Prepare for Easter

Saturday, February 29, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned [home] from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. Luke 4:1-2 NKJV

Imagine a 30 year old man who has just had a phenomenal experience at his baptism, had tremendous affirmation from the heavens now walking toward home, pondering everything.

I wonder if he even realized he was wandering a bit off the road, although the entire region was pretty lonely and could have easily been called a wilderness. But he didn’t just wander a few steps. Forty days he was there!

Don’t you wonder what he and God talked about? What he had been learning all his life must now have come into clear focus. And what was ahead was staggering. Yes, he was God, but he was also man! We must never forget that important fact.

The Father loved his creation, but it had separated itself from him. He had to bring reconciliation. But he also had to teach what Kingdom living was all about. He had to find men whom he could disciple so they could disciple others. He knew two worlds, and he had an enormous task of telling others that the one in which they were living was only temporary. He was going to prepare for the transition, but Satan would hinder on every step.

When the devil came to challenge him, he never argued. He just spoke to him in the business language of his Father. No matter what the temptation, he answered with the Word of his Father. No argument, just the Word!

Jesus has given us the pattern for battle when Satan confronts us. The Word is the weapon.

Father, Thank you for your Word, our sure defense! Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida

Spring 2010

by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Friday, February 28, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52 NIV

For years I had an “unbiblical” picture of Jesus. I failed to recognize that he was a flesh and blood man, and because of that my relationship to him was stunted. When he came to earth, he agreed to being limited by human flesh. He could not move supernaturally but had to walk from place to place. He ate, slept, and functioned in a 24-hour day. He’s been where we are; he understands us.

From this verse, we learn that, as he was about his Father’s business, he was maturing mentally, physically socially, and spiritually – just as we do. We can look at his life and determine if our own growth in any way parallels his.

The physical part is no problem. We automatically grow in size if we eat properly. But there are two kinds of mental growth or wisdom that we acquire – the education we get in schools and the spiritual understanding that we get in church and through personal study. The first helps us find favor socially as productive members of society. We work hard at that. The second brings us into favor with God as we come to know him better and to really understand what pleases him. I fear we don’t take that as seriously.

We’re careful to develop social skills and to acquire wisdom that make us successful now, but are we as careful to develop the skills we need for eternity? Dare we trust our spiritual growth to an hour on Sunday morning? The Father’s business requires a whole healthy self – mentally, physically, spiritually and socially.

Father, Thank you for the example of growth that you have set for us. Help us to be about your business of growth for ourselves. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida

Spring 2010

by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Thursday February 27, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. Luke 2:52 NIV

Obedience is not a characteristic that comes easily to people. If you don’t think that is true, consider how Frank Sinatra’s song, “I Did It My Way,” still lingers in our minds and is even sung and quoted by a generation that never knew him.

We express our rejection of authority all the time. “Don’t tell me what to do!” “I have a right to my own opinion.” “I can’t help being this way. It’s how I’m made.” Meanwhile, God’s Word says to us, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.”

Jesus submitted himself to his parents as he was learning to submit himself to God (and he was learning to do this, but that is thought for tomorrow). He had arrived at some understanding of who he was, but he went home to Nazareth with his parents, learning obedience that would later take him into a garden where every fiber of his being would be challenged but where he would finally and absolutely commit himself to the will of his Father.

William Barkley says that Jesus had a growing awareness of who he was, and our first indication of that from the Bible’s text was when he was twelve, standing in the temple with his parents. Part of what he learned in that growing awareness was obedience to his earthly parents.

I wonder if we have a growing awareness of who we are. Does obedience fit into our maturity as disciples of Christ? And are we “about our Father’s business” or doing as we please?

Father, make us more like Jesus – willingly obedient.  Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter -- Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday, The First Day of Lent

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

And He said to them, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49 NKJV

What was the Father’s business? I’m finding there is not an easy answer.

