Space to write, space to create and space to let the spirit speak.
Write Now!
This blog started as a 'Lenten Writing Project', where we wrote each day in Lent. Now that Summer is here, let's keep up the discipline of writing with a weekly writing challenge! A prompt will be posted each week and anyone is welcome to join in and post their writing here or participate just by reading it.
Every writer has their own special light to add to this blog and all of your writing offerings are appreciated, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists or comments and encouragement.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Lenten Writing Prompt #14
Yesterday, we posted about our favorite story or verse from the old testament - today, pick a Bible verse or story from the NEW Testament and write your thoughts,
critiques, comments and/or praises about it.
To me, The prodigal Son parable is a nice to read parable and also the most complex to digest. Trust, Faith, Forgiveness are the flavors in this story. As a Christian, it is said you must forgive and move forward. True, this is what the Father does in the story. It appeals the reader and also teaches the right meaning of Christianity.
It is complex to me because as a Christian we are not supposed to judge one another, but people hurt us constantly, on and on and forever. As a 21st century writer most would agree on ,”May be the Father would have been well off if he prayed over his younger son and let him go”. But that’s not what happened in the parable.
This parable to me is more like a movie with a Happy Ending. But no one ever said what happens next, how long after this younger son who does all the in-correct things is tempted into re-doing his past. The younger son realizes his mistakes, asks for forgiveness (which I am sure is not manipulated), the Father trusts his sons and pardons him and re-establishes his faith in the son. The older is patient but at the same time disturbed over his father’s decisions. Is the statement from the Father “‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” Make him satisfied and peaceful, we don’t know. I am older in the family, so I can relate to the older brothers “big” heart concept. Did the Father actually cause a lot of discrepancy among brothers by doing the forgiveness things. We don’t know.
It is also said, that we are asked to forgive. Per Matthew 18:21-35, Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." The words “ I am sorry”, are mere words, until the time they are demonstrated via actions. After all “ Actions speak louder than words”.
Forgiveness and trust are not easy off the shelf commodities, these need to be prayed for, endured for and cherished. They come in small acts, which help the hurting person realize, that yes there is still hope, there is still faith and there is still Love. Prayers for those who hurt and also the hurting.
Corinthians 4:16 So do not loose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
As I am aging it was nice to see that even though my physical body is wasting away, my spiritual body is being renewed. Good news, makes aging seem OK! JackieD
A favorite verse of mine is Romans 8:28 - We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
How could one choose just on verse from the New Testament! The first verse I memorized after John 3:16 was Romans 8:28. I remember exactly where I was sitting, and how I felt when I first saw this verse.
I have always come back to this promise when things look crazy, painful and confusing. It has always given me great comfort, as I trust in this as a promise of God at work in my life.
Revelation 7:16-17 "They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Dear Father, You know these verses always bring comfort for some of my deepest hurts. I have always meditated on them with the notion of promises for the life after this earthly life. An awareness is emerging that these promises are for my life now, at this moment. Are you revealing this truth to me? Are these gifts are for me now, as well as for all eternity? Father, let me hear and know. Let me open my hands and my heart to trust, believe, and receive. Amen
I remember as a kid there were ‘Good News’ Bibles in all the pews at St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church. I remember that I always hesitantly found the one page that I could not BELIEVE they actually had in the Bible. The scary page. The temptation of Jesus in the desert and an actual PICTURE (a stylized Lutheran-ish drawing) of the devil. ‘Are they allowed to DO that??’ I always wondered. I was terrified of the devil all through my childhood. Terrified. Partly because of this: Me: “Mom, are ghosts real” Mom: (actual answer) “Nope, honey – only the Holy Ghost” Me: “Are monsters real?” Mom: (actual answer) No, there are just disfigured people in this world that are treated badly even though they may have a good heart inside”. Me: “What about the devil?” Mom: “Welllll….” It is true that there is evil in this world and there is a paradoxical relationship with its face in that to admit that there is a “devil” gives it more power, so I do not admit to it, even thought I also know there is some truth to it – it can only survive as much as we feed it. As a pastor’s kid, I got to know that the church is not just a safey-safe place for only God and goodness and light. That’s all there of course. In the best of situations it is so blinding that you can’t ignore it. However, the devil is lurking around too. Not like the movies or the Halloween costumes that you see, but in the brokenness, the humanness, the dysfunction of the church and people that need it. In fact, people are attracted to the church with all kinds of influences inside them – some are more obvious than others. The church can save people or it can just be a constant presence symbolizing God’s constant presence to them. It takes great courage to meet evil with Love – people that work within a church know that it can be a place that is as dangerous as holy and everyone wages the war within themselves to choose Love over hate. I have seen the devil dismantle a whole church – tear it apart and the people within it. It swept over that face of that building and people like a poisonous bomb. BUT I have also seen Love rebuild those people up. They have battle scars and sensitive wounds that never healed, but they are here and here and whole by the grace of LOVE. My mom said that the one thing I could do when faced with the Devil is to laugh at it and dismiss it because nothing is more powerful than God and it would have to go away because that is true. I believe this to be true and since God is Love, choosing Love over all else is the best way to laugh in a way that is Godly. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me how powerful Love is.
