With all the noise in the world, do you hear the voice of God? Your calendar tells you what to do, but do you remember who you are? Being comes before doing. This is a call to put first things first. Return to the Lord with this daily pattern of prayer and devotion. Set aside this time as a sanctuary. Find a space free of distraction and follow this pattern.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Invitation
O God, you are the beginning, the middle, and the end. You are all in all. Lead me. Help me. Forgive me. Keep me from wandering and weariness. Keep my love ready and willing to serve You by serving others. Praise and honor be to You, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God now and forever. Amen.
Confession
O God, how can I believe without your help. I am filled with doubt. “What about . . . ?” “Is it really true?” “How do I really know you’re there? That you’re listening? That you care about me?” I confess with honesty all my fear and disbelief. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. I believe; help my unbelief.
Word: Revelation 21:3-6
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them…There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.’”
Meditation: World Without End
Today’s meditation is written by Pastor Paul Cloeter.
Like most people, I presume, I have the tendency to look forward in life, always focusing on some future event or date, or maybe a certain goal or outcome. It might be something as frequent as happy hour and the weekend, or as monumental and life-changing as graduation, marriage, and retirement. Of course, once the waiting comes to an end, there’s always a new end on the horizon that comes into sight, a new date or event to wait for. For better or worse, life is filled with endings…and new beginnings. It’s a continually repeating process.
That is, until the End! Capital letter ‘E’! The final End to life in this world as we know it. This End can be personal, as it has been for everyone throughout history until now. Or it can be universal and the ultimate end of time. Either way, no calendar date has been set for this final End. And what happens next is uncharted territory. It’s something I’m not used to, an end with no beginning in sight. And that can be scary.
In the next two months, the church’s calendar does have a lot to say about what we can expect when the End comes. The last Sundays of the church year remind us with dramatic language and imagery that the end of all things is coming. Immediately following, the first Sundays of the new year—the season of Advent—announce who is coming, the One who once was born to be our crucified and risen Savior.
As God, Jesus was “in the beginning,” before all time. And as the eternal God, he is there already, at the End of time. In the meantime, Jesus sits as Ruler on heaven’s throne and he says, “I am the Beginning and the End.” Not “I was” the beginning and “will be” the end. The Great “I AM” who is even now in the presence of “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” is at the same time “with us always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
Seven weeks ago, our brief journey through Biblical history began “in the beginning” with God’s marvelous creation of the world. It ends with his new creation of an eternal heaven and earth where there will be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (And we might add, “no more endings.”) In between all that is in the past and all that is yet to be in God’s grand story is Jesus. From beginning to end, it’s all about Jesus! Jesus, the Word of God who was “in the beginning,” now says to us, “I am…the End!”
So I say, “Bring it on!” “Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.” (Rev. 22:20)
Prayer: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Benediction
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen. (Rom. 15:13)