Reflection: Foundation: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     In what ways does your fellowship of believers sustain you? Sustain each other?

2.     Which of these foundations are you most comfortable with? Which are you most uncomfortable with?

3.     Why do you think we need to remember the cost of communion?

Share: Which of these foundations do you most need?

Foundation: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Acts 2:42

“They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Foundations upon which to build. Not rigid rules to coerce participation. Instead, a fluid, organic, gathering out of respect, love, and search to worship. 

Devoted. A strong ongoing hunger to know God’s word and seek its truth and power in every aspect of life. To return to it again and again to ground actions with heart and heart into actions. Under His authority.

Fellowship. No one left alone, isolated, or ignored. Singles, families, strangers, travellers all found a safe haven to gather and share life burdens, hopes, and calling. To seek discernment. To be embraced.

Breaking of bread. Reminder of redemption, cost of new life, center of purpose, soul alignment to everlasting truth regardless of present history. Together—communal. Confidence in trial.

The prayers. Prayers of the past promises to seek once more. Prayers of protection from immediate dangers. Prayers to become attuned to God’s design, heart, purposes His way.  Prayers for healing minds, souls, and bodies. Clarity for daily decisions and choices.

Grace grounded in Christ. Community grounded in His love. Consistent throughout all generations. Ongoing invitation. Holy Spirit present.

Lord, thank you for Your foundations where we can find hope and encouragement in relationships through You to each other.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 27: 3

“Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;

though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.”

Kingdom Manna

Yoke

Matthew 13:33, He told them another parable; “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Bubbling jam beats a soft rhythm in the pot. The tang of sweetened fruit lingers in the air. Froth rises to the surface to be spooned off, discarded, so that pure preserves pour into the jars. A process measured in stages.

First the fruit is cleaned, ingredients added, then a slow heat and thickening begins-gradually, effectively, consistently until we can see the finish, sculpted white foam skimming a dark surface.

Bread yeast moves in silence. Steadily, sufficiently until all the dough is affected-leavened. Ready. Prepared for baking, set in pans, heated in ovens. Then our noses follow the savory smell drawing us to complete the process. Nourishment.

Finished product. From unseen activity. Prepared every day. Each day we need bread to sustain our physical growth. Each day I need Your spiritual manna, Lord to work through the measures in my life. I stop occasionally only to skim the surface, to sample the jam. Until the next time.

But Your leaven works succinctly, faithfully, completely, until the mixture in me becomes purified. Processed. A fragrant aroma.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 138:8

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O

Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Kingdom Manna

Kingdom Manna Introduction

We pray “Thy kingdom come” on a regular basis as we seek to follow the Lord’s invitation to live in His family. But are we any more aware of what God’s kingdom is than the bewildered disciples were when they struggled to grasp Jesus’ stories and metaphors? Or Joshua, as God led him through ‘un-worldly’ military tactics?

How do we recognize the kingdom? Live it? Explore it? Share it? Do we find it as if under a microscope or do we need to develop peripheral vision? In these reflective meditations we'll glimpse into kingdom characteristics, and explore their relevance to our modern world and lives. Please share as you discover your own of prose, poetry, questions and journal insights.

Treasures

John 6:31, Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

“Manna-what is it?” Israel asked, mystified by the flaky fiber carpeting the earth, surrounding their camp.

“Bread from the Lord,” Moses replied. Gather as much as each needs, an omer apiece, one day at a time.

They did not, could not, recognize the substance. They struggled to comprehend it, classify it, cook it.

Food from heaven. Fare of the angels.

Morning by morning the heavenly meal fed them, sustained them, nourished them for forty years.

Bewildered disciples struggled to understand Jesus’ kingdom, too. Not of this earth, but sufficient for the needs of each day. Not a fact explainable, but a fact undeniable. A different reality, sent from God, delivered by Jesus’ own hand.

Thoughts crowd, convict my mind. God’s kingdom present here, now? Can I grasp it? Explore it? Live it? What does it mean?

Far reaching implications. Fruit from God’s house.

Open my eyes, Lord, I pray, to see Your kingdom clearly and live each day nourished by spiritual manna.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 78: 24-25

he rained down on them manna to eat,

and gave them the grain of heaven.

Mortals ate of the bread of angels,

he sent them food in abundance.

Tabernacle

Bread

Fed, nourished

sustained, strengthened

grew from young to old with

bread from God’s

storehouse.

Forty years of manna ended,

one omer left as a reminder

of daily provision

from God’s hands.

Father’s Son comes

brings new bread

living nourishment,

end to hunger, thirst

forever offered.

His body broken

given to sustain

life daily in

His presence.

Exodus 25: 30, “And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.”