Living By Faith

A Devotion for Those Who Serve Our Nation

LIVING BY FAITH

I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20

There are three ways we can think about our lives. We may think that as individuals we count for nothing. That is the way of pessimism, which cuts the nerve of effort and leads to weakness and despair.

We may think that we are all-important. That is the way of egotism, and leads to a distorted sense of values that prevents harmonious cooperation with other people for ends which are greater than ourselves.

Or we may think of our lives as having meaning in the purposes of God. That is the way of responsibility. It does not result in a sense of futility or self-importance, but it does take life seriously. That is the way of Christian faith.

As humans, we can stand almost anything except the fear that when we have given our best or endured the worst, after all it made no real difference what we did or who we were. Life takes on a new depth and richness when we confront all of life’s contingencies with the faith that this adventure of living counts in the purposes of God, and that we count.

O GOD, our Help in ages past, our Hopes for years to come; we who need Thy help and hope turn to Thee, who hast been the abiding Friend of all people of all times, in all places. Shine Thou within our hearts, giving us the light of knowledge of Thy glory in the face of Christ. Set our feet in the ways Thou hast chosen for us. Confirm our spirits in the faith which overcomes the world. Teach us to be Christ’s disciples, and to find in Him our life and our peace. Amen.

Morgan Phelps Noyes
Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair, N.J.

Note: This meditation is taken from Strength for Service to God and Country, edited by Norman E. Nygaard, revised edition b y Evan Hunsberger.

Strength for Service to God and Country was written after Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941. Over one million copies were sold. This devotional meditation and the collection of others were written to bring guidance and strength during World War II and the Korean War.

A sailor who had this book in his possession for many years gave his copy to his fifteen year old grandson. This grandson, Evan Hunsberger, decided to honor his grandfather’s memory by revising this book as an Eagle Scout Project. The General Commission on the United Methodist Men assisted Evan in its development with fundraising for its publication. Providence House Publishers shared the same vision. Evan, a Roman Catholic, received the Good Samaritan Award.

This devotional book represents the broad spectrum of faith and was expanded with additional writings. Published in 1942, it was renewed by Norman E. Nygaard in 1969.

May we continue to live by God’s guidance in dangerous and difficult times. Strength, wisdom, and courage will help us through each and every era of change and conflict, Christ being our daily companion.

Dennis Ginoza
November 24, 2009

The Abundance of God

The Abundance of God
November 12, 2009www.fieldingfaith.blogspot.com

Since the genesis of the world, time, nature and existence, have been teaching us that we live in an abundant world. God is our infinite source of supply. The Eden story profiles a garden with everything that is needed. God’s first gift to us is paradise. For the writers to portray such a place, they must have had a glimpse of this truth.

One quiet afternoon I sat in my office looking out. A light shower was passing through as was so common in the Hawaiian islands. The sun was shining, its rays of light dancing on the trees and brush, the trade winds adding to nature’s movement. Palolo Valley was filled with the abundance of God in beauty, harmony, and peace. My heart was filled with gratitude for God’s goodness and grace. This was a moment of being in touch and attuned with God.

When we focus ourselves on the true quality of God, it is as much what I call today, abundance. God is abundant with love, generosity, care, giving, sharing, sustaining, guiding, helping, supporting. The God of the grain fields is the same God that cared for the taro patches, the rice fields, the potato fields, the melon fields, the wheat fields, and the corn fields. The God of the Pilgrims is the same God that produced the seeds of life in Mesopotamia, Canaan, Egypt, Greece, China, India, Polynesia, England, and the Americas.

When I sat at a table four thousand miles away from home, with new friends I had made, my first Thanksgiving away from home, having had my first brush with snow, my heart was filled with gratitude. This loving Iowan family could not have known how much a simple act of kindness, moments of genuine laughter, and generous sharing would mean to me even today. In abundance we all share a kind of “Pilgrim gratitude.”