I wonder why we have neglected what Jesus meant. I’ve never heard anyone preach on the topic. What was the business? How did he identify it? How did he differentiate the Father’s business from the many other things – all good – that people do? When did he do it? How did he do it? Alone or with others?

Constantly besieged by crowds, the Lord still spent hours in contemplation. He never did anything that had not been carefully presented to the Father in prayer. He prayed with such intensity that the disciples recognized the difference and asked to be taught to pray. He taught with such authority that the most learned men asked how he, an uneducated man from Nazareth, could have such knowledge and insight. He saw through the obvious in men’s need and went right to the heart of their agony. When a person was willing to settle for a superficial faith, he pointed to the cost of discipleship. When a man tried to hide his love of things, he quietly identified the greed in his heart.

We’ll learn a little about “the Father’s business” as we proceed through the next 40 days, but each of us will have to spend time alone with the Father as he shows us the intricacies that all his business involves. He’s already shown me things in my own life that I don’t like. I think this may be a long 40 days!

Father, I fear we have a poor concept of what your business is. Help us to learn quickly as we spend time with your Son. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Introduction written by Patience Fort

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Many of my readers knew my mother, Patience Nave. When she was 50 years old, she graduated from Western Kentucky University with her Bachelor’s degree. She went on to earn her Master’s in English and then taught in South America, China, and Florida. After serving for eight years on the Citrus County School Board in Homosassa, Florida, she began a short career as Education Coordinator/Minister in two churches: Homosassa First United Methodist Church and Rehobeth United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina (where, by the way, she celebrated her 80^th birthday).

Some of the things that I cherish from Mother’s years at her churches in Florida and North Carolina are the devotional guides she developed for Advent and Lent.  I have about six years of them. And now I enjoy reproducing them on my blog for all to read and enjoy. Feel free to share them with your friends.

This particular devotional guide is from the Spring of 2010. She was still living in Florida and working at First United Methodist Church of Homosassa. Here is an excerpt from her introduction.

As I plan our devotionals each year, I look for a theme for the entire book. This year, Luke 2:49 popped into my head: “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (NKJV) As I mulled over thoughts, I began to wonder just exactly what his perception of his Father’s business was.

To my disappointment, when I looked the verse up in the Bible, I found that most of the new translations do not say “my Father’s business” but “in my Father’s house.”

At first I was very disappointed because pursuing the meaning of his Father’s business had appeared to be the theme I was to use for the devotional, but I couldn’t use it if I were making it say what I wanted it to say. Then I realized that the two translations fit well! The business of God should be conducted in His house. Remember when Jesus became so angry and drove the money changers from the temple? His anger was because the business of God was NOT to buy and sell and extort money from people who came to the synagogue! Driving the money changers out was “being about his Father’s business” and “in his Father’s house.”

Taking the analogy a little further, if our bodies are really the temples of the Holy Spirit – and the Bible says that they are – then we, his living houses, should go about his business as we live in the bodies or temple he has given us!

So that’s our theme. The Scripture each day will help us learn what Jesus considered to be his Father’s business. My prayer is that the Scripture will also challenge us to consider whose business we are about. Let’s pray that God will teach us through his Word how to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, with him as our model, in the holy houses he has given us, doing the business he calls us to do.

Lent means fortieth – and in the Christian culture, it refers to the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert prior to the start of His ministry on earth. It is celebrated now as the 40 days leading up to the commemoration of the death and resurrection of the Lord starting on Ash Wednesday and continuing through Holy Week to the Saturday just prior to Easter Sunday. It includes fasting and self-denial and helps us focus on God.

As you prepare for Easter 2020, my prayer is that this devotional guide will bless you beyond measure. May we discover new ways to be about our Father’s business. And may He be glorified.

Father, Bless the words you gave my mother ten years ago. Make them real to us today. Help us to prepare for the celebration of your resurrection. And help us to be about your business. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida

Spring 2010

by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator