BIBLE W5 D2 The Story of Noah (Gen 6:9-22; 7:11-16)

We continue to use our imaginations to meditate, focusing on the story of Noah. What was it like to be living back then? How could life on earth be so horrible that God decided to end it all and start over?

What did it feel like to be Noah talking to God and hear a command to build a huge ark nowhere near water? Can you imagine the conversations Noah endured with his neighbors as he was building this ark? Did Noah ever doubt his sanity?

What was it like on the ark with all the animals? 150 days is about 5 months... did they ever all quiet down at the same time? Was there a place on the ark where Noah could go an get away from it all? What was the smell like? What did they do with all the Elephant crap?

Our book has an interesting thought in the grey section on p.55... "Whenever we wonder about such questions, we're diving into the scriptures with our imagination. It is a blessing to approach the text in this way because it places us inside the biblical stories. Sometimes you may be a fly on the wall, observing and listening to conversations. Other times you may be an actual character in the midst of the action. Either way, this method of approaching the Bible allows you to connect your memory and experience with the meaning of the story through imagination."

Enjoy the trip to the "imagine nation"!

BIBLE W5 D1 The Creation Stories (Gen 1:1 - 2:9)

Today's reading is BOTH creation stories! (Did you know there were two different creation stories? One in Genesis 1 and the other at the start of Genesis 2.) Page 52 describes the differences... Genesis 1 describes man as the pinnacle of a creation pyramid while Genesis 2 describes man as the center of a sort of circle of life.

We're still focusing on the topic of meditation on the scriptures, but today we introduce a different twist. Today we use the scripture passage as the basis for some time with our imagination. We're to find a quite spot, read the passage, and then imagine we're with God as he creates the world... or maybe we imagine we're walking with God in the garden of Eden.

Try it...

Imagine being with God in the garden...

...

From the grey section on p.53... "God has an amazing imagination! With no designs to mimic and no models to copy, God imagines and speaks into being the trees, birds, and living persons. God creates the sounds of ocean waves, wind through the leaves, and voices singing praise. God writes the stories of our life. God is, indeed, a sculptor, composer, and author. As the Creator of all things, our Maker is the originator of creativity!"

So spend some time studying, meditating, and imagining being with God in the creation story.

BIBLE W4 D5 Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of God (Rom 8:31-39)

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 8:38 & 39)

In the visualization meditation described on p.50, I reflected on this passage and thought about how the powers of darkness seem to constantly try to separate me from the Love of Christ. Advertisements are constantly (especially with today being "Black Friday") attempting to entice me to spend money on items I simply do not need when I could share that money with God for a better purpose. The ever present silicon boxes (TV, Internet, etc.) seem to encourage me to squander time - something more precious than money - in isolation instead of being out and about, interacting with friends and loved ones. And of course, the great tempter is always invading my thoughts, encouraging me to think badly of people.

But here in the Bible, Paul tells me that all these things don't have the power to separate me from God's love. In fact, they only have the power I give them. The reason is explained earlier in Romans chapter 8. As a Christians, we're not controlled by sinful forces or by my sinful nature. Instead, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

When we ponder and meditate on this passage, we realize that our present difficulties are nothing compared to the Glory of God which awaits us.

(Editor's note: While you're planning your shopping excursion, consider www.heifer.org and give someone a goat, pig or cow)

BIBLE W4 D4 But Who Do You Say That I Am? (Matt 16:13-16)

Today's story is familiar... Jesus asks the disciples "Who do others say that I am?" and then "But who do you say that I am?" Today we are to reflect and meditate on these two questions.

It's funny how in two thousand years, the answers to these questions has not changed all that much. Today "others" still say that Jesus was a good man... perhaps a reincarnation of one of the prophets. They like some of his teachings, but don't like other ones. They think we can benefit from trying to follow some of his ways, but they still want to hold him at arm's length.

We, however, still say "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God." In reality, I guess that even "we" ascribe a wide variety of meaning to exactly what this implies. But as a lowest common starting point, I think that means we take the whole package, recognizing that there is a divine quality to Jesus and His life. We try to take it all... even the parts that are not very fun or comfortable.

It's more than just a matter of degrees of importance of Jesus in our lives. The difference between Jesus being a good man and being The Messiah is in our approach to Him. We study the sayings of a good man. We worship the Messiah. It's a world of difference.

But who do YOU say that Jesus is??

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

BIBLE W4 D3 The LORD Bless You (Num 6:22-27)

Today's passage is the Aaronic Blessing...

The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face towards you
and give you peace.

