Tag: Gospel According to John

Day 10 :: Living Stone of GRACE

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Laura DeVries, Program Director with onPrinciple

The Jerusalem International YMCA is often referred to as a ‘sermon in stone’, each column, wall, and relief tell a story. 

Framing the soaring entrance are carvings depicting the Woman at the Well and a lamb – a symbol for Jesus Christ.  

I’m reminded whenever I walk past this stone-sermon that goodwill between neighbors is practiced here and all are welcome to experience grace regardless of race, culture, class, or creed.

The story of Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well is surprising on many levels.

First, with a long history of racism and prejudice that was rooted in religious and racial stereotypes between Jews and Samaritans, travelers typically took the longer route around Samaria to avoid contact with each other. Jesus however, chose to walk straight through it!

Additionally, in this culture, a conversation between any Jew and an unknown woman would have broken social convention, and asking for water would have been understood as an invitation to be friends. Yet Jesus asks her for a drink!

We also know the woman was ostracized even before she shares her truth because women typically drew together in the cool morning but this woman came alone at high noon. Yet Jesus was completely undeterred by her questionable social status!

Practicing the Christian leadership principle of grace means extending favor to people whether they deserve it or not.

In this marginalized place and to this marginalized woman, Jesus extends grace, reaching past all human barriers into her thirsty soul and revealing that he is the long-awaited Christ. 

Through grace, God’s mercy meets her brokenness and her life and eternity are profoundly changed.  

As leaders who follow Jesus, we are compelled to cross human boundaries to extend grace to communities where prejudice, discrimination, and racism persist – to be intentional, regardless of, and sometimes because of social status, race, creed, or culture.

A great exchange can happen in a place of grace. Human brokenness can be exchanged for Christ’s righteousness. It is this Good News that lifts burdens, reconciles, restores, renews, and brings peace.

Pray with me:

Gracious God, give us eyes to see opportunities to reach across boundaries like Jesus, to love mercy, cling to truth, work toward reconciliation, bring healing and celebrate peace. Amen.

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.””

Gospel according to John, 4.13-15 NIV

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion

Day 8 :: Living Stone of FORGIVENESS

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Melissa Logan, CEO & President with the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in North Carolina

Have you ever felt judged? Have you ever been hurt? Have you ever hurt someone’s feelings?

If you are like me, your answer is yes to all of the above: judgment, shame, embarrassment, anger and hurt. 

The hurt replays in my head, and even worse, lays a heavy burden in my heart.

Unfortunately, I’m not without sin; my actions and words have wreaked the same havoc on someone else, too. 

And yes, those replay and cause great regret.

We aren’t always going to make the best choices or do the right thing.

Thankfully, we have a great model to look to; we can look to the life of Jesus.

Recently I walked through the temple court area and sat on the steps leading up to space where Jesus met a woman accused of sin.

The scene replays in my mind of Jesus facing the scared woman there, writing on the ground with a non-judgmental attitude towards her.

Jesus makes it seem so simple; don’t judge others – give grace.

Let’s pause on the words of grace and forgiveness. 

We might think these just happen in our minds when we say, “I forgive you.” 

However, it’s deeper than that. 

Grace and forgiveness are also heart issues. 

Hurt, shame, sin – these happen in the heart, are costly, harmful and so heavy.

I find that while I’m able to give grace to others, I’m not as generous with myself. I’m working on it. 

How about you? What forgiveness of sins do you need to give yourself?

Releasing the emotional heart-hurt is freeing; it’s uplifting in spirit, mind, and body. 

Our hearts and mind (and lives) were meant for joy, gratitude, love, and peace.

We have a choice on how we show up every day to ourselves, our family and friends, to the world, and most importantly to Jesus.

Choosing to show up with the grace of Christ allows you to shine the light of God’s forgiveness in the world.

May you be the light, like living stones who you drop the judge-stones, and may you choose grace every day.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.

They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus near steps to the temple court in Jerusalem [Gospel according to John, 8.2-11]

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion

Day 7 :: Living Stone of SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Carlos Verastegui, Executive Director with the YMCA of Greater San Antonio

Being a leader is often received with the pressure of having to deliver, perform or achieve.

Some embrace it as motivation – with every victory comes confidence, growth, and a reputation.

Take a look at Tom Brady, arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. He’s played in 11  Super Bowls, earned seven championship rings, and selected as MVP six times.

As a captain of his team, he is respected by his peers and known to lead by example.

He’s not afraid to ask anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do himself, modeling servant leadership.

As impressive as those athletic accolades are, there was someone who modeled what it means to be the greatest servant leader in every area of life: Christ Jesus.

When I was in Jerusalem recently our group was able to spend some time in what is thought to be the site of the Upper Room where Jesus shared his last Passover meal with his disciples.

While there we took time to remember what he said and did, which included Jesus humbly performing the lowest of servants’ task, washing the dirt off the feet of his disciples, covered only with a towel around his waist.

Jesus, King of the Jews, the Son of God, the powerful healer who also fed thousands of people – he flipped the roles, showing them what servant leadership can look like, serving instead of commanding, showing humility instead of brandishing authority, empowering his disciples to go out and serve others as He did.

Have you ever been put in a position where you gave up the comforts of being the boss to jump in the fire to help out that front-line worker with their duties?

Did you do it reluctantly, willingly, or free because it was the right thing to do?

Can you honestly say to yourself that you are not above that? 

Jesus didn’t. He took it as an opportunity to teach his disciples how to be a servant leader.

Please pray with me:

God, give us humility so that we may plant seeds in others by flipping the roles of leadership to model servanthood as living stones, just as Jesus did. Amen

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Jesus, in the Upper Room [Gospel according to John, 13.12-17]

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion