[Monday's Devotional] - Pretty (Forgetful) Woman

Being far from perfect I often come before the Lord with those immortal Dick Emery words ‘I got it wrong again Dad!’ and of course he is always faithful to forgive.  I’m hoping you too will forgive me as I totally forgot it was my turn to write the devotionals this week, therefore I’m going to re-run my Film Devotionals written in 2009 as they were some of my favourites.  Hopefully, if your memory is anything like mine you won’t remember them!

 

Pretty Woman is the fairytale story of a Hollywood Hooker who meets her Knight in Shining Armour after a lifetime of liaisons with Turkeys in Tinfoil ! 

 

I was challenged by the clip where Richard Gere gives Julia Roberts money to buy some pretty clothes, she walks into an expensive boutique in her ‘work clothes’ and the condescending staff refuse to serve her and leave her feeling humiliated.  What if she had walked into church or our place of work? How would we respond? How would God respond? Thankfully God sees more than outward appearances!

 

In the story of Rahab: Joshua 2:1 “Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, “Go look over the land,” he said, “especially Jerico.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.”

 

I am sure you know this story, in return for hiding the spies Rahab and her entire household escape destruction, there are loads of gems in this great story, but what I love most is how God uses the most unlikely people – and a crimson cord!

 

Many would assume that Rahab, a pagan Canaanite prostitute would never be interested in God yet she was willing to risk evertying she had for a God she barely knew.  We must not judge a person’s interest in God by his or her backgound, lifestye or appearance.  Rahab had faith; she had the kind of faith that takes action and risks. She risked her life; she showed more faith in God than most of the Israelites did in the desert.

 

When it comes to dispensing love and grace, God can be downright promiscuous. In spite of her past, God was not disgusted by her, he knew her worth and God was not finished with her…… Rahab married Salmon, gave birth to a son, Boaz, who married Ruth, (there’s a story with a fairytale ending!) the great-grandmother of King David and we know where that lineage leads, that crimson cord is hanging as a sign of hope and salvation. How unexpected, Jesus Christ, the one who cleanses us from all sin had an ancestor who was a prostitute!

              

Lord, help us to see others through your eyes, Amen.

 

  

Dawn Milward

 

If you don’t know Rahab’s story it can be found here

[Friday's Devotional] - Touch

Touch

 

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

 

Finally this week a few thoughts about touch, a sense that brings us into direct contact with the physical world and each other.

 

Gardeners just love to get their hands dirty and feel the texture of the soil.

Bakers delight in rolling up their sleeves and kneading dough.

Carpenters love to feel the texture of the wood.

Pianists revel in the way their fingers caress the ivories.

 

We marvel at the ability of the blind to read Braille.

 

Touch is involved in body language, and is reserved for those in our “inner circle” e.g. family and close friends.  We use it to back up our words.  We want to show love, concern and sympathy.  Sometimes we need that intimacy to clear the air and correct misunderstandings. Depending on the relationship it may be an arm round the shoulder, a hug, holding hands.

 

Jesus has called us to His inner circle. He says:

 

“..I have called you friends, for everything I learned from the Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:15b [NIV]

 

In the gospels we read of how Jesus rolled up His sleeves and had a hands-on ministry.  He taught and healed and delivered.

 

Jesus longs to touch us, bring more and more healing to us and to reassure us of His closeness. We’re familiar with the song:

 

When I feel the touch of your hand upon my life –

It causes me to sing a song that I love you Lord.

So from deep within my spirit singeth unto you –

You are my King, you are my God and I love you Lord.

 

Jesus’ inner circle is not complete. Coming from a place of intimacy, our mission

is to reach out and touch the world as He did.

 

Finlay Orr – (originally published in 2007)

[Thursday's Devotional] - Smell & Taste

Smell

 

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

 

The English word “smell” is unfortunate in that it conveys something unpleasant such as body odour or something unfortunate on the bottom of one’s shoe!  Yet we have a sense of “smell”!  So on the unpleasant side we use “smell”, “stink” and “stench”; while on the pleasant side we use “scent”, “aroma”, “fragrant”, ”bouquet”.

 

Our sense of smell is another wonderful gift!  We can all appreciate a wide variety of scents:

·         Coffee percolating

·         Bacon cooking

·         Peat burning in an open fire

·         Scented, musky roses

 

Smells are so evocative and trigger memories, some happy, some painful.

A sense of smell can give great pleasure; yet it can offer protection also – the smell of smoke warns of fire.  We use the expression “smell a rat” meaning that something doesn’t add up.

 

The Bible is full of references to smells, e.g. Noah’s sacrifice after the flood, and incense –symbolic of prayer - in the temple.

