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
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
Posts
All Comments
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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
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 07, 2007
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
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
Friday, May 04, 2007
Friday May 4, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:11-12
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Prayer
I wake and try to catch you with words. This is my day. It is like trying to snatch dancing flames to put them in a jar. I grasp at the air. The flame singes my hand, but when I open it my hand is empty. Again I capture nothing. My words fall flat to the floor. And my soul burns at my failure to catch and share some small beauty of your dance in time and space.
All in all, I would prefer to say nothing. Simply remain silent. I crave the silent knowing of your love in moments when there is no need to say a thing, just be. Then I know only you, undistracted by my weakness and failures.
So today, just let me watch and wait and listen in the silence for the slightest stirring of soul in which I know the dancing flame of your love living in me and in this people among whom I dwell.
That will be enough for me. But I lie; it is not enough. Inevitably, I will again try to catch fire in a jar. Forgive my failures, and make my hand quicker. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:11-12
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Prayer
I wake and try to catch you with words. This is my day. It is like trying to snatch dancing flames to put them in a jar. I grasp at the air. The flame singes my hand, but when I open it my hand is empty. Again I capture nothing. My words fall flat to the floor. And my soul burns at my failure to catch and share some small beauty of your dance in time and space.
All in all, I would prefer to say nothing. Simply remain silent. I crave the silent knowing of your love in moments when there is no need to say a thing, just be. Then I know only you, undistracted by my weakness and failures.
So today, just let me watch and wait and listen in the silence for the slightest stirring of soul in which I know the dancing flame of your love living in me and in this people among whom I dwell.
That will be enough for me. But I lie; it is not enough. Inevitably, I will again try to catch fire in a jar. Forgive my failures, and make my hand quicker. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Thursday May 3, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:9-10
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Prayer
“That we might live,”… can I want more than this? I want to live. This burning desire from the depth of my soul makes me average. You create me and all that is with the desire for yourself. You are Life Abundant, and our souls are born on fire with the awareness that we are intended for More, for a great and surpassing love, for the mystery from which we spring. Failing to find this, we do not live in fullness for which you made us.
I did not spark this hungry flame. You did, making us in the image of your own desire.
But you do not make us search for the love of our yearning. You come to us. Your fullness wears the face of Jesus, our brother. Contemplating his every word and act, our senses come alive to More, to the surpassing love from which and for which we are made.
Knowing him is life, for the fullness of your divine love fills him. Savoring that fullness fills me also, bubbling up, spilling over, leaving no empty spaces. And in that moment, I am alive as in no other. I live. And the life I bear is your own eternity, satisfying the ancient desire of every soul … and of mine. But the hunger returns. So fill me that I may live. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:9-10
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Prayer
“That we might live,”… can I want more than this? I want to live. This burning desire from the depth of my soul makes me average. You create me and all that is with the desire for yourself. You are Life Abundant, and our souls are born on fire with the awareness that we are intended for More, for a great and surpassing love, for the mystery from which we spring. Failing to find this, we do not live in fullness for which you made us.
I did not spark this hungry flame. You did, making us in the image of your own desire.
But you do not make us search for the love of our yearning. You come to us. Your fullness wears the face of Jesus, our brother. Contemplating his every word and act, our senses come alive to More, to the surpassing love from which and for which we are made.
Knowing him is life, for the fullness of your divine love fills him. Savoring that fullness fills me also, bubbling up, spilling over, leaving no empty spaces. And in that moment, I am alive as in no other. I live. And the life I bear is your own eternity, satisfying the ancient desire of every soul … and of mine. But the hunger returns. So fill me that I may live. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Love is as love as, Holy One. You are Love, and you do. You act, loving not in word alone but in deed and truth, giving your world its daily breath and the breadth of your mercy in our brother Jesus.
Love lives not in word alone but in actions. Your love allow us to enter the safe and wide space where our souls can breathe in the atmosphere of freedom, knowing we are well, no matter our circumstance, for we yours. We dwell in the precinct of your unchanging love and nothing can change this central reality of our lives.
