Tag: Gospel According to Mark

Day 5 :: Living Stone of FAITH

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 Bruce Jeffery, Vice President of Community Action in YMCA of Greater Cincinnati

When Jesus showed up that night to the disciples walking on the water while they were in the boat, what was going through his mind about testing their faith? 

Jesus set an amazing example for his disciples, leading by faith through his belief that his Father in Heaven would protect him while walking on the water.

Jesus’ leadership shows us that stretching your faith in God is a crucial test we must all endure on this journey.

I think one way our faith is often tested is when we wrestle with turning over a situation or idea to God, and trusting that if it’s his will, believing it’s already done.

Not long ago I was in a boat on the sea of Galilee, and I couldn’t help to have many real-life fears. 

As a non-swimmer, I had the fear of, “Will the boat tip over?” “Will there be a storm like in the Bible to come while we are on the boat?”

Any number of thoughts came across my mind until I really sat and thought, “This is what the disciples felt.”

As I remember being in that boat, it’s powerful to imagine what it would have been like to see Jesus walk up towards the boat and calls to one of his disciples to test his faith.

While we were on the boat in Galilee listening to this Gospel story being read, it hit me, “Keep my eyes on Christ and there is nothing to be afraid of.”

Would I have been as courageous as Peter to step out of the boat? 

The story tells us that as the storm got worse, Peter took his eyes off Jesus and immediately began to sink.

I believe all of our faith has and will be tested, whether you are a seasoned Christian or someone who has just committed themselves to Christ.

Will we courageously accept the testing of our faith?

Or, will we lose sight of what Christ is doing in us and for us?

Would you pray with me? 

Dear God, forgive me for losing faith in you at times. I know that you are God and trust that what you’re doing in my life is for me. Help me to keep my eyes focused on Jesus Christ through the storm and strengthen me to be a living stone as I seek you more and more every day. Amen.

“They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,”

Gospel according to Mark, 6.50-51

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

Your Caring Matters: a YMCA Child Care Services Devotion

If you’re anything like me, sometimes you get in a “woe is me” place and you wonder – does it matter if I show up, if I care, if I put in the effort?

Yes, you matter – it matters how you show up, how you prepare, how you play, and how your pray.

Your loving presence and prayers matter to the children and youth in your life.

Your caring matters.

The attention and attitude, your presence and posture matter to the children you serve before and after school.

Here is a story of Jesus blessing children that reminds me of how much it matters:

“Then Jesus came to Capernaum.”
And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”

But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.
And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,
Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”

[‭‭from Gospel according to Mark‬ ‭9:33-37‬ ‭NKJV‬‬]

Take a few moments to soak in the loving attention and caring presence of Jesus with the children.

Imagine that is you being drawn close, embraced by the safe and strong kindness of Christ.

And if we take Jesus at his word, when you care for children “in his name” – inspired by his presence in your life – God is present to that little one.

Whoa.

Your caring matters.

You showing up matters.

You being present matters.

You being attentive and safe and trustworthy matters.

Your work matters.
The children you care for matter.
You matter.

If you’re anything like me, sometimes you get in a melancholy attitude and you wonder – does it matter if I show up, if I care, if I put in the effort?

Yes, you matter – it matters how you show up, how you prepare, how you play, and how your pray.

Your presence and prayers of love matter to the children and youth in your life.

You praying for the kids in your care matters.
You praying for their families matters.
You praying for your family matters.
You praying for your coworkers matters.
You praying for your self matters.

If we look around at the world as some kind of guide for how much children matter, how much our caring for them matters, if you based it on wages or prestige or fame, you’d have to conclude that there’s a lot of “talk” but in reality it’s a low value.

But when you listen to the words of Christ, when you see his example, when we believe his instructions, we can conclude that caring for children in the way of Jesus is bring Heaven to Earth, is how God is present to the little ones in our life.

Whoa.

When we care for children with the tenderness and strength with which God loves us, when let children into our life the way we let Jesus into our life, the way we “receive” children is a way for us to “receive” God.

Being with children is a holy, sacred, beautiful, joyous work that requires us to be humble, forgiving, loyal, trustworthy, open, and playful.

It requires lots of love.

St. Paul in his letter to a church failing miserably at honoring each other, he wrote a memorable, provoking, lyrical poem to inspire them to love like God loves them.

It includes this reminder: “love is patient, love is kind.”

It’s a very practical and concrete example.

You know when you have been irritably impatient with a child, when you have spoken unkindly in exasperation and weariness.

It’s easy to defend our impatience and unkindness: if “their” behavior was better, or if we weren’t so tired, or…etc.

But: patience and kindness are acts of love precisely because we are usually irritated by something, generally weary and easily exasperated – it’s in those dreary moments that love is needed most.

When you are at your best with children it’s usually when you’ve chosen patience while still irritable, choosing kind words instead of snapping back – you know when you do it, you sense it in your spirit, and even if no one notices or compliments you on it, it matters, God sees it, and it is significant.

Keep doing the work of patience and kindness when you are tired and stretched thin – it’s good for your spirit, it’s healing for the spirit of the children in your life, and it’s a way that God is present in our midst.

I invite you to meditate on this artistic images of Jesus, to see the patience and kindness in his presence with the children.

See yourself as one of those children, receiving his patience and kindness.

See yourself as being one with Jesus, giving patience and kindness to the children in your life.

Take a moment to text a friend or send a note in the post mail, reminding them that they matter to you, to God, that their caring and kindness to children matters, and that their work matters to families in our community.

May the Grace and Peace of Christ Jesus be with you, always.

Don’t Trip Over Miracles

Maybe you’re like some of my friends who seek the truth, respect science, try to see the world as it really is, and thus are skeptical of all the miracles in the Bible. For a variety of reasons, the seeming centrality of miracles in the Bible keeps them from believing it to be a trustworthy source of wisdom and revelation. I sympathize with them.

I used to pray for miracles. When my youngest brother Ben was 13 he went blind due to a small brain tumor, and then died later that summer. We begged God to heal him. My dad was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor a few years ago. We begged God for a miracle. We didn’t get the one we prayed for. I admit I was angry and disillusioned.

These are two ways I have tripped over miracles. We trip over miracles when we make them a bigger deal than they really are – both in the Bible and in our modern life. We trip over miracles when they become the object of our attention instead of their context. I think there are healthier ways to put miracles (of the Bible and the ones we beg for these days) in perspective.

For example, in the gospel Mark writes about two stories where Jesus heals a man who is deaf and mute, and then feeds four thousand people with a few pieces of bread and fish. In our scientific era, it’s easy to react skeptically to this account. It’s also a spiritualist era, and we can too easily focus on the miracles as proof of the divine. But this is tripping over the miracles and missing the point.

In this story, Jesus was approached by friends who begged him to heal their deaf, mute pal. Because of compassion, Jesus took him aside, away from the crowd, and healed him – and then “commanded them not to tell anyone.” What kind of ruler does that? If Jesus was a typical Israelite or Roman or American king, when he healed someone or fed four thousand people with a few pieces of bread and fish, he would make a grand speech demanding loyalty, making more exorbitant promises, and leveraging the crowd’s energy for political power.

That is not King Jesus does with his power. When he heals and feeds people, it’s out of compassion, it is to embody the gospel, to inspire and empower people to join in this power-full mission of healing and flourishing. What kind of king would do that with such power today? It’d be a miracle if they did….

I’m not saying that God doesn’t do miracles anymore. I’m just reflecting on the gospel and reminding myself not to trip over the miracles. I’m not asking skeptics to believe in miracles. But I am inviting you, when you read the gospel, to not focus on “miracles” but instead on the compassion that generated the healings and feeding, and how King Jesus leveraged that power. If you don’t trip, you’ll see that this is the bigger miracle.

If you do believe in miracles, and pray for them, and have witnessed them, and benefitted from them, don’t trip over them. Don’t set your heart on miracles at the expense of setting your heart on Jesus. Not getting the miracles we beg for can trip us into resentment and bitterness towards God. We then miss the real point of the miracles: Jesus demonstrating to his followers – heal with the power you have been given, feed with the resources you have received.

We might think we don’t have much to offer, but then we are missing the point of the story: it was trust in God and compassion for humanity that drove the work of Jesus, which was also the source of his power. This is what we are saved to do, in Jesus’ name.

The real miracle is not that we are healed or fed, but that we become more love-full and actually do the work of alleviating hunger and sorrow in our community amidst our ongoing struggles Even while are ill or under-resourced, or busy or anxious.

When Jesus inspires you to do that, we won’t be tripping over miracles.