{"id":16120,"date":"2021-01-31T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-31st-january-2021-hdkisd855v"},"modified":"2021-01-31T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-31st-january-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-31st-january-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 31st January 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-8f840265-7fff-3f8c-ca36-b0d8ba0594e9\">Sunday January 31&nbsp; Psalm 29<\/span><\/strong> <\/div>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">All on earth and all in heaven,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">raise to God a song on high;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">strength unmeasured,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">love unbounded,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">God alone we glorify.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">At God\u2019s voice the clouds assemble,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">thunder roars and torrents fall;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">earth shall quake bedford God\u2019s presence,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">mountains tremble at God\u2019s call.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Trees shall bow in awe and wonder,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">bend their branches to the ground;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">from God\u2019s lips one word in anger<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">wreaks destruction all around.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">But the Word which sets in motion<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">such travails can make them cease;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">that same voice which tumult beckons<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">in a gentler breath speakers peace.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wdkv_QptY3E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">You can hear the tune, Ebeneezer, here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Sometimes it is good to simply stop and enjoy the longevity and the immediateness of God\u2019s care for everything; the simpleness of wonder at the deepest truth. &nbsp; We are fleeting feathers in the flowing breeze of love which has been going on for eons before us and will go on for eons after us.&nbsp; Without digging into whether mountains really crumble, what does it mean for a tree to bow, if God really does wreak destruction, challenging these pre-scientific words of creation responding as human to God\u2019s words, without all of that interrogation which I am most definitely prone to doing, sometimes it is good to stop for a while for&nbsp; wonder.&nbsp; No matter what we believe to be true of God, we don\u2019t actually know what is true about God.&nbsp; We can, and some have, argued to the death about what they believe to be true about God.&nbsp; Sometimes I can be very short tempered about my version of God compared to another\u2019s version of God.&nbsp; The reality is that we\u2019re all not fully sure &#8211; and that\u2019s a good thing.&nbsp; God is mystery whether we like it or not.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">God is beyond and around and inside and it is wonderful to dip into these ancient words and realise that being awestruck by the who and how of God is a good thing.&nbsp; There is something very real in this poem of glory and God can stir us in our deepest selves as we rest in its words.&nbsp; I urge us all to sit and dwell in this poem and to let ourselves be moved by God\u2019s mystery and presence.&nbsp; With so much about which we have been wrestling, we need the space that dwelling with these lines will bring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">God of all time and this time, let us give ourselves permission to stop and rest with you.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Give us grace to pause our arguments and uncomfortable searching and sense your presence.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">When we are revived, give us courage to bring that new peace to the justice work you call us to do.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-ed324e7a-7fff-08e7-12ae-e049d6e6974e\">Amen.&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday January 31&nbsp; Psalm 29 All on earth and all in heaven,raise to God a song on high;strength unmeasured,love unbounded,God alone we glorify.At God\u2019s voice the clouds assemble,thunder roars and torrents fall;earth shall quake bedford God\u2019s presence,mountains tremble at God\u2019s call.&nbsp;&nbsp; Trees shall bow in awe and wonder,bend their branches to the ground;from God\u2019s lips &hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-31st-january-2021\/\" class=\"button more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;URC Daily Devotion 31st January 2021&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}