Birds and Flowers

Bible:

[Jesus said:] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:25-34 ESV

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Philippians 4:19-20 ESV

Reflection:

Sam had been adopted by his parents for several months, but before they had brought him to his new home he had lived in a place where there was never enough food to eat. Sam was constantly worried that he wouldn’t have food. During mealtimes he ate and ate, even when he wasn’t hungry. He often took food out of the kitchen and hid it in his bedroom, just in case. Sometimes when his parents got up in the morning, they found him sleeping on the floor in the kitchen by the refrigerator. It took Sam a number of months to learn that his parents would always take care of him and give him enough food to eat, and that he didn’t have to worry about it all the time. Then Sam was able to put more energy into school, and friends, and the love of his family, rather than just thinking about food all the time.

God’s children often worry that they won’t have enough to eat, or clothes to wear, or a place to live, and all the other things they need to live in this world. Jesus told us not to worry about these things. Our Heavenly Father knows that we need them, and our worrying won’t make things go better for us. Jesus pointed to the beautiful lilies growing in the field, more beautiful than the majestic clothing King Solomon wore, and he also said to look at the birds flying through the air, who don’t have to work for their food, but just find it where God puts it for them. Our Heavenly Father loves us much more than he loves flowers and birds, and Jesus promises that he will always provide for his people’s needs. Certainly he wants us to work for our living, but instead of worrying, he invites us to pray when things don’t seem to be going well. The Lord wants us to focus our attention first on him, instead of putting all our energy into worrying about our lives in this world.

Jesus said that God’s kingdom and righteousness were the things we should put first in our lives. We are members of God’s kingdom because Jesus died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could become God’s people forever. We are sinful people and we don’t deserve to be in this kingdom, but Jesus covers our sins with his righteousness. He sends us his Holy Spirit to help us put our trust in our Heavenly Father’s care for us, and to live the righteous lives that he’s given us as a free gift forever.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for providing us with what we need every day. Help us to always trust in your care. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

There is a God in Heaven

Bible:

Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.”

Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.” Daniel 2:24-30 ESV

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases. Psalm 115:1-3 ESV

Reflection:

Have you ever heard the story about a pastor who went to visit one of his members? This man had a beautiful garden with neatly trimmed shrubs and lovely flowers growing in a well-planned array. The pastor said to him, “Isn’t it marvelous what a good gardener can do with God’s help?” The man answered, “Yes, and you should have seen it when it God took care of this garden on His own.” This man was trying to say that he was a much better gardener than God was! When the garden had run wild, it was full of weeds and tangles of branches and vines, but when the man got to work he made it orderly and beautiful. He forgot that nothing can grow without the Lord’s help, and that his ability to work and plan came from God too. He didn’t want to give the Lord any credit.

Daniel wasn’t like this gardener. When God gave him the king’s dream and his meaning, he went to the captain of the guard, Arioch, and told him that he could give the king an answer. So Arioch took Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar, and the king asked Daniel if he knew what he had dreamed and what it meant. Daniel said that the only reason he knew it was because God had told him, and that no wise man on earth would ever have been able to solve the mystery. God had revealed the dream to Daniel to help the king understand what the future would hold. Daniel gave all the glory and credit to the Lord and to the Lord’s purposes in the world.

We also give glory to God. On our own we can’t do anything, and anything we accomplish in this world is with his help. We have the incredible privilege of knowing the Lord’s main purpose in our world, to save us through what Jesus did for us on the cross and to bring many people to come to know Jesus. We couldn’t possibly have done anything to save ourselves or anyone else, but in Jesus God did it all for us. He works with us and through us to show his love for all people and to spread his kingdom to people all over the world.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to always give you the glory for everything you have done for us in Jesus. In His Name, Amen.

All Flesh is Grass

Bible:

A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers. Psalm 90:1-6 ESV

Reflection:

An annual is a type of plant that completes its life cycle in one growing season. Grass and many flowers are examples of annuals. The seed sprouts, it grows, it produces its own kind of seeds, and it dies–all in less than a year. Trees are called perennials, because their life cycle lasts for more than two years. Most trees live for many, many years, and the oldest individual tree in the world lives in the White Mountains of California. It is a gnarled, twisted bristlecone pine tree, and it is over five thousand years old! Most people don’t know which tree it is because scientists are keeping it a secret to protect people from hurting it. There is another bristlecone pine tree in this area that is almost five thousand years old, and this one is named Methuselah, but which tree is Methuselah is also a secret.

