Read: Ephesians 3:14-21

The breadth and length and height and depth. (v. 18)

The next metaphor for prayer is “The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth.” Not all that long ago, a plummet—a tool consisting of a string with a lead weight attached to one end of it, otherwise known as a plumb line—had two regular uses. It was what the sailor used to take soundings—to judge the depth of water under his boat—and what the builder used when he needed to test the verticality of the wall he was building. It’s the sailor that Herbert here has in mind, except that his plummet “falls” in every direction, not just down into the depths of earth and sea, but up into what C. S. Lewis called “Deep Heaven,” and out—north, south, east, and west—through the length and breadth of the world around us.

Whichever way you look and however far you can see, there is nothing that you cannot turn into matter for prayer. Intercessory prayer where we see need, prayers of thanksgiving where God is plainly at work, praise prayers where something admirable comes to our notice, prayers of adoration when we are caught up with the wonder of who and what he is.

The more that praying Christians find their imagination stretched in all these directions, says Paul, the more they will find their hearts and minds, as well as the situations for which they pray, “filled with all the fullness of God” (v. 19).

Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – The Christian Plummet →

Read: Hebrews 12:18-24

Innumerable angels in festal gathering. (v. 22)

That two-word title sounds even stranger than the previous one, “The Church’s Banquet.” Whatever does “Angels’ Age” mean? Nothing, surely, to do with how many years angels live?

We regularly use the word “age” in a way that has nothing to do with length of life. You remember Fred and Wilma Flintstone? As the theme song tells us, “They’re a modern Stone Age family.” And the cartoons are concerned neither with historical dates nor with how old these characters are, but with life imagined in a world of Stone Age cars and telephones and pets, in a Stone Age suburb.

The Flintstones lived in a world like, yet unlike, ours. In the same way, the New Testament talks about the “age to come” or the “world to come,” which is sooner or later going to replace this one that we see around us. Just as we could look back on the cartoonist’s view of life in the Stone Age world of the Flintstones, so we can look forward to life in the Angels’ Age world of George Herbert’s poem. In that future world, where everything will at last make sense, we shall see angels everywhere, carrying out God’s purposes. The poet’s point is that prayer can admit us here and now to that Angels’ Age view of things, seeing the invisible God working “all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11).

Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Angels’ Age →

Read: 1 Kings 17:8-16

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess. 5:17)

Some of the words in this poem no longer mean quite what they meant when Herbert wrote it. A modern dictionary definition of “banquet” is “a lavish meal with speeches”! Herbert was a Church of England clergyman, and he would have regarded as very special occasions the Sunday services at which he loved to gather the flock that he pastored, to lead them in times of prayer and praise and the hearing of God’s Word, and (of course) of sharing the bread and wine at the Lord’s Table—a feast of good things.

But that is probably not what he had in mind. In those days the term “banquet” was actually used for a lighter meal, something to keep you going between the big special events. Herbert expected his people to come together on Sundays (lots of prayer there: he would lead worship using the Book of Common Prayer, with services that were actually called Morning and Evening Prayer). But it was prayer between times, prayer at all times, prayer at work and at home and on the journey, that I think he had in mind here; the church praying when it was not “at church.” Of course we should look for, and should prayerfully ask for, special blessings when we converge on the place where our fellowship gathers on the weekend. But I find increasingly as the years go by that the weekday “snacks” and the packed “lunches” of prayer are also quite remarkably sustaining.

The prayer is printed below in its entirety.

Prayer (I)

BY GEORGE HERBERT

Prayer the Church’s banquet, Angels’ age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days-world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood.

The land of spices; something understood.

Prayer:

Thank you for today’s “bread,” Lord. Quality stuff, and never fails.

Author: Michael Wilcock

https://woh.org/

Read: Matthew 6:5-13

Pray then like this. (v. 9)

“Prayer” isn’t just the title of this reflection, or of this series of reflections. It’s also the title and the first word of a poem by George Herbert, who for the last three years of his short life at the turn of the 17th century pastored a congregation in a village just outside the city of Salisbury in southern England. Its 14 lines set before us a variety of ways in which we can ponder this all-important subject.

Young Christians are regularly encouraged to grasp the fact that prayer is not just a matter of asking for things. ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) was a useful acronym proposed in my young days to give me a more rounded idea of what I was supposed to be doing when I prayed. Herbert would agree, but would encourage us to be a good deal more specific, more anchored in personal experience and practical daily life, than that. What is more, you can tell he is not handing down other people’s ideas, but telling us something of his own delighted discoveries in the matter.

As with the Lord’s Prayer, you could recite Herbert’s sonnet in thirty seconds flat. But (again like the Lord’s Prayer) every facet of this many-sided jewel has its own special luster. Each phrase may call to mind other parts of Scripture and the reflections of other poets and hymn writers. All of them will repay our attention and should stimulate us to frequent, regular, practical, Bible-based praying.

Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Prayer →

Read: Hosea 12:10

I have . . . used similitudes. (v. 10 KJV)

On the original title page of his classic allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan quotes Hosea 12:10. Modern versions usually translate that last word “similitudes” as “parables.” Jesus was not the first man in the Bible to use analogies, stories, and word pictures to get his message across.

Subsequent centuries show many Christians (besides Bunyan) doing the same. Literary imagery—metaphor, simile, figures of speech—occurs in its most concentrated form in poetry, and few Christians have ever used poetic imagery to greater spiritual effect than George Herbert.

George Herbert was one of a group of Christian poets who lived and wrote in England during the 17th century. Like his contemporary John Donne, Herbert was an Anglican clergyman, a devout Christian believer, and one of the greatest poets in the history of the English language. In 1633, the year of his death, Herbert published a sonnet titled “Prayer”—the first of two poems so titled.

The poem is printed below in its entirety.

Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – The Power of Pictures →

Read: Revelation 22:1-5

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (vv. 1-2)

The Bible begins and ends with rivers and trees. Have you noticed? The Bible begins (Genesis 1-2) and ends (Revelation 21-22) with rivers and trees.

Way back in Genesis we were told a tale of two trees. Now in Revelation we find one of those trees smack dab in the center of the renewed and perfected heaven-on-earth. In the middle of this garden-city is the tree of life, with twelve kinds of fruit, food for each month. In God’s good future, there always is something to eat, no one goes hungry, all are fed.

And the leaves of this great tree are for the healing of the nations. No more trees used as weapons to kill or destroy. This tree is for the reconciliation of all peoples. This tree is for the flourishing of life. In this city stands a tree and flows a river so that all things are nourished, so that all things are the way they are supposed to be, so that shalom may be fully realized.

Prayer:

God of restoration and renewal, help us rest in the promise of the resurrection and in the vision of this redeemed city, with its tree of life.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Galatians 3:1-14

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” (v. 13)

Have you ever been in jail? To your great relief, a friend pays your bail, or gives you (in the board game Monopoly) a get-out-of-jail-free card. You are redeemed, because of someone else, and a feeling of gratitude washes over you.

In this short letter, sometimes called the magna carta of Christian freedom, the apostle Paul makes clear the centrality of grace in the work of salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. Followers of Christ are not obligated to follow the Mosaic law. As Martin Luther put it: good works are necessary, but not for salvation.

Jesus died on a tree. Thus, according to the Torah he was cursed (Deut. 21:23). But his being cursed “redeems” us, argues Paul, from the curse of the law, from our inability to keep the law. Christ did for us something we cannot do for ourselves. Christ paid our debt, bought us back from slavery to sin, freed us from captivity to our own bondage—the metaphors are thick when Paul speaks of God’s way of reconciliation. All of this our Lord Jesus accomplished by taking our place—by hanging on a tree and thus becoming a curse for us. Yet another tree—the tree of redemption.

Prayer:

God of unfathomable grace, thank you for redeeming us, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Acts 10

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day. (vv. 39-40)

What a remarkable story. Cornelius was a captain in the Roman army. A devout non-Jew, he feared God, gave alms, and prayed continually. And he paid attention to the angel who visited him, and so sent three people to find someone named Simon Peter in Joppa. Meanwhile Peter has had a mind-boggling vision that revolutionizes his view of who is clean and unclean. The living God of Jesus, he learns, loves not only Jews, but all people. In God’s eyes no one is profane. God shows no partiality.

