"Scripture repeatedly presents God's desire to be personally & intimately involved with His children. He wants to provide the warmth, affection, discipline & accountability that characterizes a parent's loving relationship." Bill Hybels, Men's Devotional Bible
DISRUPTION
"Perhaps the greatest example of disruption for the disciples played itself out in the events of the crucifixion. Entering Jerusalem filled with messianic hope on Palm Sunday, the disciples believed Jesus to be the earthly King of Israel fulfilling what had been promised to David long ago. Imagine their horror, then, when surrounded in that dark garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was captured like a common criminal. All their messianic hopes collapsed. Instead of royal exaltation, Jesus was lifted up onto a cross of untold suffering and agony. Plans to sit on Jesus’s left and right as rulers in his kingdom were scattered and interrupted, just as quickly as the disciples fled away that terrible night."But the disruption of the Cross would not be the last word. Rather, it is the disruption of the resurrection that interrupted all that was known about the natural course of life and death, the ideas about the messiah, and the reality of God’s kingdom. The disruption of the resurrection affirmed Jesus as God’s messiah and transformed a group of scattered, fearful, disciples into the heralds of God’s new direction. Peter, the denier, became Peter, the proclaimer. Preaching the first sermon after Pentecost, Peter persuaded those listening that “God raised Jesus up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power….Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and messiah.”(2)
"God, the Disrupter interrupted their plans, their ideas, and their entire lives. As a result of this cosmic disruption, everything changed. Rather than scattering in fear, those early Christians gathered together sharing their resources, giving to those in need, and using their possessions for the benefit of one another.(3) In the same way, God desires the resurrection of Jesus to disrupt our lives, to interrupt our current way of living in order to send us off in a new direction. God intends the disruption . . . to make a difference in us—a difference so disrupting that it alters and changes the way we think, the way we envision the landscape around us, and the way we live in this world. Author Debbie Blue sums up resurrection disruption by saying, “Resurrection is a little unnerving, unsettling, because it basically goes against what we know, contradicts everything we take to be absolute about the nature of history and the reality in which we live. It’s a toppling of the earthly order, overthrowing familiarity. It doesn’t play according to the rules we accept as necessary. If the dead can come back to life…what does that mean about all the other realities, rules that order our lives, that we take for granted? [Resurrection]…is not everything you already know…it’s a whole different landscape.”(4) The disruption of the resurrection alters everything, every vista, every horizon." Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity
A PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT *
"Almighty God, Ruler of the nations, regard with favor Your servant, the President of the United States. Grant him health of body & mind; make him strong to bear the burdens of his high office. Give him wisdom & understanding, hat under his elaadership ournation may be directed in the ways of righteousness & peace."Teach me & all Christian citizens to realize that rule & authority in our country come from You & that our President is Your minister in the administration of his office. Keep us mindful of our obligation to support our President with fervent prayer & ready obedience to the laws of our country.
"Bless our President, I pray You, & make him a blessing to our people, to the g lory of Your holy name. For Jesus' sake. Amen"
* From My Prayer Book
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