Category Archives: Daily Bread Devotional

Prayers of Comfort
Jim Cummings of Columbus, OH, USA

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect. -Romans 12:1-2

As I was preparing for the new year, I noticed my January calendar was busier than usual with responsibilities. Then I became ill the first week of January with infection and swelling of the prostate, which eventually required surgery. Surgery was scheduled for January 31.

I asked family, friends, and brothers and sisters at church for prayers on my behalf. I gained much physical and spiritual strength as a result of their prayers. Not only was I able to fulfill all my responsibilities, I was also asked to officiate at two funerals after being in the emergency room just days earlier. Because I was weak and unable to rest or sleep, I had to depend on the Holy Spirit for comfort and strength. I was made aware of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

When I arose on the morning of the surgery, I read the Daily Bread. The devotional was written by Twyla Glassford from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She had entered a hospital for knee replacement surgery and brought with her a prayer shawl she had received nine years earlier, before another surgery. During the intervening years she had shared the prayer shawl with others who were undergoing surgery, after which it was always returned. When she left the hospital this time, she gave the shawl to her roommate who was in considerable pain.

I related this devotion to my wife, Kathy, and she shared a story she had read that same morning about a woman who was taking her husband to surgery. I believe it was more than a coincidence that both devotionals were about surgeries on the same day my wife was taking me to surgery.

Once again, I felt the peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit as I entered surgery and during the recovery and healing process. I also felt more connected to my family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ who prayed for me.

Prayer Phrase

God bless the spaces between us.

Spiritual Practice

Tears of Compassion

Offer a silent prayer for the gift of God’s compassion. Cup your hands and ask God to make you aware of the suffering that causes the Earth and its inhabitants to groan and weep. Be open to faces or places, sounds or voices, feelings of connection with those who suffer. Imagine catching the tears of those you see and holding them in your hands. Listen for prayer images or words God may give you. Discern any active responses of ministry or healing you sense invited to complete for those who weep.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Unity through Spirit
Sandee Gamet, World Church Common Consent team, co-leader

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. -Acts 2:1-4

One description of the Holy Spirit’s “job” is to connect human hearts. This description has proven to be true over and over as I witness individuals who are deeply listening to another’s life experiences.

We listen to each other in two ways-with our heads and with our hearts. When we allow our hearts to be part of the listening, we hear and understand in ways not possible if we listen only with our heads.

I have seen individuals who have felt hurt by each other. Often they come to the conversation ready to protect themselves from further pain. In the midst of the safe space each person has been touched by the Holy Spirit to offer heart space in their listening. Each time I am reminded of the “job” of the Holy Spirit to change people from protecting themselves to being open to the other. Through the Spirit’s presence they have shared their pain, authentically acknowledged each other, and moved toward reconciliation.

I have been part of dialogue groups where diverse perspectives were present. In other kinds of discussions, different perspectives often lead to debate and attempts to discount differing viewpoints. Yet when the participants invite the Spirit to be present, they hear new information and gain a new view of those who hold differing perspectives. They often find ways to remain in community in the midst of those diverse perspectives.

Most recently at World Conference the topic of nonviolence came before the body. Sue Ann Allen and I facilitated two different discussion groups on the first Saturday of Conference. Although strong perspectives of support or opposition to the resolution were present, speakers risked sharing their thoughts because they sensed the security of the Spirit’s presence. Whether I am with one person or many, I intentionally remind myself how powerful the “job” of the Holy Spirit is.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Pentecost and Pinwheels
Gwen Simpson of Lamoni, IA, USA

God is calling for a prophetic community to emerge, drawn from the nations of the world, that is characterized by uncommon devotion to the compassion and peace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Through divine grace and wisdom, this faith community has been given abundant gifts, resources, and opportunities to equip it to become such a people. Chief among these is the power of community in Christ ex-pressed locally in distinctive fashions while upholding a unity of vision, foundational beliefs, and mission throughout the world.

