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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Wednesday, February 4, 2004 Ups and Downs |
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Frontline Devotion for Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004, by Penny Risen
Bible text: Acts 15: 1-35
Another "Snow Day": No school, little work done and a house full of restless kids.
We in Washington like to pretend we're not living in a Northern city, but winter still brings us plenty of bone chilling winds, freezing rain, and inch after inch of snow. What gets me through a day like this --- on which the city and countryside seem to stand still --- is recognizing and appreciating the ups and downs that go with it.
DOWNS
--- Every crumb of snack food, lunch fixings and drinks disappearing into my and the many sock-hatted neighborhood kids who show up to sled down our hillside.
--- Never ending supplies of wet boots piling at the back door, accompanied by steady streams into the dryer of soggy socks, scarves, parkas and ski pants.
--- Thud, thud, thudding of video games drifting up from the basement, as kids warm up before the next assault between snow fort armies.
UPS
--- Offering those lingering Christmastime gifts of cheese, nuts, sausages and sweets that have been hibernating in the fridge to the grateful snowbound throng.
--- Red-cheeked teenagers grinning with satisfaction like 4-year-olds, after slick leaps downhill off a snowboard jump that took them a frigid hour of engineering to construct. (And politely being asked to supply coldpacks and Band-Aids to big, tough guys who need TLC after a bumpy run.)
--- Sharing a warm spot under a big quilt with my preteen, who's decided a place on the couch next to Mom watching the snow fall is preferable to freezing toes at sundown.
God and His changing world have ways of slowing us down, perhaps when we most need to take stock of His blessings and to connect with each other. Don't we also occasionally need to accept the unpredictable and test our coping skills?
This passage in Acts echoes the need to cope and still bind together with God's
help and grace.
Living as a disciple of Christ in the days of Acts meant riding an incredible
emotional rollercoaster.
Folks like Peter and Paul felt the great joys of converting whole households, or
healing the sick, or being welcomed into villages of new believers. But they
also suffered great frustrations of bickering and mistrust among Jewish elders,
or endless debates about how to follow teachings of both Jesus and the laws of
Moses, or outright hatred and martyrdom.
Paul and Peter often used encouraging words of God's grace in Acts and in their ministry. Paul used it as a greeting, "Grace to you and peace." Grace, they explained to all who would listen, is given by a God who knows our hearts and who knows how we can be bound to sin and self-centered ways. The disciples repeated this loving reassurance to believers that God's gift is always there, through ups and downs. God's free and unmerited love and forgiveness is shown to sinful humanity, not because we deserve it but because God chose to give it to us freely.
Trying to close yet another debate over traditions, Peter stated in Acts15:10: "Why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." Here, he preached best about simple things, the basics of faith and love in our relationship with God and one another --- when put to the test by our daily ups and downs.
Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, your grace gets me through so many trials. Help me to lean on you when I'm down, and also to praise and thank you when my days brighten. Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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