IN THIS SEASON

Welcome to In This Season, our series of daily devotions written by our pastors and members of our staff.

TODAY: JULY 29, 2021

Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Aaron David Werner

Launched by the Spirit

Eight-Week Summer 2021 Devotion Series

01 Intro: Spirit as “She”

02 Breath of Life

03 Wisdom of God

04 Calling of God

05 The Holy Spirit Gathers

The Power of God

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and…he began to teach in their synagogue, saying:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:14-15, 18-19

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Acts 10:38

God gives us all some power, some ability to author our lives, however curtailed or imprisoned by malevolent people or mercurial circumstance. God’s Spirit, coursing through us, shouts out, “Seize the day! Fight for love and do not stop!” The Power of God is our birthright given in baptism:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

Jesus did not shy away from his Spirit-given authority. He incarnated God’s power, healing people, feeding people, and loving people who others did not want healed, fed, and loved.

This makes me think of Edna Mode, a character from the Disney/Pixar movie The Incredibles, reminding the superhero mom, Helen Parr, that she has the power to do something about her situation. Check out the clip here: https://youtu.be/UBfb77G47hU

How is God’s Spirit’s prodding you, empowering you, to do good, serve others, and make the world a better place today?

I pray we can all declare, as the Prophet Micah did, “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord.” Micah 3:8

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and a wise heart. 2 Timothy 1:7

JULY 28, 2021

Today’s Devotion written by Renee Walstrom

The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers. If you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 30:9b

The Bible says the Lord will make you prosperous, but I don’t think that necessarily refers to monetary prosperity. There are so many more, and more important, ways of being prosperous. I wrote a poem for my husband on our 50^th anniversary. One of the verses was:

We’ve not amassed a fortune, not in monetary measure,
But our loving, caring family – that’s our wealth, our greatest treasure.

I think we can get too wrapped up in attaining “things” and don’t take time to appreciate what we have.
I love music, and almost every morning when I am getting ready for the day I will have a song run through my mind. There is a wide variation in them – hymns, old songs, new songs, etc. They are not necessarily songs that were among my favorites, so don’t know why I think of them. One day recently the song I was remembering was from back in the 40’s or 50’s. It was called “The Best Things in Life are Free.” That got me thinking along these lines for this devotion.

The moon belongs to everyone,
The best things in life are free.

The stars belong to everyone,
They gleam there for you and me.

The flowers in spring, the robins that sing,
The moonbeams that shine, they’re yours, they’re mine.

And love can come to everyone,
The best things in life are free.

A simple melody, simple words, but I think it sends a good message. However, I think I might change the last two lines to say:
And God’s love is here for everyone,
The best things in life are free.

I have a collection of quotations that I have saved and I thought this one was fitting:

The happiest people are not the ones who have the best of everything,
they are the ones who make the best of everything they have.

Dear God, Thank you for this day. Help us to take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures. We thank you for all the best things in life that are free. Amen.

JULY 27, 2021

Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Dave Olson

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:3-9

I love the ancient words of Psalm 8. Reading it again puts me in a reflective mood and opens me to consider afresh the wonder of a God who fashions galaxies and yet who cares so deeply about the tiny creatures who inhabit them. Let me invite you today to a reflective moment through the words of Debbie Perlman found in her book Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing and Praise.

Open me to silence, Sound Creator;
Clear my ears from the background of my life,
Quiet the highway of my emotions
As they growl with gridlocked traffic.

When I calm my soul, I can hear you.

Open me to silence, Sweet Singer;
Switch off the electronic noise makers,
The automatic switches I flip unawares,
That flap their clamor into my hours.

When I turn from the din I can hear you.

Open me to silence, Word Revealer;
Turn off the inner dialogues,
Still the divisive monologues,
End the gibberish of my misgivings.

When I stop my words I can hear you.

Open me to silence, Source of Sound;
Open me to hear Your words in my heart;
Open me to hear your teachings in my soul.

PRAYER: Open me Lord, to this day and Your way. Open my heart Lord to Your voice and to good choice. Open my faith Lord to grow trust and not rust. Thank You for keeping Your eyes on me and Your grace close at hand. AMEN.

JULY 26, 2021

Today’s Devotion Written by Heidi Busch

Sleeping At Last, one of my favorite artists has a song called Sight, that reflects on ways people see God. The first verse says,

i see God in symmetry
i see God in our make believe
i see God in our grand attempts
to make something beautiful
before life ends.

i see God in irony
in fragile heirlooms within children’s reach
i see God in our damaged good
but you see God in ways I wish I could.

–Sight by Sleeping at Last

This song brings my heart to a generous space of reflection, remembering those moments when the Holy Spirit has moved me to think, “There. There I see God” … in the quiet but intense joy of watching someone do what they love; in seeing my Lab retrieve ball after ball because that’s what she was created to do; in the beauty of a sunset that sets the trees to silhouettes of black on a watercolor canvas so magnificent I yearn to paint what I cannot.

Pause. Where do you see God today?

Holy Spirit, point out to us God in all we are and in all we experience. In the expected and the unexpected. In the busy and the quiet spaces. In those we know well and in strangers we wish we did. Amen.

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