Kissed by the Spirit

“And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:3 (NIV)

One day last week, a Jewish resident at the Nursing Facility was talking about Mikva baths, and their ritual uses for cleansing according to Jewish religious laws. I immediately thought of the story in the gospel of the woman with the hemorrhage, who would have been required by Jewish law to be cleansed by a Mikva bath. 

I turned to a resident sitting beside me, who I’ve become friends with and knowing she believes in Jesus, I told her that the Mikva bath reminds me of that particular gospel story. I wasn’t sure if she knew that story, so I shifted into my Sunday school teacher mode. Even though it’s been 40 years since I taught Sunday school, I still enjoy telling any of those stories from the Bible. 

The resident, who I will call Jan, for privacy reasons, will be 75 years old this month, but she listened to the story just as a child would. When I got to the part of how the woman crawled through the crowd, just to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment, I paused to ask the Jewish resident what the fringe part of a Jewish prayer shawl is called, and he said that it’s called “Tzitzit.” 

So I continued telling the story to Jan of how the woman merely touched the “Tzitzit” of Jesus’ prayer shawl, and her bleeding immediately stopped as she was miraculously healed. Then Jesus stopped walking and asked “Who touched Me?” With a large crowd all around Him, the disciples said “Lord, so many are touching you”, but Jesus said, “No, I just felt power coming out of Me.” 

While telling that part of the story, Jan looked at me as she listened with a sense of awe. As her eyes widened with amazement, she suddenly burst out loud, saying 

“I love Jesus!” 

That’s what I call a Sunday school moment, when a Bible story touches a heart with such amazement, as it would do for a child in a Sunday school class. Jan’s excited response sparked a flame within me and I could feel her childlike excitement. I readily agreed with her, saying,

“Me too!”

Jan is not a child, but she received a gospel story with the heart of a child, as Jesus described in today’s scripture. She was as excited as if she were right there watching it all first hand. Her heart was set on fire by a story about Jesus and in all of her enthusiasm, she lit my heart on fire as well. 

While driving home and thinking about that Sunday school moment, I couldn’t stop smiling. Jesus told us to change and become like a child, and He meant that for believers of all ages, despite how much we already know. Jan’s spontaneous childlike response lit a flame in my heart and something changed in me at that moment. That’s what we are all meant to do for one another.

Having the heart of a child means there is always something new to learn about Jesus, always a yearning for more of His presence, and a fire to keep burning in our hearts for Him.  

Sunday school moments are not only inspired by stories in the bible. They could be real life stories of people we know or meet each day. We might hear stories from people who received a miracle, a long waited answer to prayer, or a faith inspiring experience with Jesus. We become like a child whenever we light the fire of wonder and awe in someone else’s heart or they light ours. 

Lord, keep the fire burning in our hearts so that we will always find excitement to learn and yearn for more of you. Amen

“Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26 (NIV)

All my Christian life, I’ve heard a small voice whispering within my spirit, telling me to ask for bigger things from God. That whisper was not a verbal message but something I felt within. It all began during my early twenties, when a gifted and prayerful senior lady in my church came up to me one day and said, “The Lord told me to tell you to ask big of Him.” 

At first I thought it was a strange thing to say, but that lady had a lot of wisdom as well as an amazing sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, not to mention that her message was compatible with scripture. I thought to myself, maybe I have a tendency to limit my faith in what God can do. 

Time passes, life gets busy and I often forget about that day, but the Lord reminds me by something said through a friend, a book, radio or TV show. God wants all of us to keep asking big of Him. 

In all the gospel stories, Jesus reacted so positively to any person who came to Him, asking for the miraculous.

The woman who once crawled through a crowd to touch Jesus’ garment wasn’t discouraged by all the years that she suffered with her ailment. She believed that this was her moment to ask big of God, and she was healed after one touch, and Jesus loved it.

The gentile woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter, never let her gentile status inhibit her from asking the Jewish Messiah to heal her sick daughter. Then He tested her faith by telling her that she wasn’t one of His people, but she never backed down, and persisted in asking for her miracle, and her daughter was healed. Jesus loved her persistence.

The Roman Centurion told Jesus that if He would only say the word, his servant would be healed. He didn’t ask Jesus to come and lay His hands on the dying man, but only to “say the word.” He asked for a big miracle, his servant was healed, and Jesus loved his faith.

In all His parables and stories about prayer to God, Jesus encourages persistence in asking, even when dealing with unjust people or corrupt judges. According to Him, knocking, seeking and asking, wins in the end, because asking big of God, is what Jesus loves. 

In Jesus’ own words, all things are possible with God. That means it’s possible to change the composition of our body cells, to make tumors disappear, to restore a heart rhythm, to rejuvenate weak and atrophied muscles, and to heal a brain and other mental disorders. 

Jesus is in the business of doing the impossible, and He is not only able, but willing, based on His words to the blind men, saying, “I am willing, be healed.”(Luke 5:13) He is the same today as He was yesterday so we can dream bigger, and trust Him for the impossible. 

It’s time to visualize the biggest request we could ever ask or pray for, no matter how long we have waited for it. It pleases Jesus when we ask for the big things. We can never ask anything too big, since faith in Him makes Him happy. 

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Lord, we touch the edge of your garment today, asking you to only say the word, and we thank you for the grace of faith to believe in a bigger way than we ever have before. Amen

“Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (RSV)

Paul tells us to always rejoice and always give thanks, but the real key message in this scripture is to pray constantly. It’s much easier to rejoice and be thankful when we have assurance that God hears us when we pray. 

I was wondering what he means by praying constantly. Most equate prayer to looking at a prayer list, and asking God for all the pressing needs in our lives, our friends’ lives and our family’s lives. People have their own style and formats of prayer, and all prayer is good, but sometimes later in the day, frustrating situations arise that are very unsettling, and we need more prayer, which is probably why Paul tells us to pray constantly.

On days like that, I suspect that we often miss out by thinking prayer is a lengthy, formal way to talk to God, but there is one short and simple prayer that we can pray constantly throughout every day, which is, “Come Holy Spirit.” Those three words, said with sincerity, are transformative words of power. 

If we ask the Holy Spirit to come, He always shows up, because He is faithful. In fact, I have discovered that not praying that prayer, is what is missing in a day that seems to be filled with aggravation.

Some days I feel that I have nothing to write, like a writers block, with no ideas for the next meditation, but when I pray “Come Holy Spirit,” He always comes through, and gives me a message to share. It might happen through an inspiring event during the day, or reading a familiar scripture with some new meaning, or through something heard through a media source like TV or radio. 

Something definitely happens when I pray that simple prayer. It’s as if He becomes activated and goes right to work, to inspire the next meditation. The Holy Spirit comes through 100% of the time because that three word prayer brings the power we need in the moment, whether it’s patience, direction, or wisdom. He is our gift from Heaven just as Jesus promised.

The Spirit dwells in every believer, but He always behaves like a gentleman, until He is called upon. He remains quietly within each person, never forcing His will on us, but waits patiently to be invited into our situation. When we call upon Him by saying “Come Holy Spirit,” we will notice the day is different in a good way, since He’s been welcomed into our lives.

The message is simple, praying constantly can simply mean asking the third person of the Trinity, throughout our day, to “Come”. 

Jesus told us that He is sending us a Helper, who will reveal all truth, to guide and comfort us, by pouring new hope into our hearts when we need it most.

This week we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, the day that God first sent His Spirit down to men and women in a powerful and dramatic way. That first day of Pentecost came as a gift from Heaven, wrapped in a loud, rushing wind, and topped with bows of flaming fire. The same Spirit is in us today, dwelling as a gentle dove, with a quiet whisper instead of a loud wind, and He politely waits for us to invite him into each of our life situations. We activate Him by asking Him to “Come.”

