November 30th, 2007
Friday’s Reflection
SOMETIMES WE SEEM to … adopt a one-size-fits-all paradigm of the spiritual disciplines that we all “ought” to live by. Without meaning to, we may adopt the idea (and convey to others) that we should all pray in this way, for this long, about these things, in this order; read this much of the Bible; give this much time each week; journal every day; and ________________ (add here your own personal practice that you feel guilty about not doing or not doing well enough). … But relationship with God is not a matter of rules. God invites us, instead, into an open-ended relationship.
- Mary Lou Redding
The Power of a Focused Heart
From pp. 57-58 of The Power of a Focused Heart: 8 Life Lessons from the Beatitudes by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2006 by the author. 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
You also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him.
- Matthew 24:44, GNT
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for an “attitude of gratitude” — all year round. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Advent Top 10. Advent begins this Sunday, December 2. Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Chundra Lela (November 26).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 29th, 2007
Thursday’s Reflection
GOD IS ALWAYS ready to give us light, not of a material kind, but that which is intellectual and spiritual.
- Augustine
Hungering for God
From p. 67 of Hungering for God: Selected Writings of Augustine, edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 1997 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
I rejoiced when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
- Psalm 122:1, REB
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for an “attitude of gratitude” — all year round. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Advent Top 10. Advent begins this Sunday, December 2. Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Chundra Lela (November 26).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 28th, 2007
Wednesday’s Reflection
GOD,
your mystery
is woven around me
like a shawl
that invites me to rest.
Transform and renew me.
Amen.
- Alive Now
From p. 60 of Alive Now, July/August 2006. Copyright © 2006 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this magazine.
Today’s Scripture Reading
No one knows … when that day and hour will come — neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows.
- Matthew 24:36, GNT
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for an “attitude of gratitude” — all year round. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Advent Top 10. Advent begins this Sunday, December 2. Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Chundra Lela (November 26).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 27th, 2007
Tuesday’s Reflection
HOW DO YOU practice contemplative prayer? The method itself is disarmingly simple. …
You pick a simple holy word that captures your desire to know God; perhaps choose that word for yourself right now. Then you bring it to your attention and focus your desire for God upon that word. Each time your mind wanders, bring your attention back to this word. Unlike the Jesus Prayer, this word is not to be repeated over and over. Rather the word serves as a focal point to which you can return your attention whenever you have strayed into the land of thought. That is all.
- Daniel Wolpert
Creating a Life with God
From pp. 67-68 of Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2003 by the author. 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
But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God.
- Romans 13:11, THE MESSAGE
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for an “attitude of gratitude” — all year round. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Advent Top 10. Advent begins this Sunday, December 2. Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Chundra Lela (November 26).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 26th, 2007
Monday’s Reflection
IT’S A WONDER how any of us ever get from birth to death at all, considering the number of “worry ambushes” lurking behind every tree on our journey through life.
Jesus spoke a great deal about anxiety to the disciples, mainly in respect of getting rid of it. Jesus’ advice was less about struggling to put it out of our minds than about replacing it with something else until our minds are so full of the replacement that there is no more room for the worry.
That something else is God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.
- Hilary McDowell
On the Way to Bethlehem
From p. 57 of On the Way to Bethlehem: Reflections on Christmas for Every Day in Advent by Hilary McDowell. Copyright © 2000 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Prepare for the coming of Advent (December 2). Check out more Advent Resources.
Today’s Scripture Reading
Many peoples will come up and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD. … He will teach us his ways, so that we may
walk in his paths.”
- Isaiah 2:3, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for an “attitude of gratitude” — all year round. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Advent Top 10. Advent begins this Sunday, December 2. Top 10 Reasons to Celebrate Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Chundra Lela (November 26).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 25th, 2007
Sunday’s Reflection
GOD OF OUR DELIVERANCE, you save us from ourselves and our selfish preoccupations. When we feel trapped, it may well be the dawn of a better day. Give us faith to believe that “the best is yet to be.” Amen.
- Richard Morgan
Settling In
From p. 72 of Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community by Richard Morgan. Copyright © 2006 by the author. 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
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from [God's] glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father.