The prophet Isaiah compares all people to grass. We sometimes think of ourselves as important and our lives as long, but even compared to a bristlecone pine tree we don’t live very long, and compared to God and his word, we don’t live long at all. The Lord and his word are forever, and compared to that we really are like grass and flowers, which are alive for a very short time and then wither and die.

We don’t like to think about how short our lives are, and how we will all die someday, but it’s something that’s important to remember sometimes. We need to remember that there is something much bigger and more important than us, and that is God and his word. It’s good news for us that God is bigger than we are, because sometimes things happen that we can’t control or understand, and it’s good to know that our powerful and forever God is in charge. We don’t want our lives to end, but death came to us because of sin, and there is nothing we can do on our own to stop that. But God is able to help us, and he’s given us a Savior because he loves us. Jesus became a human person and died to pay for our sins, but he didn’t stay dead. He rose again on the first Easter and defeated death forever. We will die someday, but because of Jesus death isn’t the end of our lives. We will live forever in God’s heavenly kingdom because Jesus has made us his own and given us his life for now and for always.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us and giving us eternal life through Jesus, our Savior. In His Name, Amen.

Source:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/the-worlds-10-oldest-living-trees/methuselah

 

Walk Humbly with Your God

Bible:

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:6-8 ESV

I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the Lord more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
For the Lord hears the needy
and does not despise his own people who are prisoners. Psalm 69:30-33 ESV

Reflection:

Long ago in China there was an emperor who was getting very old, and he needed to choose someone to become the emperor after him. He decided to call all the children to his palace and give each one a flower seed. Each child would grow the flower seed and in one year bring the pot with the flower back to the palace. The one who had grown the best flower would become the next emperor. A boy named Ping planted his flower seed, but it didn’t grow. He tried to put it in better soil in a bigger pot, but still it didn’t grow. When the year was over, he brought the empty pot back to the palace. He was very ashamed, because all the other children brought beautiful flowers in their pots. But as the emperor looked at all the flowers, he was frowning. When he saw Ping’s empty pot, he asked Ping why his pot was empty, and Ping told him his seed hadn’t grown. Then the emperor was very pleased. He told the children that he had cooked all the seeds so they wouldn’t grow, and only Ping had been honest enough to bring an empty pot.

This is only a story, but it shows something a little like what the prophet Micah told the people. They were asking how they could please God and come to him, and asking if God would be pleased with many sacrifices–burnt offerings of cows and sheep and gifts of oil. Micah said that even if someone gave God his or her firstborn child, it wouldn’t be enough to please God or pay for any of their sins. There’s nothing anyone can bring God and be proud of it, but people bring God their empty pots, showing that there’s nothing they can do to win God’s favor. This is what it means to be humble. And knowing that God loves his people and claims them to be his own makes them want to live with justice and kindness toward other people.

We could never hope to pay for our sins, but God sent his own Son, Jesus, to pay the price for us. Jesus gave the perfect offering to God when he died on the cross. Because of Jesus, we can be sure that all our sins are forgiven, and we come to God humbly with nothing but what Jesus has done for us. God calls us his own people, and we walk with him every day. We learn about God’s justice and kindness, which is standing up for what is true and right and helping people who are weak and helpless. He sends us his Holy Spirit to help us to show justice and kindness to other people every day.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for saving us and calling us your people. Help us to show justice and kindness and to be humble. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

Demi The Empty Pot New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990.

A Blossoming Desert

Bible:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:1-4 ESV

He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish. Psalm 107 35-38 ESV

Reflection:

A desert is a very dry place most of the time. Where there is a desert there is very little rain, only ten inches a year or less. There is a lot of sand or dirt or rocks, but not many plants except for special kinds that are designed to be able to live with very little water. In different parts of the world these might include date palms, acacia trees, and different types of cactus. But sometimes there is rain in the desert, maybe at a particular time of the year or maybe because of a passing storm. When there is rain, something amazing happens in the desert. Beautiful, colorful flowers bloom overnight, covering the desert floor with a carpet of flowers.

The prophet Isaiah used a blossoming desert as a picture of God’s love and mercy. He compared people who are in trouble, threatened by their enemies and weighed down with sin, with a hot, dry desert. When God would come to help and to save them, it would be like a desert rejoicing and singing and blooming with beautiful flowers. To the people who felt weak and anxious and ready to give up, Isaiah said to be strong and not to be afraid. God was going to come and defeat their enemies and save them from their troubles.

We were all weighed down with sin and death, and completely weak and helpless. We would never have been able to save ourselves, but God came to us in Jesus to help and save us. Jesus went to the cross and died to defeat sin and death. He rose again from the dead, and now he is with us all the time. When Jesus came he gave us new life and hope, the same way rain brings new and beautiful life to a desert. A carpet of desert wildflowers only lasts for a short time, but our life with Jesus will last forever.

Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3294865/Blooming-marvellous-rain-falls-world-s-driest-desert-jaw-dropping-phenomenon-takes-place-year-s-display-spectacular-18-years.html

A Beautiful Farm

Bible:

I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Hosea 14:4-7 ESV

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3 ESV

Reflection:

Olive trees have been grown around the Mediterranean world for thousands of years. Olive trees grow to be about 20 feet tall, and they can live for a thousand years! The trunks are usually twisted and gnarly, but even an old tree with a hollow trunk will still produce olives. Olive oil was very important to people in Bible times. It wasn’t just used for cooking, but it was also used as fuel for lamps and for medicine. The olives would be picked when they were still green, and then pressed to make olive oil. The wood of the tree was sometimes used for carving, including in Solomon’s temple. Like any fruit tree, the olive tree produces flowers before olives grow. These flowers have a fragrance that is similar to licorice, or anise.

After lots of pleading and warning and threatening, the prophet Hosea gave a beautiful promise from the Lord. God promised that he would turn the his people back to him and love them and stop being angry with them. He used the picture of a beautiful farm with blossoming lilies, cedars and olive trees that grow in Lebanon, and fields of grain and blossoming vineyards. The picture even included the fragrance of the trees. Everything in this picture is growing and blooming and producing fragrance and food, because God is the farmer and gardener that makes everything grow.

It’s God who turns our hearts back to him when we turn away. We sinned against God, but he sent Jesus to be our Savior and to die on the cross for us so that our sins could be forgiven. Jesus brings us back to our heavenly Father, and makes us God’s children. God sends us his Holy Spirit to help us grow and trust him and do the works of love that are like fragrant flowers and fruit and rich, ripe grain. God works in us and through us to make us his people and to keep us with him forever.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us back to you and for helping us grow in love and faith. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

Olive Trees (BiblePlaces.com)

Heaven Comes to Earth

Bible:

Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.

For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided. He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work.
He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams. I Kings 6:29-36 ESV

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:8-14 ESV

Reflection:

There’s a story that before Solomon built the temple, he had to choose the place it was to be built. There was a field that two brothers owned. One brother was a bachelor and also poor, and the other brother was rich and had a large family. At harvest time the two brothers worked together to bring in the grain from their fields. In the dark of night, the poor brother snuck into the barns and added grain to the rich brother’s pile, because he knew his brother had such a large family to feed. But the rich brother snuck in later and did the same thing, he added grain to the poor brother’s pile because he knew his brother was poor. Solomon chose that field of love and unselfishness as the right place to build God’s temple.

This is only a story. But Solomon did do everything he could to make the temple a place of great beauty. He used gold and the finest wood, and he decorated everything in the shape of the beauty of the earth, especially of blooming flowers and palm trees. He also had cherubim carved everywhere. It was as if he wanted to show that the glory of of heaven was coming down to be with the best beauty of the earth. If God would come and stay in the temple Solomon was building, then that wish would come true.

The sad truth is that we can’t bring God down to be with us by being extra good or by offering him the beauty of his creation. The temple’s main purpose was to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, so that God would forgive their sins. But all those sacrifices only pointed forward to the one perfect sacrifice Jesus would make for the sins of the whole world. In Jesus, God came to this sinful world to show God’s love and forgiveness. On the night he was born, the angels came and told the news to shepherds out with their sheep in God’s creation. That was the night heaven really did come down to earth.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to bring your love and forgiveness to us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

Ginzberg, Louis Legends of the Bible Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1956.

Death and Renewal

Bible:

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground. Psalm 104:24-30 ESV

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20-25 ESV

Reflection:

Long ago the Greeks told a story about a goddess named Demeter. Demeter made all the flowers, trees, plants, and grass to grow. People and animals had life because of the warmth she brought to the earth and the food that sprang up in the fields. Demeter had a daughter named Persephone, and she loved Persephone more than anything else. She made the earth beautiful with all kinds of lovely flowers for her daughter. But one day the god of the underworld, Hades, kidnapped Persephone to make her his wife. Demeter was so terribly sad when she couldn’t find her daughter that she turned away from the beautiful earth, and it became cold and brown. All the plants and flowers and grass and trees started to die. The people and the animals were in danger of dying because Demeter had turned away from them. Finally it was decided that Persephone could stay with her mother for six months of the year, and then return to her husband for six months. Every time Persephone returned to her mother, the earth was renewed and the plants and flowers would grow again. But whenever Persephone went back to her husband, the earth would begin to get cold and dark and things would start to die.