Cornelius’s search party finds Peter, and Peter returns to Caesarea where Cornelius’s whole family and many friends are waiting. Cornelius and Peter each recount their stories. Peter offers a testimony that summarizes the gospel. While Peter is still speaking, the Holy Spirit, like water, is poured out on Cornelius and his clan, so that they speak in tongues and offer praise to God. They are then baptized.

This story summarizes the gospel in a nutshell: Jesus was put to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day. And this good news includes everyone, even people you may have believed (with Peter) were outside the pale, perpetually unclean, eternally damned. Yet another surprise from a grace-filled God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Prayer:

God of all, open our eyes to the astounding reach of your all-encompassing love.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Luke 22:39-46

He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. (v. 39)

Mountains are frequently mentioned in Scripture. Often they are holy places. Mount Sinai. Mount Hermon. Mount Tabor. Mount Zion. The Sermon on the Mount. The Mount of Transfiguration. And the Mount of Olives. Consisting of three connected summits, the Mount of Olives overlooks Jerusalem from the east. For millennia it has had olive groves.

Luke doesn’t explicitly mention it, but both Mark and Matthew report that while on the Mount of Olives Jesus went to a place called Gethsemane—a small field with a grove of olive trees (Gethsemane in Hebrew means olive oil vat). John in his Gospel (18:1) calls it a garden and from that reference this special place has heretofore been called the Garden of Gethsemane.

Luke tells us that Jesus “came out and went, as was his custom,” so he must have known this mountain quite well, spending considerable time in its olive groves. Judas certainly knew where to find Jesus when he came to betray him. So it is not surprising that in seeking a place to pray—an agonizing prayer of blood, sweat, and tears—Jesus went to the olive grove on this mountain. Jesus chose, on his last night, to pray in the company of trees.

Prayer:

O Lord, giver and lover of trees, hear our prayers, however painful or faltering or awkward they may be. In your mercy, hear us in our time of need.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Mark 13:28-31

From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. (v. 28)

What time is it? I don’t mean time on your watch, what the Greeks called chronos, but time that is out of the ordinary, that is memorable and significant, what the Greeks named kairos. December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, is one such kairos moment. So is July 21, 1969, the day when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. And September 11, 2001, is a kairos moment. Whether for good or for ill, certain times stand out for their life-changing significance.

In Mark 13 Jesus is concerned about whether his followers could discern the times. The present age was coming to an end. Jerusalem would be destroyed and the temple laid waste—inconceivable events for the Jews to believe. But Jesus persisted, like Isaiah and Amos, in spreading the not-so-good news of coming judgment.

To make his point, Jesus turned to the fig tree. From careful observation of this tree, one can learn that summer is coming. If the fig sprouts leaves, then summer is near. So by analogy Jesus stated: when you see certain things, e.g., false prophets and fake messiahs (Mark 13:22), then you will know that the kingdom of God (see Luke 21:31) is near. God’s reign can be perceived by those attentive to the signs of the times.

Jesus is bringing the kingdom of shalom in its fullness. Do we know what time it is?

Prayer:

Redeemer of all things, help us to bear faithful witness to your kingdom.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Matthew 7:15-20

You will recognize them by their fruits. (v. 16)

Shortly after my family and I moved into our house in Holland, Michigan, I hired an arborist to help me correctly identify the trees surrounding our new home. There were 40 trees on our little lot in the core city of Holland: Serbian spruce and Norway maple, eastern hemlock and northern catalpa, white pine and red cedar. I dutifully took notes as the tree expert walked and talked. On the east side of the house he identified a small fruit tree: it was a plum tree, he said with the confidence of an expert.

Come spring I noticed that our plum tree was sprouting crab apples. The tree man got this one wrong, but, to be fair, many fruit trees look alike and his visit took place in late October, when the leaves were gone, so it was even harder to identify this tree with any certainty.