There are many issues that could easily consume the time and energy of the church. However, the challenge before a prophetic people is to discern and pursue what matters most for the journey ahead.  -Doctrine and Covenants 163:11

“God, where will your Spirit lead today?” I was speaking at a congregation in our mission center on Pentecost Sunday. It had been an interesting week as I made preparation to speak on the coming of the Spirit to those early Christians. All week, as I prayed the Mission Prayer, I was asking myself whether I was really open to the Spirit and ready to respond. Was I really ready for adventure and stepping out in faith? Had my pew become too routine and comfortable?

The songs and prayers that morning spoke to me further as I waited to share my thoughts with those gathered. Just before I was to speak, a lady helped us make pinwheels out of red, orange, or yellow paper. She showed us how to fold the paper and attach it to a pen with a straight pin. I was delighted with the analogy and eagerly made mine. When it was completed, I blew on it to get it moving, only it didn’t move. Then I realized I was holding the pencil with my hand too high. The pinwheel couldn’t move because my finger was in the way.

When I moved my finger and blew into the pinwheel, it spun around. In that moment of insight, I realized that often in my life I tried to plan and order everything well in advance. I like to be in control; after all, I’m much more comfortable that way. Maybe the Spirit couldn’t do its serendipitous work in my life because my finger (control and planning) got in the way. I wanted to do the leading! How often was I wrestling with the Spirit for control of where I was to go that day?

I shared my insight with the congregation and closed my thoughts encouraging them to use the Mission Prayer as a means of inviting the Spirit to guide their lives. I brought my bright yellow pinwheel home, and it sits on my dresser as a reminder to have “courage to risk,” getting my fingers out of the way so the Spirit can guide me into something new.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Gift of the Holy Spirit
Virginia Spiers of Independence, MO, USA

Mark the blameless, and behold the upright,
    for there is posterity for the peaceable. -Psalm 37:37

I recently experienced an absolutely wonderful Sunday morning worship service. The speaker dwelt on the topic of Pentecost and started by asking us to remember when we first felt the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This message, the piano music, the young people’s quartet sounding like angels, the prayers, and the scriptures that were used led me, and I am sure many others, to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I could hardly wait to get back to my dwelling place to express my feelings. With pen in hand, it only took a few moments to put my thoughts on paper:

I wanted to shout
To let the joy out.
It was bursting my heart
To overflow, as God’s part
Of God’s promise to us given
Long before He ascended
To His heavenly throne.
He wanted it known
He would never leave us alone.
Ask and ye shall receive
His Holy Spirit if you believe.
You shall feel joy, peace, and love
That He showers on us from above.
Now, it is not ours to keep
But to share with those who seek
This Gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Encountering God
Jan Hill of New Brighton, MN, USA

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. -Romans 12:1-5

A four-year-old in our extended household had misbehaved at the dinner table and had been banished to the time-out chair in the living room. She had been told by her mother that whenever she was ready to mend her ways and be nice, she could come back to the table and eat with the rest of the family.

After an appropriate amount of time, her mother went into the living room to see how the girl was progressing with that. Evidently, during her time alone, she had been doing some deep thinking. She wrinkled up her forehead and said, “Well, who is this God anyway? Has anyone ever seen him?”

Her mother’s quick reply was, “Yes, every time I open my eyes.”

It is true. The scope of where we see God or where we encounter God is very broad, deep, and all inclusive. God meets us anywhere and anytime and sometimes in the most unexpected ways.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

In Community: The Chance to Become
ennifer Brock Olson of Spokane, WA, USA

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. -Luke 6:27-28, 35

[Adapted from Inland Stream Newsletter, Spring 2008]

When my sister Amy was a young bride, an overzealous priesthood member advised her that it would be better for her to leave her non-member husband rather than fall away from the “one true church.” Amy chose to stay with her husband, and together they found a non-denominational congregation. During their 33-year marriage they attended various faith communities, including Dr. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, a congregation of 10,000 with stellar worship services and classes. But, as Amy said, there are no perfect churches. Struggles with pastors, programs, or theology resulted in other activities taking priority.

After her cancer diagnosis, Amy felt no urge to get right with God. She had her own personal relationship to the Divine. What Amy felt a need for was a faith community, a disciplined fellowship where time and space are set aside to focus on relationship with God and one another. In Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Joan Chittister comments on community’s purpose:

Another function of community is to enable us to be about something greater than ourselves…Life without the community of faith leaves us without a sense of more than us in life, and that is a barren life at best. When we transcend ourselves for the other, though, community becomes the sacrament of human fulfillment and purpose in life…

Before her death, Amy had planned to return to the church of her youth. She was not returning to the one true church. Creed, theology, music, and preaching were not what drew her. Amy was returning to a people who had nurtured her as a child, held her accountable as a teen, and were reaching out to her during her illness. More importantly, Amy wanted to return to a community that believed in continually searching for answers to the question, “What does it mean to be a Community of Christ?” She had come to realize the truth of Chittister’s statement, “Alone, I am what I am, but in community I have the chance to become everything that I can be.”

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Blessed to Be a Blessing
Joann Condit of Phoenix, AZ, USA

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. -Philippians 4:8-9

We enjoy our neighbors down the street. Eilene admits cheerfully that she is the queen of thrift shopping, and their house has been furnished by her frugal methods. She has a clever eye that sees the potential of repurposing items others have discarded, and the results are delightful. Bob can fix anything, and he does it happily. They are generous and kind friends.

Eilene was in a thrift store one day and saw a sofa and a recliner she really liked. She bought them both for a total of $45. Bob was a trifle tight-lipped when she asked him to go pick them up; and indeed, about the purchase itself. He pointed out that their cap on spending was fifty dollars without consulting each other. Well, she said, this was under fifty dollars. Bob said it was a change, and she should have talked to him. She said she understood, but the purchase had been made and would he pick it up.

Bob kept the old sofa in the garage for six weeks, asking neighbors up and down the street if they wanted it. No one did. Eilene asked him almost daily to take it to Goodwill.

When Bob finally unloaded it in front of Goodwill, a man from the adjoining bike shop came out to ask if he might take the sofa, and they carried it into his shop. The fellow was intensely grateful. He said his little daughter comes to work with him every day, and there was no place for her to sit or to take a nap. He thanked Bob once again.

When he told Eilene this sequence of events, she found herself in tears. First, their very minor tiff was resolved. More importantly, she said, she recognized this as a God thing. If Bob had taken it earlier in the day, the man may not have seen him. He had arrived at Goodwill just as the fellow was closing his shop for the day.

The four of us agreed that “coincidences” often resolve themselves into significant blessings for other people. We are united in our belief that to be a part of a blessing to others is always a blessing to ourselves. We are blessed to be a blessing. Words of wisdom, indeed.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Amen
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries

These are portentous times. The lives of many are being sacrificed unnecessarily to the gods of war, greed, and avarice. The land is being desecrated by the thoughtless waste of vital resources. You must obey my commandments and be in the forefront of those who would mediate this needless destruction while there is yet day. -Doctrine and Covenants 150:7

Our 2 \xc2\xbd year old has become the principle pray-er of our household. She is quick to offer (sometimes lengthy) prayers before family meals. Each prayer begins and ends with Amen. It is often some variation of “Amen, I’m so thankful for my family, and the food, and Maya (our dog), and my friends and my teachers. Amen.”

Sometimes she will ramble on about her day, carrying on a casual conversation. Sometimes she will finish her prayer and point around the table to all the others who need to pray. This goes on for several rounds before we have to remind her that our food is getting cold. I love watching her pray. I love making a space for her to practice speaking aloud what is of meaning in our life together.

