SUNDAY

Invitation

What impact does Jesus have on you?

Leaders can fire our emotions and excite our imaginations. They cannot transfuse us with their own spirit. They cannot reach inside themselves and give us a portion of their own power and strength.

Jesus can do this. He can put his Spirit inside us. He can share his power with us. He can help us become what we could never become alone.

“If anyone wants to come with me,

he must forget himself, carry his cross,

and follow me.”

Matthew 16:24

The Times carried this tiny advertisement in the early 1900’s. No picture or gimmick accompanied it:

“Wanted: Persons for dangerous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition if successful. – Sir Ernest Shackleton.”

Over five thousand people from all over Britain responded. From these applications Ernest Shackleton selected twenty-eight to accompany him on an expedition to the South Pole.

The trip took place in 1915 aboard a ship called Endurance. In the course of the expedition the Endurance got frozen into the ice “like an almond in a chocolate bar.”

Eventually the ship was crushed by ice, and the crew had to pull their supplies along on sleds. All, however, returned to honor and recognition. All agreed, also, that it was Shackleton’s heroic leadership that spelled the difference between success and failure.

To what extent are people today still open to a real challenge?

Speak to Jesus about your own readiness to accept a challenge for the sake of advancing the work of God’s Kingdom.

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard

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MONDAY

“You must shine among them like stars

lighting up the sky,

as you offer them the message of life.”

Philippians 2:15-16

One night Jay Kesler was walking through the slums of Calcutta. Suddenly he heard a strange sound. He turned around and saw a crippled child-beggar hobbling towards him. Jay reached into his pocket and gave the child all the coins he had.

Seconds later Jay heard a terrible commotion. He turned around again. This time he saw the crippled youngster being robbed of his coins by a gang of older beggars.

A woman came into these same slums one day and decided something had to be done. She spent everything she had on an old one-room building, turning it into a school for small children. She had no desks, no chairs, no table. Her chalkboard was the building’s dirt floor, which she rubbed smooth with an old rag and wrote on with a stick.

In the years that followed, the woman's dedication to the poor of Calcutta inspired others to join her. Today Mother Teresa has 100 fully equipped schools, 750 mobile dispensaries, 150 homes for abandoned people, and over 40,000 volunteers helping her worldwide.

How does Mother Teresa differ from most leaders today? What moves people to want to follow her?

Speak to Jesus about your willingness to co-operate with the work of a leader like her.

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard

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TUESDAY

The two disciples said,

“Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us

when he talked to us?”

Luke 24:32

The Dallas Morning News carried a story about swimmer Jeff Kostoff. Jeff’s list of records and medals fills a page of Stanford University’s swimming guide. But the guide makes no mention of the story behind Jeff’s success. It has to do with Jeff’s best friend. Jeff says:

“He was a swimmer, too, but he wasn’t that talented. He realized the talent I had, and convinced me to stop messing around and concentrate on swimming.”

The impact of Jeff's friend on him recalls the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Our chief want in life is someone who shall make us do what we can.” Jeff’s words also recall the words of Cardinal Duval, who said:

“No matter how beautifully expressed, abstract ideas rarely move people. But let a person come forward, a living person, capable of speaking to the heart; let truth flow from the person’s life, and let the person’s power be matched by an equal gift of love; and the dawn of better days will brighten our skies.”

What does Cardinal Duval mean by a person “capable of speaking to the heart”? Who is someone who speaks to your heart in a special way?

Speak to Jesus about his own ability to speak to the human heart.

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard

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WEDNESDAY

“Wherever you go, I will go;

wherever you live, I will live.”

Ruth 1:16

Imagine that a dynamic leader emerges. It is clear to everyone that this leader is not only gifted but also selfless and dedicated to serving others, especially the poor and the powerless.

More remarkably, this leader possesses a charisma that cuts across every ethnic and social group. Everyone trusts this remarkable person. Everyone recognizes that the “hand of God” rests upon this person.

Imagine an address that this leader makes to the people. With compassion and understanding, the leader spells out programmes for curbing corruption, reducing drug-trafficking and crime, revitalizing urban areas, reforming the prison system, and erasing poverty.

Even the most realistic politicians are impressed by the leader’s grasp of the problems and the insights for dealing with them. They conclude: “If it’s possible to transform society, this person is the one to do it.”

The leader finishes addressing the people by appealing for volunteers to work at various levels and in various areas of the programme.

Assuming you have the needed skills and could budget the needed time, how willing would you be to volunteer your services to the leader and the programme?

Speak to Jesus about your readiness to sacrifice for such a leader and such a cause.

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard

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THURSDAY

“The Son of Man did not come to be served;

he came to serve and to give his life

to redeem many people.”

Mark 10:45

Years ago the Reader’s Digest asked H G Wells to pick the greatest leader who ever lived. Wells, a non-Christian, picked Jesus. He said he realized that many people believed Jesus to be the Son of God. He added, however, that a historian has to disregard such a belief. A historian has to stick to uncontested facts. A historian has to treat and to evaluate Jesus from a purely human perspective.

Why did Wells give first place to Jesus? He did so because of two profound ideas especially, that Jesus released: the Fatherhood of God (heavenly origin of all) and the Kingdom of God (heavenly destiny of all). Wells said that these two ideas initiated one of the most revolutionary changes of outlook that has ever stirred and changed human thought. The historian’s test of an individual’s greatness is “What did he leave to grow?” Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him? By this test Jesus stands first."

Why are the ideas of the Fatherhood of God and the Kingdom of God so revolutionary?

Speak to Jesus about some “fresh” line that you have begun thinking along since you began your Advent meditations?

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard

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FRIDAY

Many of Jesus’ followers turned back

and would not got with him any more.

So he asked the twelve disciples,

“And you – would you also like to leave?”

John 6:66-67

The Broadway musical 1776 dealt with the critical days of American history surrounding the Declaration of Independence.

At one point in the debate, the fate of America was like a pole standing in wet sand. It could fall either way: backward into the past and continued domination from without, or forward into the future and newfound freedom.

One night John Adams, one of the leaders for freedom, was terribly worried about the outcome. Standing all alone in the darkness of Independence Hall, where the great debate was taking place, he began to sing in words like these: “Is anyone out there? Does anyone care? Does anyone see what I see?”

In a real sense, these are the same words Jesus is singing today in the darkness of our world:

“Is anyone out there?

Does anyone care?

Does anyone see what I see?”

How would you answer Jesus' three questions?

Source: Daily Meditation from Advent Storecupboard