Sunday

Sundays are not officially counted in the forty days of Lent. I encourage you to find your own way to concentrate on the Lord today — through Bible Study, Worship service, other devotional guide, Christian songs, acts of Christian service, etc. 

That being said, I have a challenge for you. Set the alarm on your phone for 8:00pm every night. When it sounds, stop for 60 seconds and pray for your country. 

There are countless things about which you could pray. Whatever the Holy Spirit brings to mind when your alarm goes off, pray for that. Here are some ideas:

• National leaders you support
• National leaders you don’t support
• State leaders you support
• State leaders you don’t support
• Community leaders you support
• Community leaders you don’t support
• Our universities
• Our local school systems
• Our prison system
• Our judiciary system
• Our law enforcement personnel
• Other first responders
• The spiritual health of our people
• The moral health of our people

Now, don’t pray for all these things at once. Pick one and pray for it specifically. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough. And then you won’t need to look at a list. 

Father, remind us to humble ourselves and pray for our country. Remind us to seek your face and to turn from our wicked ways. Hear our prayers, oh Lord. Forgive our sins. Heal our land. Amen. 

Devotional Guide -- March 9

Saturday, March 9, 2019
The Seekers: God and Man

“Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire…and it devour, with none to quench it…. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…. Hate evil and love good…. I hate, I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…. Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:6, 14, 15, 21, 24

Amos gives us guidelines for seeking God, challenging us to seek with pure hearts and turn away from what displeases God. The consequences of not doing so are pretty severe!

If you read the whole chapter in Amos, you’ll find that he is not speaking about the fires of hell but the destruction of evil on this earth. He says there comes a time when God will tolerate evil no more and will bring destruction – to evil, to those who “abhor truth,” “trample the poor,” and other things God calls sin.

Our part in this drama is to know the word of God well enough to help us define evil. God, speaking through Amos, makes it pretty clear that we cannot live like hell all week and then come in and expect him to be pleased with our so-called worship.

Seek the Lord; love good and truth; hate evil. Our seeking must be heartfelt and sincere. God, according to Amos, has very specific guidelines for our seeking!

Prayer: Father, you have told us that hearts are wicked and can fool even us! Cleanse our hearts from evil and sin, and make our seeking real — of the quality that pleases you. Amen

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director

Devotional Guide - March 8

Friday, March 8, 2019
The Seekers: God and Man

“Behold I, I myself, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day….  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep…. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed….” Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-16

These words always make me feel both sad and exhilarated! Sad that I hear such a wistful note in God’s voice as he says, “I myself” and exhilarated as I realize anew that the very God of the universe is willing to do just that. He is willing to come and look for us when we get “scattered.”

Every once in awhile, there is some job that I want done – either at home or here at the office. Often very kind people offer to help, but I have a specific way I want it done. So I do it myself. I wonder if that is what God is saying here. Is this “seeking” just too important to leave to angels or mere mortals – even those who have committed their lives to Christ – to do the seeking? He wants to do it his way, the best way. “I will search, I will seek, I will shepherd.” That’s how important each of us is to our heavenly father.

He is in charge of everything He could call ten thousand angels to go here and there and look for his lost sheep, find even us and set us again on the right path. But no! God says, “I, I myself” will do this thing.

Prayer: Father, we praise you that you are our seeker—that you do the job yourself and do it perfectly! Amen.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director

Devotional Guide for Lent 2019

Thursday, March 7, 2019
The Seekers: God and Man

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6

A close look at this passage reveals God’s longing to respond as soon as we turn, giving him an opportunity to “have mercy and abundantly pardon.” Isaiah foreshadows the New Testament prodigal son. While he was a long way off, his father saw him and went running to forgive and pardon his long lost son.

The son thought that he was the seeker, hesitantly coming back to his father. To his surprise his father had been looking for him all along! I hear that longing in the verse above, that great desire of God to freely forgive and pardon.

Easter reminds us that the forgiveness is there for us to receive, but Isaiah cautions us not to assume that the door will always be open!

Have we so taken God for granted that we just assume that he will always be available? When it is convenient or we need him, do we just “summons” him, and expect immediate response? That is not what I hear in Isaiah’s words! His plea is so fervent for us to make an about face, change our ways, and begin to live a different life, while there is still time!

Prayer: Father, thank you for your outstretched arms waiting to welcome us into your presence, forgiven. Thank you for Jesus, the absolutely perfect provision for our return to you. Amen.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director

Devotional Guide for Lent 2019

Ash Wednesday

March 6, 2019
The Seekers: God and Man

“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.” I Chronicles 28:9

David, wizened in his old age, has learned that the task of building the temple will fall to his son, Solomon.