"Let brotherly love remain in you. And forget not hospitality toward strangers; for thereby some were worthy to entertain angels unawares."
Haven't we all come across people in our lives who perhaps we only meet for a moment but who stir something deep inside of us. Maybe just a glance, a brief touch or a kind gesture is all that is needed to feel a connection. Sometimes it happens when we have done something truly good. Maybe we didn't judge by appearances. Maybe we gave more than we had intended and that little extra made a huge difference to someone. Maybe we exercised grace instead of annoyance and someone else was able to leave our presence feeling understood instead of in the way. Conversely, sometimes we have not behaved well and have regretted it later. These also are teaching moments for us.
I like Jesus parables. I love stories. No long novels for him - short clever, to the point, stories that inspire. I wonder if he was always a story teller.
Joseph to his men friend as they talked about their boys "He hasn't really developed with the lathe yet but he can sure tell a story!" Friend 1 "uh huh" Friend 2 "ooookay" Friend 3 "how about those mariners?"
I like lots of parables but the one I think of right now is the woman who searched and searched for the lost coin. I know and I have used this as a metaphor for God's search for us. But sometimes I think it is a metaphor for us. How many of us search for the one thing in life that will 'complete' us. (cue the City Slickers theme) Perhaps it's not in the couch after all - perhaps it's on the table in front of us - if we would only see.... But that's another NT lesson ... those who have eyes to see..
The story of Lazarus (John 11) is rightly famous. It’s a favorite of readers of the New Testament and those of more secular leanings who have become familiar with the tale simply because it has become so iconic. With its themes of mortality and miracles and resurrection and faith and bravery and friendship, it transcends religion. It’s universal. It breaks down the walls—both religious-secular and intra-religious—that frightened people build to keep themselves in or others out.
My favorite verse of the chapter? John 11:35—“Jesus wept.” Why is it a favorite? The two-word sentence illustrates his humanity. It shows how much he cared for his friend. How much he was impressed by Mary and Martha’s love for their brother. How touched he was by their faith that he—Jesus—could make it all better. It shows that he wasn’t just passing through.
Most of us are familiar with the question that showed up regularly (monotonously?) on bracelets and bumper stickers and even tattoos a few years ago: “What Would Jesus Do?” Those of us thinking about John 11:35 could come up with another question: “Why Would Jesus Weep?” Sometimes I wonder what, in today’s world, would make Jesus weep. Lots of things, I’m sure. Luckily, Jesus never had to endure talk radio, but many of those things would be unchanged from his time on earth. (Just our inability to learn from our mistakes would probably make him weep.)
But this morning I was reading an article that made a point about our country’s priorities, and I thought, if he were around now, he’d be upset. What I read was that the Pentagon is buying 2,443 $133 million (each) fighter jets. What I read was that if we bought just seven fewer (2,436, by my math), we could buy a handheld computer tablet for every first-grader in America.
What the article didn’t say was that the money saved could also pay for schools and teachers and early childhood education and books and breakfast for kids who didn’t get any. It could pay for job training for their unemployed parents and medical care and shelter. It could pay for college tuition. It could pay off college loans. What the article didn’t say was what we could do with ten fewer jets or a hundred or a thousand. The weapons these jets are supposed to defend us against, after all, don’t exist.
Can you imagine what we could do with that money? Jesus could. And I think he would weep. I think he would bawl like a baby.
by Marlene Obie Romans 8:35 & 37-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persercution, or famine or nakedness, or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Even though I can get down and worried, especially about loved ones and sometimes, the condition of our world at present (just as the early Christians did), I see the Spirit working every minute in countless ways through us (of many faiths and lack thereof) to show pertinent, loving solutions for all humanity. It reminds me that, yes, I do believe it, that God is with all of us in whatever suffering we experience, whether we realize we are suffering or not, whether we profess a faith or not. Like when one of our children wakes up in the middle of the night screaming because of a bad dream and we hold them and say, "It's all right, you're okay, Mom's here." All is well; God's arms are always around us.
When Lana was taking a calligraphy class in high school and was looking for something to copy, I suggested verse 38-39 and I still have it. Think I'll take it out and post it on my bedroom. door.
Luke 15:11-32 – The Prodigal Son
ReplyDeleteTo me, The prodigal Son parable is a nice to read parable and also the most complex to digest. Trust, Faith, Forgiveness are the flavors in this story.
