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Mary Lou Redding, the former Editorial Director of The Upper Room magazine, has written numerous small-group studies, including The Lord’s Prayer: Jesus Teaches Us to Pray; lives and writes in Brentwood, Tennessee, with her spoiled and aging miniature poodle, Annabelle, at her side

Disciplines: A Book of Daily Devotions is a longstanding—and beloved—resource published by Upper Room Books every year. Each week’s readings are reflections on scripture passages in the lectionary for that period.

In 2013 you can not only read these daily devotions but also comment on them, ask the writer a question, and respond to others who are reading the same material each day. We are looking forward to building a community of Disciplines readers! Just sign in and add your comment in the Comments section following the Monday blog post.

Each Monday an introduction and the initial reading for the week will be posted. Come back to this Monday post throughout the week to continue the conversation about the week’s readings and prayers.

Read Acts 2:1-13

“Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful. . . .”

For over a decade, I have met weekly with several other women in a discipleship group. Each Thursday we begin by praying the “Prayer to the Holy Spirit”* that I quote from above. After all these years, bidding the Spirit to come into my heart feels quite natural. But apparently praying in this way is not common.

Several years ago when leading a workshop on discovering spiritual gifts, I opened with a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit—appropriate, I thought, given our subject. When the workshop ended, one of the participants made a point of coming to say to me, “I have never heard anyone pray to the Holy Spirit before.”

If we looked back over our recent worship experiences, the Holy Spirit is likely to be the person of the Trinity least addressed. Other than at Pentecost, we seldom talk about the Spirit or address the Spirit except in hymns.

Discussing the Holy Spirit makes many of us feel uncomfortable. It raises questions to which we have no answers and opens doors we’d as soon leave shut. Today’s reading includes the account of people speaking in tongues. Discussion of this passage usually ends up devoting significant time to that phenomenon, diverting attention from the role of the Spirit’s less spectacular but far more pervasive role in our daily life.

Going back to the prayer familiar to me: What would happen if we prayed from the heart each day, “Come, Holy Spirit”? This week as we approach Pentecost, we’ll be considering what it means to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives.

Holy Spirit, help me to open my heart and my life to you. Amen.

*Adapted from The Walk to Emmaus, used by permission of Upper Room Books.

Nicola Vidamour is a Methodist minister in London, England; editor of Mesto Vstrechi, the Russian edition of The Upper Room

Disciplines: A Book of Daily Devotions is a longstanding—and beloved—resource published by Upper Room Books every year. Each week’s readings are reflections on scripture passages in the lectionary for that period.

In 2013 you can not only read these daily devotions but also comment on them, ask the writer a question, and respond to others who are reading the same material each day. We are looking forward to building a community of Disciplines readers! Just sign in and add your comment in the Comments section following the Monday blog post.

Each Monday an introduction and the initial reading for the week will be posted. Come back to this Monday post throughout the week to continue the conversation about the week’s readings and prayers.

Read Acts 16:16-34

The Methodist Church in Britain has recently produced a new hymnal called Singing the Faith. Charles Wesley, one of the two brothers who started the Methodist movement, was a prolific hymn writer; and Methodists have been well-known from their earliest days for the way in which they sing the faith.

Paul and Silas also sang their faith—even in the middle of the night while locked in prison after receiving a severe flogging. Despite their pain and suffering they still burst into song, offering praise and prayer to God.

It is believed that John Newton, the former slave trader, set the words of his famous hymn “Amazing Grace” to a tune he heard the slaves singing in the galley of a ship. African spirituals give powerful witness to the way in which black Christians have sung their faith in the midst of oppression and injustice.

Paul and Silas are imprisoned because they released a young slave girl from the spirit that possessed her, thus depriving her owners of the money she provided for them. This girl described her emancipators as “slaves of the Most High God.” Paul and Silas are indeed bound and held captive by God as well as by their prison chains; but their singing makes it overwhelmingly clear that their faith gives them a deep sense of freedom.

We sometimes talk about singing that “raises the roof” because of its volume and enthusiasm. When Paul and Silas sing “there was an earthquake so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.” Paul and Silas—and all those who heard them singing their faith—are literally set free. Singing the faith is liberating!
God of freedom, help us to sing our faith until the walls of oppression come tumbling down. Amen.  

Doreen McFarlane served the church as a pastor, scholar, teacher, and author, for fifteen years. After an extensive career as a classical singer, performing throughout the world and in almost every state of the USA, she entered seminary. Her Master of Divinity is from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1991, and her Ph.D. from Chicago Theological Seminary, 1998. While serving as pastor of churches in Illinois, south Florida, and Connecticut, she has also continually taught biblical studies at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She served for four years as visiting professor in China (2006-2010) teaching Hebrew, Greek, and Old Testament at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary (2006-2009), and then one year teaching American Religion and Culture and English at Shanghai University (2009-2010). She and her spouse, Michael have three daughters and four granddaughters. Her published books include the following: The People Are Holy: the History and Theology of Free Church Worship, cowritten with New Testament scholar, Graydon F. Snyder of Chicago, Mercer Press, November 2005; Weddings with Today’s Families in Mind: a Handbook for Pastors, The Pilgrim Press, June 2006; Funerals with Today’s Families in Mind: a Handbook for Pastors, The Pilgrim Press, March 2008; Jesus for the Courageous, Self-published E book with Kindle, August 2011.

Disciplines: A Book of Daily Devotions is a longstanding—and beloved—resource published by Upper Room Books every year. Each week’s readings are reflections on scripture passages in the lectionary for that period.

In 2013 you can not only read these daily devotions but also comment on them, ask the writer a question, and respond to others who are reading the same material each day. We are looking forward to building a community of Disciplines readers! Just sign in and add your comment in the Comments section following the Monday blog post.

Each Monday an introduction and the initial reading for the week will be posted. Come back to this Monday post throughout the week to continue the conversation about the week’s readings and prayers.

Read Psalm 67

Psalms are the texts for music sung in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, music that has been lost in antiquity. Still, the words echo into our very souls to this day. We continue to be amazed at how often psalms address our modern issues. Psalm 67 sets a good example with its back-and-forth motion. This psalm leads us out from our inward focus, into the world, and then back. We can sing or pray this psalm. We might recite it alone or in worship. Psalm 67 is a “home and away” psalm. It begins with a “text within a text,” the familiar words of Numbers 6:24-26 that declare God’s blessing on Israel.

Then the psalm shifts away from Israel to other nations. Israel is chosen, but to be chosen always entails a task. God has made a home in Israel and blessed it so that, in turn, Israel may show to the world the wonders of what God can do. The psalm envisions all nations as happy and being judged fairly by God who cares for all creation. The concluding verses joyfully direct us back home, as the people thank God for a good harvest. They ask God to continue to bless them so they may bring the whole world to know this wonderful God.

In our times, we easily think of everything that is going wrong and forget the bounty of our lives. In our time, many people wonder about their purpose in life. It is good to realize that when we live out our faith to the best of our ability, we are fulfilling our purpose.

Great God, all creation is yours and everything in it. May all of the world find not only peace but also joy in living. May I do my part in living in your ways. Amen.

Derrek Belase is currently pastor of Highland Park UMC in Stillwater, OK.  He also teaches sociology and world religions at Northern Oklahoma College, a gateway school to Oklahoma State University.  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Rev. Rebekah Belase, and their four year old daughter, Madison.

Disciplines: A Book of Daily Devotions is a longstanding—and beloved—resource published by Upper Room Books every year. Each week’s readings are reflections on scripture passages in the lectionary for that period.

In 2013 you can not only read these daily devotions but also comment on them, ask the writer a question, and respond to others who are reading the same material each day. We are looking forward to building a community of Disciplines readers! Just sign in and add your comment in the Comments section following the Monday blog post.

Each Monday an introduction and the initial reading for the week will be posted. Come back to this Monday post throughout the week to continue the conversation about the week’s readings and prayers.

Read Psalm 148:7-14
People in the United States will celebrate Earth Day today. Since 1970, it has been observed to inspire appreciation for and awareness of our natural environment. In today’s reading from the Psalter, humans (verses 11-12) as well as nonhumans (verses 7-10) are called upon to praise God.
But how exactly do sea monsters or mountains or fruit trees praise God? Just like humans, they praise their Maker by living out God’s intent for them in their creation. Trees do not praise God simply by offering humans shade in the summer. Trees praise God by producing beautiful leaves in the summer, which then turn red, yellow, and even brown as fall turns to winter before producing new leaves again in the spring. Trees remind us that the God we praise is a God who creates and recreates, time and time again.
A few years ago, I was riding on a public boat/taxi that took me and a group of seminarians to a remote village in the jungles of the Amazon rainforest. The rainstorm that cooled us during the evening boat ride and the pink dolphins that greeted us by jumping in and out of the water the next morning were praising God by doing what they had been created to do.
We praise God not by using others, whether humans or nonhumans, to our own advantage but by allowing them to exist for their created, intended, and unique purpose. Do we treat trees, mountains, and sea creatures as objects to use or as subjects that remind us of the creative artistry of God? You can celebrate Earth Day wherever you are this day by simply appreciating the many ways all of God’s creatures praise God.
Creator God, along with all your other created beings, we praise you this day. Amen.