Tag: Living Stones

Day 11 :: Living Stone of PEACE

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 Norris Lineweaver, Board Secretary with Friends of the Jerusalem International YMCA

Forgiveness is the work of returning dignity to those from which it was taken.

Jesus, for example, did not encourage his disciples to seek revenge against local authorities for the atrocities committed toward him.

Instead, upon his being raised from the dead, the first words of Jesus were a blessing of shalom; then he declared a mission of forgiveness for his followers.

Located just outside the old city walls of Jerusalem, The Garden Tomb is considered by many to be a possible location for the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Whenever I visit the beautiful Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, it’s like entering a sacred space for peaceful prayer and meditation – not only for me but also for Christians from around the world.

One of the most important reminders for me from reflecting at the Garden Tomb on the Easter story is the power of forgiveness and reconciliation for peace in the example demonstrated by the resurrected Christ Jesus our Lord.

Near the Damascus Gate and standing in the shadow of Skull Hill, this beautiful garden is a powerful symbol of Christ’s peace in the face of adversity, violence, and death.

Current examples are demonstrating everyday work of Christian peace near The Garden Tomb. 

As CEO of the East Jerusalem YMCA, my dear friend Peter Nasir is the third generation of his Christian family to lead peace initiatives of the Y in occupied Palestine.

Peter’s grandfather Labib and his father Kamil demonstrated through leadership succession a consistent language of reconciliation for peace and forgiveness while holding authorities rightfully accountable for civil injustice and violence.

From their very beginning, YMCA operations in Palestine have focused on everyday works of peace through vocational training for young people.

Skilled hands build sustainable economies as a foundation for both progress and peace.

Engaging both Christian and Muslim leaders and youth working together reduces internal conflict and prejudices.

Resilient leaders find renewed strength from encouraging forgiveness in the face of adversity to resurrect peace.

What do these examples of peace mean for you in your everyday life?

If the living stones of The Garden Tomb could speak they might ask where in your life is a sacred space for contemplation to encourage everyday acts of peace and forgiveness?

May you respond to Christ’s call to build up everyday works of peace and forgiveness where you are sent to play, work and live.

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.””

Gospel according to John, 20.19-23 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 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 9 :: Living Stone of HOPE

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 Norris Lineweaver, Board Secretary with Friends of the Jerusalem International YMCA

Over an early morning cup of coffee discussing the hope for peace in The Holy Land with a Palestinian friend from Ramallah, he said: “How can I have hope for peace with God if I do not have a relationship with my brother?”

Later that morning, we joined together in a worship service in the Oratory Chapel of the Jerusalem International YMCA, a landmark near the Old City, known as a ‘sermon in stone’.

On a wall at that Y near the altar composed of twelve stones, are sculpted bas-reliefs that tell the story of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, from the Book of Genesis. 

It is one of the most remarkable stories about hope and restorative justice in the Bible.

This sacred story shows just how difficult reconciliation is.

It involves devastation, it comes with sacrifice, great struggle, even injury; and requires hope and trust in God.

Through striving to achieve reconciliation with his brother Esau, Jacob saw the face of God.

He named the place of his struggle and hope “Peniel” – which means “face of God”.

At noon my Palestinian friend and I traveled north through the Jordan Valley of lush green fields to end the day’s journey in Tiberius at the beautiful YMCA Peniel by Galilee Retreat Center.

From the shoreline of Galilee at Peniel one can see Mount Beatitude and the foothills of Capernaum. 

Visitors come from around the world to rest from their struggles, to be reinvigorated spiritually.

Recently an unexpected fire raged up the Tiberius coast of Galilee severely damaging Peniel, leaving much of the property in ruins.

For many like me who have benefitted from coming “face to face” with God at YMCA Peniel, this devastation caused a loss of hope of it ever being restored to a place of reconciliation and spiritual renewal.

It’s easy to ask God why Peniel was not spared from the fires.

But in the struggle to rebuild the beloved retreat center God has come “face to face” with those in the YMCA working together as living stones in hope and trust: Jews, Muslims, and Palestinian Christians.

What are the fires in your life that have caused you to lose hope?

What are the struggles you experience that could be the place where God wants to meet you “face to face”?

How might you rebuild strained relationships in your life, like Jacob and Esau did, through trust and hope in God?

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.””

Genesis 32.24-30

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