Today's text
John 4:21-24
Jesus said: Believe me, … the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour is coming-indeed is already here-when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.
Prayer
I cannot give you proper worship, Holy One, except that you will it and fill me with the Spirit you are. And you do so will. And you do so fill.
It is not my spirit that calls to you each morning. Even my fevered cries for help are not the longing of a human soul: no, they are the Soul of Eternity within, stirring and calling from my depths to the depths of your immensity.
A circle is formed: your Spirit within calls to you who are ever beyond me. And you who are beyond respond in love to you who abide within.
A circle: you within and you beyond. Your voice within me calling with my voice to you who seek my life, my worship, my gratitude that I may live, abundantly.
Your indwelling Spirit speaks from my depths, to cry to you, give you praise and seek your intimacy that you and I may be caught up in a circle of loving nearness.
Such is worship in spirit, and it is truest worship. And my fondest thanks is to wake each day to discover again your Spirit within calling, seeking, longing for you who are that Spirit beyond.
This day, let my enduring gratitude give you proper praise.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Today's text
John 4:10-15
Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water. 'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?' Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life. 'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.’
Prayer
What is this water you give, Jesus, if not the life that fills you?
Your heart is fully open at its base to the Eternal Spring, the infinitely Loving Source of all that is. The root of your soul is a broad door opening into immeasurable eternity, into the abyss of the One who is Life. And from darkest depths flows a river of Life through your life.
And this you would do to me? You would open my heart to the heavy currents of divinity that they should well into my depths, making this life a bubbling fountain of the Eternal Spring.
The weight of such divinity will explode the choked arteries of my heart. Your currents are too heavy, too thick, too rapid. I cannot contain them. They are too much for me. I cannot control them. They will destroy what I am.
‘I know,’ you say, and smile.
And what can I say? ‘Dear Friend, give me this water always that I may never be thirsty.’ For I tire of this thirst.
But to slake this thirst means opening to the heavy currents of the Uncontainable. They wash away most of what we are. But still we pray: Show me the places, Eternal Spring, where the dearest freshness of everlasting newness may well in me.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 4:10-15
Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water. 'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?' Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life. 'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.’
Prayer
What is this water you give, Jesus, if not the life that fills you?
Your heart is fully open at its base to the Eternal Spring, the infinitely Loving Source of all that is. The root of your soul is a broad door opening into immeasurable eternity, into the abyss of the One who is Life. And from darkest depths flows a river of Life through your life.
And this you would do to me? You would open my heart to the heavy currents of divinity that they should well into my depths, making this life a bubbling fountain of the Eternal Spring.
The weight of such divinity will explode the choked arteries of my heart. Your currents are too heavy, too thick, too rapid. I cannot contain them. They are too much for me. I cannot control them. They will destroy what I am.
‘I know,’ you say, and smile.
And what can I say? ‘Dear Friend, give me this water always that I may never be thirsty.’ For I tire of this thirst.
But to slake this thirst means opening to the heavy currents of the Uncontainable. They wash away most of what we are. But still we pray: Show me the places, Eternal Spring, where the dearest freshness of everlasting newness may well in me.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Today's text
John 4:5-10
On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.' His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' - Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.
Prayer
It is you who ask to drink, Jesus. But in asking a divine offer is made. You ask for water, but your request is not for this nectar of life but that you may give the drink you bear: living water.
You give that water that bubbles and flows from ancient cataracts of soul that our lives not wither like husks in the heat of the day.
And we? We bring our mid-winter weariness to your well. It is not heat that wears us down but winter’s long grayness and our incessant labors. We are bone cold and crave rest, wanting to sit with you by the well as you talk to the woman … and us.
We want just to be with you, listening to your voice and to feel the life you are bubbling up again, living water that fills the soul with joy and the arm with purpose.
So let us sit with you this day, if only for a moment or two, so we can hear your voice, “Give me a drink.” For that voice is your own within our own, inviting us to the life you intend for us. The living water you delight to give.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 4:5-10
On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.' His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' - Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.
Prayer
It is you who ask to drink, Jesus. But in asking a divine offer is made. You ask for water, but your request is not for this nectar of life but that you may give the drink you bear: living water.
You give that water that bubbles and flows from ancient cataracts of soul that our lives not wither like husks in the heat of the day.
And we? We bring our mid-winter weariness to your well. It is not heat that wears us down but winter’s long grayness and our incessant labors. We are bone cold and crave rest, wanting to sit with you by the well as you talk to the woman … and us.
We want just to be with you, listening to your voice and to feel the life you are bubbling up again, living water that fills the soul with joy and the arm with purpose.
So let us sit with you this day, if only for a moment or two, so we can hear your voice, “Give me a drink.” For that voice is your own within our own, inviting us to the life you intend for us. The living water you delight to give.
Pr. David L. Miller
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