Month: September 2015

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PWTE Daily Devotion

What Do You See When You Stare at the Stars?

Lutheran Valley Retreat, Colorado

The universe looks differently when seen through Christ.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers
— the moon and the stars you set in place —
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5 New Living Translation

Nothing puts us in our place more than standing under the stars on a clear, moonless night. The weight of our paltry nature might cause us to look away from the stars. Who are we in the vastness of the universe?

Lutheran Valley Retreat, Colorado
Lutheran Valley Retreat, Colorado

Even though King David didn’t have super telescopes and today’s scientific knowledge, he still felt unimportant when he stood under the stars. Think about what the night sky looked like around 1000 B.C. Light pollution didn’t exist and no man made particles floated through the air. The stars had a intensity that we see only on high mountain tops far removed from our cities.

David was humbled by the stars, and so are we.

Yet, David immediately recalls how God also created human beings. As the heart of his creation, human beings are only a little lower than the heavenly beings, set to be the caretakers of all that God placed on this planet.

So, which is more humbling: to stand under the stars, or to consider our position with God? Maybe that’s not a fair question since we decided that we didn’t need God and rebelled against him, bring death to the life that God breathed into us.

Maybe we would be better off viewing David’s words like the writer of Hebrews did. He saw this psalm pointing to Jesus, the ultimate human being (Hebrews 2:6-8). Through his death and resurrection God has crowned him with glory and honor. And through Christ’s redemptive love for us, and through our baptismal clothing, God bestows on us his glory and honor.

In Christ we no longer stand under the night sky contemplating our insignificance, but how cherished we are by God, that even though we cannot number the stars, he knows us. He knows you.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

 

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

What We Are Versus What We’ll Be

Colorado Springs, Colorado

With the guarantee of seeing Jesus, we take flight this side of eternity.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Dear friends, we are already God’s children,
but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.” 
1 John 3:2 New Living Translation

One balloon lies on the ground struggling to rise, the other begins its flight. Like these balloons, we are always in the process of becoming what God has redeemed us to be.

Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Though we don’t know where the wind of God’s Spirit will take us, we do know the point from which we begin the journey. John boldly declares that we are God’s children. It’s obvious in this picture that these objects are balloons. They’re not skyscrapers. They’re not airplanes or helicopters. They’re balloons, and as such they’re created to fly. It ought to be just as obvious to us that we are children of God.

However what we will become when Christ returns is still a mystery. The beauty of hot air ballooning is that you don’t always know where you’ll land. Pilots do their homework before taking flight. They have an idea of where their journey might end, but the exact location is a mystery. What life will be like when Christ returns is a mystery, other than we will be like Christ.

Yet even today we’re on this journey of life on which God’s Spirit leads us.  Though we don’t know the ups and downs, the right turns and left turns, we can trust that God is leading us to that day when he makes all things new.

Until that day, let’s enjoy the journey for our destination is sure.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Why Am I Still Stuck on the Ground?

Colorado Springs, Colorado

God has created us and redeemed us to soar with him.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Then we will no longer be immature like children.
We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.
We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
Instead, we will speak the truth in love,
growing in every way more and more like Christ,
who is the head of his body, the church.”
Ephesians 4:14-15 New Living Translation
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado

I wonder if this balloon had aspirations of soaring like the one high in the early morning, Colorado sky. There were no guarantees that this balloon would eventually launch. The weather had changed. With every ticking second the atmosphere was a little warmer and the breeze a little stronger. Toward the end of the launch, there were a hand full of balloons which never took off.

Whether this balloon left the ground or not, it was created to fly.

You and I have been created to fly. God has handcrafted each one of us, yet it seems that we’re grounded more times than not. Why? If God created and redeemed us to fly, why can’t we seem to get enough air in our balloons and sail into our great adventure?

Paul suggests that it’s the turkey’s that keep us grounded. Even though turkeys are birds, they will never soar like eagles. I know a man who has never flown because he believe a lie that his father spoke to him from a very young age. His father told him that he would never amount to anything, so he has given up. He is yet to fly.

It’s time that we stop believing the lies that either we, or others, tell ourselves. We are the redeemed of God, brought near to God through the bloody sacrifice of Jesus. We have been baptized into Christ through the one Spirit. God sings over us. He rejoices over us. He celebrates over us as the father rejoiced over his prodigal son who return.

We may not be soaring yet. We might still need God’s Spirit to fill our balloon with encouraging words, yet we look forward to that day when God’s people will soar into eternity. The One who is flying high above our lives has made us that promise.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner