Devotional Blog

Waiting

4/30/2020

Many of us are spending a lot more time waiting in these days when we are under stay at home guidelines due to the pandemic or even waiting in lines separated by six-foot strips for safety at the grocery store. Waiting is not easy for most of us. Our spiritual world is full of waiting as well, whether we are waiting for prayers to be answered for healing of a loved one who is sick or for protection of a loved one who is serving on the front lines in the medical field or service sector. Or perhaps like so many, you are just praying for this all to be over and for us to go back to normal, whatever that new normal will look like. Do you feel anxious or frustrated your prayer seems to go unanswered? Don’t lose heart. Just because you do not yet see the answer to your prayers, does not mean God does not hear you. Wait! The Lord is working. Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting time is time for God to mold us and strengthen us and deepen our relationship with Him. God is at work. Trust God! God will see you through. God is at work even though you might not be able to see it. Hear again these encouraging words of the psalmist, David, who many times in his life experienced prolong periods of waiting on God’s plan and purpose:

(verse of the week)
I would have lost heart unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage,
And He will strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27.13,14 (NKJV)

(Prayer of the week)
Loving Good Shepherd, lead me beside the quiet waters, and help me to find the green pastures of quiet rest. Let me lean into your love and grace. Restore my soul. Renew my mind. May I feel your arms of love around me. As I rest in you and you restore my soul, help me to learn to reflect your love that others may see your image in me and I may be a blessing to them. Amen.

Hang in there! We will all get through this together! –Pastor TJ

(quote of the week)
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm—Abraham Lincoln

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at YouTube &
http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Earth Day

4/22/2020

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We recently celebrated Earth Day, when we appreciate our world and all its benefits and also reflect on how we care for it. In Genesis “the book of beginnings” chapter two God placed people in the garden to work it and take care of it. We are literally commissioned by God to steward the earth like a gardener or farmer would their garden or field of crops. It is never ours, it is only entrusted to us, to use wisely and appreciate. As we navigate the current pandemic and a large portion of our population stay at home, an unexpected blessing has been not only to see better due to less pollution and cleaner air, but also to be able to see wildlife emerge in unexpected places bringing a smile to many. Why not use some or your time to relax and take a deep breath and look around at the beauty of creation. How are you doing with God’s commission to steward our world? It is full of bounty and blessing, for us to enjoy, but we are also to be stewards of creation for our Creator.

(verse of the week)
The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for He founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters. (Psalm 24.1,2)

(Prayer of the week)
Almighty and Loving God, thank you for the blessing of the universe and all that you created and the special blessing of our world. Help me to be the steward of all that you have blessed us with, and may I also steward each day of my life giving back to you by the way I use my gifts and talents. May your Holy Spirit fill me and make me a new creation empowered by your grace and love. Fill me with your love, and may others see your love in all I do, and give you thanks. Amen.

Blessings –Pastor TJ

(quote of the week)
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out,
Like shining from shook foil. . .
Oh, morning at the brown brink eastward springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast
And with ah! Bright wings—Gerald Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at YouTube &
http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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He Walks With Us

4/16/2020

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For many of us living amid the present pandemic has been a time to slow down even though it might not have been voluntary. Many have taken their own emotional and spiritual pulse and found it quickening even as life has slowed down. There are increased anxieties as we view complex issues involving our physical and financial health as well as our emotional and relational well-being. For many Easter was a moment amid all of this that heightened our awareness of how different these times are as we celebrated Easter at home rather than church. Easter was also a moment to lean into the Divine as we celebrated the resurrection of Christ and the God who has the power to bring new life in any and every situation. The resurrection reminds us that God can bring triumph from tragedy and hope where all seems lost. Even though Easter is celebrated once a year, we are reminded that for the Christ-follower every day can be an Easter moment as we walk with the Risen Lord.
I love the story of the two disciples walking on the Road to Emmaus weighed down by fears and anxieties and yet hoping against hope that the rumor was true of the Risen Lord. But in an unexpected moment, Jesus crossed their path and was walking with them as a stranger who shared words of hope and brought new insight to scripture and divine presence in what was once an ordinary meal. They later shared that experience with others saying, “Were not our hearts strangely warmed!”
This Sunday we will share a Special Emmaus Road Home Communion, and we invite you to set aside some bread and juice or wine as we worship online and invite the Risen Lord into our homes and families praying that our hearts would indeed be “strangely warmed” with new hope and that we may share this hope with others.
Friends, we are not on this journey alone, the Risen Lord is present with us and together we will get through this.

