Devotion
Teach Me, Guide Me
Frances Taylor
Who teaches you? Who do you allow to guide you? One of the passages we reflected on once before concerned "blind guides." Sometimes it's hard to know who we should be listening to. The psalms tell us that our teacher and guide is the Lord. Paying attention to Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, reading them, studying them, reflecting upon them provides the guidance we need. But we need to reach out to them, because if we don't we will allow blind guides to teach us. The media is more than happy to teach and guide us. Do whatever you want, regardless of the consequences; climb over others to get to the top; lie if you can so you can avoid being blamed for something; money is more important than family; lust and greed are just ways to get what you want. This is the teaching of the world. The commandments have a different idea of what is right and wrong. The Beatitudes lead us in another direction as well. Working for peace and justice is the way of God. Sacrifice is the way of the cross. Love and forgiveness, compassion and kindness are the ways of Jesus.
We are all children of the one God, created in his image and for the purpose of taking care of the created world. When we care for one another, we are following God's guidance. When we welcome the stranger, reach out to the poor and the vulnerable, we are allowing God to guide us. Let us return to the Scriptures again and again to teach and guide us through this life so that we may enjoy their fulfilment in the next.
Prayer
Lord, you are the way to truth, may we look to you always to lead us. Amen.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Inspiration
To reject the truths taught in God's Word, spoken by his prophets and apostles and by Jesus Christ his Son, is a grave offense. In the days when Hebrews was written, there were still true prophets in the Church, speaking from God. Today, we have his written Word as our "prophet. " If a preacher preaches truly according to the Book, we are in a grave sin if we reject it.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to discern when your Word is being taught correctly and when it is not. Teach me to embrace your truths and love them. Help me to walk in them and meditate on them. Let me not sin in rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible. Amen.
Night Prayer
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Inspiration
Sin rules our lives until we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we invite Him into our lives, our old sinful heart dies, and God creates within us a new one, where sin no longer rules our life; God does! Our thoughts and actions begin to change because we no longer desire a sinful lifestyle. We joyfully devote our lives to serving Him and inviting others to understand His promise of salvation.
Prayer
Dear Lord, we are sinners born again and recreated to live according to Your will. We are grateful for Your love and the peace we experience by abolishing our old sinful self. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion
Satan Has Been Defeated
Frances Taylor
Salvation and power have come with Christ and Satan has been defeated. Sin and death have been conquered by the actions of one man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, both human and divine who came into the world to bring the Good News of salvation by living, dying and rising for us. As Christians we claim to believe this but our actions sometimes deny it. Unfortunately, people seem to resurrect Satan all the time. We allow him to lead us away from God, forgetting the way to the Father that is love, and giving in to Satan's path of hatred, anger, pride, lust, chaos and destruction.
Satan, of course, doesn't present these as bad things, he makes them seem attractive. He presents sin as goods to be desired, as things to make us happy or give us pleasure. It can be hard to stay on the path that leads to God when the world seems to be crowding us and pushing us off of it. How easy it is to forget the sacrifice that bought our freedom! Which of us ...
