SATURDAY, MARCH 12

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” (Psalm 118:8)

Maybe you received the beautiful e-mail that recently swept our country. It consisted of breathtaking shots of our most scenic vistas, music with a soft beat, entitled:

Center Of The Bible

Q: What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?

A: Psalm 117

Q: What is the longest chapter in the Bible?

A: Psalm 119

Q: Which chapter is the center of the Bible?

A: Psalm 118

There are 594 Chapters before Psalm 118

There are 594 chapters after Psalm 118

Add up all those numbers and you get 1188

Q: What is the center verse in the Bible?

A: Psalm 118:8

Does this verse say something significant about

God’s perfect will for our lives?

Within minutes of sharing this beautiful attachment with my friends including Morgan Roberts, FPC Birmingham pastor in the 1980s, I received this reply from him:

“Interesting and nicely done … (however) the versification of the Bible is a later addition to the text. Then too, when we refer to the “Bible”, there are different Bibles: our Christian Bible, two Jewish Bibles…and the two Jewish Bibles are not identical, containing different books, and arranged in an order different than our Christian Bible. Morgan”

Thank you Morgan, for keeping me honest!

Prayer: Whatever the version may be, keep me centered in Your plan, dear LORD, I pray. Amen.

Janet Munson

FRIDAY, MARCH 11

“…and he laid his hands on her…” (Luke 13:13)

“…he showed them his hands…” (John 20:20)

After my father died, I felt his presence through my hands. Skin folds around my knuckles were like his. It was comforting to see him there.

Finger print patterns testify to our uniqueness. However, real identity is manifested through the acts of hands, and more than skin deep. Rough strong calloused hands of the slave attested to rigors discounted for profit by owners and merchants while fingers of the ballerina show the grace and beauty inherent in her way of life.

At extreme opposites in the spectrum of identity, both are made in God’s likeness to do God’s work. Theirs, like ours, are often met with challenges that test them in ways that stretch the imagination and relationship with God. Skill, endurance, integrity, rigor and faith often move through them in ways beyond comprehension. They hold fast, act gentle, comfort, and in an extension of honesty and love, assist in balance, give comfort and facilitate persuasive correction and direction. They communicate when words alone are not enough or fall on deaf ears, and often are first to show frustration or happiness.

Again this Lenten season takes us through our wilderness. Let us see our hands as instruments of God’s work. Keep them at the ready to touch the world that God has made us custodians of, and may we not lead any one astray, but instead show love without restraint. Let us act knowing we cannot wash our hands of guilt, but instead take hold of the hand of the one that stilled the waters, received the nails and has walked through our wilderness already. Though pierced and bruised, may we feel God’s love through them.

Prayer: Loving and encouraging God, your greatness is beyond all understanding. Let us feel your presence this Lenten time and open our eyes and ears with your touch to see and hear and know your creation. Feed us from your very hand that broke open the bread of life, to make us whole. Thank you for loving us so. Through Jesus. Amen.

David C. Paterson

THURSDAY, MARCH 10

“If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14)

I love working with the people in this church—they are smart, friendly, loving and trying to do good things in the world. Still, at times, I get sharply annoyed by someone’s behavior. That’s when I remember a favorite saying of my mother, a lifelong Presbyterian who had a lifetime of experience working beside other church folks.

When somebody at church irritated her, she’d say, “Church is for sinners.” This just softened her heart. It was almost as good as our Sunday service assurance, “In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.”

To me, this doesn’t mean I excuse bad behavior—it’s still bad. But I think the act of forgiveness is one of the best ways to get past the badness and move forward.

I didn’t really understand this until a few years ago when I was deeply hurt and angry about something a friend had done to me. I thought of this wrong off and on for months. It was a black cloud that darkened my life. Finally, I got tired of walking around in its shadow. I decided to pray to be released from my anger. In that instant, it was gone. It just evaporated. I no longer hated my friend even though I still felt he had done a bad thing. I felt I could function again as a happy person. It was the most dramatic answer of prayer I have ever had.

If forgiveness doesn’t necessarily heal the perpetrator, I know I can rely on it to heal me.

Prayer: Dear Lord, if I am holding on to resentment or anger, please help me to let it go, so I can move on to healthier feelings. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Barbara Hoover

ASH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9

“When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, so they could hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." (Luke 4:28-30)

Very early in his professional life, immediately following his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus clashed with the people in his home town who had been listening to him speak in their synagogue. Luke records the end of that experience:

Jesus managed to avoid death at the hands of an angry mob because his comments differed significantly from what the people expected. He escaped, at least that time. What I find interesting, however, is how soon that clash occurred following his entry into public life. From the very beginning the handwriting was on the wall so for anyone following him around, seeing and hearing what he stood for, his crucifixion would not have been a surprise. It was inevitable that his core values would be in opposition to those held in the society around him.

Likewise, when you and I follow his lead and champion his behavior and teaching, we get into a similar kind of trouble. On this Ash Wednesday, immediately after putting away the Christmas decorations and related joyful celebrations of his birth, it comes as a shock to experience the resistance that accompanies what we have come to call “discipleship.” It is appropriate, therefore, to pray for God’s help as we attempt to follow Jesus’ kind of leadership.

Prayer: Loving God, we pray that your love for us might show itself in a courage and tenacity that empowers us to enter a life congruent with that of Christ, your son and our leader. In what will surely lead us into times of darkness, grant us light to pursue your life and work wherever Christ's example will lead us. Amen.

Hank Borchardt