Lord, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit who is in us and waiting to be actively involved in every part of our day. We invite you to transform our hearts, our minds and the events of our day as we pray constantly, “Come Holy Spirit.” Amen

“Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.”

1 Corinthians 4:5 (RSV)

An author once wrote a book about the first wave of Mexican immigrants to Chicago in 1917. The stories of those immigrants who first settled in Chicago were collected from various sources. One of those sources was a young Mexican woman who kept a hand written diary documenting her family’s history, faith in God, and their effort to leave the turmoil of the Mexican revolution at the time. Her name was Elidia Barroso and she was my late husband’s aunt. 

As I read excerpts from Elidia’s diary in the book, I started to piece together the traumatic events that affected their youngest brother more than anyone else. The Spanish flu pandemic at the time, was taking millions of lives globally, and it took the lives of Elidia’s mother and father. She became the responsible oldest sister of four orphaned children in Mexico. Elidia and her two sisters migrated to America in search of work to support themselves and their little brother, Peter, who was only six years old at the time. 

Elidia and her sisters didn’t encounter Customs and Border patrol in those days, since the organization wasn’t created until 1924. Mexicans only needed to pass a literacy test and pay the eight dollar head tax, to enter the United States.

With both parents dead, the older sisters dropped Peter off at the home of a distant relative in Texas, as the three girls migrated to Chicago to search for work. Peter’s life went from a happy, carefree childhood, living with his family on a ranch in Mexico, to becoming a scared and confused orphan, living in a new country, learning a new language with relatives he hardly knew.  

He was later reunited with his older sisters in Chicago, who raised him to adulthood. He eventually outlived his sisters, married and had a family of his own. He was not an easy person for his own three sons to understand, since he never talked about his childhood of loss and separation. His sons only knew their father as a harsh, abrasive and complex man. His middle son was my late husband, Stephen. I never met Peter, his father, since he died before we married.

Only God knows what pain people have hidden in the dark corners of their life. The scripture today warns us not to pronounce judgement before the time, that only God can bring to light the things hidden in the darkness. 

It was Elidia Barroso’s diary, which brought out what was previously unknown about Peter’s traumatic childhood, which shed much light on his complex personality as a father.

Today, whenever I am tempted to judge somebody, I think of Peter, the scared, lonely child who lost both his parents and was separated from his sisters at the age of six, and how a disrupted childhood may affect a life.

If we could see every person in the light of their personal struggles or through the eyes of an all knowing God, we would probably never judge anyone again. God brings to light the things hidden in the darkness, sometimes disclosing what is really in a person’s heart. Having a brief glimpse of the pain and loneliness in someone’s life, gives us the eyes of mercy to better understand who that person really is. 

Lord, enlighten our minds and give us a heart of mercy toward those who we tend to misjudge today. Give us the light of understanding so we may see people through your eyes. Amen

“Even to your old age and gray hairs

I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

Isaiah 46:4 (NIV)

This is one of the few scriptures written for senior citizens. There is another one in Psalms that refers to the average human life span as a “handbreath”, which is an ancient Hebrew measurement of about 3 inches. Not only is it referred to in brief inches, but it says that every human life is like a fleeting breath to God. We may differentiate between long lives, short lives, and babies who are just beginning to live their lives, but to God, all physical life is a fleeting breath, since each real life is the soul who will live forever. 

Last weekend, I celebrated a very old life and a very young life, two days in a row. I sang Happy birthday to a 92 year old friend on one day and the next day, I sang it to my 1 year old great, great niece. The paper plates and napkins at the one year old’s party, cleverly read, “First trip around the sun.” 

Whether we’ve had one trip around the sun or ninety two, every day of life is a gift from God. The average life span in the US went up last year, and is now 79, but since some people still live to their nineties, it’s good to learn what researchers found about those who are living longer. 

Time magazine once published an article about a research study, concluding that those who regularly attend any type of religious service have decreased stress and live longer than average life spans.

The reason for this wasn’t the effect of prayer alone, but prayer plus the regular support of a faith community. 

The value of congregating with like minded people of faith, is what a Harvard professor of epidemiology, found in doing this study. Having a network of social support as well as a deep sense of purpose in life, accounted for longevity benefits among those he studied. Scripture suggested this 2,000 years ago, encouraging believers to live as one unified supportive community of faith, so Christianity actually taught this long before Harvard discovered it.

Jesus left us the Holy Spirit after He ascended to heaven. The book of Acts described the lifestyle that believers in the early Spirit filled church were living. They were described as devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to regular fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Their church life was a community of mutual support, and they all had a deep purpose in living for Jesus, believing He was returning again one day.

Living a long life as we know it, is still a mere fleeting breath to God. Senior living has to be about more than healthy eating, exercise, efforts in looking younger and saving money. God told us through Isaiah, that even in our old age, when our hair is gray, He will sustain us. His sustenance extends beyond finding the right wrinkle creams, nutritional tips or hair dyes. 

As we age, although we may encounter increased health, financial, or relationship problems in our senior years, we have been given a beautiful promise that God will sustain us, rescue us and carry us throughout those years. He does it as we depend solely on Him as our source, and plug ourselves into a community of like minded believers, where we share spiritual and emotional support. This is what benefits our recoveries from illness and alleviates stress. 

God is good, and living life with the knowledge of His goodness, we find that He does rescue us from our afflictions and carry us when we need to be carried. Refocusing our values on a life being well lived, instead of dwelling on our losses, keeps us making those trips around the sun year after year. 

I can still remember sitting on my own grandmother’s lap as a child, and though I saw the wrinkles on her face and her coarse, gray hair, what I looked for most was her smile, her joyful laugh and the sparkle in her eyes that made me feel like I was a delight in her life. The way that grandchildren, great nieces or great nephews see us is one more gift of God’s sustenance through our gray haired years. 

Lord, thank you for sustaining, rescuing and carrying us through the many phases of aging, and help us to stay strong in a community of faith and Christ centered purpose during all our trips around the sun. Amen

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

1 Corinthians 4:5 (NIV)

The Holy land is an archeologist’s haven, with ground that is layered in history. Buried under that ground are treasures of historic evidence and artifacts of many victories, defeats, miraculous sustenance of God for His people as well as the sorrow of conquests by their enemies. The stories are all there, buried in layers beneath the ground.

A Jewish couple, the Seibenbergs,  fled from Belgium during the Holocaust, and eventually moved to Israel. They bought a house in one of the oldest quarters of Jerusalem. Later they discovered that beneath their home were layers of history, with artifacts that dated back three thousands years, as far back as King Solomon. 

After years of excavation, one layer beneath their home was found to  contain the remains of a Maccabean palace, which is where the miracle story of Hanukkah first originated. The Siebenberg house is a public museum today, displaying ancient artifacts of jewelry, pottery, artwork and coins, found buried in layers of history. 

As I read about the layers of history found in the city of Jerusalem alone, 

I thought of how archeology tells a story of what was once buried and  hidden. Each one of us is a living, breathing excavation project, composed of layers of our own history and experiences, which makes us who we are today. 

We each have our own story, of events and relationships that we experienced through different stages of our lives, and we are still adding to our history. We have stories buried in layers of history, during our times of victory, defeat, the miraculous intervention of God and our battles with spiritual enemies. 

God has been with us in every stage of that history, loving, guiding and forming us into who we are. Jesus will head the excavation project that will reveal the treasures that are in our past as well as those that continue, while we are living. 

The full effect of every good or kind deed we have ever done in our lifetime, will be excavated and revealed at the end of time. The true impact of how any person might have been inspired by another person, for the glory of God, or for the salvation of souls, will all one day be revealed by the excavation project headed by Jesus. 

Jerusalem is a city where history comes alive because of continuous excavation projects. We are children of the Lord of excavation. We add layers of history every day to our lives as we walk with Christ, and abide in Him, until the day that our buried treasures are brought to His light. 

