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2010 Lent Devotionals

Your Conference Resource Center has invited each of our conference mission agencies to share a Lenten devotion with the churches of the Alabama-West Florida Conference.  Each Wednesday during Lent, agency staff, directors, volunteers and participants will share their insights during this Holy Season.  

Week 7
Holy Week
March 31, 2010
By: Nancy Shealy, supporter of Milk & Honey Outreach Ministries, Pensacola, Fla.

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE
 
Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
 
There is nothing more inspiring than the light in a child's eyes when he or she is loved.  This week during spring break, light is filling the eyes of the children being loved and served at Milk and Honey's spring break camp.  The director, Sonya Culliver, was called from a place of comfort and security to come to Pensacola and start a ministry in the darkest place of the city.  Children caught in poverty and neglect have seen this great light!  Come and see what God is doing through this Child of God.  When my light grows dim, I think of Sonya and radiantly smile.
 
Prayer:  God, who gives us the sun by day and the moon and stars by night, help us to remember that in Jesus we shine, and that the work to which you have called us requires shining faith.  We believe it; we receive it, in you.  AMEN
 
Week 6
March 24, 2010
By:  Deborah Holt, Executive Director of Nellie Burge Community Center in Montgomery, Ala.

2 Samuel 7: 28-29
 
“O Sovereign Lord, You are God! Your words are trustworthy, and You have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in Your sight, for You O Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
 
I grew up in a Christian household with two parents who also grew up in Christian households. I learned early to trust in the love of my parents and to believe their teachings. At the age of 15, I was engulfed by flames as I stood too close to a gas heater. My father beat the flames out with his bare hands. I was not even frightened by the fire until it was put out and I realized my father’s injuries were much worse than the two small burns on the back of my own leg. After crying and treating minor burns, my mother remarked that our home was so blessed because my father was at home (he was often away for weeks at a time). Mother told me that my father’s actions were instinctive because of his love for me and I was relatively unhurt because I immediately trusted him to do what was right and followed his instructions. 
 
About 30 years later, I was involved in a skiing accident as my husband pulled several people behind his boat. Again, I was blessed, as someone who loved me acted instinctively and what could have been a tragic event turned into a funny story of my husband and son trying to pull dead weight into the boat. In 2006, I was driving along a service road beside an interstate when an elderly woman ran a traffic light, hit my vehicle and caused it to overturn and slide down the on-ramp to the interstate. As I skidded along, I felt the presence of my Heavenly Father and the assurance that everything would work out. I’m not sure if I was speaking aloud or if my voice was only in my head, as I repeated, “He is with me. He is with me. He is with me.”  
 
I knew He was with me as I made this last journey. He decided that this journey down the highway was not my last journey, though. He turned it into another time for me to see His blessings on my life; and a time when I could feel His presence in my life and feel his love for me.   I could almost hear my mother’s voice telling me about my Father’s love for me and how blessed our home was because of his love.
 
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for continuing to bless my life and my home with Your presence. Lead me in Your ways as I make this journey and give me the strength and wisdom to show others the love You show to me daily. In Your name, I pray. Amen
 

Week 5
March 17, 2010
By:  Luke Pinegar and Heather Jeter of Noah’s Ark Beach Ministry in Panama City Beach, Florida.

(In the daily life of Noah's Ark, as is the case I'm sure with all our agencies in the Conference, we who work daily in the "grind" of missions have to, shall we say, "come up for air." Sometimes those aren't scheduled or planned but as we can't continue God's work without breathing Him in we stop and take time to inhale His Spirit and reconnect in His Spirit with one another. This devotion is from some of those moments with Heather Jeter, our office administrator, and myself over the past few days.)

 
John 11:9-10
9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."
 
1 John 1:7
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

I have just finished hearing two of my dear friends of over 30 years, Rev. Michael Bryan and Ron Mashburn, sing the old gospel standard "The Lighthouse" here at Noah's Ark for a crowd of mostly winter visitors to Panama City Beach.  Over the past 30 years as a youth and into the "second" half of my life I have probably heard that song sung thousands of times here at the Ark. For myself along with so many others, Noah's Ark has been that Lighthouse.  Over thirty years, I don't care how old you are, that's a long time.  30 years have seen changes we could not imagine: cell phones, email, YouTube, Facebook, the internet, Skype…   So many ways to be "in touch."  And, to quote Ronnie Hinson's lyrics:
 
Ev'rybody that lives about me
They say tear that lighthouse down
'Cause the big ships they don't sail this way anymore
There's no use of it standing 'round
Then my mind goes back to that stormy night
When just in time, I saw that light
Yes that light from that old lighthouse
That stands up there on the hill.
 
And I thank God for the Lighthouse......
 
And still so often even we in the Church feel so disconnected, from ourselves and from one another.  We spend money to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to bring justice to the oppressed, to lift the downtrodden, bring sight to the blind, set the captive free…  And yet we still are hungry ourselves, feel oppressed and downtrodden, are blind to others’ needs, and feel captive to so many things.
 
Wikipedia says of darkness:
 
Darkness (also called lightlessness) is the absence of light. Scientifically it is only possible to have a reduced amount of light.
 
It's not only spiritual, it's even scientific.  All of God's creation reflects or absorbs light.
 
Reaching the least of these, as we see in Matthew, requires more than food, shelter, etc. to truly bring the freedom, healing, wholeness, the love that God seeks to bring to all His people.  It requires we reflect the light of God.  Just as it is impossible to remove light from God's creation physically, it is just as impossible to remove His Spirit from His creation.  How we allow Him to reflect it through us is the only question.  As we are promised, when we walk in the light we will not stumble, we will not fall, AND we will have fellowship with one another.  We will be connected, with God and each other, we will be One. We are divinely created by the light and love of God, and are divinely appointed to reflect that light and love.  Through feeding the hungry, giving sight to the blind, visiting the prisoner, clothing the naked, through experiencing God's light and presence as it flows through us to, yes, even the least of these we fulfill God's plan.  We make God's presence known.  We are the Lighthouse.
 
Ronnie Hinson wrote the song "The Lighthouse" as a young teen.  A song that at one time held multiple positions on the gospel charts by different artists in the same month.  Unheard of in today's markets.  The amazing thing is that Ronnie never had seen a lighthouse when he wrote the song.  After it became a hit so quickly he even wondered what the big deal was about a song about a lighthouse.  As Ronnie said:
 
..."and for the first time – at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Santa Cruz, California, I sat there and I saw the lighthouse and I thought, ‘What a picture. What a scene.’ The ocean was gray. It was desolate looking. It was like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie but there stood the lighthouse; hope in the middle of all that dreary hopelessness.”

Even when we aren't aware, even when we don't have a plan or a program, even when we do have a plan or a program, when we don't even know we reflect / absorb God's light and love.  We are created to make God's presence known.  During this season of Lent we, through prayer, penitence, giving to others, and self-evaluation, prepare ourselves for the remembrance and celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus who shows us the way.  We prepare our selves, often by intentionally letting go of things, to fully reflect the hope that there is life, light, and love even death can't overcome.  Life, light, and love that nothing can overcome.  Life, Light, and Love that feed, clothe, heal, free, renew, redeem, and change the world.  Is there any greater news, any greater job, any greater call, any greater appointment, any greater way to live, any point to life but to reflect God and His love?
 
Prayer:
Oh God, in this Lenten season, help us to let go of all that hinders your presence, light, and love within our hearts.  Help us to not only fully experience your presence and love but to be the reflection of your presence, light, and love to all who you send our way, and in all that we do, whether at home, at work, a play, at rest.... in all that we are as Jesus has shown us in his life, death, and resurrection.  For it is in his steps that we follow, his work that we continue, and in his very name we pray, Amen.
 
Week 4
March 10, 2010
By: Brenda Carlisle, Executive Director of the Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, Ala.

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in.  Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me. I was in prison and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”   Matthew 25:35-36, 40.

My father passed away on January 10th of this year.  He was a kind, gentle, optimistic man who truly lived his faith. 

Daddy was known for his unlimited repertoire of jokes and stories.   He was also known for the way in which he always concluded his prayers:  “And dear Lord, keep us ever mindful of the less fortunate among us, and help to always come to their aid and assistance whenever and however needed.”    Through the years, I watched my father as he exemplified this prayer.  For no matter the person, or the request, or the need, or how much sacrifice it might mean, Daddy would respond.   He never met a stranger, for he considered all to be his brothers and sisters in Christ. 
 
On several occasions since his death, people have come to me and said, “Let me tell you what your father meant to me,” or, “I remember the time your father…”   Oh, what a legacy!

Prayer:  “Heavenly Father, help me to always respond to the needs of others, without reservation or judgment, in love and sacrifice.”  Amen. 

Week 2
February 24, 2010

Week 1
Ash Wednesday, February 17

Lenten Devotion
By Lisa Pierce, Executive Director of Alabama Rural Ministries