God, we are wholly dependent upon God, and find our hope in God alone. Let us bring ourselves this day and every day, and during the entire season of Lent, as a sacrifice for our Lord, who gives us victory over the power of sin. For it is God alone who can deliver us. 

What do you need to be delivered from this season?

Prayer: Lord, sometimes we are ashamed to tell you that we do not have it altogether. Yet you know our hearts. So Lord, we bring before you today that which we need deliverance from and trust and believe that you will bring us through. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic: “Mosaic: Rejection” - Matthew 9: 12-13. Matthew 27: 27-31. 

Family Activity: When you do something wrong do you tell other people or do you try to hide it from them? We know that often when we try to hide the things we have done wrong, it often makes it worse. In the church, we tell God the things we have done through confession. Pray together a pray of confession. 

Responding in Prayer

    In Habakkuk 3, we find the response of the prophet to God's reply to his lament. And because of that response he is able to say with confidence, that his God saves. We, too, as Christians proclaim that our God saves, and as we look at the cross, testify to the meaning and message of salvation in our lives. But sometimes we leave a piece out - sin. Specifically how God dealt with the sin in our lives. Salvation is not just a gift that gets us into Heaven someday, its a gift that changes our lives and cleanses us of our sins in this life. Yes, we may still struggle with sin from time to time, but our hearts and lives are changed.
   We worship a God who offers salvation not just for the future, but for the present as well. God must deal with the sin in our lives and cleanse us of it. Praise be to God for the gift of total salvation!

Habakkuk 3 Devo

February 11th, 2018

Devotional

“Responding in Prayer” - Habakkuk 3

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “A Prayer” - Habakkuk 3: 1-2

Our last sermon series before we jumped into Habakkuk was about essential prayer - the prayers that we may find ourselves praying throughout the day. They are often prayers where we are asking God for help, praising God for how God has acted, or prayers where we simply express our utter amazement at who God is. 

In the book of Habakkuk we found all three of these essential prayers. In chapter one, the prophet prays a prayer of lament, a cry for help, on behalf of the people of Israel, asking God how long things are going to be like they currently are. But then in this chapter, after God has answered the prophet, we find him praying a prayer of both praise and amazement. 

Sometimes God enters into our lives in an unmistakable way, like what happened to Habakkuk in chapter 2 when God answered his cries. But, we are brought to prayers of amazement just when God intervenes in this way. Instead, God shows up in our every day lives in ways that is absolutely deserving of our praise and amazement. God is not just renowned for what he does, but simply for who he is. 

What brings you to a place where you praise God or are in amazement of God?

How do you notice God in your every day life?  

Prayer: God, we want to be people who are constantly praising you, not just for what you have done, though you have certainly done so much for us, but also, loving God, for who you are. Help us join in the prayer of the prophet this week, standing amazed in the presence of the one who created us, saved us, and sustains us. Amen. 

Tuesday: “Glory” - Habakkuk 3: 3-4

How often do we take time out of our days to celebrate the glory of God? As we said yesterday, God is worthy of praise and glory both because of what God has done, but also simply who God is. Habakkuk picks up on this theme of who God is, by expanding on how nature has responded to the glory of God - from brightness of the sun to the crumbling of mountains.

Notice at this point in Habakkuk’s writing, the people of Israel have not yet been saved from the oppression of the Assyrians, they have simply been promised that it is coming in God’s good and perfect timing. We, too, can praise God in all times and places, no matter what our circumstances may be. 

How can you praise God in the midst of uncertainty or trouble?

How do you find yourself giving God the glory? 

Prayer: Lord, we confess that sometimes we only praise you and give you the glory when things are going smoothly in our lives. Help us be more like Habakkuk, who praised you even in the midst of trouble, even in the midst of a situation that had not yet been resolved. Be with us, in all circumstances, we pray. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Pestilence and Plague” - Habakkuk 3: 5-12

Sometimes it can be hard for us to simply praise God for who God is because we forget. We forget the central characteristics of God such as justice, mercy, grace, and love, that we experience in our faith life, but are also reflections of the very heart of God.

But it can also be hard to worship God for what God has done, because we forget that as well. Part of the Israelites problem during the time of Habakkuk’s writing is that they have forgotten what God has done for them in the past - chiefly bringing them from a place of oppression under the hand of Egypt to the Promise Land.

You would like arriving in the Promise Land is not something that the Israelites could forget, even if it happened decades before this writing. Even though they themselves were not the ones to originally enter the Promise Land they would have heard the story over and over again.

This is why we continue to tell the stories of the faith today. So that they become so embedded in us that we cannot help but remember, even when the world around us is tempting us to forget. 

How is the story of Scripture part of your personal story? In other words, how has Scripture changed you?

Prayer: Lord, we thank you today, Precious Lord, for the stories of the faith that are contained in your holy word. We thank you for the way they remind us both who we are and whose we are. Thank you for entrusting us to continue to share these stories in the world - may the stories be such a deep part of us that we cannot help but remember them at all times. Amen. 

Thursday: “Save Your People” - Habakkuk 3: 13-16

Salvation came to the people of Israel as God took them out of captivity and brought them into a place of freedom and God was worthy to be praised for that. God also continually reached out the covenantal people through prophets who called the people of Israel back to a place of right relationship wth God.

For those of us who consider ourselves to be Christians, God has offered us the greatest gift that has ever been given in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ that made a way for our salvation, which is a reflection of the loving heart of God . No matter how our day may be going, we can certainly give God all the glory for that.

How do you express gratitude for the gift of salvation?

What does salvation mean in your life?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of salvation to be found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you that you never gave up on us Lord, sending Jesus to set us free from the power of sin in our lives. Thank you for such a love as this! Amen. 

Friday: “Though” - Habakkuk 3: 17-19

As we noted earlier in the week, just because the prophet on the behalf of the people received the word of the Lord, it does not mean that things automatically changed for the people of Israel. In chapter 2, we find God essentially saying that God’s timing is perfect and the people need to be patient, which is particularly hard when you are in the frightening situation.

But this word also changed the prophet’s heart. Instead of asking God “how long?” He starts statements that begin with the word “though”. Though they may not have a harvest. Though the crops mail fail. Though the flocks may be cut off. Even in the face of all of this, he will still praise the Lord.

What are the ‘though’ moments in our lives? Those things that others may think would prevent us from praising God, but we can still worship God though, still exalt God in the midst of? How can we proclaim that God is our strength even when everything seems to be falling apart? How can we praise God? 

What are the though moments in your life? How can you continue to look to God for strength in the midst of them? 

Prayer: Lord, you are always, always, always worthy of praise. May we join Habakkuk in exalting your anew and proclaiming that you are our strength - no matter what. Amen. 

Family Activity: Take turns sharing your favorite Bible story. What do you like about this Bible story? What helps you remember it? 

God Responds

     There is a phrase that is sometimes used in Christian circles that we "watch over one another in love", but what does that really mean to us? For some it may mean taking food over to folks who are having a rough time. Or sending a card. Or knitting a prayer shawl. Or going to visit. But for how many of us, does watching over one another in love mean praying?
    For the prophet Habakkuk, he saw that his people were deeply hurting so he stood for them in prayer. He cried out to God on their behalf, until God responded in a powerful way.
    What if we were Habakkuk's for our communities. What if we truly watched over one another in love, by continually being in prayer until God responds? How could hearts and lives be changed?

Habakkuk 2 Devo

February 4th, 2018

“God Responds” - Habakkuk 2 

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “Wait for It” - Hab. 2: 1-5

American hit musical has a song in its repertoire entitled “Wait for It”. Some of the lyrics include statements about how difficult life may be, but ends with the refrain “Then I’m willing to wait for it. I’m willing to wait for it.”

Habakkuk had a very similar world view in today’s scripture. After lamenting to God in chapter 1, here he situates himself in a position to watch and wait for God to respond. He is going to wait for God, however long it may take, because he deeply believes that God is going to respond, which God does.

Waiting is not something that is always easy in today’s culture. We often mis-interpret waiting to be a time when we do not do anything. When we just sit by. But the image of standing at the watch post invites us to think about waiting differently, for the person assigned to the position of watch post must be constantly scanning the horizon looking for what is to come. 

This week, let us wait differently for God. Let us wait, not by the wayside, but with expectation, scanning the horizon prayerfully to see how God is on the move. 

What does waiting look like in your life?

What is the difference between waiting and waiting with anticipation? 

Prayer: Gracious God, we come together today in heart and mind and proclaim that we believe that you are on the move. We admit that we cannot always sense that movement, so Lord, we wait for it to be revealed so we can join you in your mission for the Kingdom of God. Amen. 

Tuesday: “How Long” - Hab. 2: 6-8

When God answers the prophet he has a message for the people of Israel, but he also has a message for those who are oppressing the Israelites that echoes what Habakkuk asked God in chapter one, “how long?” However, while Habakkuk asked God how long the oppressors were going to be allowed to get away with what they were doing, God asked the wicked how long they are going to continue in their behavior.