As a Christian, it is said you must forgive and move forward. True, this is what the Father does in the story. It appeals the reader and also teaches the right meaning of Christianity.
It is complex to me because as a Christian we are not supposed to judge one another, but people hurt us constantly, on and on and forever.
As a 21st century writer most would agree on ,”May be the Father would have been well off if he prayed over his younger son and let him go”. But that’s not what happened in the parable.
This parable to me is more like a movie with a Happy Ending. But no one ever said what happens next, how long after this younger son who does all the in-correct things is tempted into re-doing his past.
The younger son realizes his mistakes, asks for forgiveness (which I am sure is not manipulated), the Father trusts his sons and pardons him and re-establishes his faith in the son.
The older is patient but at the same time disturbed over his father’s decisions. Is the statement from the Father “‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” Make him satisfied and peaceful, we don’t know. I am older in the family, so I can relate to the older brothers “big” heart concept. Did the Father actually cause a lot of discrepancy among brothers by doing the forgiveness things. We don’t know.
It is also said, that we are asked to forgive. Per Matthew 18:21-35, Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." The words “ I am sorry”, are mere words, until the time they are demonstrated via actions. After all “ Actions speak louder than words”.
Forgiveness and trust are not easy off the shelf commodities, these need to be prayed for, endured for and cherished. They come in small acts, which help the hurting person realize, that yes there is still hope, there is still faith and there is still Love. Prayers for those who hurt and also the hurting.
That is fabulous. Love your post - thank you!
DeleteCorinthians 4:16
ReplyDeleteSo do not loose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
As I am aging it was nice to see that even though my physical body is wasting away, my spiritual body is being renewed. Good news, makes aging seem OK!
JackieD
I never thought about that verse from the Bible - Thank you so much for bringing it up...and also your perspective!
DeleteIn all my readings for the NT I have never "heard" this before - I am so thankful to have this verse now.
DeleteIsiah 9:
ReplyDeleteWoke up with this verse from a dream: I wrote it in my journal, still haven't decided why?
JackieD
A favorite verse of mine is Romans 8:28 - We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
ReplyDeleteHow could one choose just on verse from the New Testament! The first verse I memorized after John 3:16 was Romans 8:28. I remember exactly where I was sitting, and how I felt when I first saw this verse.
I have always come back to this promise when things look crazy, painful and confusing. It has always given me great comfort, as I trust in this as a promise of God at work in my life.
Tears
ReplyDeleteRevelation 7:16-17
"They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of
the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes."
Dear Father,
You know these verses always bring comfort for some of my deepest hurts. I have always meditated on them with the notion of promises for the life after this earthly life.
An awareness is emerging that these promises are for my life now, at this moment. Are you revealing this truth to me? Are these gifts are for me now, as well as for all eternity?
Father, let me hear and know. Let me open my hands and my heart to trust, believe, and receive.
Amen
DyAnn Dennie
Oh, DyAnn, Amen and Amen
DeleteI remember as a kid there were ‘Good News’ Bibles in all the pews at St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church. I remember that I always hesitantly found the one page that I could not BELIEVE they actually had in the Bible. The scary page. The temptation of Jesus in the desert and an actual PICTURE (a stylized Lutheran-ish drawing) of the devil. ‘Are they allowed to DO that??’ I always wondered. I was terrified of the devil all through my childhood. Terrified. Partly because of this: Me: “Mom, are ghosts real” Mom: (actual answer) “Nope, honey – only the Holy Ghost” Me: “Are monsters real?” Mom: (actual answer) No, there are just disfigured people in this world that are treated badly even though they may have a good heart inside”. Me: “What about the devil?” Mom: “Welllll….” It is true that there is evil in this world and there is a paradoxical relationship with its face in that to admit that there is a “devil” gives it more power, so I do not admit to it, even thought I also know there is some truth to it – it can only survive as much as we feed it. As a pastor’s kid, I got to know that the church is not just a safey-safe place for only God and goodness and light. That’s all there of course. In the best of situations it is so blinding that you can’t ignore it. However, the devil is lurking around too. Not like the movies or the Halloween costumes that you see, but in the brokenness, the humanness, the dysfunction of the church and people that need it. In fact, people are attracted to the church with all kinds of influences inside them – some are more obvious than others. The church can save people or it can just be a constant presence symbolizing God’s constant presence to them. It takes great courage to meet evil with Love – people that work within a church know that it can be a place that is as dangerous as holy and everyone wages the war within themselves to choose Love over hate. I have seen the devil dismantle a whole church – tear it apart and the people within it. It swept over that face of that building and people like a poisonous bomb. BUT I have also seen Love rebuild those people up. They have battle scars and sensitive wounds that never healed, but they are here and here and whole by the grace of LOVE. My mom said that the one thing I could do when faced with the Devil is to laugh at it and dismiss it because nothing is more powerful than God and it would have to go away because that is true. I believe this to be true and since God is Love, choosing Love over all else is the best way to laugh in a way that is Godly. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me how powerful Love is.
