OTJ – OSMTJ MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL June 2024 English


OPENING PRAYER 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Almighty God of love and compassion,  we come to You today with inexpressible  

gratitude for the love You have bestowed on us. We are not worthy of that gift and  

have difficulty accepting it. Knowing that You loved us so much that You gave your Son 

 as a sacrifice for the sins we commit is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. 

 Please help us to fully understand so that we might share the good news of Your 

 love to others.  We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

READINGS FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 26, 2024  

Psalm 29  (NIV) 

Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord’s glory and strength.  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;  worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.  The voice of the Lord is over the waters;  the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful;  the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.  He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.  And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”  The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.  The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;  

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen. 

The Gospel:  John 3:1-17 (NIV) 

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.  He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?  Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony.  I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?  No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

 

MEDITATION 

 How to See God’s Love 

(From Keith Christensen – December 21, 2020) 

 There is a very specific way the love of the invisible God was made visible: God sent his Son. Don’t look for God to send a cloud that looks kind of like a heart to confirm his love for you; don’t look for him to send a pleasant bluebird to land on your shoulder to show his love; don’t hope for him to send an unexplainable warmth in your chest. God’s love for his people is not some vague sentiment that we’re supposed to feel in the ambiance of our surroundings somehow. To prove his love, don’t wait for him to send you a promotion, or send some unexpected income, or send some relief from pain, or send a new and improved version of your spouse who’s a bit more agreeable. Don’t look for him to send you the  ability to live your best life now as the demonstration of his love.  No!  If you will prove his love, look at how he sent his Son. 

If you want to know that God loves you, look in faith to the words of the Bible, and see there the only-begotten Son of God hanging dead on a cross, crushed by God his Father who loved him, out of love for us.  Note carefully that Christ did not die so that God would love us; He died because God did.  We lose our grip on God’s love whenever we lose sight of the cross.  This is love: He sent his Son so we might live, and so we might have propitiation for sins.  Can you look at this bloody tree and question that God is love?  When you consider the work of Christ, do you think to yourself with delight and amazement: “Oh my soul, what astonishing love God has shown!”  If not, why?  Why do we not hear about the work of Christ and conclude: “Wow, this is love!”  Why do we not see the cross and think with irrepressible gladness: “I see the love of God manifest there!”  God sent his Son! Even though we know this, our hearts can still be hard and hesitant to see that God loves us.  We can struggle to be convinced of the love of God, even in the face of the cross.  Why might that be? 

It isn’t only losing sight of the cross that can cause us to question God’s love.  I fear it also happens because we so grossly devalue the cross, as if the Son of God dying on a cross for our sins just isn’t enough to move the needle to make us certain of the love God has for us.  God gave us his only Son, but we often struggle to believe God loves us because he hasn’t given us other things.  He has given his Son as my savior!  Yes, some will say, “That’s nice; but I still struggle to know he loves me because he hasn’t also given me a spouse who is good to me during this temporary earthly life.”   He has given his Son so I might live!  “True, but I still struggle to know he loves me because he hasn’t given me a more enjoyable or satisfying job.”  He willed to crush his only Son for my iniquities!  “Yes, and I do appreciate that very much, I really do, but, at the same time, look at what he hasn’t done for me: I’m not as attractive, or smart, or rich, or talented, or privileged, or healthy, or happy as some other people are, and I’d really like to be some of those things.  I just can’t be sure that he loves me in the absence of those.”   “If only I didn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck, or had more discretionary income, or had an easier lot in life, or had less stress, or more comfort, or more friends, or more respect, or…“Being saved from sin and God’s wrath and eternal hell, that’s very nice and all, but I guess it just isn’t really my love language.  That’s not what God or others need to do to make me know I’m loved.  Of all beings, God should know that, right?”   We doubt the love of God when we view the accomplishment of the cross as a small thing, in comparison to other things that we might be wanting and caring about more.  Thus, the thing that clouds our vision of God’s love can often be idolatry. 

Now, I’m not trying to be harsh or trite.  I know there are things that we go through in this sin-cursed, fallen world that are not as petty as many of the things I listed above.  Perhaps one doubts the love of God because he took their child away, or took their spouse away, or because he does not take some great physical suffering away, or does not take great loneliness away, or does not take persecution or abuse away, etc.   I don’t intend to minimize these sufferings;  I only intend to maximize the cross of Jesus Christ and maximize in our eyes the real love that God has for us, which he displayed at Calvary.  There is no hard or evil thing that should ever make us wonder, “Is God really loving?” because we see the cross!  No trial or failing should make us question whether or not God delights to give us Himself and to give us every good thing.  We need not doubt that he is happily committed with all his heart to secure for all his people all blessings for all of eternity.  We don’t need to question these things because the love of God has been manifested among us in this way: he sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins, that we might live through him.  Furthermore, if we will fix our eyes on the cross, that will help us to trust that God has loving purposes for allowing us to experience pain, or loss, or disappointment, or stumbling. 

God could not have shown any greater love than he has!  Let me say that again: what God did in sending his Son was the greatest possible love that God could have shown us.  The Father’s only-begotten Son is his eternal delight and the very radiance of his glory.  This is the one God sent for us.  Sending Christ is a greater gift than if God had given us all other things except Christ combined.  Because of who Christ is, we know that God could not have shown us any greater love than he did when he sent his Son for us.  We need to repent for all the times we’ve looked at what we have in the cross and come away unsatisfied with God’s love, and unconvinced of God’s love, because of some other thing we don’t have. And then after we mourn over our grievous, idolatrous devaluing of God’s inexpressible gift, we need to look again at the cross and behold the love of God for us afresh.  We see at the cross God’s love even for sinners like us, who doubt his love and devalue his Son, who take the great grace and salvation he offers too lightly, too often.  This is how you can teach your soul to sing, “What wondrous love is this, O my soul!”  This is how you see God’s love.

CHRISTIAN POEM

What Wondrous Love Is This

 What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
what wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
when I was sinking down, sinking down;
when I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul!

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
to God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
to God and to the Lamb, who is the great I AM,
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
while millions join the theme, I will sing!

 And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on;
and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing His love for me,
and through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
and through eternity I’ll sing on!

[Author Anonymous]

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come,

 thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread

 and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine

 is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen

BLESSING

Beloved of God, go now in peace.

Go to love. Go to serve.
Go with the unending blessing of the One, True, Living God

Father – Son – Spirit.  Amen

     [Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia]

 

Respectfully submitted by Lori Toro

Verger, Chaplain Corp, OTJ

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