Tuesday May 10, 2007

Today’s text

1 John 4:17-18

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment; and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”

Prayer

My love is hardly perfect, but you, Blessed One are. You are perfect love, whole and true, constant and unwavering, without beginning or end, a deep current flowing in the eddies of our little moment of time that we may know you. Thank you. You are our life.

You, Incarnate One, are the love that called us to know you, inviting us each to grow into what we may be, flesh and blood articulations of your loving desire, each of us giving particular expression of your divine heart.

Your all-possessing stream brought us to this place and carries us on to experiences and faces unknown. Let us ever abide in you wherever we are or go.

Abiding in you, fear evaporates, an illusion of human aloneness. You never leave us alone. We are always in you, having our being in your abiding. May we rest in the currents of your living nearness.

Perfect us in your love. Leave no part of our being untouched, unwashed, unpossessed that as you are, we may be: eternity in time, the love that casts out fear. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday May 9, 2007

Today’s text

1 John 4:15-16

“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.”

Prayer

You do not Love, Holy One. You are love. To say less is heresy and lie. I will not cheat my soul from its singular consolation, so I say again: You do not love. You are love. And you love me, filling this cold heart with the liquid fire of your own life.

And I know you, such as a human heart can. I know you as love enveloping body and being entire, embraced, possessed, lifted, carried, filled, lighter than air and needing nothing. Heart and mind fall silent and satisfied, at rest in final Sabbath, the soul’s journey done. Home at last, I rest.

You abide within as the true and pure substance of soul, uncut and unadulterated, the eternal triunity of the Love you are. Here.

You are love, and you abide. Abiding in you, words and deeds flow from that truest self that is entirely gift and not of my making, and I, too, am love. Not unadulterated perhaps, but … still. May it be so today. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday May 7, 2007

Today’s text

1 John 4:13-15

“By this we know that we abide in him and he is us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.”

Prayer

Sleep refuses to clear from consciousness. Early morning fogs my mind, yet my soul seeks you, not by any conscious movement but by a willing I do not command. Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.

I will declare it for you awaken my heart’s deep desire before my lethargic will can shake its slumber. My desire is for you long before conscious willing can catch up to whatever it is, whomever it is that long ago took possession of this heart of mine.

But I know who it is, for it is you, who neither slumber nor sleep. Thank you.

You abide in those whose hearts and lives testify to Jesus. That testimony, even through the befuddled haze of stuperous morning mind, reveals again that I am not my own. I am yours.

I know of no better thought with which to start the day.

You abide, and I can no more escape you than I can shed my skin. I am possessed of the desire to say again, “May Jesus Christ be praised in the morning, every morning, in this and every human heart.”

May my words reveal you to all I meet this day, and to my own sleepy self. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller