Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. – Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
What does this image of Jesus standing and knocking mean to you? Do you believe Jesus is chasing after you? Have you opened the door to your heart and life? Are you willing to become a temple for the presence of God?
Last week I was attending a Presbytery meeting. After driving an hour and a half to the church where the meeting was being held I was not in much a mood to worship, but the first thing we do at such meetings is worship. My mind was wandering, I was thinking of things I had to do, I wasn’t worshipping God.
Then after the offering I went out to wash my hands and take a breather. Perhaps in the act of washing my hands some of my concerns washed away, or maybe it was that grace poured over me.
Whatever it was when I went back in the Prayers of the People started. People lifted up names that were heavy upon their hearts, and names that gave them reason to rejoice. They shared the reasons for naming each person and we held their names as a group. It felt holy.
The prayer itself wasn’t the normal kind of prayer prayer, as when a person stands before the rest of us and utters a prayer on our behalf. It was responsive where the leader read some and then the congregation read some. It also left time for silence after various groups of people were named. As we prayed for groups of people across the world I could feel them. Those people whose names I will never know and faces I will never see I could feel and I sensed them close in the Spirit. As I prayed for them I realized something else… I loved them.
In that moment I knew something had happened. Right then I was living in the heart of God.
Jesus pursues us hoping that we will open the door of our lives, so that he might enter into them and eat with us. In the Bible eating together is one of the highest forms of fellowship. He wants to fellowship with us so that we might experience life together. In our times of prayer and while we sit at the Communion table we open our hearts to God so that we might find ourselves living in the heart of God. It is there, within God’s heart, that we find out we can love as God loves. So pray on, it does in fact change things, it changes us.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Showing posts with label fellowship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fellowship. Show all posts
Monday, November 21, 2011
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Time For Fellowship
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. – John 19:26-27 (NRSV)
Why do you think Jesus wanted to make sure these two had someone to care for them before he died? What may have been going through his mother’s mind? What about the beloved disciple’s mind? This is one of the last words Jesus spoke, what does it say about how we should live?
The following is a story about Marian Anderson that I have heard a couple of times.
Marian Anderson, an African-American singer who helped break down the walls of race, made her debut at Carnegie Hall, demonstrating to all a voice that is still considered one of the best ever today. At the end of the concert she sang “Ave Maria,” and people called her back for an encore, and then another, and then another, and she finally ended by singing, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” Her mother was sitting in the audience weeping. The person next to her asked her why she was crying when her daughter was doing so well, and she responded, “I’m crying for joy.”
She then recalled a moment when Marian was a girl saying, “I was working in a kitchen, my hands were burned, my face scalded, it was hard, but I did it so my daughter could get an education. I remember one day Marian came to me and said, ‘Mother, I don’t want you working like this.’ And I looked down at her and said, ‘Honey I don’t mind, I’m doing it for you and I expect great things from you.’”
Years later someone asked Marian Anderson what the happiest moment of her life was. “Was it when you made that debut in Carnegie Hall?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it the time you stood before the kings and queens of Europe?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it the moment in Finland when it was declared that the roof was too low for a voice such as yours?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it when Toscanini said that a voice like yours comes only once in a century?” “No it wasn’t then.” “What was it then Miss Anderson?” “The happiest moment in my life was the moment that I could say, ‘Mother, you can stop working now.’”
Jesus knew that no one could get anywhere by himself or herself. Each one of us has made it as far as we have because of hundreds, maybe even thousands of other people who have helped us along the way. People were not meant to be alone and cannot go through life alone. Knowing that people need fellowship, Jesus made sure that his mother and his beloved disciple received fellowship in each other. We now must become fellows to each other, and discover friends in others; it is the only way we can make it all!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Why do you think Jesus wanted to make sure these two had someone to care for them before he died? What may have been going through his mother’s mind? What about the beloved disciple’s mind? This is one of the last words Jesus spoke, what does it say about how we should live?
The following is a story about Marian Anderson that I have heard a couple of times.
Marian Anderson, an African-American singer who helped break down the walls of race, made her debut at Carnegie Hall, demonstrating to all a voice that is still considered one of the best ever today. At the end of the concert she sang “Ave Maria,” and people called her back for an encore, and then another, and then another, and she finally ended by singing, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” Her mother was sitting in the audience weeping. The person next to her asked her why she was crying when her daughter was doing so well, and she responded, “I’m crying for joy.”
She then recalled a moment when Marian was a girl saying, “I was working in a kitchen, my hands were burned, my face scalded, it was hard, but I did it so my daughter could get an education. I remember one day Marian came to me and said, ‘Mother, I don’t want you working like this.’ And I looked down at her and said, ‘Honey I don’t mind, I’m doing it for you and I expect great things from you.’”
Years later someone asked Marian Anderson what the happiest moment of her life was. “Was it when you made that debut in Carnegie Hall?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it the time you stood before the kings and queens of Europe?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it the moment in Finland when it was declared that the roof was too low for a voice such as yours?” “No it wasn’t then.” “Was it when Toscanini said that a voice like yours comes only once in a century?” “No it wasn’t then.” “What was it then Miss Anderson?” “The happiest moment in my life was the moment that I could say, ‘Mother, you can stop working now.’”
Jesus knew that no one could get anywhere by himself or herself. Each one of us has made it as far as we have because of hundreds, maybe even thousands of other people who have helped us along the way. People were not meant to be alone and cannot go through life alone. Knowing that people need fellowship, Jesus made sure that his mother and his beloved disciple received fellowship in each other. We now must become fellows to each other, and discover friends in others; it is the only way we can make it all!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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