I know you're all familiar with this passage since we hear it as the blessing at the end of most worship services. We are to meditate on this blessing for 10 minutes while visualizing each phrase. Our author suggests we write it out (if needed) on a card and place that card near a candle.

So how is this meditation thing going?

I hope you try the meditation exercises. Honestly, it took me a lot longer than a few days to get comfortable with the concept of meditation. The guides on pages 43, 45 and 47 may help you, but the best advice I can give you is to just try and really rest in God's presence (as described at the bottom of p.47).

Get comfortable...

Slow down your breathing...

Try and clear your thoughts...

Ask God to be with you...

Then slowly (very slowly) start repeating the phrase...

Eventually, one of the times you try it, you'll start to "zone out" but at the same time really feel surrounded by God's presence as you zone out. That's what you're aiming for and then just hold it as long as you want.

Keep trying...

BIBLE W4 D2 The LORD is My Light and My Salvation (Psalm 27:1-5)

"The LORD is my light and my salvation -
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life -
of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)

Today's exercise was to spend 10 minutes meditating on this verse. We are asked to light a candle (I lit the one pictured at the top of the blog) and think about The LORD and light... focusing on the qualities of the flame. To me, candlelight is one of the purest forms of light or illumination (with the possible exception of sunlight). I like being in the presence of a candle flame. It has a warm quality to it's light that no other artificial light has, but yet it's moving... not static... the flickering quality adds life to that light. Here at my desk, the candlelight pictured above offers a warm contrast to the cool light from my compact fluorescent desk lamp.

In our prayers this morning, we are to share our fears with God. You might be surprised, but I have lots of fears (no, I won't name them publicly), and when I think about these fears, I'm surprised that someone who's accomplished as much as I have still carries these fears around. If I stop fearing for a few moments and think about what I'm afraid of, I'm struck by how irrational those fears are... it's like being a kid again and being afraid of monsters under the bed, only to realize it's only dust under there (and in my case, Christmas decorations). You may have heard a phrase for this process of examining our fears... "shining light onto our fears".

Light vs. fear...

As children we're afraid of dark places... the space under our beds, basements, closets, dark forests, etc. As we grow up, we realize those fears are not rational. In fact they're quite silly. But I still remember being a kid and walking around the house turning on all the lights to get rid of dark places.

God overcomes evil. Light overcomes darkness. Hmmm... it reminds me of the first part of the Gospel of John (read chapter 1). Our meditation exercises help us to focus on God's light, which in turns helps us to overcome the darkness of our fears.

BIBLE W4 D1 The LORD is my Shepherd (Psalm 23)

Our theme for this week is meditation on God's word. Each day we will pick a verse from our scripture reading and say it over and over again... letting it's meaning permeate our thoughts.

The 23rd Psalm is a very rich source for our first day's meditation. Read the psalm twice and choose a verse that has meaning for you. I choose part of verse 3 "He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake". This morning I used a set of prayer beads to guide my meditation. I'll explain more about the prayer beads later, but they helped me keep on focus as I repeated the verse 28 times.

"He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

Now I'm to try and chew on this verse over and over in my thoughts all day today... ponder it's meaning... apply it to my life... try and get it under my skin (like that song from the radio the author describes on p.43). How does that happen?

Well, I start by saying it the 28 times using the beads, but then I write it out a few times as I'm writing my journal, then I type it again several times as I write this blog. By then I will have it memorized. Later in the morning I reach that point I face every morning when I try to find an excuse to avoid exercising, but then I think "He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake" and I realize that I need to care for this temple - my body - and hit the bike for 30 minutes. I repeat the verse to myself over and over again while I zone out on the bike.

Now I notice that the verse is starting to color my thoughts and actions. Kristen and John wake up to start their days and a minor disagreement starts to brew. I think... "He leads me on paths of righteousness for his name's sake" and I change course and let things pass.

At work, Today's PITA client or employee comes in and says those things that always seem to crank up my emotions, but in the nick of time, I hear my verse in my head "He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake", and I change course and try to be more understanding.

I think you get the idea. By keeping God's word in our heads all day, we enter a sort of state of constant prayer. This can only help us as we walk today's pathway in our pilgrimage on earth.

So choose the verse from Psalm 23 that speaks to you. Then commit it to memory and live with it in your head all day. I can't wait to hear what happens on Sunday.

BIBLE W3 D5 Timothy's Faith (2 Tim 1:1-7)

To me, Paul's 2nd letter to Timothy is quite different from his other epistles (letters to people and churches). It is much warmer than most of his other writing as shown by today's passage. Here we see Paul writing to Timothy as a spiritual advisor or perhaps a friend, warmly remembering his faith history and encouraging him to do the most with his faith.

Reading the second time (from the heart), we are to consider the bullet points on p.40. These ask if we would benefit from having a faith friend or spiritual advisor and then who in the Bible we would like as that spiritual advisor. Besides the obvious choice (Jesus), I would pick Paul. He seems to have many different sides to him and his faith. He struggled with pain, he encouraged young people, he could stand strongly against evil, and yet he had a softer side. These are all things I deal with so I would choose Paul, although I benefit from paying attention to all the people in the Bible.

Having a spiritual advisor can be very helpful. I usually lean on my pastor for this role or recently I met with one of the monks while visiting the monastery (http://georgevisitsholycross.blogspot.com/2009/10/conversation-with-brother-adam.html) and these people can help you greatly in developing your faith. But they are very different from a spiritual friendship.

I had a deep spiritual friendship in college with Kari. Kari was a fellow chemistry major. We met at a campus ministry retreat and became friends and then partners studying the various chemistry and physics courses together. But mostly we spent time talking about what was going on in our lives and how that was impacted by faith, and the intersection of faith with careers, events and relationships. We were so close that when I started dating Kristen, she was at first confused because evidently a few people on campus thought Kari was engaged to me, rather than Bill. (As an aside, Kari and Bill are Becca's - our lead singer from the talent show - parents, and their family can lay claim to getting me interested in the 30 hour famine.)

Today I have wide circle of spiritual friends (The Men's group, you J2A folks, some of your parents, etc.), but Kristen holds the title of my primary spiritual guide and friend. One of the things I value most in our marriage is our ability to share faith experiences and wrestle with the meaning of God in our lives. We've been able to do this through some of the highest joys and of course the deepest sorrows as well. It's hard to beat a spiritual friend who knows 25 years of your faith history.

So make God a part of your friendships... the impact on your lives can be huge.

BIBLE W3 D4 The Shepherd and the Theif (John 10:1-6)

Today's lesson is on the story of the Shepherd and the Thief, which Jesus tells in John 10. Reading first from the head, I notice the shepherd who enters from the gate. He calls the sheep by name. They know the sound of his voice and follow him. The thief, however, climbs into the sheep pen by some other way, but the sheep run away because they don't recognize his voice.

Reading a second time from the heart, I know Jesus is the Good Shepherd (read John 10:1-21 for the rest of the story), and I think this passage is reminding me to listen for His voice as I travel the pathways of my pilgrimage journey. His voice will be the strong voice that comes directly to me, not the strange sneaky voice that suddenly appears from parts unknown.

To some extent, both voices are inside me. I wrote yesterday about the voice of the Holy Spirit. (Which is also the voice of Jesus... one God... three parts... Dean's class... remember??) This voice is always available, calling us to do right if we will only listen. Unfortunately, the voice of the thief is frequently around too, leading us astray. This inner voice has a thief-like quality to us. We feel something isn't right when we are listening to it. This voice includes the thoughts that we banish quickly when we realize we're thinking them, or the actions we do where we suddenly scramble to hide them when Mom comes into our space. You get the idea.

We walk the pathway of our pilgrimage journey with both voices available to us. At each crossroads they are advising us... "go left" or "go right".

Which voice will we listen to?

BIBLE W3 D3 God is Ready if We are Willing (Psalm 81)

"Hear, O my people... if you would but listen to me, O Israel!" (Psalm 81:8)

After starting with a few verses of praise, this psalm suddenly turns to us. (Did you notice the transition - around versus 5 & 6?) It challenges us to realize that God is present always, and then gives examples of how God is always waiting... calling to us... offering redemption if we only respond. We are to read the Psalm twice... once from the head... once from the heart.

Have you heard the voice of God in your life? For me, God usually speaks with a still small voice... inviting me always to deeper communion with Him. Yes I can tune into this voice sitting in quiet in my den early in the morning, but the voice is always with me. Some people may call it my conscience, but I think of it as the Holy Spirit quietly being with me all the time.

Most astonishingly, the voice is there as I'm preparing to do something wrong. I know that sounds worse than I mean, but have you ever been in the heat of the moment - maybe getting ready to say or do something hurtful - and had a briefest thought of "I shouldn't be saying or doing this"? It's just a microsecond of reflection where the Holy Spirit is there offering support or encouragement to do the right thing if we would only listen, saying "no... don't... I'm with you". And occasionally, I catch it and change my ways and do the right thing. But all too frequently, I don't tune into the voice.

