“Solomon’s Temple” 1 Kings 5:1-5; 8:1-13

 In some ways it may seem like we have made a hard pivot from the last few weeks as we are journeying together through the Hebrew Scriptures. The last two weeks in particular we have been talking about the call of some of the giants of the faith - Solomon and David - and now…. Now we we are talking about building a temple? What is the connection?

David was a King of Israel who was known of seeking the heart of God. But that does not mean that David or those around them were always right. David was still human and still made mistakes. And even the priest, Nathan, who was one of his trusted advisors and who spoke the Word of God to him when it was needed most, still made mistakes.

One of the big mistakes that we hear about Nathan making occurs when David looks around and decides that it is unfair that he lives in a beautiful palace but that God doesn’t have a place to live. So David decided he was going to build a beautiful temple for God. And Nathan essentially said, do whatever you want to do. Sounds like a good idea. And God needs to intervene and remind both Nathan and David that this wasn’t what God was asking for. This wasn’t the will of God.

But God does promise David in that moment that his throne would last forever. 

And later God promised that one of David’s own lineage would build him a temple. 

Now the time has come. After some of David’s sons behaving in less than desirable ways as they jockeyed for the throne, David has named Solomon as his successor. And Solomon has proved himself to be one who seeks after the heart and ways of God as well. In fact, when he was first finding himself on the throne, what was the one thing he asked God for? Wisdom. Wisdom because in all humility he realized that he could not live into this appointment without God leading him. 

Enter today’s scripture passage. Solomon went to this other King and said, my dad, King David, really wanted to give a gift to God by building him a temple. But now is the time is live into that desire and vision. God has given me a season of peace, a season to build. 

And when the construction of the temple was completed, Solomon brought in the ark of the covenant - that which physically represented the presence of God with the people of Israel and placed it into this new dwelling place. As the people of Israel celebrated the construction of the temple, all of the holy items were brought in from far and wide to reside in the temple as well. 

And the glory of God filled that place, just as the glory of God had led the Israelites before. 

As I’ve been sitting in this passage this week, what came to my mind was homecoming. I believe I’ve shared before that I did not grow up with homecoming services in the same way that they are held in this parish. But we did celebrate Heritage Sundays and anniversary years. In fact, my home church is in the midst of preparing for a large anniversary year right now.

But what is the point of all of those special celebrations? Homecoming, Heritage Sundays, anniversary years, building projects like that which Solomon has undertook? One interpretation is that it’s about looking back. It’s about remembering how God has been faithful to us over the years. It’s about celebrating who we are in this community. 

But if that is where those special occasions stop, then I think we are missing the most important part - for its those special celebrations where we remember God’s faithfulness that we renew our trust in God to move forward to whatever new thing God is calling us to do.

Friends, no one before had built a temple for God. There was a tent for worship that the Israelites took with them from place to place and the ark of the covenant that contained the most important reminders for the people of what God had done of their behalf. If Solomon was focused on going back to how things once were, he would break out that tent again. Or maybe he would even take the people back into the wilderness to remember where they come from. 

But going back is not the point. It is moving forward while standing upon the foundation of what God has done before. 

It would be really easy to think that this passage of scripture is about a building - a physical place to go. But I think really its not about the building - that’s just an outward sign. It’s about Solomon being faithful to the timing and ways of God which invited him to complete what David once wished to undertake. It’s about reminding the people that sometimes the ways of God take time - not our time, but God’s timing. It’s about being so heart to the close of God that we obedient to the call of God in our lives to do big, unimaginable things. 

To remember so we can move forward with God.

Unfortunately, the people of God will need calls to remember again. Think to the scriptures surrounding Jesus’s final week on this earth. How Jesus entered into the temple and was heartbroken by how it had been changed from a place of worshiping our Holy God to a den of robbers and theives. Why did Jesus say that? Because the temple had now become a place about buying the right animal for the right ritual or sacrifice instead of a place where hearts are turned to God.

Jesus called them to remember. To stop the man made ways and turn again to God.

Brothers and sisters, what if this was our moment to remember? What story would we tell of God’s faithfulness in our lives? In this church? In this community? But what would that communal remembering lead us to do now for God?

I’ll give you a couple hints: calls like Solomon are usually 1.) something new - not something that has been done before and 2.) It is so unbelievably big that we cannot do it without God.

