Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Fling wide you heavenly gates

Saturday, April 7, 2018

From Mark 16 and Acts 4
The Eleven were at table and Jesus appeared to them. He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed. He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." ... Peter and John said to the judges, "It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard." And the people were all praising God for what had happened.

"There is a joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just. I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord. Open the gates of justice; I will enter them and give thanks. This is the gate of the Lord" (from Psalm 118).

Jack is making cookies and blueberry muffins to raise money for a mission in Myanmar. His school is partnering with a school there. One of our best friends over time, Thein, is a physican from Myanmar. He has a beautiful smile, and I have known him as a hardworking, happy man who assumes the best about others.

My quick Google search on Myanmar was highlighted by, "The situation here seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." In other words, men and women in one group are killing less powerful men and women in another group. Almost always, these are called "ethnic" but they are also "religious" cleansings. I will kill you if you see God differently than I do. This did not start, nor will it end in Myanmar.

Our different languages get in the way. Our cultural habits certainly clash. We raise our kids differently, and we have far different beliefs about afterlife. We think we know something about God, but what we each "know" often seems very different.

WE.

We ... are only one river, we are only one sea. It flows through you and it flows through me. We are all one people ... Since when did that give me the freedom to kill you or make you my slave? God wants to make me bigger than that, more loving than that, more free from fear than that. I don't need to protect myself when God's justice is tempered by mercy, and God's mercy is tempered by justice.

Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring you hope
Songs that bring you joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
Do you feel the darkness tremble
When all the saints join in one song
And all the streams flow as one river
To wash away our brokenness

Many of those of us reading these lectionary texts and devotions are Christians; we are followers of Christ. I don't want to be rebuked by the risen Jesus for closing my eyes and ears to his body and blood, for unbelief or hardness of heart. I want to be in position like Peter and John to say, "It is impossible not to speak about what I have seen and heard."

But that urgency is as much a time to listen as it is to speak. God created us to care a lot about each other and about him, and there are all kinds of way to talk about that. Jesus wants to hear it all.

Quiet my self-righteousness, Lord, and replace it with yours. You are good, and your goodness endures forever. Let me rest in you, rest in you, rest in you, and say out loud how much you love me.

Devotions Archive

Fling wide you heavenly gates

Saturday, April 7, 2018