{"id":21429,"date":"2023-11-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-monday-27th-november-2023"},"modified":"2023-11-27T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-monday-27th-november-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-monday-27th-november-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion Monday 27th November 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psalm 139 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.<\/span>
You know my sitting down and my rising up;<\/span>
You understand my thought afar off.<\/span>
You comprehend my path and my lying down,<\/span>
and are acquainted with all my ways.<\/span>
For there is not a word on my tongue,<\/span>
but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.<\/span>
You have hedged me behind and before,<\/span>
and laid Your hand upon me.<\/span>
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;<\/span>
it is high, I cannot attain it.<\/span>
Where can I go from Your Spirit<\/span>
or where can I flee from Your presence?<\/span>
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;<\/span>
if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.<\/span>
If I take the wings of the morning,<\/span>
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,<\/span>
even there Your hand shall lead me,<\/span>
and Your right hand shall hold me.<\/span>
If I say, \u201cSurely the darkness shall fall on me,\u201d<\/span>
even the night shall be light about me;<\/span>
indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,<\/span>
but the night shines as the day;<\/span>
the darkness and the light are both alike to You.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture taken from the New King James Version\u00ae. Copyright \u00a9 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Who makes their bed in hell? Who would make that choice? <\/span><\/p>\n

I can remember in my younger days thinking I had to make a choice between my faith and my sexuality, even making (being advised to make) the choice to go through aversion therapy to make myself acceptable.  What I found was that aversion therapy wasn\u2019t acceptable, left some trauma, and  didn\u2019t work.<\/span><\/p>\n

This hell isn’t so much a place as an extreme feeling of not belonging – particularly with other Christians. I vividly remember the times I sat at Communion and couldn’t take part, couldn’t receive just one small piece of bread & one small sip of wine. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was judged, and I judged myself, unworthy of being part of one of the core Sacraments and, therefore, assumed God thought I wasn’t worthy.  Unlike others who had done some things that were wrong I felt that who I was, my very being, was wrong and therefore unforgivable, unlovable; it was hell.  But I\u2019d made my bed, I had to lie in it, alone, because at least if I chose celibacy maybe there was a way back into the Church family.<\/span><\/p>\n

All through my personal hell, though, I felt drawn to being in God’s presence because over time it felt comfortable, more when I was alone with God than with other Christians.  Gradually God poured healing in, prayers felt like a conversation, I had poured out everything to God, and God had heard me, and reached out to me and gently led me home.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do we stop people from being in hell? <\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe by not judging but accepting, not shunning but including, not asking too much, but allowing people to flourish at their own pace. <\/span><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t assume that our corner of the Christian world in the URC is automatically a safe space, we have to actively and persistently include, invite, welcome, and love – just as we are loved.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayers<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God of love, and God of rescue<\/span>
save us from the hell we can fall into.<\/span>
Rescue us from the pit<\/span>
shine your light on our lives so it overwhelms the darkness<\/span>
bring us safely home.  Amen <\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psalm 139  O Lord, You have searched me and known me.You know my sitting down and my rising up;You understand my thought afar off.You comprehend my path and my lying down,and are acquainted with all my ways.For there is not a word on my tongue,but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.You have hedged me … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion Monday 27th November 2023”<\/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-21429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21429","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=21429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}