If we think that our times of celebration are about moving back, friends, that is more about our comfort most of the time than about listening to God. And if it is something that we can plan and accomplish apart from God, that is a whole lot more about us wanting to feel a sense of accomplishment than raising high the name of God.

We may not be called to build buildings, but we are called to be obedient. To listen to God. And to respond. So what is God stirring amongst us for such a time as this? And will be we willing to look forward and move with God? Amen. 

“God Calls David” 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 51:10-14

  Calls from God are always emerging and being spoken into our lives. The question is - are we listening. And not only are we listening, but are we willing to wait to live into our calling in God’s time and in God’s way.

Flashback to last week when we heard of the call of Samuel. He is a young boy serving in the temple when God calls his name. When he finally had clarity about what was happening, he responded asking God to speak and saying that he was in a posture of listening. And God told him that he was going to do a new thing in Israel.

Now we encounter Samuel again, only this time he is grown and he is serving as a priest in Israel, not Eli or Eli’s family. He had been part of anointing Saul as King when the Israelites cried out to God that they wanted to be like all of the other nations around them - all of whom had Kings. 

But now God is about to do a new thing again. For Saul has disappointed God. Yet, even Samuel who has heard before about someone deeply disappointing God and God choosing a new way, is finding himself grieving Saul. Maybe it is because he was part of Saul’s call. Maybe it is because he, like the rest of Israel, seemed to put his hopes and dreams on Saul’s shoulders instead of turning to God. Either way, the Holy One now speaks to Samuel and tells him that he is being sent to anoint the next King of Israel.

But this time instead of respond, “speak Lord, for your servant is listening” Samuel answers out of fear - How can I go? If I do this thing you are asking God, and Saul finds out, I will surely be killed? 

I wonder where we find ourselves, truthfully, today. Are we people who more often say, speak Lord, for I am willing to listen and go wherever you send me? Or are we people who seem to think it is our job to tell God all the ways that God’s call could go badly for us?

Friends, if we truly believe that God knows all and is in all, then don’t you think that God already knows our excuses? And that God does not let our excuses stand in the way of the Kingdom. In so many ways it sounds like the Israelites a few weeks ago, doesn’t it. Surely God brought us here to die. No. If God has brought us this far, then surely God will bring us through.

Now does that mean that everything always goes smoothly, in our terms? No. Does it mean that what God is calling us to will keep us comfortable and require no sacrifice, no. But do we want to be part of what God is doing or not. Because we can’t say, Lord, I’m willing to follow, but only when it is convient for me. That my friends is not living into our call. Which Samuel is about to find out.

For God tells Samuel that there is already a plan for how to avoid Saul finding out and killing in. In other words, this thing that Samuel thought that he was revealing to God, as if it was a flaw in God’s plan, the Almighty had already provided a way through. And once Samuel realized that God was in control, he laid down any remaining excuses that he may have had and set off to see Jesse and meet his son who was to be made King. 

Oh if only it was that easy, brothers and sisters. But for many of us, we throw excuses after excuse for years. We are afraid that the cost to our personal lives won’t be worth much in the economy of the Kingdom of God. We don’t lay down our excuses, we use them to build walls, brick by brick, between us and what God is calling us to do. We do this both as individual and as the body of Christ.

“We don’t have the resources.” - Brick. “No one will come.” - Brick “This is going to fail” - Brick. “We’ve never done it that way before.” - Brick. “People just don’t want to hear the Gospel any more.” - Brick. 

The question is, are we willing to lay those bricks aside in order to live into our calling for such a time as this?

Even when Samuel thought he had laid down his bricks, shed his excuses, he still had other stumbling blocks that stood in the way from responding to God. See Samuel arrived at Jesse’s home and he started to judge Jesse’s sons, one by one, by the wisdom and way of the world. Eliab looked strong and tall. Surely its him. But God says no, don’t look with the eyes of the world. And one by one, God said no, until Samuel got the point, and until it looked like Jesse had run out of sons. But there was one more son left. One who was out tending the sheep. David. 

The youngest. The one his dad didn’t even consider. The one who was not seen by the eyes of the world, but by God looking into his heart. This is him.

