Receiving August 23, 2008, worship scriptures

Scriptures for August 23
Exodus 1:8 - 2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

Part I - Receiving the Word as spirit and life for yourself

This blog spot is a weekly invitation to receive the Word as spirit and life for yourself. Doing this is different than just reading the scriptures. It is also different than studying the scriptures.
When we receive the Word as spirit and life we enter into a willing receptivity. This begins with prayer for willing receptivity. We seek a kind of receptivity that increases and flourishes, more and more all the time.
Then we receive (more than just read) letting the spirit and life be real and realized. This way of engaging the Scripture is prayer continued. Doing this often and patiently we begin to recognize a difference between "working with" or "figuring out" the text, and simply receiving. Receiving, with a sense of the life and spirit in it, is a graced and blessed experience. This experience is available to all who are willing.
Simple steps for entering into this spiritual exercise are provided at: http://charistis.blogspot.com/2008/03/receiving-word-as-spirit-and-life.html
After receiving for yourself, compare notes with others who are doing the same. Compare notes primarily for the purpose of continuing and expanding your receptivity to the Word as spirit and life.

Part II - Reflections on this week's scriptures (one place to compare notes)

Prayer for receptivity
Your Word is spirit and life. Enable me to receive it as the spirit and life it is. Please cause my feelings and thoughts to all serve receptivity right now. I confess that I let feelings and thoughts become hindrances. Please change my feelings and thoughts into servants of receptivity.

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10
"So she called his name Moses, saying, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'" (2:10)
The water was a river.
Also, this week's Psalm shows that the water is circumstances that threaten to swamp or drown our soul. Consider the waters Moses was drawn out of: The Israelites had been favored in Joseph's day. Then political changes brought a new king who didn't "know Joseph." Then came affliction (but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew [1:12]). More intense affliction followed. Then came the king's order for newborn boys to be killed. Favor turned to affliction that turned to more intense affliction that led to a death sentence for newborn boys. Those were threatening waters.

Psalm 124
"'If it had not been the LORD who was on our side...
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us...'" (vss. 1-2, 4)
Having the LORD on their side did not prevent the Israelites from suffering; it prevented them from being overwhelmed by suffering. Our impulse is to pray for escape (and to praise God when escape happens). However, what we need to pray for even more than escape is the quality and completeness of surrender to, and union with, God that will take us through the waters that would otherwise drown our soul.
God-given escape is praiseworthy and delightful. Pure and complete surrender to God and union with God in suffering goes beyond that. It takes us into the mystery where grief and joy mingle.

Romans 12:1-8
"...present your bodies as a living sacrifice..." (vs. 1)
Presenting my body as a living sacrifice involves letting go of my will in favor of God's will. The "simple" and supremely challenging prayer that makes it possible to be either a living or dying sacrifice is: "Not as I will but as You will" (Matthew 26:39). Qualifiers like "I know it's Your will for this or that to happen or not happen" destroy this prayer and prevent us from being either a living or dying sacrifice. An unqualified "Not as I will but as You will" is the way to become a living sacrifice.

"And do not be conformed to this world..." (vs. 2)
Being conformed to this world affects our experience of power. If we are conformed to this world, it will affect how we get power, and how we use it or are subject to it.

"that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (vs. 2)
Living sacrifices who are transformed rather than being conformed to this world (and its way with power) are " this way" in order to prove what is the will of God. They don't sacrifice themselves to nothing, or because sacrifice is somehow noble. They sacrifice themselves to God's will. They are immersed in God's will and testimony to its power and desirability. Consider how different this is than being a representative or interpreter of God's will.

Matthew 16:13-20
"'You are the Christ, the son of the living God.'" (vs. 16)
Today we hear things like, "This person is the greatest Olympian of all time." Or "This person is our party's candidate for President of the United States." What's it like for us to hear or relay those kinds of acknowledgements or confessions?
What was it like for Peter to look into the face of Jesus of Nazareth and say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." How can I let my heart "be there" with Peter, confessing that? How can I be there with Peter, receiving Jesus for who He is?

"Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ." (vs. 20)
Don't tell. Just when Peter had really Big News to share, he's told not to tell! Jesus is not to be known as the conquering Christ. He is to be known first and fully as the suffering Savior. Instead of conquering by power, He entered into unspeakable suffering and powerlessness.