Today, we will gather in worship around the first verse of Psalm 23. Throughout the Lenten season, we invite you to commit Psalm 23 to memory. This week’s memory verse is Psalm 23:1. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Psalm 23:1 What does it mean to call the Lord your Shepherd? How…

God did not call us to brokenness, but to wholeness. God did not call us to isolation, but to community with each other in the care of our loving Savior. Christ came so that all might have life – abundant life – life lived to its fullest. What if we thought of our entrance into…

So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” John 10:7 During our Ash Wednesday service this week, we invited everyone to reflect on the gate that leads into God’s pasture. God sent Jesus to us so that we would all know that gate is opened…

In worship yesterday, our Harvest Table band led us in singing the song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor, which proclaims this truth – God makes beautiful things out of the dust – God makes beautiful things out of us. As we begin this lenten journey with our Good Shepherd, trust that God is making something beautiful out of your dust – trust that your God is always and forever making you new.

To call the Lord, our Shepherd, to be a sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock, means that we belong to our God. God claimed us before we were even born, and God will hold us still after our time on this earth is through. In death and in life, we belong to God.

My spiritual director (aka spiritual guru/ama/spirit-channeler/wise-one who helps me listen to what God is doing in my life) recently published an invitation to a spiritual practice for us to consider for the new year. In it she invites us to listen for a word that God might send us as an invitation, a challenge or…

The major issue for you now is faith – to believe that I am acting in you; to surrender your doubts and questions and believe with abandon; to allow things to happen to you and through you. If you can receive it, this is the vision, this is the new thing – a company of…

If you will believe me and trust in my all-sufficient presence, today will mark a new era in your life. I am all that you need. I will supply you with words, images, motivation, ideas – everything! Be prepared! I will require you to think completely differently. You’ve been seeking, looking from the underside, treating…

I have been breathing on your consciousness to cause you to turn to me, to hunger for me with your whole heart. I am beginning to receive your loving interest. Don’t try quite so hard or so seriously. I do not want you to strain to love me. Your mission is now taking shape. It…

Also, let your voice be heard in the organizational structures of the church. Wherever you may connect with the body – elected leader, choir member, committee member, teacher or member of a class – make my whole body conscious of its mission. Ask the leaders, “What has this action or ministry to do with Jesus…

I also want you to be intentional in reaching out to two kinds of persons. Spread this new life to those in your social fabric, that is, those persons in your day to day life. You see them every week – at work, during leisure time, at the grocery, in church – these persons already…