Friends, when we start to dissemble all of those excuses and walk down that wall that prevented us in the past from living into our calls - we still need to be in a constant state of examining our hearts and learning to see how God sees.

Whenever I disciple and mentor folks who feel a call in their lives, it is not uncommon for us at some point to have a conversation where its said, “I feel this call, but I don’t see any other pastors doing anything like this. Am I mishearing God?” Not mishearing, but also not understanding. Because even in this call to be a pastor there are calls within calls and calls for a specific season and the constant reminder that you living into this role is made for you by God, not you trying to fit into the mold of anyone else. 

Brothers and sisters, that isn’t just a message that Samuel needed to hear. And its not just a message that pastors need to hear. It’s a call that we all need to hear. David could not have lived into his call if Samuel would not have been willing to set aside both his excuses and his ideas from the world about who is meant to be a King. 

I wonder, as we have been spending this time talking about calls, what you have felt bubbling up in your heart. I wonder what excuses God is inviting you to set down. And I wonder what ways of the world we need to shed. 

And I wonder not just those things for us as individuals, but for us as this local church as well. Friends, you are called and we are called. It is my belief that we have all of the callings we need within this church to do whatever God is calling us to do next, but we need to be seeking after the heart of God, not the heart of the world or the heart of the past or the heart of what comes easiest and at the lowest cost to us.

Samuel followed the call of God on his life and he was able to bear witness to the call of God on David’s life. For the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in a mighty way. 

Let us be willing to live into our calls so that others may discover the calls upon their lives. Let us set aside all of our stumbling blocks and blindspots so we may clearly see the Spirit of the Lord working in a mighty, mighty way. Amen. 

“God Calls Samuel” 1 Samuel 3: 1-21

  When I say the phrase “God’s call” in the context of a sermon one of three things happen. One, people start to recount some of the call stories in scripture - Moses and the burning bush, Samuel, David, the disciples and conclude that they are not called because it didn’t look like that for them. Two, people start to say how pastors and missionaries are called but not anyone else. Or three, say “thank goodness I’m not called”. Or some combination of the three.

Friends, let me just say that for the next few weeks we are going to be lifting up call stories from the Hebrew Scriptures and I want you to set aside any of those three things. Instead, I want you to hear me clearly. You are called. By virtue of your baptism, you are called. Your call may not look like my call or the call of the person sitting next to you, but you are still called. 

So in light of that, let us enter into today’s scripture passage from in 1 Samuel. Samuel was the son of Hannah, a woman who was barren for years. She stood by and watched her husband and his other wife be able to have child after child and her heart was broken. One day she was at the temple, crying out to the Lord with such vigor that the priest of duty, Eli, thought she was drunk. However, she prayed to God promising to dedicate her child to service in the temple if God would only hear the cry of her heart. God heard and God responded and Samuel was born. 

By 1 Samuel 3, Hannah has fulfilled her promise to God and Samuel is living in the temple with Eli, in order to serve the Lord. One night, Samuel was laying down tending to the lamp of God in the temple and he hears this audible voice calling his name. Making the rational conclusion, he believed that it must have been Eli calling to him. Only when he went into Eli’s room, he was told that he hadn’t been summoned and to go and lie down. This happened three times before Eli realized that it must have been the voice of God calling out to Samuel.

At that point he instructed the boy to go and lie down, but next time he hears the voice, for the voice will call again, that he is to respond not by running to Eli, but by saying “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

The persistent voice of God did call out for Samuel a fourth time and he did exactly as Eli had instructed. And what came forth was beyond his wildest imagination. 

God was going to do something completely new in Israel and he wanted Samuel to be a part of it. But in order to do so, Eli’s house has to be punished. 

Understandably, Samuel is not keen on sharing this vision from God with Eli, the one who had served as his mentor and who he was serving under. But Eli insisted that he share what had been told to him. 

Normally when we talk about the call of Samuel, we focus on Samuel. It is even in this week’s sermon title - “God calls Samuel”. But I want to back up for a moment and focus on Eli. Eli who did not always get things correct. Eli who had sons who were defiling the temple but whom he would not punish. Eli who though Hannah was drunk. Yet in this moment, Eli is able to realize that Samuel is hearing the voice of God, something that does not happen every day, and instruct him in how to respond. 