Reflecting on this right now, I realize the voice is always present. I can think of a few hurtful things I've done where I heard and ignored the voice. I can also think of a few times where I heard the voice and was able to catch myself and execute a last minute change in my actions. Times where I listen to the voice always seem to work out better than times when I ignore it. I shouldn't seem surprised about that, but I am.

"Hear, O my people... if you would but listen to me..." (Psalm 81:8)

God is ready if we are willing.

BIBLE W3 D2 Jacob Wrestles with God (Gen 32:22-32)

To set the stage for today, back in Genesis 25, Jacob conspires with his mother to steal his brother, Esau's, birthright. He flees and in the intervening chapters he marries and his wealth grows. After a while he decides to return and meet his brother. Today's passage takes place the night before that meeting. Jacob settles his family and then crosses a stream to be by himself (perhaps he needs time to think... I'm sure he was worried about meeting his brother). A man appears and wrestles with him, and it later turns out that this man is God himself (or an angel, depending on your version of the bible). Again, we are asked to read the passage twice... once from the head (as I just described) and once from the heart, asking "what does this mean for me?".

What does this mean for me? Reflecting on the three bullet points on p.34, I definitely identify with Jacob's need to "get away from everyone" to deal with things in my own head before dealing with others. The two places where I like best to be "alone with God" are in my den early in the morning, or sitting alone in the Old Church when I get the chance.

The harder question is "what do I wrestle with God about"? If I'm honest, I probably spend more time wrestling with God than praising Him. I wrestle with God over...

What I'm supposed to do in various situations?

What is my calling?

Why do I sin?

How should I respond when people upset me?

...

The list is endless. Sometimes it seems as if nothing gets settled, and the list only grows. Other times, the wrestling helps me come to terms with what God is calling me to do in various situations.

I like having a God I can wrestle with. However, in the end I must admit that God is God and I'm not.

I hate doing that...

BIBLE W3 D1 The Fall of Man (Gen 3:1-13)

Today's passage about The Fall of Man (the story of Adam and Eve's temptation) is familiar to us - very familiar since we just studied it yesterday in class with Dean. Today we are to read it twice... once with our heads and once with our hearts. Why do we read it twice? Because each time we read a Bible passage (or anything for that matter), we take away something a little different in terms of our understanding.

The first time reading this passage this morning, I'm struck by how much freedom God gave Adam and Eve in the story. The basically have the run of the garden... go anywhere... do anything... eat everything... except this one small thing.

Now we tend to blame the serpent in the story, but even though serpents are "crafty" as my Bible says in 3:1, they don't move very fast. So for the serpent to do his work and start talking to Adam and Eve about eating the fruit - presumably with them close enough to the tree to eat it while under the serpent's temptation... well, I get the impression that Adam and Eve probably spent most of their time standing near the tree and staring at the forbidden fruit. I can picture them ignoring the rest of the garden. If I'm honest, that's exactly where I would be as well.

I re-read the passage a second time - from the heart - and focused on the first two of our bullet points on p.32 relating to Gen 3:8 & 9. How do I hear the sound of God walking in the garden of my life? How do I hide from God? Actually, I feel like I'm playing a more or less constant "hide-and-seek" game with God. I welcome him into my life a lot of the time, but then hide from him when I don't want to encounter him (usually when I don't want his advice).

So if times are tough and I want God's compassion and comfort, I'll step out from behind the tree and allow myself to be found. But then if I want the sexy new guitar or other toy (despite my knowing God probably wants me to do something else with my financial resources), well then it's time to hide again.

I guess on a deeper level, I hide from giving God complete control and trusting in Him completely. I'll admit it, I'm a bit (?) of a control freak - just ask Kristen or John (or anyone who works for me). There is a certain freedom - as found in the garden - in giving God control of your whole life (instead of just the Sunday morning part) so that everything about you is in harmony with God. But I still struggle with that every day. I can't give up the control... physically, mentally, financially or even spiritually.

So in some way, I'm always standing right next to the forbidden tree... waiting for the serpent to appear.

BIBLE W2 D5 Paul's Pedigree (Gal 1:11 - 2:1)

I need to set the stage a bit here. The book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul, and seems to me to be one-half of an argument or debate he was having with people from the church in Galatia (somewhere around modern day Turkey, I think). Paul seems to be arguing about his legitimacy first, then moves on to typical "hot topics" of the early church (Salvation by faith alone, legalism vs. freedom, role of the Holy Spirit, etc.). There were groups of people in the early church who felt that to become a Christian, you first had to become a Jew as well, and Paul is very much against this interpretation.

I guess someone in the Galatian church must have crawled under Paul's skin, because if you read from the beginning of chapter 1, Paul comes out with guns blazing... "astonished" that people were leaving the faith he preached and moving on to a "different" gospel. (As a historical note, in the confusion of the early church, there were several different versions of the good news... some were legit, others were not.) Then in our passage for today, Paul gives a brief synopsis of his background before he moves on to other parts of his debate.

These couple of verses are a summary of Paul's life so far - his faith journey. Paul grew up as a Jew (a very devout one) and initially he reacted strongly to this "different" group of Jews who followed and preached about this Jesus guy. Paul even helped the Jews persecute the early Christians. Then all that changed one day when the resurrected Jesus appeared to Paul in a vision and Paul literally "saw the light" (read ACTS chapter 9 if you're interested). After that, he started preaching the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles (non-Jewish people) instead of persecuting the church. Then finally, after a while, Paul goes and connects with the apostles in Jerusalem.

I like this passage because here you can see that even Paul's pilgrimage path was not a straight one. He initially goes charging off in a wrong direction so strongly that Christ himself decides to appear to him. After that, Paul does a major course correction, and then further "tweaks" his pathway after meetings with the apostles.

Our lives are like that as well. We start down one path. Then maybe a priest or fellow christian advises us, and we correct our pathway. I can see this happening in my own life. Years ago, I was much more restrictive and legalistic in my view of God and who God loved. Today I'm much more of a "big tent" mindset - God loves everybody.

How has your faith changed over the years?

BIBLE W2 D4 The Road to Emaus (Luke 24:13-35)

Today's lesson is about the two disciples on the road to Emaus (a town about 7 miles from Jerusalem). Normally, a reflection on this passage centers on the realization that Jesus is with us even if we don't recognize Him. But our author today takes a different path and focuses our attention to the faith pilgrimage these disciples took, going from a naive faith before the crucifixion, to a loss of faith afterward, and finally to a deeper faith after their encounter with Christ.

I re-read the passage after reading our author's thoughts, and you can indeed see this transition. In verse 18, Cleopas is downcast... sort of in a faith crisis. He recounts his earlier "naive" faith in verses 19-24, and after Jesus' teaching and later recognizing Jesus in the breaking of the bread, their faith seems much stronger in verses 23-35.

As I read this, I wonder if their ending point isn't stronger because of the loss of faith they experienced. Could it be that their "storm" was necessary? Think for a second on what we remember about the other disciples as well. In the Gospels, the disciples sometimes come across as a bit foolish... they always seem to miss the point of Jesus' lessons, or get the wrong point. By the end of the Gospels, they seem to be cowering... waiting behind closed doors or even on the run. But then in Acts, these very same disciples are powerful witnesses. What changed them?

I've always attributed this change to the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and I'm sure that's true to some extent. But here, we see the beginnings of this change before Pentecost arrives. In light of the author's thoughts, I'm wondering if the trauma of Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion didn't also play a role. Think about that period from the point of view of a disciple. Here's this guy you've followed around for the past few years, hanging on every word He speaks and life seems good. Suddenly, He's arrested, tried, and condemned - and you can't do anything to help Him.

After the lowest three days you've ever experienced, you get word that something miraculous has happened. Then you encounter... HIM! Wow!

Now think for a second how different that experience would have been if Jesus had merely "passed through the crowds" who arrived to arrest Him like He had before. It robs the power from a later encounter, doesn't it?

Yes, as I ponder this, I'm beginning to see that maybe the storms in our lives do make us stronger. I can see now - 10 years after Billy's death - that my faith is stronger because of that hellish period of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'd trade any strength in faith back instantly to have him with us again (I'm weak that way), but I can point to that storm in my life as a time when my faith was tested, became much weaker for a while, and then strengthened as I re-encountered Christ after the storm.

Can you remember a stormy period in your life? Did your faith change because of it? Perhaps you're going through a storm (small or large) right now... if so, can you look through the rain to see how this may help you grow?

BIBLE W2 D3 Giving Thanks After the Exile (Psalm 107:1-22)

Psalm 107 is a psalm of thanksgiving that gives thanks to God for his care over all the people of Judah during their 40 year exile to Babylon. It gives testimony to how different people responded to the exile and how God's presence and help affected each of them.

