Friday, February 16, 2018

1 John 1:5-7

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 

God's hunger

God wants me. This is the great truth missing in the consciousness of most Christians.

We may believe God wants something from us. But we miss the central and most life-giving reality when we fail to know and feel the great desire of God to know us, heart-to-heart.

The Loving Mystery wants you to share everything you are, your hopes and hurts, your failures and joys, your whole self so that the communion between you is an ever-flowing circle of sharing where nothing is off-limits and love is the air you breathe … together.

God hungers to share God’s own self so that the Love God is fills and spills from your heart.

All that is light and good, all that stirs faith and hope, all true love and beauty, all of this is the light of God drawing you into fellowship with the Divine Majesty and all who love the light God is.

So pay attention to every moment light and love stirs joy and generosity of spirit. You will meet Someone who wants you more than you know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, February 15, 2018

1 John 1:3-4

We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Imagine ...

I hear a tender voice in these words, the voice of someone who knows the Great Love God is … and who wants to share what they know.

Our hearts grow sad and heavy without this knowing. We need to feel this Love filling the reservoir of our hearts, again and again, so that joy and lightness of spirit bubbles from our depths and sets us free to live. This is what God wants for us.

Imagine parents holding their newborn, gazing into their infant’s eyes and hoping things no words can possibly say, longing for all the blessings they want to come to this …their child.

Imagine those parents parent on the first day their child goes to school or graduates college or on the child’s wedding day.

Imagine … and you will know what God wants you to know. The heart of the Loving Mystery brims with unceasing desire for you to sit in silence and let the flow of Love fill you with a joy nothing can steal.

Pr. David L. Miller

Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Psalm: 25:6-7

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord! 

Love's laughter

I sat on a cymbal on a high school band trip. I plopped down on a seat beside Kevin, who informed me someone had stuck gum on the cymbal which was now affixed to the seat of my pants. On those rare occasions we see each other, Kevin tells the story. And we laugh.

This is how God remembers us, with joy, with love over all the ups and downs we have known through our lives. God remembers it all, the things we forget as well as the wrong we wish we could erase from memory.

This is a problem for most us. Hurts and hatreds, regret and shame haunt us in the night … daytime, too. For we know we have sinned, fallen short of God’s hope for us.

But God’s memory is infinitely more kind than our own. The Divine Majesty looks at us with compassion, not with condemnation for wrongs done or the hurt we cause.

God is steadfast love, unceasing, ever flowing, bathing our fevered hearts in cooling waters, and with a smile, looks at us and says things like, “I remember you. You are that kid who sat on a cymbal.” And we laugh.

Remember us, Lord, according to your goodness.

Pr. David L. Miller