Friends, do you have an Eli in your life? I’m not talking about someone who doesn’t always get things correct. I’m talking about someone who can help you recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life. Brothers and sisters, we all need Eli’s because sometimes the voice of God comes to us through other wise people. 

Maybe its a friend who can speak truth into your life. This friend does not need to be perfect, but they do need to be connected to God. This also doesn’t mean that everything that they say will be from God, friends. We still need to have some level of discernment. But sometimes a friend will just say something that smacks us upside the head in a way that we know is the Holy Spirit. 

A moment like that came from me just a few weeks go with a wonderful friend and colleague. I was telling her how I kept trying to fix something and it wasn’t working. And all of a sudden she said to me “Michelle you are trying to make the back of the cross stitch pretty and that is not your job”. Talk about a Holy Spirit message. All of a sudden I realized if I kept focusing on what seemed to be going wrong that I would miss the bigger picture of what God was calling me to. And I thank God for this message and the one who carried it to me.

Maybe you don’t have friends like this in your life. Then how can you seek out other wise people? Maybe a good option for you would be a spiritual director. A spiritual director is a person who holds space to listen to you and listen for the movement of God at the same time. I have had a spiritual director companion me for the entirety of ministry. I would not be able to live into this call without someone asking me monthly, “where do you sense the movement of God?” And hold me accountable. If that is something that you may be seeking in your life, let me know, and we can have a conversation about some wonderful spiritual directors who live close to this area. 

The second important thing about Eli is what happens next in the scripture passage. Eli knows that Samuel has a message from God and he can guess that it is about him and his family. Samuel probably wasn’t looking him in the eye and Eli knew that this wouldn’t be an easy message to hear. Yet, he encouraged Samuel to speak it. He wasn’t defensive. Instead he replied, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

Sometimes are call is also to say things that we are afraid to put voice to. Now once again, friends, we need discernment here. We have way too many folks in this world who think they are speaking for God when really they are just spouting their own stuff. We also need to discern when to speak and when to be silent. I am a firm believer that we need more people to read the book of James and realize the power of the tongue and that not everything needs to be said. 

But if we are like Eli and are on the receiving end of some challenging words from the Lord, instead of becoming defensive, what would it look like to pray over what was said and ask if it is from God and respond accordingly. This is truly a bold prayer that allows us to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our own lives, even when it is difficult.

Friends, no one else can live into your call for you. But we can have people who walk beside us and encourage us to live into our call. And we can put ourselves in a position to be open to what God is speaking to us, even if it is something difficult. Let us seek to live into the call on our lives, together, as the body of Christ. Amen. 

“God Provides Manna” Exodus 16:1-18

 I want you to take a moment to think about your prayer life. I constantly tell people that I am blessed to lead a parish who believes in the power of prayer. I know that you are people who pray, daily. So I want you to think about that sacred time that you hold with God. Communicating through prayer. 

Would you say that more of what you say to God is “thank you God for…” or “God, please….”

Both are absolutely wonderful way to pray. But when we get to far into what we call the prayers of petition, the “God, please….”, even if it is lifting up the needs of ourselves and others, we run the risk of not being to fully acknowledge what God has done. 

In other words, do we say “thank you God for…” every single time we see one of those prayer requests we have answered, or do we simply move on to the next request?

As we continue on in the book of Exodus, the Israelites should have a big “thank you, God!” That continually comes forth from their lips. They have been freed from the oppression they experienced under Pharaoh. They had seen God sweep the waters of the Red Sea back to allow them to walk on dry land. And they also saw God sweep those same waters over the Egyptian armies who were trying to bring them back from the path to freedom. They are free! No longer slaves!

But as Moses is leading the people to the promise land, testimonies of God’s goodness and praise for what God has done, is not the primary thing exiting the people’s mouths. Instead its complaints. In fact, the Scripture says, “The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” And what are they complaining about? That things looked a whole lot better back in Egypt. That they had their fill of food, but now they are going to die of hunger. 

Now are either of those things true? Absolutely not! I call this Israel’s rose-colored glasses moment. That everything looks rosy when we look through the tint of skewed glasses. They did not have their fill of food back in Egypt. And as they continue to complain throughout Exodus, this belief they hold will get farther and farther from the truth as they named foods they never had in Egypt, but they have spun this tale that is not true (factually) but they have made into their truth.

Lie numbers one. 

Second lie, that Moses and Aaron had brought them into the wilderness just so they could die of hunger. Also not true. Why would God bring them this far to abandon them now? Yet their human lens says what I really want is food, I don’t have what I want they way I want it, so I am going to make an exaggeration into my truth, saying that God must have brought us into the wilderness to kill us, not to lead us to the promise land. 

Here’s the problem with lies like this, my friends. They do not just harm us. They harm our relationship with God because they harm our ability to perceive what God has done and is doing. And when that starts to happen we no longer trust what God will do. 

Yet, even in this place of a fractured relationship with God, God is still so gracious to the people who are complaining against him. He comes to Moses with this plan. A plan that will show his compassion, power, and might. God is going to rain down a type of bread called manna from heaven, six days a week. And Moses gets it. He gets how this is an act of care and provision. So he tells the people “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord.”  And it was true! Because God provided not just little bits of bread, but enough bread to have their fill. 

Spoiler alert - even this will not be enough for the people to trust in the Lord. They will complain again, and again and again. To the point, where they are not known in the book of Exodus as a people of praise, but as a people of complaint. 

I firmly believe that how we pray to God shapes who we are. Have you ever heard the saying that some people will look at a glass of water and see it as half full and others will look at it and see it as half empty? Friends, this isn’t just a matter of perception. It’s a matter of the heart. 

Because often when we see the glass as half empty, we lean more easily into complaining. And when we lean more easily to that place of complaining, the more we complain, the more it becomes how we speak to both others and God. 

Now are there are times when complaining is the absolute honest response? Absolutely. Just think about the Psalms where the Psalmist pours their heart out to God in complaint. Where we need to keep our heart in check is to see if our primary way of communicating with God is one of complaining, because we have written a different narrative in our head and heart about who God is. Another way to say this is: do we still trust God in our complaining or do our complaints reveal that we are drifting farther and farther from trusting God?

Things were rough for the Israelites in the wilderness. But that doesn’t mean that they should say that they would rather go back - as if it wasn’t worth God setting them free in the first place. And they certainly shouldn’t have turned to the accusation that they were only led this far for God to just give up on them. That is not who our God is. Period.

So think back to your prayers. Are they primarily prayers of praise - thanking God for what God has done and God’s faithfulness and provision? Or are they prayers of complaint? Because the heart we approach prayer with, will also lead us to what we say to God.

Example 1: A person of complaint. Lord, things aren’t going well. I don’t know if you noticed but person ‘x’ needs your help. When are you going to show up? Or what about this person who needs healing or that person who is hurting? Will you be with them?

Example 2: A person of praise. Lord, you have been so good to bring healing and freedom into my life. I see you all around me every day. And because I trust you Lord, I entrust person ‘y’ into your care. I know you are already with them, but may their heart be softened so they can feel it and draw closer to you. 

Do you notice the difference? How does that sit with your Spirit?

Many times when we read the stories of Exodus we end up saying, “I would never act like the Israelites in the wilderness, full of complaints” and yet, when we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we do sound like that as well. 

But as God changes our hearts, our perception and prayers can change as well, dear friends. We are not without hope. One of the ways I pray in the evenings is using an app on my phone that invites me to pray a different way. A few weeks ago, the first pray on that app was this “release my stiff neck so I am loose and aware.”

And that’s what it comes down to is, it not, brothers and sisters? That sometimes we are so stiff necked that we fait to be aware and respond to what God is doing. May that prayer become our prayer in the coming days and let it seep into us, freeing us to be a people of authentic praise and trust in our Lord. Amen.  

“God’s Name is Revealed” Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; 4:10-17

 

As we work our way through some of the first stories of our faith found in the Hebrew Scriptures, today we move from Genesis to Exodus. Book one to book two. But in order to make that move, we need to remember that in so many ways the stories are connected together, so let us fill in some of the gaps before we jump in. 

Jacob, also known as Israel, who we met last week, went on to have a large family, comprised of twelve sons and a daughter. Those twelve sons are often who we think of when it comes to the twelve tribes of Israel, except one of the sons doesn’t have a tribe that bears his name - Jospeh. 

Joseph was the favorite son. The apple of his father’s eye. He was born by his favorite wife, who only had two sons - Joseph and Benjamin. However, Rachel died while in chid birth with Benjamin. All of the other siblings knew that Joseph was the favorite. And in case that ever missed their attention, Jacob gives Joseph a special coat - which we often think of as a vibrant colored coat. But really it was this coat with long sleeves, which was highly uncommon and a precious gift. 

Fast forward through Joseph’s story and hitting some of the highlights: Jospeh is sold into slavery by his brothers. He eventually after many many years is invited to be the trusted advisor to the Pharaoh during a time of abundance that preceded a famine. And Joseph was highly honored for that leadership.

End of Genesis.

But then we enter into Exodus. Jospeh has died. There is a new pharaoh who forgot all about what Joseph had done. Forgot all about Joseph’s God who provided greatly. Instead, the Israelites are now slaves who are worked to the bone. They are worked so hard that all they have left is to be at a point of desperation where they cry out to God through their groans. And God responded by raising up Moses. Only things didn’t go well for Moses either and he found himself not as the leader of the Israelites, at least not at first, but as a shepherd out in the wilderness.

God doesn’t need to respond to Moses because we aren’t told that Moses was crying out of God, but God needed Moses to respond to him. So God showed up in that wilderness and spoke to Moses through a burning bush. 

I recently had an experience that I think opened my eyes up to understand this scripture in a different way. I was at a picnic where I was sitting with one of my dear friends and her family. Now I know this family, including their two precious children. I mail them gifts from time to time. I talk to my friend all the time. But her children don’t know me. One was born right before the pandemic started. And the other spent half of her life not seeing me because of the pandemic. So when I greeted that older child by name, she freaked out. I thought I was going to make her cry, she was so afraid. She nuzzled into her dad and asked how this stranger knew her name. 

I wonder if Moses felt a little bit like that at the burning bush. We often are struck by the fact that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. Which is amazing. But, friends, the voice of God also spoke to Moses through that bush. He was called by name. 

And even that did not make it easier for Moses to hear and respond for the call of God upon his life - to go and tell Pharaoh that the God of the Hebrews says that his people are to be freed. That they are leaving Egypt for a land that is created for them - flowing with milk and honey - where they can live into that freedom. 

Because what was Moses’s response - Who am I that you would send me? Can’t you send someone else?

Have you been there, friends. You start to feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit in your life. Maybe its to speak with someone about Christ. Maybe its to serve Christ is a new way. And our first response is - who am I that you would think I’m good enough for this, Lord? Can’t you send someone else?

But like the story of Jacob, where God used someone who was deeply flawed to fulfill the covenantal promise of God - Moses is flawed. Moses wasn’t chosen, brother and sisters, because he was good enough on his own. He couldn’t be. None of us can be. But that didn’t stop God from choosing and calling him. 

So Moses responded the way that many of us do as well - show me God. Give me a sign. And for Moses that sign was knowing how to share the name of God with the people he was being called to serve. 

Only God didn’t answer the question or give the sign that Moses expected. Instead, God said “I am who I am.” It is the great I am that sent you. In other words, Moses, I know that you don’t think you are good enough, but you don’t go in your own strength, you go forth in my name. 

Now friends, a lot of people throughout the ages have said that they go forth in God’s name when they were not serving the purposes of God. So I am not telling you to blindly follow anyone who says that they come in the name of God. But I am telling you that when God calls you to do big things, you aren’t doing it alone. You are doing it through the power of the name of the Great I Am.

Because brothers and sisters, what God called Moses to do was for him alone. Could God have chosen someone else? Maybe. But he didn’t. He called Moses. Could God use someone else to do what we are called to do? Maybe. But not the same way that God uniquely called you to serve. No one can meet the same people you are called to meet or serve the way you are called to serve. 

In other words, when God is calling you, God is really calling you. Because there are people who will listen to you that will never listen to me. You are able to plant seeds your neighbor would not be able to plant. God is calling you by name. Even with all of our doubts and struggles. 

So I would like to take time this morning to simply be in prayer. Ever person received a card today with a question on the front - how is God calling you this day? In other words what is God inviting you to do in mission and ministry in the world. What is God calling you by name to do. Take time as God reveals this to you to write it down. And then pray about what is stopping you from responding? 

Let us hand our lives over to God and say “here I am, Lord. Use me.” Amen.