Lord,  we praise you for being the Lord of all that is to be excavated in us, one day. Help us to make the history of our lives something beautiful as your light shines on us and through us always. Amen

“Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?

Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.”

Luke 14:28-30 (NAB)

Twice in one day, within two hours, a person in line ahead of me canceled and backed out of a transaction. The first time was at a grocery store, when the couple in line ahead of me, gasped at the price of Bing cherries, which were $11.00/lb. They canceled their transaction and walked out, and I didn’t blame them. 

After that, I went to a drive thru car wash, and while waiting in line, the car in front of me drove partially into the wash but then stopped short of advancing forward enough to trigger the wash to start. After waiting a minute, I walked to the car to see why it stopped, and the young woman driver thought the car wash wasn’t working. I suggested that she drive forward, enough for the wash to start. 

The attendant came out and told her the same thing, but she wanted to cancel the wash and get her refund. 

I suspected she was embarrassed in holding up the line, because of a misunderstanding of how to drive through a car wash.

It seemed strange that twice within a short span of time, I encountered people who canceled a transaction for one reason or another. There could be a message in those two incidents, with the theme of the day being  “counting the cost.”

Whether it was counting the high cost of Bing cherries or the half hearted decision to proceed through an unfamiliar car wash, each person re-considered, canceled their transaction and left.

Jesus once counted the cost of what was required to become our Savior. He first counted it from heaven before willingly entering this world as a man. He counted the cost one last time, in those stressful, but defining moments in the Gethsemane garden. He felt fear and every emotion that a human being can feel, and asked His Father if He could possibly pass on the whole thing. He counted the cost, but in the end, He consented. 

It was in the Garden where Jesus  decided that each one of us were worth the high price He paid for our redemption. He chose to proceed, not cancel, change His mind, or walk away, but rather to finish the work at the cross, by putting His whole heart into it. Because He loved us, He considered us worth it, for Him to proceed in carrying His cross.

God desires to conform everyone who believes, into the image of His son, and Jesus longs to make us His disciples. As we count the cost of discipleship, we realize that we all have a cross of some kind to carry. 

(Romans 8:29) 

Jesus said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Those are clear and straightforward words. Carrying our cross comes after counting the cost, just as Jesus did in that Garden. Mary, His mother, also counted the cost of becoming the mother of the Messiah who would suffer in a harsh world, but she too, said yes.

In reality, we are living in a fallen world. We don’t soar through life with a “name it, claim it, instantly gratifying, problem free faith or lifestyle.” Painful trials happen to believers and unbelievers alike, but as believers, we get to know our Savior, and develop a friendship with Him. Through faith, we come to learn that something good always comes out of our pain. 

Nothing that we have ever suffered is wasted. In all suffering, there is meaning and comfort in knowing Jesus already suffered the same thing and knows exactly how we feel. We also find purpose in suffering by being able to comfort others who go through something similar. The Lord’s church is a community of His sons and daughters, who share the compassion of Christ with each other and with the world. 

We may never fully understand every purpose in this present lifetime, but we know that God is constantly conforming us to the image of Christ. We might be better off to ask, “Lord, reveal your purpose for me through this trial,” instead of “Lord, remove this problem from me,” so that we can find peace in the purpose. 

While we go through any pain or sorrow, we count the cost, as we choose to take up our cross and follow Jesus another day. Knowing He has the best plan for us, we carry our cross and follow Him, because that’s what disciples do. 

It’s a lesson we’ll be learning all throughout our lives, and at times, my soul needs to catch up with the words I write, but we can put our trust in this scriptural truth, 

“We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

(Romans 8:28)

Lord, we thank you for counting us worthy of the cost you paid for our salvation, and help us to carry our own cross, while we are being conformed to your image, to better reflect your love to the world. Amen

“How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

Jesus reminds us in this scripture that we are sons and daughters of a Father, who loves to give good gifts to His children. Sometimes, the little things that seem trivial to others, but bring us joy, are the gifts that God gives us, and He knows what those little things are for each of us.

There is a true story of a man named Dick, who had a hobby of building remote controlled boats. He finished a project which he spent about 100 hours working on and was excited to finally try it out on water. 

On a cold day in October, he put the little hydroplane boat on a pond of water. It made it to the middle of the pond, but then stalled, stopped and wouldn’t move any further. 

Dick started walking into the pond to retrieve his boat, thinking the pond was shallow, but he suddenly sunk down into a deep section. He was struggling to swim, but with heavy clothing on, he kept sinking. His wife and friend watched in horror, helpless as Dick struggled, while neither of them knew how to swim. Before they could call for help, a young man appeared out of nowhere, wearing only a pair of denim shorts. He dived into the pond and in lifeguard style, pulled Dick out to the shore in safety. 

After his wife and friend saw that he was okay, they turned to look for the blond haired, shirtless man, to thank him, but he was gone. It was all very strange, the way he came out of nowhere, wearing nothing but shorts on a cold October day. 

Then they saw something that really stunned them. During all the commotion, the model boat was left in the middle of the pond, but now it was lying on the ground right in front of them. 

That mysterious man was swift to appear and disappear, yet no one saw him retrieve Dick’s boat, and no other people were in the area, so who retrieved the boat? What human rescuer would even bother to retrieve a model boat as well as save a person from drowning? There were too many questions and not enough answers. That shirtless, shoeless rescuer had to be an angel. 

Dick put many hours into building that boat, and God knows about the little things that mean so much to us. He cares about what we care about, probably much more than we realize. God sent an angel to not only save Dick’s life that day, but to give him back his boat, which he worked so hard to build.  

We tend to think that God doesn’t care about the trivialities of our lives but He reminds us of His kindness and compassion in special moments like that, since He knows exactly what’s in our hearts. I’m sure that everyone can recall a time in their lives when God seemed to answer a prayer, even down to a trivial detail. 

Who doesn’t feel loved by someone who remembers the littlest thing that brings them joy?

A good father knows what brings joy to his son or daughter and he takes great pleasure in surprising them from time to time. God is our good Father, who enjoys surprising us with the little things that have special meaning to us, even if it seems trivial or insignificant, like a remote controlled model boat. 

Lord, thank you for reminding us that you are a good father, and of the joy you have in giving us the little things in life that make us happy. Amen

“The mind of a person plans his way,

But the Lord directs his steps.”

Proverbs 16:9 (NASB)

I was visiting a list of patients for my weekly volunteer hospital ministry last weekend. While following a list of patients, I entered one room on the list and after verifying the patient’s name, I told her mine, then explained that I’m from the hospital’s Christian Ministry of Care department. 

She said very politely,

“Well, let me get one thing straight-I am Jewish.” 

I asked her how she ended up on a Catholic census list, and she said that she was a student in Catholic schools during her early life. Somehow the hospital admitting department only heard that, instead of the fact that she is Jewish, and that was how she ended up on the Catholic census list. 

I found her very interesting and told her that I grew up in the opposite situation, living in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, and attended several Bar mitzvahs of my Jewish friends. Then she said to me, “and I still know how to say a Hail Mary.” 

She made me laugh out loud and our whole interaction gave me a spirit of joy that lasted the rest of the day. As I left the room, we said to each other, Shalom!”

I was thinking about how often a person might not be exactly who we first think they are. We are all multi-faceted, complex human beings and no one should ever be labeled. The one we think is the wrong person, might really be the right person, according to God’s plan, and what appears as an error may be part of His divine purpose. That’s what happened in the next true story. 

A pastor of a church was waiting for a package on the scheduled day for delivery but he never received it. He found out that the carrier mistakenly delivered it to a home in a rural and remote area far away from his home. Instead of asking the carrier to pick it up and redirect the shipment to him, he decided to drive there and pick it up himself. 

When he arrived at the home, he saw a critically ill 9 year old boy with his mother and grandmother, who were caring for him. They handed the Pastor his package, and in that moment, he knew in his spirit, that God deliberately led him to that exact home for a purpose. 

He introduced himself to the family, learning that the boy’s name was Jonathan. He suffered from stage four brain cancer, and could no longer speak. The Pastor felt called to be a pastor to that family, since they had no other church affiliation. The mother and grandmother were unable to attend the church because of caregiving conditions and the distance from the church. 

That weekend, the Pastor preached a sermon telling his congregation of his experience. His congregation gathered together and did whatever they could do to for the family, by  visiting them, praying with them, bringing gifts, visiting Jonathan when he was hospitalized and simply being Jesus to that family in any way possible. 

God uses mistakes for some very incredible and beautiful purposes. We never know how something that seemed to be an error was part of God’s eternal plan all along. We may make plans, but the Lord is really the One who directs our steps, whether we realize it or not. 

Lord, you are an awesome God and your plans are the best, even when we think a mistake was made. Please direct our steps and make us instruments of your peace and love in this world. Amen 

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

John 15:12-14 (RSV)

I came across a true story that happened during the second world war. In 1943 four navy chaplains restored calm in the chaos of a ship, just hit by the enemy and rapidly sinking. Those chaplains prayed with and escorted 230 soldiers to the lifeboats, even giving up their own life jackets to those who didn’t have one. They saved every man on the ship, just doing what a friend of Jesus would do. 

One of the survivors recalls what he  last witnessed from his lifeboat, seeing the four chaplains standing on the sinking ship, with hands clasped, praying together as the ship went down into the ocean. What an image to remember. Their last deed on earth was exactly what Jesus described, men who laid their lives down for their friends. 

The interesting fact about this story is that those four brave chaplains were of different faith backgrounds. There was a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Methodist minister and a Dutch reformed minister. Despite their different ideologies and beliefs, they had two things in common. They had a mutual desire to express the love of God to others, and they shared their last minutes of their lives together.

The apostle Paul wrote that without love we are nothing, Peter wrote that  love covers a multitude of sins and Jesus said that there’s no greater love than to give one’s life for their friends. All who do so, Jesus calls  His friends. 

All mankind is created in the image of God, but occasionally we witness a special spark of God within a human person. It’s evident whenever someone does the unthinkable and selfless act of giving their life for another, or for a worthy cause.

This scripture today seems almost too unreachable to achieve. To put aside our needs for the sake of another’s isn’t easy. Paul wrote, “Forgetting what lies behind, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) 

The upward call of God, is to abide in the love of Christ, and is a goal for every believer to strive for.

Firemen, paramedics, policemen and military forces, do it every day as a routine duty of their profession, and some even go beyond their routine duty. This Memorial Day, we will remember people like those chaplains, soldiers, first responders and all who have lost their lives for a worthy cause. 

On Wednesday of this week, we heard of the tragic deaths of a young Jewish couple employed by the Israeli embassy, who were to be engaged next week, but were shot and killed by an extremist at the Jewish museum in Washington D.C. 

There is a little known spiritual side to this sad story, which has been underpublicized. That young couple were “Messianic Jews” in their faith, meaning that they were Jewish believers in Jesus as their Messiah. 

Yaron and Sarah were living that upward call of God in their Jewish Christian faith as bridge builders, by promoting interfaith understanding. 

I have no doubt that they were welcomed into the arms of their Messiah, who they knew as Yeshua, as He greeted them saying, “Welcome home my friends”.

May God help us to live like friends of Jesus, reaching for the upward call of sharing His love with the world, and to treat each day, as the last day on a sinking ship.

Lord, help us to follow you, beyond the routine as you transform us from within, to reach the goal of the upward call of living in Christ’s love. Amen

Capital Jewish Museum victim Yaron Lischinsky was Messianic Jew – The Forward