 

In 2 Corinthians 2: 14-16, Paul overdoses on the theme:

…through us God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus. For we are to God the aroma of Christ. To those who are perishing we are the smell of death; to those who are being saved the fragrance of life

 

Taste

 

Taste buds are a wonderful part of our make-up and enable us to enjoy such a wide range of flavours.  When Jesus was on earth He knew when to feast and when to fast.  When He turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, it was commended by the MC!  No dull plonk, only the best!

 

Our taste buds are for our protection also: we know when something is off!!

 

I’ll never forget a Sunday dinner years ago when I was living in Coventry.  My housemate had been beavering away in the kitchen and had come up with a splendid main course.  The rice pudding duly appeared, nice consistency, looked great.  We dished it up, put spoons to mouths, spluttered and went deadly quiet until one of the group said: Ian, did you by any chance put in salt instead of sugar?

 

Psalm 34:8 says: Taste and see that the Lord is good

 

Finlay Orr – (originally published in 2007)

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Hearing

Hearing

 

I am fearfully and wonderfully made…Psalm 139:14

 

My dad’s hearing was very poor when he became elderly. Partly it was a hereditary issue, partly the result of not wearing ear protectors on the farm.  He certainly hadn’t helped his condition with a reluctance to get specialist help.  As a result my conversations with him were sometimes difficult and frustrating.  The best I could do was listen and try to steer the conversation.  There were so many things I’d have liked to talk over with him but he was virtually stone deaf…

 

We can have confidence that our Father in heaven always hears us. In Psalm 62:8 David encourages us to “pour out our hearts to Him”.

 

Jesus said some very odd things about hearing in Mark 4 after telling the story of the sower:

he who has ears to hear let him hear (v9)… hearing they hear not (v12)…

 

We’ve all heard the expression: it goes in one ear and out the other.  What Jesus is saying in Mark is that it’s possible to hear but not to listen.  We know the expression: “his words fell on deaf ears”. It’s a strange thing to say, but we need to learn how to listen. Some firms, in their staff training, offer a course in “active listening”.

Some points:

·         Listening requires concentration, focus and effort and time.

·         Listening may prompt questions like: “what do you mean…?”

·         Listening will be attentive to body language.

·         Listening will shut out distractions.

·         Listening gives respect to the speaker.

 

We all want to be listened to. Floyd McClung (YWAM) told the story of his journey home one Christmas.  He’d had a punishing schedule of teaching, was mentally exhausted and was looking forward to a quiet flight.  He took his seat and began to unwind with a book.  Very soon a dishevelled man who stank of alcohol took the next seat and began talking at Floyd who resented the intrusion.  To cut a long story short, Floyd became an active listener and discovered that this guy’s wife and kids had been killed in a car crash a few Christmases before.  The only way he could handle the pain was to get out of town and drink.  They wept and prayed together.

 

May God give us ears that actively listen.

 

Finlay Orr – (originally published in 2007)

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Sight

Sight

I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Psalm 139:14

What a fantastic gift and so often taken for granted!  We can wonder at the majesty of the mountains and the detail of a snowflake.  We can stand open-mouthed at the magnificence of a rainbow or the extravagance of an autumn sunset.  We can treasure the smiles and laughter of our friends and marvel at the detail of a baby’s fingers and toes.

Yet so few of us are blessed with perfect vision.  I was born with a lazy eye which was corrected in my early years.  Like many people I’m short-sighted, so need to wear glasses or contact lenses in order to sharpen distant images.  Maybe some of you braver souls have had laser treatment!

When Jesus was on earth He received many requests from blind people for the restoration of their sight.  He restored the sight of Bartimaeus, and the man in John 9 who was born blind. Powerful, miraculous ministry!

There is also the story in Mark 8:22-26 where Jesus healed a blind man in two stages.  Stage one resulted in the man “seeing men that look like trees”.  Stage two resulted in clear vision.  I can identify with stage one when I haven’t got my lenses in!

I don’t have any insight into Jesus’ approach in Mark: 8, but I do know that He is concerned for the spiritual eyesight of His people. How often our thinking/theology is blurred and confused because we just can’t see/understand.  How often our praying is vague and ineffective because we just can’t see the will of God.  How often our counselling is wide of the mark because we haven’t seen the heart of the problem.  One of the devil’s prime strategies is to divert God’s people and weary them with fruitless counselling.

In the Old Testament, Samuel was a prophet but was known as a seer - one who could see beyond appearance and into the heart.  In Proverbs we’re exhorted to search for insight, discernment and understanding. In Ephesians 1:18 Paul prays that “the eyes of our hearts may be opened”.

A final thought for today:

Gullibility is not a fruit of the Spirit!

Finlay Orr – (originally published in 2007)