God, says David, understands us and knows our hearts and plans. If our hearts are sincere, serious about our desire to know God, he will allow us to find him. He will “be found” by us – passive voice! In our earnest searching, God supernaturally show us where to look and how to find!

This reminds me of human parents playing hide and seek with their small children. The children look in all the wrong places, but we parents carefully place ourselves where we know they will look and then act surprised and pleased to be found!

So it is with God. He wants us to find him – to have fellowship with him – to talk to him – to listen to him – to learn from him. He allows himself to be somewhere that he knows we will look. We feel so clever but he planned it all along!

Prayer: Father, we thank you for being a good father who lets your children find you. We praise you for Easter – the perfect time to find you! Amen.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director

Preface for this Year's Lenten Devotional Guide

The following is the preface for a Lenten devotional guide prepared in 2009 by my mother, Patience Nave, for her church family in Florida. Starting on Ash Wednesday -- March 6, 2019 -- each of her entries will appear on my blog. I hope you can imagine my mother's voice and sense her passion for the Scripture in these daily entries. May God bless you as we enter into the Easter season.

Patience (Fort)

To my Homosassa UMC family,

Your encouraging words about what I had written for the Advent devotionals for 2008, prompted me to begin another devotional, this time for Lent 2009. I enjoy studying the Scriptures and writing about what I have found. Thank you for allowing me to do this!

Lent is 40 days, six days each week excluding Sundays. So you will have no devotional in this book for the Sundays in Lent. Pastor Mark’s sermons, your Sunday morning Bible classes, and your own personal devotions will be a guide to your Lenten thinking for those Sundays, but you’ll find here some thoughts for each of the other 40 days, plus one extra for Easter Monday.

I’m doing something a little different this time. As I began to explore the Scriptures and to think about passages to use, I realized that the verses were falling into four categories. They then began to form a pattern for our Easter thoughts. This little book now contains four sections. First we’ll look at God’s seeking us and our seeking him, then at his incredible Word and how that influences our lives and thinking. Next we’ll read many names and descriptions for Christ that help us understand who he is, and finally we will enjoy the last days in praise and thanksgiving for who God is and what he has done in us through Jesus Christ!

Easter is such a perfect time to bring a freshness to our spirits, as we think seriously about the crucifixion and resurrection and how different our lives are because of all Jesus did! I pray this devotional encourages your faith.

Patience (Nave)

A final word for the Christmas season

And Who Is Melchizedek?

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

The kingdom that God has given you will last forever and ever. You rule over your people with justice; you love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has poured out more happiness on you than on any other king. Psalm 45:6-7

Many psalms are messianic, that is they’re speaking of Jesus. Psalm 45 is one of those. How do we know? Look at verse 6. God isn’t speaking of just any king.

Men reign for a period of time as king, usually until their natural deaths or until overthrown. But the king referred to in this psalm was God-given to “last forever and ever.”

The kingdom of the infant whose birth we celebrated yesterday is an eternal one, and we get to be a part of that unusual kingdom. How good that we leave this Christmas celebration knowing we belong to such a king and kingdom. The news today could bring great discouragement to our hearts as we see wars, wars and rumors of more wars. But we can go into the future confident that our Priest King is one we can admire and serve with joy. No uncertainty of coming elections but sweet comfort in serving a just king – one who loves choosing right and hates evil. He was not elected by ill-informed people. He was God-chosen to bring more joy and happiness than any kingdom or kingdom servants have ever known!

Prayer: Father, your word tells us that the feet of them that bring good tidings are beautiful! This day, we thank you for good tidings, brought to us by your messenger who indeed has good but beautiful, scarred feet, tidings that assure us of the future and who holds the future. Regularly we come to your table to take communion and be reminded of the ultimate price you paid for our peace. During this Christmas season – a time when even those who do not know you look for the Christmas peace – we thank you that you have caused us to end the year in serious contemplation of the magnificence of your Holy Person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We thank you that you are God and we are yours. Whatever the future holds for us, remind us of that fact over and over again. Amen.

Epilogue

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6

So do we really believe that God exists? Enough to risk our lives? Enough to live and be willing to die for him? Can we afford to accept his challenge to earnestly seek him? Can we afford not to?

As we leave behind [2018] with all its joys, sorrows, blessings, and disappointments, can we look ahead to the new year with a great desire in our hearts to really please God? Will we be challenged by this verse from Hebrews to commit ourselves to living out the kind of faith it talks about? Will our lives show that we really believe? That we expect God’s eternal reward?

You decide.

And Who is Melchizedek?

An Advent Devotional Guide
prepared for Rehobeth United Methodist Church, Winter 2012,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

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