Welcome to In This Season! Our series of devotions appears Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week.
TODAY: MARCH 18, 2024
Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Dave Olson
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17
This verse from the story of a man named Nicodemus who comes under cover of night to learn about Jesus, is probably one of the most revered and referenced passages in all of Scripture. It is the story of Jesus’ response to a man hungry and curious about what Jesus has to say, someone not quite sure whether or not to put his eggs in Jesus’ basket, someone who is seeking to know more about what place God had in all that Jesus was doing and saying. Nicodemus came from a group quite convinced that salvation and God’s favor was their birthright, and something nailed down by their best behaviors. Convinced that salvation was limited to the chosen and choicest few, the groups Nicodemus represented were skeptical of what Jesus offered and taught.
It speaks to us. God’s love is for the world … desiring, as Jesus tells Nicodemus, that we be given a birth from above, a new start wrought by God’s hand and not ours, by God’s faithfulness and not ours. A new start borne out of the Spirit that Jesus says blows wherever it wills, as certain and as difficult to nail down as the wind. A new life better than the old. A new life from the One who came not to condemn, but to save.
The third chapter of John is all about God’s loving promise that those who walk in darkness or shadows or off the beaten path have a God to return to and a light for their path. It makes clear that our salvation comes not from bootstraps lifted up, but through the Christ lifted up on the Cross for one and for all. For God so loved the world.
There’s an old story about a tough and cruel old rancher who caught one of his cowhands rustling a cow. He looked down at the frightened, trembling cowhand and said, “Hang him, it’ll teach him a lesson.” Years went by and the rancher died. He came before the throne of God for judgment and couldn’t help but recall all the harsh and vengeful things he had done in his life and he shook in his boots. And what did God say? God Almighty looked down at the rancher and said, “Forgive him, it’ll teach him a lesson.”
MARCH 14, 2024
Today’s Devotion Written by Zach Osmundson
Admittedly, like any good 23-year-old, I am sitting writing this devotion in the late hours of the night when usually I do my best work. But tonight all I can think about is the sun and warmth and getting some vitamin D back into my pale, Minnesotan body!
The sun is such a peculiar thing when it comes to the human condition. Sometimes we notice it, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we enjoy the sunlight, other times we are annoyed by it. Sometimes we don’t see that it’s there and yet it is. But no matter how we feel about it, the sun rises and sets, and we cannot live without it. Our existence relies on it.
God is that sun. The Holy Spirit is that sun. Christ is that sun. But often I feel like the clouds are blocking my view, I’m blinded from seeing God and knowing what works are in store! Even as a future pastor but mostly as a human, that’s frustrating! Because I want to know! We all want to know because trusting is hard work.
I want to know … but such is life, because sometimes we enjoy the sunlight, other times we are annoyed by it. Sometimes we don’t see that it’s there and yet it is. But no matter how we feel about it, the sun rises and sets and we cannot live without it. (Yes, I meant to repeat that 😊). There are so many things we know about the sun, and many things we don’t. But it still shines for us. The great peace-giver is that there is great mystery around what plans God has laid out for this messy, chaotic, grief-filled, love-filled, joyful life. Mysteries that we simply do not and will not know. But the biggest and deepest truth that God makes as unmysterious and clear as the sky is that God’s plan is birthed out of unconditional love. A love coming from his deep trust in who we were created to be, and he understands, I’m sure, that we’re all living for the first time and are still working to trust him more too.
So today in whatever frustrating mystery of this world is clouding you from God’s beam calling you by name, let me say:
The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
Even if it’s cloudy today, go outside and feel the sunlight!
MARCH 13, 2024
Today’s Devotion Written by Jill Cowan
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south. Psalm 107:1-3 (NIV)
When I pulled up the Psalm for today, biblegateway.com displayed the New International Version of the Bible, one I don’t refer to very often. I switched to a few other versions that I generally use, but I kept coming back to the NIV because of one word — STORY. Maybe it’s because it’s the morning after the Academy Awards, one of our cultural events that celebrates the masterful telling of story, or maybe it’s just because it’s something I’ve always been drawn to — in books, plays, music, movies, and people.
Psalm 107 goes on with a familiar biblical theme — God’s people are lost, hurting, imprisoned, in utter darkness, but God brings them out of the darkness into God’s light and love. As I read this and looked back on my life, I had similar feelings of struggle, and then being pulled back into the love and light of God. Those experiences have become part of my story. It also reminds us that absolutely everyone “from east and west, from north and south” has a story too, and what an honor it is to hear the stories of friends and family, as well as those we’ve just met and those who may be different from us. The telling and hearing of each other’s story is a sacred thing. I encourage you to share and receive story. I absolutely believe that we feel and reveal God’s light and love in doing this.
MARCH 11, 2024
Today’s Devotion Written by Kara Paulson
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12: 23, 24
In these verses of John 12 Jesus has been approached by Philip and Andrew, and he is telling them that his time is coming. He knows what lies ahead and he knows that it would be easier not to continue this journey to the cross, to be the seed that hides away in the bottom of the bag. It would be much easier for Jesus and his followers to give in to their fear, to back away, and to take refuge in hiding. But Jesus knows that he is meant for better things. In death he will become the seed that dies to spring into new life. He knows that his death and resurrection, and what his followers will do with their lives afterwards will shake the world.
I was listening to the radio with half an ear the other day when a word caught my ear — “pernicious.” I started paying attention because it’s a word you don’t hear too often (unless you’re talking about anemia). The speaker was talking about the pernicious notion that we, as individuals, do not have the ability to effect change.
What Jesus told Philip and Andrew reminds me of words from the Better Midler song The Rose. “It’s the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.” Putting ourselves out there to promote positive change can be frightening; every time we choose to care for others, we are risking our hearts and happiness. But, to really live, we simply must face up to our fears, take those risks and be ready to cast aside the pernicious idea that we do not have the ability to make our world a better place.
O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served, and to give his life for the life of the world. Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom the world offers no comfort and little help. Through us give hope to the hopeless, love to the unloved, peace to the troubled, and rest to the weary. Amen. (LBW p60)
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