Joshua 1-3, Psalm 65, Luke 11

Happy May Day!  

Today we not only start a new month, but we also begin a new book in the Hebrew Scripture.  Congratulations to everyone for making it through the Book of Deuteronomy.  This week Joshua will get his commission from God, and the Israelites finally make it into the Promise Land, but not without some difficulties.  The first part of the Book of Joshua is all about espionage and battles.  God will commission Joshua, giving him the instruction, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it.”  That is a tall order, how many of us have been able to make daily meditation on God’s word as part of our spiritual discipline?  (Notice, it doesn’t say daily reading, it takes us that next step.) 

How appropriate that on the first day of May we read Psalm 65, a song of thanksgiving for the bounty with which God has blessed our earth.  And aren’t we blessed with this wonderful rain we have been having?  It will help when I go out to pull some of the bounty of the weeds currently residing in our garden.

In Luke’s reading today Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray using the format of the Pater Noster.  Have your ever prayed the version from New Zealand Book of Common Prayer?

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.

“No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.” Luke 11:33-36 (The Message)

What has God commissioned you to do as Christ’s hands and feet in this world?  Are you letting your light shine, or hiding in a cellar?

May you look upon the bounty of God’s blessings in wide-eyed wonder, and your light be so bright you are Christ's beacon to all you meet this day.

 Ann Butler, EfM Mentor