ReplyDeleteDon't we wish there was a "Like" button somewhere here"
Deleteyes we do!
Deleteby Pat Mason
ReplyDeleteHebrews 13:1-2
"Let brotherly love remain in you. And forget not hospitality toward strangers; for thereby some were worthy to entertain angels unawares."
Haven't we all come across people in our lives who perhaps we only meet for a moment but who stir something deep inside of us. Maybe just a glance, a brief touch or a kind gesture is all that is needed to feel a connection. Sometimes it happens when we have done something truly good. Maybe we didn't judge by appearances. Maybe we gave more than we had intended and that little extra made a huge difference to someone. Maybe we exercised grace instead of annoyance and someone else was able to leave our presence feeling understood instead of in the way.
Conversely, sometimes we have not behaved well and have regretted it later. These also are teaching moments for us.
And to think...perhaps we have met angels.
I like Jesus parables. I love stories. No long novels for him - short clever, to the point, stories that inspire. I wonder if he was always a story teller.
ReplyDeleteJoseph to his men friend as they talked about their boys "He hasn't really developed with the lathe yet but he can sure tell a story!"
Friend 1 "uh huh"
Friend 2 "ooookay"
Friend 3 "how about those mariners?"
I like lots of parables but the one I think of right now is the woman who searched and searched for the lost coin. I know and I have used this as a metaphor for God's search for us. But sometimes I think it is a metaphor for us. How many of us search for the one thing in life that will 'complete' us. (cue the City Slickers theme) Perhaps it's not in the couch after all - perhaps it's on the table in front of us - if we would only see.... But that's another NT lesson ... those who have eyes to see..
Seems a bit scattered tonight
The story of Lazarus (John 11) is rightly famous. It’s a favorite of readers of the New Testament and those of more secular leanings who have become familiar with the tale simply because it has become so iconic. With its themes of mortality and miracles and resurrection and faith and bravery and friendship, it transcends religion. It’s universal. It breaks down the walls—both religious-secular and intra-religious—that frightened people build to keep themselves in or others out.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite verse of the chapter? John 11:35—“Jesus wept.” Why is it a favorite? The two-word sentence illustrates his humanity. It shows how much he cared for his friend. How much he was impressed by Mary and Martha’s love for their brother. How touched he was by their faith that he—Jesus—could make it all better. It shows that he wasn’t just passing through.
Most of us are familiar with the question that showed up regularly (monotonously?) on bracelets and bumper stickers and even tattoos a few years ago: “What Would Jesus Do?” Those of us thinking about John 11:35 could come up with another question: “Why Would Jesus Weep?” Sometimes I wonder what, in today’s world, would make Jesus weep. Lots of things, I’m sure. Luckily, Jesus never had to endure talk radio, but many of those things would be unchanged from his time on earth. (Just our inability to learn from our mistakes would probably make him weep.)
But this morning I was reading an article that made a point about our country’s priorities, and I thought, if he were around now, he’d be upset. What I read was that the Pentagon is buying 2,443 $133 million (each) fighter jets. What I read was that if we bought just seven fewer (2,436, by my math), we could buy a handheld computer tablet for every first-grader in America.
What the article didn’t say was that the money saved could also pay for schools and teachers and early childhood education and books and breakfast for kids who didn’t get any. It could pay for job training for their unemployed parents and medical care and shelter. It could pay for college tuition. It could pay off college loans. What the article didn’t say was what we could do with ten fewer jets or a hundred or a thousand. The weapons these jets are supposed to defend us against, after all, don’t exist.
Can you imagine what we could do with that money? Jesus could. And I think he would weep. I think he would bawl like a baby.
—Dave Patneaude
oh...
ReplyDeleteby Marlene Obie
ReplyDeleteRomans 8:35 & 37-39
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persercution, or famine or nakedness, or peril or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Even though I can get down and worried, especially about loved ones and sometimes, the condition of our world at present (just as the early Christians did), I see the Spirit working every minute in countless ways through us (of many faiths and lack thereof) to show pertinent, loving solutions for all humanity. It reminds me that, yes, I do believe it, that God is with all of us in whatever suffering we experience, whether we realize we are suffering or not, whether we profess a faith or not.
Like when one of our children wakes up in the middle of the night screaming because of a bad dream and we hold them and say, "It's all right, you're okay, Mom's here."
All is well; God's arms are always around us.
When Lana was taking a calligraphy class in high school and was looking for something to copy, I suggested verse 38-39 and I still have it. Think I'll take it out and post it on my bedroom. door.