So let us know you are love and become the love you are, safe spaces where other souls may breathe and find truest humanity. May our deeds and being provide welcome space where others might live and know the love that beats at heart of the universe and in your children.
And in our loving, may we know not only the freedom, the open space of soul you give, but you. We would know not merely your benefits but the Surpassing Wonder you are that we again may know that you are Love itself, seeking to restore in us your blessed image. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Love is as love as, Holy One. You are Love, and you do. You act, loving not in word alone but in deed and truth, giving your world its daily breath and the breadth of your mercy in our brother Jesus.
Love lives not in word alone but in actions. Your love allow us to enter the safe and wide space where our souls can breathe in the atmosphere of freedom, knowing we are well, no matter our circumstance, for we yours. We dwell in the precinct of your unchanging love and nothing can change this central reality of our lives.
So let us know you are love and become the love you are, safe spaces where other souls may breathe and find truest humanity. May our deeds and being provide welcome space where others might live and know the love that beats at heart of the universe and in your children.
And in our loving, may we know not only the freedom, the open space of soul you give, but you. We would know not merely your benefits but the Surpassing Wonder you are that we again may know that you are Love itself, seeking to restore in us your blessed image. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 27, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
It sounds so simple, Holy Simplicity. And it is, for you. Or so I think. For your heart is simple, pure, given to the one reality, the one truth, the one thing whom you are. You are pure of heart, simple to the core. You do not spin off in a million directions but are eternally the One Love abiding simultaneously in every time and every space, a living unity of love in which nothing else is mixed or confused.
You are love. In you is no complexity, only impenetrable simplicity of heart and desire.
No wonder I can’t understand you, for I am not simple or pure at heart. My heart is drawn and driven by forces from within and without. My mind is tossed by conflicting winds of desire, some holy, many self-serving and most beyond conscious awareness.
But there are times of sublime simplicity when, if only for a moment, all other desire falls away, and I want only one thing. Rapt in your simplicity, only one thing matters, only one can be expressed, only one is possible. One desire fills the empty spaces of my soul, evaporating all confliction of heart. And I know the love you are, the love you would have me be.
This alone matters. All else is so much noise. So let it be. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
It sounds so simple, Holy Simplicity. And it is, for you. Or so I think. For your heart is simple, pure, given to the one reality, the one truth, the one thing whom you are. You are pure of heart, simple to the core. You do not spin off in a million directions but are eternally the One Love abiding simultaneously in every time and every space, a living unity of love in which nothing else is mixed or confused.
You are love. In you is no complexity, only impenetrable simplicity of heart and desire.
No wonder I can’t understand you, for I am not simple or pure at heart. My heart is drawn and driven by forces from within and without. My mind is tossed by conflicting winds of desire, some holy, many self-serving and most beyond conscious awareness.
But there are times of sublime simplicity when, if only for a moment, all other desire falls away, and I want only one thing. Rapt in your simplicity, only one thing matters, only one can be expressed, only one is possible. One desire fills the empty spaces of my soul, evaporating all confliction of heart. And I know the love you are, the love you would have me be.
This alone matters. All else is so much noise. So let it be. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Grant me the most sublime of blessings, Loving Mystery. Grant me love’s knowledge of you who are Love itself. For love is knowledge; anything less is mere mental grasping, feeling about in the dark. Only love knows.
Only when I love does my heart open to see and know you. For how can a heart that does not love know you who are Love itself? And how can a heart love unless Love itself dwells in its depths? In loving we know you; in knowing you we love. The circle of loving begins and ends in you.
We see what we are, and we are what we see. I would see you, for you are love and only love allows me to savor your wonder and grace in the midst of a cynical and brutal age. Only love opens my soul to see you and to see as you see.
When I know you my soul opens up to embrace all you have made, like a spring flower awakened, drinking in the warmth of life and the grace of air to become beauty simply by basking in the gifts you give. Creation rushes into my senses to be embraced by a holy affection larger and more resonant than any I can produce. You love your world in me, and I know you in the loving.
