Regular devotions -- Book of Acts summer sermon series

Greetings once again to each of you.

Once again, I find myself apologizing for lack of postings. It has taken me a while to figure out just what I was being led to do with this blog. I am no techie by anybody's definition and I have never done a blog before. It is sort of a time of discovery for me and I pray also for you who will come to read this.

As I was trying to sort out what to do, the Lord led me begin with doing some devotionals in response to our summer sermon series on the Book of Acts. Along with this I hope to mingle in some other thoughts and times of prayer as the Holy Spirit leads me to do so. I will try to post these devotions with the relevant Scripture references and finish off with questions for those who are seeking answers to ponder and meditate over.

May God bless each of us as we begin Loving God, Loving All, Join the journey.

Scripture: Isaiah 51:1-3 (Message) Acts 2:43-47 (Message)

PONDER: The created world is but a parenthesis in eternity

I have just completed a study of the Book of Isaiah this past week. What a wonderful journey through an amazing book expressing God's unconditional love for a people in need of direction. A book filled with the prophetic visions and songs of a coming Messiah who would redeem His people. A prophetic vision for us, fulfilled in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ -- God's only Son. A prophetic vision of ultimate Love.

"Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God.
Ponder the rock from which you were cut,
   the quarry from which you were dug.

Isaiah begins chapter 51 by comparing his readers to ROCK and pointing them back to the quarry from which they came. They did not know what kind of stone they were made of, having forgotten the legacy of faith passed down to them from Abraham. Having reminded them of Abraham's journey of faith and God's covenant response (Genesis 17:1-8), Isaiah now points the people toward what is to come. To a place in eternity where their situation will look allot better. A time when God will bring comfort and renewal to all. A time during which God will use your situation in life to shape and form your faith as He did Abraham's.

God's covenant promise to you is this:
"Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,
   but once I blessed him, he multiplied. Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,
   comfort all her mounds of ruins.
I'll transform her dead ground into Eden,
   her moonscape into the garden of God,
A place filled with exuberance and laughter,
   thankful voices and melodic songs."          

Questions:
1] What are the qualities of rock? Try holding a rock in your hand and consider it's attributes and qualities. Consider the journey of this rock, from where it began until the moment you picked it up. How was it formed, how did it get to the place where you picked it up? Is it solid like granite or fragile like shale and flint?
2] If you could picture yourself as a rock, what kind of rock would you be? Big or small, shiny or needing polish, buried in the ground or above ground waiting for the moment you are found, waiting for the one moment where you can feel alive and useful -- in say -- a beautiful, lovingly cared for rock garden? A place where the birds come to sing their songs of life and people come to enjoy the exuberant beauty of nature.
3] What attributes and qualities of rock do you have now? 
4] Consider where your own journey of faith began when God first called you into relationship with Him. What were the circumstances in your life - good or bad, spiritually alive or spiritually dead, through which God began to form you into Rock?  
5] Consider where your faith journey is now, which attributes and qualities of rock do you possess in abundance and which require more formation?   

Isaiah had a personal encounter with God and then wrote prophesies that spanned the rest of time, all the way to the end of the age. That was no mere coincidence. Big visions come from a big God. But when people do not encounter the presence of God, when people do not experience the love of Christ, do not feel the fires of the Holy Spirit burning in their hearts, souls and spirits, when they do not have a vision of God working in their lives or the lives in their families or in their community, then their vision gets blurry. They become nearsighted and develop tunnel vision. All they see is the negative stuff, the dead places, the places where very little life is being cultivated and growing. To someone without an eternal perspective, the world is like a moonscape, barren and desolate. To someone who has seen God, experienced God, been formed by God into a living stone (1Peter 2:1-10), been ignited by the Spirit of God, can come to stand before the congregations with lives that sing: I am Loving God, I am Loving All, I am joining the journey then all God's people can proclaim that the eternal cornerstone has been laid, to come together as the Scriptures tell us:

^43-45Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.  ^46-47They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:43-47)

Question:

1] What is your vision of God in today's church?
2] What would it take for you to begin or renew your faith journey in today's church?
3] Will you accept a personal invitation from me through God to "Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug."?

God Bless everyone. And may the Lord watch between you and me, while we are absent one from the other. (Genesis 31:49)

Duties of a Lay Leader

My apologies for taking so long to re-post something.

From the United Methodist Book of Discipline: 

¶ 251. Duties of Leaders and Members--1. Out of the professing membership of each local church (¶ 126), there shall be elected by the charge conference a lay leader who shall function as the primary lay representative of the laity in that local church and shall have the following responsibilities:

a) fostering awareness of the role of laity both within the congregation and through their ministries in the home, workplace, community, and world, and finding ways within the community of faith to recognize all these ministries;
b) meeting regularly with the pastor to discuss the state of the church and the needs for ministry;
c) membership in the charge conference and the church council, the committee on finance,  the committee on lay leadership, and the committee on pastor-parish relations or staff-parish relations, where, along with the pastor, the lay leader shall serve as an interpreter of the actions and programs of the annual conference and the general Church (to be better equipped to comply with this responsibility, it is recommended that a lay leader also serve as a lay member of annual conference);
d) continuing involvement in study and training opportunities to develop a growing understanding of the Church’s reason for existence and the types of ministry that will most effectively fulfill the Church’s mission;
e) assisting in advising the church council of opportunities available and the needs expressed for a more effective ministry of the church through its laity in the community;
f) informing the laity of training opportunities provided by the annual conference. Where possible, the lay leader shall attend training opportunities in order to strengthen his or her work. The lay leader is urged to become a certified lay speaker.
In instances where more than one church is on a charge, the charge conference shall elect additional lay leaders so that there will be one lay leader in each church. Associate lay leaders may be elected to work with the lay leader in any local church.