Specifically, God asks them how long they are going to load themselves up with goods taken in pledge. A pledge was personal property given against a loan. God warns them, that if they keep this behavior up, some day those who they have taken pledges from are going to come back against them. 

While this may not be the exact behavior being used to oppress people today, the message is similar - how long will oppressors be able to hurt other people? And do they truly believe that their behavior has no consequences? In the Gospels, Jesus repeats a principle found in the Hebrew Scriptures which we have deemed the Golden Rule - treat others as you would like to be treated. God is essentially saying that those who oppress others will have that behavior come back on them. How do we want to treat others today?

Do you find it easy or hard to treat others as you would like to be treated? Why? 

Prayer:  Precious Lord, sometimes we do not act as you would like us to. We hurt others. We act in ways that belittle them and deny their humanity. We say unkind things and act in ways that do not reflect your Gospel Truth. Help us, we pray. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Shame” - Hab 2: 9-11

We have a culture that has warped it since of shame. In ancient societies, shame and honor were building blocks of how they made decisions. If it brought shame upon the family, it was not to be done. If it brought honor, it was deemed to be good. In this particular scripture passage, God is telling the oppressors that their actions would bring shame upon their houses, because of their dishonest behavior.

Today, however, it seems as if some people have no shame - judging their actions against whether it will profit them the most. Others seem to have a deep since of shame for things that are not their fault and they have no control over. We have twisted guilt and shame to make it almost unrecognizable. 

I would propose, that we should start to judge our actions on a different basis: does what I say and do bring honor and glory to God? Does the way that I live my everyday life treat people in a way that reflects God’s glory and love? May we be people who honor God everyday in the world. 

How can you honor God every day?

Prayer: Lord, we are your people, your disciples, the ones you have sent out to make your name known. May we reflect your glory and honor in the world around us. May we lift you up, not just with our words, but our actions as well. May we glorify you. Amen. 

Thursday: “The Cup of the Lord” - Hab. 2: 12-17

God continues with the lists of woe and wrath that will come upon those who are acting as oppressors if they do not change their ways. The Lord is essentially saying that things cannot continue this way, and the the knowledge of the Lord will settle over the whole earth and God’s glory will shine. 

Then there is an interesting comment made about the cup of the Lord’s right hand. In ancient societies, there was a cup of blessing that was poured out at dinner parties, as a gift of sorts. Here, God is saying instead of a cup of blessing, what will be poured out is a cup of wrath, filled with shame for those who have harmed others. 

But like Jonah’s message to the Ninavites, this is not the last word from the Lord to the Assyrians. It is not the be all end all. Instead, God is telling the people this so that they can repent and come to know the Lord. Sometimes I fear that with all of the talk in our culture of good people and bad people and wanting people to get what is coming to them, we forget that as Christians we firmly believe that no one is beyond having a change of heart. So today, let us pray for those who are in need of a change of heart that only God can bring. 

Do you find it difficult or easy to pray for your enemies? Why? 

Prayer: Lord, we confess that we like the idea of good people being blessed and bad people being brought to shame. We like the idea of people getting what is coming to them. Break our hard hearts this day, O Lord, so we can pray that all may come to you and find forgiveness and change of heart. Amen. 

Friday: “What Use Is An Idol?” - Hab 2: 18-20

Why do people bring harm to one another? For power and glory. Why do people plunder one another? To have more money for themselves. When we make power and money the most important things in our life, or anything else for that matter, it becomes an idol. God is pointing out all of the things that have been made idols in the lives of those who are oppressing the Israelites. And God is essentially saying, these things have taken the place and priority in your life that I am supposed to hold. 

It is alarming how quickly things can become idols in our lives. How little by little we let those things that are not God take over God’s place in our lives. Often we want to look at people who hurt others and say “shame on them”, but really we could easily act the same way if we do not keep our focus on God. Let us pray to God to help us renounce any idols we may be clinging to and focus on our Savior. 

What in your life could easily become an idol? 

How do you keep your focus on God?

Prayer: God, we come before you today and pray for protection for our souls. We pray, O Lord, that you do not let idols take the place of our love for you. And we pray O God, that we not let our guard down. Help us focus on you and you alone. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic: “Responding in Prayer” -  Habakkuk 3

Family Activity: Talk about how we can pray for people who are mean to us. Is there a school bully or someone who says unkind things about other people? How can we pray for them?