I have no words that capture the truth of this ecstatic loving awareness. I only know that in such moments I know truth. I know you. So let me love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Grant me the most sublime of blessings, Loving Mystery. Grant me love’s knowledge of you who are Love itself. For love is knowledge; anything less is mere mental grasping, feeling about in the dark. Only love knows.
Only when I love does my heart open to see and know you. For how can a heart that does not love know you who are Love itself? And how can a heart love unless Love itself dwells in its depths? In loving we know you; in knowing you we love. The circle of loving begins and ends in you.
We see what we are, and we are what we see. I would see you, for you are love and only love allows me to savor your wonder and grace in the midst of a cynical and brutal age. Only love opens my soul to see you and to see as you see.
When I know you my soul opens up to embrace all you have made, like a spring flower awakened, drinking in the warmth of life and the grace of air to become beauty simply by basking in the gifts you give. Creation rushes into my senses to be embraced by a holy affection larger and more resonant than any I can produce. You love your world in me, and I know you in the loving.
I have no words that capture the truth of this ecstatic loving awareness. I only know that in such moments I know truth. I know you. So let me love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
Prayer
Give me ears to hear the resonance of your speaking in all speaking, Holy Silence. I would listen to you amid the sound and fury of my little moment in time that I may know what is real and true. Otherwise, I lose myself … and you.
There is a silent spot in my soul with which I so often lose touch. Many voices distract me from the deep silence where you abide. The worst distraction is my own anxious voice, filling the empty spaces where I can truly listen and hear.
Close my mouth, and open my heart. Let me retreat to that silent space of soul to rest and listen for the cry of your Spirit enfleshed in these many lives I daily meet. You are there. I hear you often in cries of joy or sorrow, yearning or consolation. And I would listen to you more. Only so, hearing your voice in the voices, do I know you. And that is life.
So let me listen. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
Prayer
Give me ears to hear the resonance of your speaking in all speaking, Holy Silence. I would listen to you amid the sound and fury of my little moment in time that I may know what is real and true. Otherwise, I lose myself … and you.
There is a silent spot in my soul with which I so often lose touch. Many voices distract me from the deep silence where you abide. The worst distraction is my own anxious voice, filling the empty spaces where I can truly listen and hear.
Close my mouth, and open my heart. Let me retreat to that silent space of soul to rest and listen for the cry of your Spirit enfleshed in these many lives I daily meet. You are there. I hear you often in cries of joy or sorrow, yearning or consolation. And I would listen to you more. Only so, hearing your voice in the voices, do I know you. And that is life.
So let me listen. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 23, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Prayer
Greater are you, Holy One. Greater are you than the powers of death that stalk the Earth, greater than the fears of human souls, greater than the coarse judgments others make on us or that we heap upon ourselves, greater than the grief that grips our hearts over losses we must bear, greater than the sins and failures that haunts us, greater than the voices that deny your nearness, greater than the nihilism and cynicism that forsake love for power.
You are greater. And you are mine. That you are greater does not surprise me. What startles is the awareness that I bear you within as holy gift and possession from which my heart may fully live. Only in this awareness do I live fully; all else is half-life, grainy shadow in which the contours of beauty and joy are lost to soul.
But when I am aware that I bear a life that is Life, every moment becomes sacrament, and all life speaks with your voice, resonating with an uncreated love that is greater, always greater. Deus semper major. You are always more than mind or imagination, more than sorrow or struggle. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Prayer
Greater are you, Holy One. Greater are you than the powers of death that stalk the Earth, greater than the fears of human souls, greater than the coarse judgments others make on us or that we heap upon ourselves, greater than the grief that grips our hearts over losses we must bear, greater than the sins and failures that haunts us, greater than the voices that deny your nearness, greater than the nihilism and cynicism that forsake love for power.
You are greater. And you are mine. That you are greater does not surprise me. What startles is the awareness that I bear you within as holy gift and possession from which my heart may fully live. Only in this awareness do I live fully; all else is half-life, grainy shadow in which the contours of beauty and joy are lost to soul.
But when I am aware that I bear a life that is Life, every moment becomes sacrament, and all life speaks with your voice, resonating with an uncreated love that is greater, always greater. Deus semper major. You are always more than mind or imagination, more than sorrow or struggle. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 20, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:23-24
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and is already in the world.”
Prayer
Three words most please me, Dearest Friend: “in the flesh.” I read them and smile. They move consolation in my soul and mist my eyes. You … in the flesh.
You, my God, are deep, loving and hidden mystery. You dwell in an obscurity I can neither penetrate nor fathom. I cannot take the wings of the morning breeze and be carried into the place of your abode. I cannot think my way through the blinding light that surrounds your constant nearness.
I am flesh and blood. My skin interfaces the world, and through it I experience and know that I am real and alive. Only when you stand in the gentle light of day can I truly know you. And you do.
You wear our human flesh, revealing the inscrutable face of eternity. You do not remain an idea or concept, a transcendent magnetic power pulling us on to we know not what. You appear in ways that skin can know.
In you, my brother, Jesus, we see the beauty, the wonder, the loving joy, the fulfillment we never knew that we always wanted. Seeing you in the flesh, Loving Mystery, our eyes drink in the longing we could never quite name.
We confess you, my brother, as the gracious flesh of God, the mortal face of the Eternal Wonder. Thank you, Holy Mystery, that you show your life in ways that skin can know, for I would know you not just as transcendent wonder but as gracious friend, who desires my nearness as I desire you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:23-24
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and is already in the world.”
Prayer
Three words most please me, Dearest Friend: “in the flesh.” I read them and smile. They move consolation in my soul and mist my eyes. You … in the flesh.
You, my God, are deep, loving and hidden mystery. You dwell in an obscurity I can neither penetrate nor fathom. I cannot take the wings of the morning breeze and be carried into the place of your abode. I cannot think my way through the blinding light that surrounds your constant nearness.
I am flesh and blood. My skin interfaces the world, and through it I experience and know that I am real and alive. Only when you stand in the gentle light of day can I truly know you. And you do.
You wear our human flesh, revealing the inscrutable face of eternity. You do not remain an idea or concept, a transcendent magnetic power pulling us on to we know not what. You appear in ways that skin can know.
In you, my brother, Jesus, we see the beauty, the wonder, the loving joy, the fulfillment we never knew that we always wanted. Seeing you in the flesh, Loving Mystery, our eyes drink in the longing we could never quite name.
We confess you, my brother, as the gracious flesh of God, the mortal face of the Eternal Wonder. Thank you, Holy Mystery, that you show your life in ways that skin can know, for I would know you not just as transcendent wonder but as gracious friend, who desires my nearness as I desire you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:23-24
“And this is the commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
Prayer
You didn’t make us to think or suppose, Blessed Assurance, but to be certain, clear and firm. Your love is more certain than the fresh light of morning. Your presence is dependable as the air that moves in and from my lungs, surrounding and filling me with joy at being alive and here and now.
The marks of your abiding are unmistakable too.
You awaken our senses to the love we have for your gracious face, a love you birth in our souls and extravert into our lives by loving us. You turn our heads to what trust we have in your eternally-constant loving that we may be certain, clear and firm.
Despite the uncertainties of our souls, we see love and faith stirring in us, signs of your gracious presence, and we know: You abide, Holy One, here in us. We are not forsaken, bereft or abandoned. We are not those who think you are near and suppose that you are gracious and forgiving.
We know. The love that bubbles from depth of soul, and our faith, however faltering, make it clear: You are here, and the signs of you holy labor are written in the flesh of our hearts.
Move us to abide in your abiding that we may keep your life-giving commands. Lift our hearts beyond the suppositions of our wavering hearts that we live in the certainty only you can give. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:23-24
“And this is the commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
Prayer
You didn’t make us to think or suppose, Blessed Assurance, but to be certain, clear and firm. Your love is more certain than the fresh light of morning. Your presence is dependable as the air that moves in and from my lungs, surrounding and filling me with joy at being alive and here and now.
The marks of your abiding are unmistakable too.
You awaken our senses to the love we have for your gracious face, a love you birth in our souls and extravert into our lives by loving us. You turn our heads to what trust we have in your eternally-constant loving that we may be certain, clear and firm.
Despite the uncertainties of our souls, we see love and faith stirring in us, signs of your gracious presence, and we know: You abide, Holy One, here in us. We are not forsaken, bereft or abandoned. We are not those who think you are near and suppose that you are gracious and forgiving.
We know. The love that bubbles from depth of soul, and our faith, however faltering, make it clear: You are here, and the signs of you holy labor are written in the flesh of our hearts.
Move us to abide in your abiding that we may keep your life-giving commands. Lift our hearts beyond the suppositions of our wavering hearts that we live in the certainty only you can give. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:21-22
“Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.”
Prayer
Holy Risen Joy, you do not intend us for condemnation but for the bliss of boldness. You invite us to live in confident expectation of your constant blessing. Our hearts are weak, troubled easily, distracted and disturbed by sorrows and disappointments, by the weight of our labors and the stirrings of our stress. Confident joy eludes our grasp, sinking our souls and weakening our arms and efforts.
Fill our hearts with … you. Fill us with your risen life that we may arise in joy to the challenges we face, throwing our minds and full being into the tasks you have given us as we grow into your service. Do not allow us to languish, but lift us to the joy of knowing the indwelling of your love.
Then our hearts will not be downcast but ready and willing spirits will arise from our depths, and we will fear nothing, not our weaknesses or sins, not threats from without or within.
No, we will live. We will live filled with the boldness of your risen and deathless life. Joy will overflow our hearts, and we will be that portrait of your salvation that you intend.
And you will hear our prayers, for they will arise from Spirit to Spirit, from your life within us to your life ever beyond us, a holy circle of loving in which you catch and fill us with the boldness of everlasting joy.
So capture and fill us, I pray, that we may know no condemnation but only the joy of the Eternal Loving you are. You alone are life, and we who dwell in grayness hunger to live in the full light of day. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:21-22
“Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.”
Prayer
Holy Risen Joy, you do not intend us for condemnation but for the bliss of boldness. You invite us to live in confident expectation of your constant blessing. Our hearts are weak, troubled easily, distracted and disturbed by sorrows and disappointments, by the weight of our labors and the stirrings of our stress. Confident joy eludes our grasp, sinking our souls and weakening our arms and efforts.
Fill our hearts with … you. Fill us with your risen life that we may arise in joy to the challenges we face, throwing our minds and full being into the tasks you have given us as we grow into your service. Do not allow us to languish, but lift us to the joy of knowing the indwelling of your love.
Then our hearts will not be downcast but ready and willing spirits will arise from our depths, and we will fear nothing, not our weaknesses or sins, not threats from without or within.
No, we will live. We will live filled with the boldness of your risen and deathless life. Joy will overflow our hearts, and we will be that portrait of your salvation that you intend.
And you will hear our prayers, for they will arise from Spirit to Spirit, from your life within us to your life ever beyond us, a holy circle of loving in which you catch and fill us with the boldness of everlasting joy.
So capture and fill us, I pray, that we may know no condemnation but only the joy of the Eternal Loving you are. You alone are life, and we who dwell in grayness hunger to live in the full light of day. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 16, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:18-20
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Prayer
The love we know and act is yours, All Searching One. You search deep into the crevices and unknown corners of souls to find places to fix fast and remain, there to work transformation of holy surprise.
We are the surprised, and the surprise is you. In blessed moments, we discover a compassion bubbling from source unseen, moving us to see and care beyond our normal vision and capacity. Our desire to be love and do compassion even among those who may care little for us surprises, so, too, our hunger to give and be given to that which transcends.