Today we stand at the edge of a new frontier. This frontier is not one of unexplored land masses. Nor is it a question of devising new seeds for agricultural production. And it is not the challenge of finding the right economic theory. It is not solving the mystery of the expansive outer space beckoning the scientific and curious. The new frontier has been, is, and still is the human heart. In our hearts we are to discover the abundance of God. In our hearts we are to find the will to share. In our hearts we are to uncover the treasure of gratitude.

May gratitude pervade our land and our world.

Unraveling the God Confusion

“Unraveling the God Confusion”
November 12, 2009

The most complicated problem after all may not be Einstein’s mathematical formula, the cause of disease, nor the issue of war. It is the God confusion.

The problem is not God, but our perception of God. There are as many perceptions as there are experiences. For the lack of substance we have built golden calves. Tribal forms dependent on nature have developed animalism. Political ambitions have molded emperors into gods. Human prejudices have shaped a God sanctioning slavery. Depth psychology has painted a god of self-projection. Science and technology have given birth to the great denial, the non-existence of God. Materialism has created a God-mix of success, wealth, and nationalism.

Christianity today stands against not only the major faiths of the world, but against itself. Denominationalism stands more for division than unity. Churches today stand as David against Goliaths of our culture—media, business, technological networks, the entertainment industry, and war machines. In part, the church’s work is in the name of God, but as much, for a piece of the pie.

Our perceptions and practices, however do not change the reality of God. While our myths, rituals, temples, priesthoods, secret societies, and theodicies are but attempts to affirm a God who is, God simply remains God.

For Christians and the world, our eyes turn to a wayward Nazarene with revolutionary teachings about God. He drew all commandments into one – LOVE. Every major faith in its true form would come to the same. He broke the mold of sin and death through forgiveness by his crucifixion. He moved beyond the bounds of time and physics with the resurrection. All powers of possibility converged in the ascension.

The irony of this God confusion still ends in the same place—perception. As much as I or any other would want to dogmatize an understanding of God, it is only as good as one’s perception can offer.

The one thing that I refuse to compromise is the existence of God and the transforming power of the Christ. These have been and are moving powers within me, my life throughout time which I have known and experienced. Until our lessons are learned, our perceptions made clear, and our lives made more loving, I will continue in my God-encounters. I wish the same for you.

A Light to the Nations

REFLECTIONS — Christmas Eve 2008
“A Light to the Nations” Matthew 2:1-12

When I was little boy, I learned to build a fire and
I got good at it. Then I learned to throw
a baseball, then I got good at dressing chickens,
I got good at swinging a machete, then I
studied geometry and algebra and whole bunch
more. Then I went to college. Then I went
to graduate school. Then I went to seminary.
Just when you think you know a lot, that is
when you learn you know so little.

George Burns said: “Too bad that all the people who
really know how to run the country are busy driving
taxis and cutting hair.”

Dale Evans said, “Every time we love, every time we
give, it’s Christmas.”

The prophet Isaiah teaches us today that a Great Light
has come into our world to break our darkness.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is
given. That light is wisdom, that light is knowledge,
that Light is Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Once there was a little boy at a shopping mall. He stood by
the escalators in a department store waiting. A supervisor
in the store came by and asked, “May I help you?”
The boy said, “I’m waiting for my gum to come back?
I ask you tonight, what are you waiting for?

In a little town in Palestine, in a manger, light began breaking
the darkness. Love came down, and truth is now at
our fingertips. All we have to do is reach out and grasp it.
Christ is the light to the nations.

Today our world is in disorder, but not without hope.
The economy is bad, but it hasn’t collapsed.
Religion is confusing, that doesn’t mean you
have to lose your faith. Just hold on to your
fork, because it means something better is coming.

Saint Frances de Sales said,
You can learn to speak by speaking, to study
by studying, to run by running, to work by
working; and just so, you learn to love by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way
deceive themselves.

And the angel said:
I bring you good news of a great joy to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

God Bless You All!