I don’t know that our daughter really knows yet what prayer is about, or to whom she is praying. Starting and ending her prayers with Amen, she is unknowingly proclaiming, “it is so,” as the source of her young prayer life, which also seems profound in some way. Still, it is the practice that is forming her, all of us, in the sacred pause of our listening and her speaking and naming what is important and good, and that is also a prayer.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Receive Blessing
Kris Judd of Des Moines, IA, USA

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. -Luke 24:44-53

In our scripture reflection this morning Jesus’ frightened disciples have just learned of the experience of the two men on the road to Emmaus. In that encounter, his followers changed from questioning where Jesus had gone to astonishment at who stood before them, asking them for something to eat.

Their heart-felt questions were answered with a simple directive, “Look up, child.” The disciples in the upper room could have bowed their heads in shame because they abandoned Jesus. They could have kept their eyes shut out of fear of seeing a ghost. Instead, they looked up and saw Jesus, the One whose face and voice and teachings had become imprinted in their minds and hearts. “Where are you now?” was answered with a very real presence. Doubt ceased, at least momentarily. They looked up and saw a different vision of their future, filled with hope.

It may be easy for us to keep our gaze down, focused on what seems like solid ground beneath our feet. No eyes to meet, no conversations to be had, no chance of being recognized or noticed, no gaze towards the unknown future before us. Likewise, no opportunity to look beyond the horizon to which we are sent. Or to see the signposts pointing the way to the movement of God’s spirit around and within us.

But the invitation of the Ascension is linked to our formation and Christ’s mission. Look up. God has not abandoned you. You have been forgiven. There’s no need to avert your eyes from the One who extends grace and mercy. Look up, child, and keep moving, because the future awaits your wholehearted response. There’s so much more to be and do.

Look up, child!

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Living Christ-Like Peace
Stephen M. Veazey, president of Community of Christ

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. -John 14:27

(Excerpt from President Stephen M. Veazey’s 2008 Peace Colloquy sermon, “Signal Communities: The Hope of Zion”)

In 2007, the World Church Leadership Council went on a spiritual formation and community building retreat at Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri. The abbey is home to Benedictine monks who provide a place of hospitality, learning, worship, and peace for anyone who wants to come. They always welcome and serve the “stranger” in whatever form the stranger might appear at their door.

Around 8:00 a.m., June 10, 2002, a mentally ill man came in to where the monks live. He shot two of them to death and wounded two others. He then went into the sanctuary of the Basilica, sat down in back, and took his own life. A shocking, unimaginable tragedy had unfolded in a few brief moments of time.

What happened next? How did the monks respond? Apparently, they were so grounded in the gospel of Christ-having dwelt regularly in scripture, spiritual formation disciplines, sacraments, and community life-that they instinctively knew what to do. They moved as if they were one body with one mind and one spirit-the body, mind, and spirit of Jesus Christ. Though naturally stunned and grief-stricken, they did not retreat behind locked doors. They brought healing ministry to one another, the staff at the abbey, and upset people in nearby towns. Amazingly, they even reached out in love and forgiveness to the family of the man who had inflicted such horror on them, offering to conduct his funeral and bury him in their cemetery.

As people in surrounding towns saw this genuine living of the gospel, their fear and anger were quieted. That community of disciples signaled to the larger world an alternative way to respond to violence and the impulse to seek revenge. Jesus, in the form of a community, was teaching once again the Sermon on the Plain. The news media covering the story asked whether they would change their customs of hospitality, welcoming the stranger, and living peacefully in the aftermath of such tragedy. The Abbot or leader of the community responded that hospitality was such a part of who they were it was “inconceivable” they would change their welcoming, Christ-like ways.

I am both grateful for and deeply unsettled by the living witness of the monks of Conception Abbey. What would I do…what would we do… what would our congregations do if faced today with such a violent interruption of our individual and collective lives?

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.