(verse of the week)
““Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road,” (Luke 24:32 NRSV)

(prayer of the week)
Lord, help me to feel your presence walk with me on this journey of life and may I feel my heart burning anew with your love and may I share that hope and love with others, amen.

(quote of the week)
We find everywhere in this world the traces of a revealed God and a hidden God; revealed enough to strengthen our faith, concealed enough to try our faith--Philip Schaff

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
& YouTube
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Holy Week at Home

4/8/2020

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This week is Holy Week, which is the holiest week of the year for those of the Christian faith, but it is a Holy Week like no others as most of us are staying at home while others are serving those sick from COVID-19 at the front lines or through serving others. I am reminded that this is the week that Jesus rode into Jerusalem celebrated as a king but coming as a servant to take upon himself all our sin and suffering, sorrow and shame and to bring triumph where there seemed only tragedy. He was willing to serve and to give his life that others might live. But I am also reminded that this Sunday is Easter Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection. It is a day that turned the ultimate tragedy into the greatest triumph. We know that God is still present with us in our suffering and adversity and that God continues the Easter miracle through bringing grace in suffering, hope in despair, love in loneliness, peace amid the storm, and hope eternal through the promise of new life and eternal life to come. As most of us are at home this Easter, let us remember that the same Jesus who appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room, can be present with us in our Living Room or Family Room this Easter. When Thomas missed the first moment, Jesus appeared again to reassure him with the same message. Let us continue to love and serve knowing that Our God is a God of love and hope. Let us remember these words that Jesus spoke in the Upper Room and let them echo in our Family Room:

(scripture of the week)
“Peace be with you!” (John 20:21& 26)

(prayer of the week)
Lord, may I journey with you this Holy Week and catch a fresh glimpse of your grace and love as well as your presence with me and others in our homes and as we serve others, amen.

Have a Blessed Holy Week—Pastor TJ

(quote of the week)
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else—C.S. Lewis

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
& YouTube
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Voice of Hope

4/1/2020

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Like so many these days, I often find myself checking the news on COVID-19 and our global response several times a day. Sometimes it can be a bit stressful and at times even discouraging. But I also like when I see a person who is a seasoned expert who can also be a voice of hope in this current pandemic. In my Sunday message this past Sunday I mentioned one of the voices of hope to me that rings through the ages is the Apostle Paul who was a seasoned veteran of the faith who was writing a letter to Timothy, the young man he had mentored in faith and ministry. Paul is himself facing difficult times as he is in prison waiting possible execution, but he also knows that the younger Timothy is leading a church that is facing significant challenge and adversity. So even amid his own difficulty Paul pens a letter of hope found in 2 Timothy. Whether we are young or old, now is a great time to be a voice of hope. Hope is like a candle that shines brightest in the darkest night. Our world, our communities and even our families are struggling now with some of the realities of the night of sickness and suffering and isolation. So, I encourage you to put a candle in your window or put up some Christmas lights as a symbol of hope. But also be a voice of hope to someone today and in the days ahead. The Apostle Paul does not sugarcoat the realities of persecution but he speaks these great words to Timothy that ring down through the ages to us:

(scripture of the week)
“for God did not give us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:6–7)

(prayer of the week)
Lord, calm the fears in my own heart with your peace and presence and help me to be a voice of hope in our world today, amen.

(quote of the week)
“Always look for the helpers. There will always be helpers”-- Fred Rogers “Mister Rogers”

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/ & YouTube
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Waiting

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