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Renewal Through Routine
The Upper Room Disciplines has been a source of strength and comfort to readers for decades. Read More
David Dark | Read Psalm 84:1-12
God’s presence can coincide with physical joy and comfort, but it isn’t synonymous with it. We can, after all, experience God’s presence even in grief and physically uncomfortable circumstances. We can experience God’s presence anywhere. Even the most modest and mundane of spaces can be rightly thought of as the...
God, alert us to your presence as we negotiate our days. Enliven us to make your presence known in the ways we interact with, speak of, and characterize the living souls around us. Amen.
God had prevented David from building a temple in Jerusalem but then permitted David’s son Solomon to build it. In First Kings, Solomon places the ark of the covenant in the holiest place, and God’s presence descends. The psalmist rejoices in the Temple and would rather be in its courts than anywhere else because that is where God dwells. The New Testament readings remind us that the people of God have always met with resistance. The author of Ephesians compares living the Christian life to going into battle, so we must be prepared. Jesus also meets with resistance in John. His teachings are too hard for many to accept, so they abandon him. When we face resistance, therefore, we should not be surprised; but we are also not alone.
Read 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43. How does your faith inform the hospitality you show to friends? To strangers?
Read Psalm 84. How do you find joy in the Lord? Recall a recent time when you felt a deep sense of this joy.
Read Ephesians 6:10-20. How do truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God’s word help you live boldly as an ambassador of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Read John 6:56-69. How do you respond to Jesus’ question: “Does this offend you?” This teaching was hard for his disciples. Where do you struggle with it?
Respond by posting a prayer.