- Colossians 1:11-12, NRSV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for peace. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Get Ready for Advent. Advent starts on December 2. This important Christian season helps us get our spirits ready for the coming of the Christ child. Prepare your heart — observe Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember C.S. Lewis (November 22).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 24th, 2007
Saturday’s Reflection
LOVE GOD’S GOODNESS within yourself, and his immeasurable charity, which you will find in the cell of self-knowledge. In this cell you will find God. … I tell you, you will also find there the gentle mercy of the Holy Spirit, the aspect of God that gives and is nothing but love. Whatever the Spirit does is done because of love.
And this movement of love you will find within your own soul, because our will is nothing but love, and its every affection and movement comes from nothing but love … within the cell of your soul you will find the whole of God.
- Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
A Life of Total Prayer
From p. 13 of A Life of Total Prayer: Selected Writings of Catherine of Siena, edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 2000 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 Lord] has raised up a horn of salvation for us … to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.
- Luke 1:69, 72, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for peace. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Get Ready for Advent. Advent starts on December 2. This important Christian season helps us get our spirits ready for the coming of the Christ child. Prepare your heart — observe Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember C.S. Lewis (November 22).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 23rd, 2007
Friday’s Reflection
ALL OF US are like [the prodigal] son, needing more desperately than anything else the strong and gentle embrace of the hands of God. We must be those hands for each other — not someday, but today. … Let us be gentle with each other. Let us touch each other. Let us touch even those who seem in some superficial way to be different. For we are all of us sons and daughters of God. I once heard Peter Storey, preaching in Johannesburg during the reign of apartheid, suggest that we should be prepared when we sing that old child’s hymn: “Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” Storey imagined that Jesus’ reply would be: “Okay, here I come, but I’m bringing all these other people with me.”
- James C. Howell
Yours Are the Hands of Christ
From p. 59 of Yours Are the Hands of Christ: The Practice of Faith by James C. Howell. Copyright © 1998 by the author. 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
Zechariah said, “You, my child [John the Baptist], will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him.”
- Luke 1:76, NIV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for peace. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Get Ready for Advent. Advent starts on December 2. This important Christian season helps us get our spirits ready for the coming of the Christ child. Prepare your heart — observe Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember C.S. Lewis (November 22).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | 1 Comment »
November 22nd, 2007
THANKSGIVING DAY (U.S.)
Thursday’s Reflection
OUR FIRST RESPONSE IS GRATITUDE. We thank God for such generous and nourishing gifts. Giving thanks opens our eyes to our connections to others. We see that we cannot thank God for the food we have and then turn our backs on people who are hungry. We cannot praise God for the bounty of the land and sea and close our eyes to the ways we abuse and pollute the soil and water. … Giving thanks to God is more than saying grace at the table; it is living lives that reflect God’s justice and love.
- Susan Briehl, Mary Emily Briehl Wells, and Magdalena Briehl Wells
“Food”
Way to Live
From pp. 68-69 of Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens, edited by Dorothy C. Bass and Don C. Richter. Copyright © 2002 by the editors. 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
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
- Luke 1:68, NRSV
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for peace. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Get Ready for Advent. Advent starts on December 2. This important Christian season helps us get our spirits ready for the coming of the Christ child. Prepare your heart — observe Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember C.S. Lewis (November 22).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
November 21st, 2007
Wednesday’s Reflection
WHEN WE THINK of all that God wants for us and for the world, it helps to remember that we’re not talking about some overnight miracle. The change that God is about continues long-term, through all the ordinary days of the ordinary time in our lives. The long stretches when nothing spectacular seems to be happening form the bulk of our days — and the time of God’s faithful, steady working in our lives. God is in this for the long haul. And, … so are we.
- Mary Lou Redding
The Upper Room Disciplines 2007
From p. 232 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 the 2008 edition.
Today’s Scripture Reading
[The thief] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come to your throne.” Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you: today you will be with me
in Paradise.”
- Luke 23:42-43, REB
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for peace. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- Get Ready for Advent. Advent starts on December 2. This important Christian season helps us get our spirits ready for the coming of the Christ child. Prepare your heart — observe Advent.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember C.S. Lewis (November 22).
- 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
Posted in Daily Reflection | Comments Off