Our hearts spontaneously go out from us at the sight of particular need or beauty of soul, moving us beyond the narrow confines of self, blessing and surprising, revealing again that despite ourselves we bear a mystery deep in our flesh--You.
And you are our reassurance. For there are many times are hearts accuse for sin and failure, ancient and new. Old deeds may lie forgotten by those we injured yet castigate our consciences, sucking our strength, preoccupying waking hours and waking us from sleep with wrongs done and opportunities missed.
We have no defense but you, your love and truth that abides in the crevices and far corners of our souls, bubbling there, revealing that you are pleased to dwell even in us. Bearing your life, I order the accusing voices with your voice: “Sin be gone. My failure is forgiven. I bear a love larger than the wounds and weakness of my heart, more powerful than you, accusing voices. That Greater One abides here in me to close your mouth and drive you out.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:18-20
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Prayer
The love we know and act is yours, All Searching One. You search deep into the crevices and unknown corners of souls to find places to fix fast and remain, there to work transformation of holy surprise.
We are the surprised, and the surprise is you. In blessed moments, we discover a compassion bubbling from source unseen, moving us to see and care beyond our normal vision and capacity. Our desire to be love and do compassion even among those who may care little for us surprises, so, too, our hunger to give and be given to that which transcends.
Our hearts spontaneously go out from us at the sight of particular need or beauty of soul, moving us beyond the narrow confines of self, blessing and surprising, revealing again that despite ourselves we bear a mystery deep in our flesh--You.
And you are our reassurance. For there are many times are hearts accuse for sin and failure, ancient and new. Old deeds may lie forgotten by those we injured yet castigate our consciences, sucking our strength, preoccupying waking hours and waking us from sleep with wrongs done and opportunities missed.
We have no defense but you, your love and truth that abides in the crevices and far corners of our souls, bubbling there, revealing that you are pleased to dwell even in us. Bearing your life, I order the accusing voices with your voice: “Sin be gone. My failure is forgiven. I bear a love larger than the wounds and weakness of my heart, more powerful than you, accusing voices. That Greater One abides here in me to close your mouth and drive you out.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 13, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:15-17
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our live for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help?”
Prayer
Eternal life is love abiding. Grant us this every morning, Living One. For we, too, do murderer to the souls of those we bypass and take for granted. We work destruction in our failures of gratitude and grace, our refusals to bless and heal, to build up and encourage. We kill the souls of your beloved and the unity of your beloved community with glib words and backbiting.
We each are more fragile and needy than we have courage to acknowledge. We need you. We need each other. We need our communal sharing to be a holy sacrament of your eternal life lest we die, lest we dwell in haunts of sadness and prisons of distrust and anger.
Our souls yearn for the sweet freedom to soar and share and be, for once, ourselves, that rare person who emerges in the morning sun of unspeakable grace where we know we are loved beyond any measure.
And we are. You laid down your life for us, Risen Jesus, and now pour the resurrection of grace into our souls that we may live and grace every life we touch with the love we have received from you, the flowing fountain of eternal life.
May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:15-17
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our live for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help?”
Prayer
Eternal life is love abiding. Grant us this every morning, Living One. For we, too, do murderer to the souls of those we bypass and take for granted. We work destruction in our failures of gratitude and grace, our refusals to bless and heal, to build up and encourage. We kill the souls of your beloved and the unity of your beloved community with glib words and backbiting.
We each are more fragile and needy than we have courage to acknowledge. We need you. We need each other. We need our communal sharing to be a holy sacrament of your eternal life lest we die, lest we dwell in haunts of sadness and prisons of distrust and anger.
Our souls yearn for the sweet freedom to soar and share and be, for once, ourselves, that rare person who emerges in the morning sun of unspeakable grace where we know we are loved beyond any measure.
And we are. You laid down your life for us, Risen Jesus, and now pour the resurrection of grace into our souls that we may live and grace every life we touch with the love we have received from you, the flowing fountain of eternal life.
May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 09, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 06, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)