Gordon Christian Fellowship

Daily Devotion - 03/27/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

So here it is, a Thursday morning as I stare at a blank computer screen. I’ve got two long lectures to deliver today on difficult topics that don’t always “inspire” the attention of my students. I need to do (at least) some review and preparation before I enter the classroom. I’ve got one more set of papers to grade by my 2 o’clock class. I need to get a workout in; I’ve got five books checked out on inter-library loan for my correspondence course in Church history that are difficult to obtain and are due back within a month. It’s still Lent in the Eastern churches and the fast doesn’t seem to be going all that well.

Daily Devotion - 03/26/2008

Christ is Risen!

As Gary has written previously, one of the most disappointing developments in the discussion of prayer in many of the more fundamentalist churches in North America is the denigration of contemplation and meditation as appropriate practices for the Christian. Many writers have claimed that such practices are at best some sort of Far Eastern “mumbo-jumbo” and, in the worst attacks made by those who haven’t bothered to consult their Bibles, demonic or satanic. Let me state in the strongest possible terms that nothing could be further from the truth.

Daily Devotion - 03/25/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

Sometimes the vagaries of the liturgical calendar provide real insights into the Christian faith. Take today, for example. You in the West are already in the time after Easter; for us in the Christian East, Pascha is still five long weeks away. Yet already, there are signals, for those “who have ears to hear,” that the celebration of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, the centerpiece of the liturgical year, is beginning to come into view.

Daily Devotion - 03/24/2008

Christ is Risen!

Lent is over and the fast is completed. Easter has come and we have celebrated our resurrected Lord and Savior. I'd like to spend a bit of time today talking about what that means for us here and now in today's world among our friends, co-workers and classmates.

Daily Devotion - 03/21/2008

The Lord is with us!

For today’s devotional, I’d like to share with you an idea that I found when reading Bishop N. T. Wright’s monograph, “Christians at the Cross”. We Christians are very fond of saying that when Jesus went to the Cross, an event we remember and, as Gary pointed out, hopefully relive, He took with Him and upon Him all of the sins of the world.

Daily Devotion - 03/20/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

The high and holydays of the Lenten season (and Holy Week) slip past us almost seamlessly. There’s always so much to do: lectures to give, papers to grade, groceries to buy, cars to maintain, people to see---a jillion things to do. How do we find time to remember “the reason for the season?”

daily Devotion - 03/19/2008

The Lord is with us!

For me, in and among all of the accounts about Jesus’ teachings in the last week before His crucifixion, the narrative that most catches my attention is that of our Lord’s anointing at Bethany and Judas’ reaction to it. The two events are written about in all three of the synoptic Gospels but I’d like to look at Mark’s account:

Daily Devotion - 03/18/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

This week provides a poignant reminder of the differences that separate the Christian community. You in the West are experiencing the power of Holy Week; we in the Christian East are but beginning the “bright sadness,” as Father Alexander Schmemann of blessed memory termed it, of the Great Fast. In a little way this difference reminds us of the Savior’s prayer: “that all might be one.”

Daily Devotion - 03/17/2008

The Lord is with us!

This week we come to the end of our Lenten Journey in the West with yesterday's glorious celebration of Jesus' arrival at Jerusalem, this week's focus on the increasing dispute between Christ and the Jewish and Roman authorities in Rome, our Lord's celebration of the Passover and His institution of the Lord's Supper, His betrayal, trials, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.

Daily Devotion - 03/12/2008

The Lord is with us!

In my writing today I would like to restate and emphasize a point that Gary made yesterday that is absolutely vital to understanding the practice of prayer in our lives with the goal of living a prayerful life. As Gary wrote yesterday, the one, single purpose of our lives as Christians is to unite ourselves with God. This process, known as theosis or deification, happens on several levels and in several ways but it is the one thing that we should seek to strive for in everything we do.