This is only a story that the Greeks made up to explain why there are four seasons. The true God of creation is the one who gives life to everything on earth. Psalm 104 talks about the way he created the land animals and the sea creatures, and gives the picture of God opening his hand to feed them. When God turns away from them and takes away their breath, they die, but when he sends his Spirit the whole earth is renewed again.

In the Greek story Demeter turned away from the earth and left it to die because she was so sad about losing her daughter. God turned away from his creation and allowed it to know death and disease and pain and sadness because of sin. When our first parents sinned, they turned away from their Heavenly Father. They became captive to death and the devil, and the whole world felt the effects of their sin. But God didn’t leave everything completely spoiled. He promised to send a Savior who would make everything new again. Jesus defeated death and the devil, and brought us back to our heavenly Father. We can look forward to a time when he will return and make everything right in his new creation, a beautiful world that will last forever.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the life you’ve given to the earth you created, and for the new life you give through Jesus, our Savior. In His Name, Amen.

Bless the Lord Forever

Bible:

As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! Psalm 103:15-22 ESV

A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV

Reflection:

Many years ago, in 1220 in old England, people began to build the Salisbury Cathedral. The spire of the Salisbury Cathedral is the tallest one in England. It is 404 feet tall and weighs 6,400 tons. There are 332 steps up the tower, and you can see the surrounding countryside from the top. The main part of the cathedral is very tall and narrow, and beautifully made of dark polished marble and light gray stone. There is are many statues and lovely stained glass windows to look at. All over Europe are many old and beautiful churches like this. They were built to last a long, long time, much longer than people live. These buildings are a way of bringing a glory to God that continues on even though people die and new people are born, again and again. They are a way of saying that God’s glory lasts forever.

Psalm 103 reminds us that people are like grass. We only live for a short time, and then our time is over. Grass and meadow flowers die in the sun when the hot, dry wind blows over them. Grass that is so green and flowers that are so pretty in the spring soon turn brown and dry. We forget about the flowers after awhile, and after people die life goes on and most people forget about them after awhile. But God is different. He is the king forever and ever, and he never dies. People are born and people die, but for generation after generation the same God loves them and takes care of them. Psalm 103 calls on the angels to praise God, because angels don’t die and can give God glory all the time and forever.

God loves us and wants us to be his people, not only during our short lives on this earth, but also forever with him in our heavenly home. He sent Jesus to defeat death by dying on the cross and rising again from the dead. Because Jesus conquered death for us, our death isn’t the end. Death brings us into our heavenly home with God forever, where we join the angels and all those who belong to God and sing praises to him forever. Even a cathedral might fall down or be destroyed, but our lives with God will never end, because Jesus holds us and keeps us as his people.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us life forever in Jesus to praise you in heaven with the angels. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/salisbury-cathedral

Joy for All People

Bible:

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness. Psalm 96:7-13 ESV

I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14 ESV

Reflection:

It was almost Cindy’s birthday, and her parents wanted to give her a birthday party. They asked her what kind of party she wanted. She could have a small party with just a few of her best friends, or she could have a big party at the park and invite everyone in her class, all the kids in her neighborhood, and anyone who wanted to come. Cindy thought about it for awhile, and she decided to have the big party. Everyone could play in the park and there would be a picnic lunch and some cake for everybody. It would be more fun, and she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone feeling left out. Even the kids she didn’t know very well could come and enjoy themselves at her birthday party.

Sometimes we only want to have people we really like come and be with us and celebrate special times with us. But Psalm 96 talks about a big celebration where people from all over the world are included. This psalm first talked about how there is only one God, and the gods other people worship aren’t true and can’t help them. Now it invites all nations and families of people to come and join God’s people in worshiping the true God. When people from all over the world come to join in praising God, it’s a time of great joy. This psalm gives a picture of so much joy that even sea is roaring with happiness, the fields of grass and flowers are rejoicing, and the trees of the forest are singing.

There is only one way for people all over the world to come to God, and that is through Jesus. Jesus came to us as a man, but after he died to pay for our sins he rose again and returned to heaven to rule with his Heavenly Father. Jesus wants people all over the world to be part of his kingdom, and invites and welcomes everyone. The kingdom of Jesus is one of great joy, and the joy is multiplied when we see all kinds of people come to know his love. The best part is, his kingdom will last forever!

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank you for bringing us into your kingdom. Please bring more people from all over the world to join in our happiness. Amen.