SEARCHLIGHT

  FEBRUARY 1, 2024 As you have likely noticed this week, I have the theme of generosity on my mind. Often when we think about the word “generosity” we think of $$$. Being generous with our finances, our money. Generosity is defined as the quality of being kind. Other words we use for a generous person are words like “Big-hearted”, “self-sacrificing,” “kind,” “benevolent,” or “unselfish.” Those words cover many areas of generosity giving a broadness to the term. Not just $$$. As I have been thinking about the methods to show generosity it occurred to me that being generous with our time was an important way of generosity. What do I mean? Well I am thinking about the time offered to others for “being present for someone”. I know that “being present” has found a place of over use in our culture, for you it might evoke images of therapeutic chats and tissue boxes. Not that this is a horrible image, but if “being present” becomes attached to just one context we miss something rather impo

  January 31, 2024 Ephesians 5:19b-20 Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything , in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was thinking after yesterday's devotion on generosity how one of the best triggers for generosity is gratitude. When we are thankful, we generally are in the frame of mind to want to share the blessings with others. Who would have thought that two little words could have so much influence for change, hope and transformation! "Thank you" may just be two of the most powerful words in our vocabulary because they unlock hope and positivity even in the most complex situations, two things our world desperately needs. We live in a world where it's all too easy to be overwhelmed by difficulties, our personal challenges, or the news of a world that is wounded, broken, limping along, crying out in desperation for help. Thankfulness produces in us a gratitude for what we do have. The more we p

  January 30, 2024 2 Corinthians 9:11–12 “You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.” I read the story recently of eight-year-old Hannah, who constantly gives her stuff away. Her parents say, “Seriously, we can’t stop her.” Here is an example of a conversation, "Hannah, where is the new dress Mum got for you last week?" "Oh,” she replies, "well, Mom, Rileigh really loved it and I’d already worn it once and I’m thankful that you got it for me. Really. But Rileigh just looked so pretty in it, and, well, see… I gave it to her." This is what this little girl does, she gives away anything and everything: to friends, church members, and… in spite of some bewildered looks, has even happily given things to total strangers in the past, totally una

JANUARY 29, 2024 Deuteronomy 18:15-20  [Moses said,] "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to My words that he shall speak in My Name, I Myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My Name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.'" Moses was talking to the people of Israel on the day before he died, and he reminded them of a moment from

 JANUARY 26, 2024 Exodus 1:8-22 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. 15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as mi

JANUARY 25, 2024 2 Timothy 1:5 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 2 Timothy 3:14-15 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. I know many of us get worried about raising children in the present culture that seems at odd’s with God’s intention for his world. Sometimes the challenges of living, the temptations or distractions that can easily divert attention away from our creator, the realities of struggle for families and in particular single parent families to provide shelter and food and opportunities for their young, then we add wars and conflicts that cause us to wonder what kind of future might there be for our children, and grandchildren.

JANUARY 24, 2024 If I asked you to name, the leading women, those who loved and followed Jesus, mentioned in the New Testament who would you name? I suspect most of us would name, women like Mary, Mary Magdalene, Martha and her sister Mary, Lydia, and maybe Priscilla. These are mentioned in the New Testament as Jesus followers who had an impact in the story of early Christianity, by their obvious commitment to the God. The lives of the women of the New Testament teach us about forgiveness, grace, sacrifice, strength, and devotion to Jesus, On our little quiz above how many of you named Joanna ? Joanna is not as familiar to us as those listed above, yet what we can uncover about her is inspirational and moving. Joanna was a person with gifts and resources that she offered in service to Jesus’ Mission. The first encounter we have with Joanna is in Luke 8:1-3: After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of

  JANUARY 23, 2024 JUDGES 5:7 and 12a the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths. 7 Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel. ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! As I was writing yesterday’s devotion, on the influence, example, and challenge of the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, I kept thinking of a woman in the Old Testament that receives little attention but should garner more. She was someone that God raised up and whose role in the story of God’s people was significant. I am talking about Deborah. How many of you remember her story? It is found in Judges 4 and 5. Deborah lived during the period of the Judges, when Israel was not united as a nation under one leader but rather existed as an alliance of tribes. Periodically, God would call a leader, in one of these tribes and anoint them with His Holy Spirit, and that leader (Judge) would rise

  JANUARY 22, 2024 Psalm 139:17-18 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! . . . when I awake, I am still with you. This was the phrase that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe as she meditated one morning on Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18. In the middle of a full and productive life as a writer, and a passionate champion against worldwide slavery and as a mother of six, it was Harriet Stowe’s daily routine to rise at 4:30 each morning to see the coming of the dawn, hear the singing of the birds. and to enjoy the overshadowing presence of her God. Out of the experience of the overwhelming sense of God’s Presence, she wrote these words, a hymn, called Still, Still with Thee . 1 Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee; Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight, Dawns the sweet consciousness I am with Thee. 2 Alone with Thee amid the mystic shadows, The solemn hush of nature newly born;

JANUARY 19, 2024 John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Jesus gives us a graphic picture in this verse, showing us that He is the Shepherd, and you and I are His sheep.  The job of being a shepherd is not glorious. That is one of the reasons the Angel announcement of "Good News of great Joy” to the  shepherds in the Christmas story is so profound. Shepherds are outside with the sheep almost nonstop, in every season and every kind of weather. They lead their sheep to food and water, they lead them to safe places to sleep, they pull burrs out of their coats, they rescue them when they fall or get lost. Shepherds are even known to sleep outside with the sheep. There’s nothing glamorous or comfortable about being a shepherd. So it is interesting, that this is how Jesus sees Himself in relation to you and me. He reaches out to embrace us and care for us. In John 10:11, He said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life

  JANUARY 18, 2024 John 6:32-35 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Jesus understood that we as humans have an impulse to survive and that we need nourishment, food and water to live. Jesus uses this basic of human instinct to capture a necessary and powerful picture of our dependence and reliance on something beyond ourselves for survival. By calling Himself “the bread of life” (John 6:35), Jesus reveals to us who He is, Jesus exposes what we need, and then declares “I AM” the answer to your need. We all have two kinds of hunger, physical and spiritual, and both must be sustained for

Above is a picture of the "separation wall"  between Israel and the West Bank. JANUARY 17, 2024 John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Luke 6:35 "... love your enemies, do good to them" 1 John 4:8  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. We are in the season of Epiphany in the Church calendar. Epiphany means a sudden manifestation or appearance of God, or the sudden realization of God’s presence. The experience of the Wisemen who travel a great distance to find the Christ child is an example of Epiphany. The sudden manifestation of a Star drove them to be seekers of God’s presence. This appearance of God that they travelled to witness, you will recall was not found in the Kings palace in Jerusalem, but in a house in Bethlehem. There they offered gifts “

  January 16, 2024 Isaiah 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” One of the teachings that we encounter throughout the Bible is that God is unlimited in knowledge, and humans, not so much. Our verse today says that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than any human ways and thoughts. This reality though does not keep us from an unquenchable, almost ravenous desire for knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and information. That is a good thing. Here is the thing, when I was younger, as a young graduate, I lived by an assumption that the more learning, the more knowledge, that I acquired would result in a peace of mind. Yet, that is not what I experienced. Psychologists have concluded that with more information comes what they’ve coined “information overload”. “Information Overload” rather than bringing peace of mind, they say it brings irritability, sleeplessness, shortened attention spans, and i

JANUARY 15, 2024 Psalm 145:9  “The Lord is good to all,  and His mercy is over all that He has made.” Our verse for today reminds us of truth that God’s mercy isn’t reserved just for us humans, but that God's mercy extends over all  created things; the earth and all that it is in it. Psalm 104 gives a beautiful recounting of God’s creative work and many examples of His goodness and mercy. Here are some excerpts: “He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.

  JANUARY 12, 2024 Luke 2:39-40, 52 And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon Him ... And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. The above passage really grabbed me this year as I read the various texts for Advent and Christmas. Think of the scriptures we have read, Angels appearing to Mary and Joseph with news that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit’s action, being told “Do Not Fear.” Then there was this whole census thing, where a late in pregnancy Mary, travels with Joseph to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown, and the best accommodation they can find is a stable with the animals. I have often wondered if Joseph was from the Bethlehem region, was He and Mary not welcome because of her pregnancy among his family? Where was I, or yes, a stable and then the birth of Jesus and r

  JANUARY 11, 2024 1 Kings 19:19-21 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. In our reading today Elisha is showing his nothing-held-back commitment to follow Elijah and become his servant, which meant ultimately being God’s servant. He took the oxen that enabled him to make a living and used the plowing equipment to offer them as a sacrifice to God. Essentially Elisha’s actions indicated there was no turning back f

January 10, 2024   Psalm 72:1 Give the King your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the King’s son; that he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice. Last week as I was preparing for Epiphany Sunday service, I read through Psalm 72, a suggested Psalm reading for Epiphany worship. We did not read it in our service but its words have been on my mind. Today, I saw a headline that said most Canadians think our Prime Minister should step down before the next election, I saw another headline that called into question the US President’s competence, then there were headlines about other world leaders, Netanyahu, Putin, Kim Jung Un, and others. Most articles were pointing out the flaws and inabilities of these world leaders. Remember, I had the words of Psalm 72 floating around in my mind, so I found myself comparing these articles to this Psalm. Psalm 72 is an earnest prayer for a leader. I wonder how often we pray for our political leaders. The leadership bluepr