June 30th, 2007
Saturday’s Reflection
AS WE PRACTICE ALIGNMENT WITH LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, our spirit merges with — comes into harmony and balance with — the Christ Spirit.
- Darlene Saunders Ousley
“The Still Small Voice My Be Your Own”
The Upper Room Disciplines 2007
From page 188 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2007. Copyright © 2006 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
Let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of human nature.
- Galatians 5:16, GNT
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
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Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 29th, 2007
Friday’s Reflection
WHEN WE ENTER INTO … SILENCE, we are seeking — and eventually we encounter — something profound: the freedom of God. The silence of prayer separates us from our projects and our need to be in control of every aspect of our lives, and when we allow this to occur, we are free to let God do with us as God desires.
- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God
From page 18 of Leading a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006 by Daniel Wolpert. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
The harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
- Galatians 5:22-23, REB
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 28th, 2007
Thursday’s Reflection
GOD IS ever present and ever willing to help. God led the Israelites out of Egypt, delivered them from death, provided them with food in the wilderness; God was with them at Sinai and will not leave them or forsake them.
We might not know what lies ahead, but we know who is there to meet us in each eventuality. We are not left as orphans; we are not left alone: our God goes with us at all times.
- David Adam
Forward to Freedom
From pages 188-189 of Forward to Freedom by David Adam. Copyright © 2001 by David Adam. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
- Galatians 5:25, NRSV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- Today we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 27th, 2007
Wednesday’s Reflection
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE is not about political ideology, or about condemnation, or about trumping someone else’s experience. It is about Jesus, about being his disciple, about falling in love with God, and about having the courage to let that kind of devotion actually change your life.
- Derek Maul
Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men
From page 15 of Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2007 by Derek Maul. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
Jesus said, “Anyone who starts to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use for the Kingdom of God.”
- Luke 9:62, GNT
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 26th, 2007
Tuesday’s Reflection
WHEN GOD’S PROVIDENCE is hardest to see, faith comes to the forefront — faith that keeps integrity to the dreams God entrusts to us; faith that determines to enact those dreams; faith that understands, by hope in God’s providence, its dreams will not be lost in slavery or prison or perish with bullets or crosses. For faith trusts that dreams, even when given up for dead, will rise.
- John Indermark
Genesis of Grace
From page 107 of Genesis of Grace by John Indermark. Copyright © 1997 by John Indermark. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
- Galatians 5:1, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 25th, 2007
Monday’s Reflection
SECOND CORINTHIANS TELLS US that “the God of all comfort … comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4, NIV, italics added). As with all the other good gifts that flow into our lives, God’s comfort comes to us to be shared and multiplied so that, in this new community that Christ brings, no one will be left uncomforted.
- Mary Lou Redding
The Power of a Focused Heart
From page 34 of The Power of a Focused Heart: 8 Life Lessons from the Beatitudes by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2006 by Mary Lou Redding. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
In the day of my trouble I seek the LORD; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying.
- Psalm 77:2, NRSV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for Vacation Bible Schools and summer camps. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain. Living with disease, difficulty, or distress can sometimes be as important as curing it. Meditations such as this one can open your spirit to God’s grace in the situation you face. Try this Meditation for Distress, Disease, or Pain.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Irenaeus (June 28).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 24th, 2007
Sunday’s Reflection
AN ALTAR, A PEW, A SEAT ON THE BUS, a kitchen table: all become holy places when we confess before God. Today, in this holy place, God meets us, hears us and forgives us. In this holy place, God empowers us with genuine love to share with a hurting world. Be for God, a holy loving people.
- Kwasi I. Kena
The Africana Worship Book
From page 156 of The Africana Worship Book: Year A, edited by Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiyah Fosua. Copyright © 2006 by Discipleship Resources. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
When [the Gerasenes] came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; … [They] asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.
- Luke 8:35, 37, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for marriages and commitments, old and new. Visit the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- The Examen. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius urged that all be taught the examen, a daily examination of our deepest feelings and desires. Try out The Examen.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Ephrem (June 18).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 23rd, 2007
Saturday’s Reflection
AS HUMAN BEINGS, we long for God’s presence. We want to serve God, to see God, to be with God. The problem is that our God is unseen. … The remedy to the problem of an unseen God is a prayer practice that focuses all our attention upon God.
- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God
From pages 40-41 of Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006 by Daniel Wolpert. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
- Galatians 3:29, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for marriages and commitments, old and new. Visit the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- The Examen. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius urged that all be taught the examen, a daily examination of our deepest feelings and desires. Try out The Examen.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Ephrem (June 18).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 22nd, 2007
Friday’s Reflection
YOUR LIFE, O CHRIST, is the power to stand,
rooted in compassionate courage
in the midst of and after the blow of any dark power,
for you, O Lord, compassionately endure all things.
- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace
From page 108 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2005 by Robert Corin Morris. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
- Psalm 42:2, NRSV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for marriages and commitments, old and new. Visit the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- The Examen. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius urged that all be taught the examen, a daily examination of our deepest feelings and desires. Try out The Examen.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Ephrem (June 18).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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June 21st, 2007
Thursday’s Reflection
CHRIST IS THE UNSEEN MEDIATOR
who dwells at the center of our kinship with others.
Christ is the one who invited us
into deeper communion with the Divine
through the common experience of human encounter.
- Stephanie Ford
Kindred Souls
From page 17 of Kindred Souls: Connecting through Spiritual Friendship by Stephanie Ford. Copyright © 2006 by Stephanie Ford. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Galatians 3:28, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for marriages and commitments, old and new. Visit the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- The Examen. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius urged that all be taught the examen, a daily examination of our deepest feelings and desires. Try out The Examen.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Ephrem (June 18).
- Lectionary Readings:
-
Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.
Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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