“You will recognize them by their fruits,” said Jesus to his followers. You don’t get grapes from thorns or figs from thistle. (Nor crab apples from plum trees.) Good trees, furthermore, produce good fruit, and bad trees bear bad fruit. Luke’s version of this story (6:43-45) is even more explicit: “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.” Let’s face it: talk is cheap, and we are known by our fruit. So let us bear the fruit of a heart enlarged and directed by the goodness of our loving Lord—above all, the fruit of love.

Prayer:

Lord, empower us by your grace to bear much good fruit.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Psalm 148

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! (v. 9)

This psalm of praise is all-inclusive. Nothing is left out. All creatures praise the Lord. Angels in heaven. Sun and moon and stars. Sea monsters and creatures of the ocean deep. Fire and hail and snow and frost. Mountains and hills. Animals wild and domestic. Lowly snails and high-flying falcons. Kings and queens. The poor and the homeless. Humans male and female. All people, young and old.

And wedged in the middle of this doxology are trees. “Fruit trees and all cedars” to be specific. That brief list includes lots of trees. Almond, apple, carob, date palm, fig, mulberry, olive, pomegranate, sycomore (not to be confused with sycamore), and terebinth—to name just the fruit trees native to the Middle East. And there are many species of cedar around the world, the most famous being the cedar of Lebanon—a symbol of strength, splendor, and glory.

What does it mean for trees to praise God? Is this just a case of personification, attributing human qualities to nonhuman creatures? Or can we imagine nonhuman creatures praising God, each in their own creature-specific way? New scientific evidence says there is much more to trees than meets the eye. For example, trees communicate with other trees and they nurse sick neighbors. Perhaps if we had the eyes to see and ears to hear, we could acknowledge that trees praise God in their own tree-like ways. If so, then we could tune in to the symphony of creation.

Prayer:

Loving Lord, may all we do give praise to you.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Psalm 96

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. (v. 12)

The tall eastern white pine, a favorite home for bald eagles, whistles its familiar tune when the west wind blows through its bundles of long needles, singing praise to the God who made it. The smooth-barked American beech, whose nuts are sought after by grouse, raccoons, and bear, slowly bends in the breeze, bowing in reverence to the God who tends it.

The broad-crowned white oak, whose acorns are nourishment for famished turkeys, squirrels, and deer, turns red-brown each autumn as the days grow shorter, saying thank you to the God who nourishes it. The crooked crab apple, its white-pink flowers exploding with color each spring, hunkers down close to the ground, glorifying the God who rejuvenates it.

The giant sequoia, by volume the world’s largest living tree, whose bark is 20 inches thick, whose crown is more than 300 feet above the ground, who was an adult long before Jesus was born, in whose presence one can only gaze slack-jawed and stone silent—this Tree of trees sings for joy to God, the Maker and Sustainer and Redeemer of all.

All the trees of the forest shall sing for joy. In this hymn of praise to our Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, all creatures—human and nonhuman—worship God. So be it. Amen!

Prayer:

O Lord, help us, your human earthkeepers, to live in such a way that all the trees of the forest shall sing to you for joy.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/

Read: Psalm 1

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. (v. 3)

I have never forgotten this tree. Many years ago, while hiking in the mountains of Sequoia National Park, at the end of a long day I stopped near the tree line, above which no trees are able to survive because of the high altitude. I spied a group of four or five stunted trees I couldn’t recall ever seeing before. The trees were about 10 feet high, with reddish brown bark, cones three to five inches long, and short needles in bundles. The trees were contorted, misshapen by the ever-present, unrelenting wind. I looked the tree up in my tree book. It was a foxtail pine, so named because its short bushy branches resemble the tail of a fox.

The ground was rocky, with little soil, but there was a small stream of water gurgling along through the stony soil. These high-altitude trees were alive only because of this humble flow of water.

Those who delight in the law of the Lord, the psalmist tells us, are like trees planted by streams of water. In this opening psalm, which introduces the entire psalter, the author uses a tree to teach a lesson. Those who meditate on God’s Word and ways are like trees that give fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither. In everything they do, they prosper. May it be so with us.

Prayer:

Help us, O Lord, to delight in your law, to be like trees planted by streams of water.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

https://woh.org/