In case you don't remember, the exile to Babylon was a traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people. After the Exodus, they fought hard to establish their nation and all felt that God looked favorably on them. After a period of political peace and independence, Judah was taken by King Nebuchadnezzar, and when it fell, many people were carted off to Babylon. The loss of so many people destroyed the remaining society and those left behind had a hard life as well.

Read more of the psalm (beyond verse 22). As you can imagine, different people react differently to trauma. Some wandered in the wasteland, others sat in darkness, still others became foolish, and some went to sea. Yet God was with them in these trying times wherever they were.

God is with us during our trying times as well. One reason to study and meditate on God's word when times are good (during the bright and sunny days of our lives) is so that we have God's word as a resource when times are not so good (during the rainy days of our lives). I know this because I have had many periods of rain in my life. Some are mere showers... others are howling storms. When you're in the midst of the rain (especially an extended rainy season), sometimes it's hard to think about or remember the sun or focus on God's love and support. That's why its so important for us to reach out to others during their stormy times of trouble.

When the rain in our lives stops for a while and the skies clear, it's then easier refocus on God and give thanks to Him - like the writers of this psalm.

BIBLE W2 D2 Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7)

Drink a glass of water.

(Go ahead... I'll wait.)

It's refreshing, isn't it? And it's a reminder of how fortunate we are, and how blessed we are. We take a glass and hold it under a faucet, then turn a handle or move a lever and wow! We have cool, clear, drinkable, refreshing water.

Now I have a question for you. Who provided the water? Is it your parents who paid the water bill? Is it the water company who got the water to your house? No. You guessed it... if it's George's blog, the answer must somehow be God or Jesus. In this case, you're right, God provides us our water in the same way He provided it to the nation of Israel. Back then He worked through Moses who struck the rock. Today he works through treatment plant operators, engineers, water company technicians (as well as billing departments and clerical staff, and I guess management) to make it all work. But the resulting water in our homes is still just as miraculous.

God will provide.

That is a HARD lesson for us to learn and even harder for us to trust. The nation of Israel had been struggling with that lesson since the time of Abram and Issac, and in this reading they seem blind to the whole prior history of Exodus - the way God acted with Pharaoh, etc., - and are hung up on mere water. In fact, just in the previous chapter (Exodus 16) God provides them with FOOD (seems much harder to me) in the form of manna and quail. But they can't see, and so they beg for water... and God provides. (He has been providing water all along - they have been journeying - but now He provides it in a more dramatic fashion.)

We are asked to think of a time when we were spiritually discouraged and reflect on how God responded and provided for us in our lives. I must admit that's me right now. I have this idea for an activity for our upcoming 30 hour famine that seems to be a really great idea. But it's going to cost $8000. I can't shake the feeling that we're supposed to do this, but with the economy being what it is and church resources stretched so thin, I've not yet been able to find the path to the funding. I know God will provide. I guess I'm just having trouble trusting it. So I'll keep putting out feelers, but it is spiritually discouraging each time God tells me "not yet".

Please pray with me for the funding, but also pray for me to have the patience to trust that God will provide.

(FINAL NOTE: Space and time prevent me from getting into the obvious side lesson that we are blessed with wonderful water at the tap and others are not. God will provide for them also, but I suspect God has appointed us as a key provider for them. You'll hear more about this as we approach the 30 Hour Famine in February.)

BIBLE W2 D1 Jacob's Dream (Gen 28:10-22)

We speak of our "companions for the journey" usually in terms of our friends who travel life's pilgrimage with us. But today we are reminded again that our companions include those who have gone before us as well. If you think about this, it is true of other "travel guides" too. Some person (or maybe a team) visits... say Paris... and scout out the city, then they tell us all about it in "Paris: A Travel Guide", which we pay $19.95 to obtain before our vacation.

Our Bible travel guide is the same. Many people have taken life's pilgrimage before us and we have lots to learn about our journey from them. This week we will focus on the Ancient Patriarchs and their pilgrimages. Today we study Jacob who has a dream about God and wakes to realize that God was present with him as he slept right there on the ground that night. This happened right after Jacob took Esau's birthright and fled, so I'm pretty certain it was a scary time for him.

In our reflection on p.22, we are to think about the various times in our lives... can we think back about them and recognize God's presence even though we were unaware of it at the time?

I guess we can, because I just now thought about a time in my life during my college years when Dad was suffering from lung cancer - and suffering from all the treatments for lung cancer at the time. I spent a lot of time sitting in hospital waiting rooms waiting on him, and I remember (and still think of) hospital waiting rooms as desolate places devoid of any real hope. (I'll make an exception for waiting rooms in the maternity ward.) Anyway, as I just remembered this time, I visualized myself in the waiting room, not from my point of view, but viewed from a distance, and there I could see myself sitting, being the TARGET of streams of prayers coming from all my college friends far away.

How's that for powerful?? Brought to us by a few moments of reflection on Jacob's dream.

BIBLE W1 D5 You are a Letter of Christ (2 Cor. 3:1-6)

Our Bible passage today is from Paul's 2nd epistle (letter) to the people of Corinth. The epistles are a whole section of the Bible which collects these letters written by the Apostles to the early churches. Like any letters, they contain greetings, news, admonishment, advice, and closings. Frequently, the letter was entrusted to a good friend of the Apostle for delivery and in that case, the letter also served as a recommendation for the carrier (who might stay with the new community for a while).

Remember that these letters were written at a time before post offices or email existed... when you weren't sure that your letter would get through, or when you would be able to communicate again. So they tend to be long and more "complete" than typical communication today. They were also treasured more (perhaps for that very reason) and read in public over and over again. That's part of the reason they were saved and are still available to us to this day.

These letters also contained recommendations for people (see 1 Cor 16:10-11) so the people who received the letters knew they could trust the people the letters referred to. We still use letters of recommendation today for people seeking jobs or applying to schools (as a supervisor and youth leader, I write a surprising number of these each year).

This passage is saying that we are our own "letters of recommendation" because the Holy Spirit is inside us. Because the Spirit guides us in our pilgrimage, we will live our lives in a way that makes Christ visible to others... and that will serve as our "recommendation" to those we encounter on our journey.

BIBLE W1 D4 And The Word Became Flesh (John 1:1-18)

I first encountered the beauty of this passage during my confirmation "boot camp", a week-long, 8 hour a day training session with my pastor while growing up in the summer of 1978. My pastor spoke eloquently about the importance and significance of this "prologue" to John's gospel. I didn't appreciate everything he said at that time, but I remembered the passage and started noticing it when it was read each Christmas.

Each time I return to this passage, I notice again the beauty of the passage and the immensity of the thoughts expressed in it. THE WORD was first... THE WORD became flesh... think about it... GOD DWELT among us. The thought is huge, but the way it's expressed in John's prologue adds intensity from the use of language.

That summer was my first exposure to what has become a lifelong love for the Bible's expressive beauty - loving the language of our scriptures. I mentioned the "In the beginning..." passage yesterday, and now we add John's Prologue. But there are countless more examples... the simple beauty of Psalm 23 or The Beatitudes in Matthew 5... the poetry of the Psalms... the wisdom of Proverbs, some of which stands as useful now as thousands of years ago... the sheer terror of passages from John's Revelation. The Bible contains all kinds of treasures.

So look at the bible as something more than a list of rules. Explore it like Sarah does on p.19 of our book. Start to see it for the treasure it is.

BIBLE W1 D3 In the Beginning (Genesis 1)

The opening of Genesis is one of the most beautiful sections of the Bible (hint: I think we'll be looking at others very soon as well). But it is also the most controversial and devisive. Here in approximately ten paragraphs, we have a clear and succint summary of eons of world history.

Why is this so controversial? From my point of view, I have friends from the evangelical tradition that insist this is an indication that the entire earth, sky, plants, animals and humans were created in just six "earth days" and that God gave us all the indications otherwise (geology, astronomy, physics, etc.) so we'd have something to keep us occupied. My scientist friends say it's all balderdash and a big bang started a reaction with quarks, muons, etc. which formed clouds of gas... stars, solar systems, earth... water, land, continental drift... plants, fish, amphibians, mamals, monkeys and finally humans. I'm caught in the middle of this.

When I step back from the fray, I'm amazed at how consistent the accounts are with each other. Genesis 1 basically gets the order of the creation of our world correct from a scientific perspective... light (big bang) -> earth (the planet) -> sea and land w/vegetation -> fish and birds -> mamals -> humans. The thing is that everybody agrees that Genesis was written thousands of years ago - before telescopes, particle accelerators and basically all of our scientific understanding. Yet it essentially nails the creation narrative (even though the creation myths from other religions usually get it wrong). Personally, I believe this chapter is one of the best "proofs" for the existence of God as we understand Him.

Finally, This passage tells us that God's creation is beautiful and good. This is very true. One exercise in meditation I would like to try with you all is to find a wide open field somewhere and "pray" for a time by lying on our backs and staring up at the starry sky in silence (try it sometime... it's very powerful). To me, one of the most beautiful parts of God's creation is human thought and expression. The Bible contains some of the most beautiful written expressions I've encountered. One is "In the beginning..." think about how that phrase has resonated with us for hundreds of years in the English language. We'll explore the beauty of the Bible's language some more tomorrow.

(Note: Our Reading speaks of the Old Testament and New Testament. I'll let you read that on p.17 since I'm running long this morning. But it's still important to know.)

BIBLE W1 D2 Like Trees Planted by Streams of Water (Psalm 1)

My favorite book of the Bible is the Book of Psalms. In this book, we can access the entire range of human emotion and human response to God - going from quiet contemplation to extreme violence... from the highs of joy to the depths of sorrow. It really is a snapshot of our life with God.

Psalm 1 gives us the image of a "tree planted by streams of water" and the author asks us to draw two trees, one as our life is now and one as it could be. I have to confess that this makes no sense to me. My life is the tree and it is planted by the stream, and I definitely draw nourishment from God's word. However, I will admit that sometimes (OK, many times) I focus on the weakest parts of my tree. (I could draw the tree both as I see it and as it is, but I'm not good at drawing, so I'll only draw one.)

In our reading today, the author tells us that the Bible is a collection of the stories of our faith. Believe it or not, my father in-law actually wrote a book to that effect "The Bible: Faith's Family Album" (http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Faiths-Family-Album/dp/0827202253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257247636&sr=8-1)

The Bible is a collection of our faith stories. It tells us the history of the patriarchs, and how our faith developed among them in the first section of the Old Testament. It shares the emotions of the Jewish people through the Psalms, the book of Job, and Song of Solomon. In the later part of the Old Testament, it tells us of struggles with neighbors and how God sent prophets to guide the Jewish nation. In the New Testament, it tells of how God sent Jesus and the example of his life along with the Apostles. Finally, in the later part of the New Testament, the Bible tells us the story of how our church was formed, the guidance of the Epistles and then shares John's Revelation.

With all that nourishment, how can our tree be anything but strong?

As you can see, our Bible is a wonderful collection of stories... I'm looking forward to sharing these with you over the coming weeks.

BIBLE W1 D1 How I Love Your Law (Psalm 119:97-105)

NOTE: Today we start a new book. If you don't have a copy of "THE BIBLE: Pilgrimage Travel Guide" please get to the church office ASAP to get your copy.

We start several weeks of study about the Bible today. Our curriculum suggests that the Bible is our travel guide for our pilgrimage with God while here on earth - a sort of road map for us where we learn the rules of the road, and find hints at what we will encounter on our journey. If you think about it, the Bible is indeed where we learn about the paths other pilgrims have taken.

I have always had an interest in how the Bible came into being. Read p.13 carefully because it is one of the best (and shortest) summaries of how our Bible was written. But I'm also interested in how the collection of books and stories progressed after it was pulled together as our Bible (I've been known to drag my family to various museums or libraries to look at dusty old Bibles over the years). It's a fascinating history. Did you know that many people DIED so that you could have the right to hold the scriptures in your hands right now? (The church in the middle ages thought that scripture was too holy for a mere person to own.)

My earliest memory of the Bible was sitting with Mom - I was maybe 4 years old - while she read to me from this huge Family Bible we had (I think my sister still has this Bible). I remember that this Bible had beautiful full-page illustrations from various Renaissance masters which illustrated the bible stories and I would get myself lost in the pictures while Mom read the corresponding passages. My favorite Bible passages today are those that had illustrations in that Bible. To this day, I sometimes find myself getting confused if I'm reading a Bible passage and a detail in the writing conflicts with my memory of one of those illustrations.

Over the years, I've collected Bibles that correspond to my faith pilgrimage. In elementary school, I used the Bible that my brother left behind when he died. I have 2 copies of The Living Bible given to me by my parents and a favorite Shopkeeper/Sunday school teacher during my teen years. I have a copy of The New King James Version which my great aunt gave me when I went off to college - I read this version cover-to-cover during the summer after my freshman year. Just last week, while in Virginia, I used a travel copy of The Message which Dean gave me when the Bishop received me the other year. Finally, for most of this curriculum's study, I use a copy of the Faith in Action NIV Study Bible that I received from WorldVision for getting people to sponsor children last year.

So you can see that I have a bit of a history with the Bible, but the nice thing is I always learn something new when I sit down with it.

So what's your favorite Bible-related memory? Please share it with us.