Devotion - Monday, January 13

We were fortunate to have Bishop Herman Yoos with us yesterday for the re-dedication of our worship center.  Keeping with the appointed liturgical calendar, he wove our dedication into the Festival of The Baptism of Our Lord.  He compared baptism to his iPhone:  Baptism is the recharging station which allows all those marvelous apps to work.  Just like our phones, the baptismal covenant goes with us everywhere and is always close at hand.

His message of baptism sending us out into the world was reinforced in today's appointed reading from Hebrews 1.  The 14th verse reads:  "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?"

I sometimes call my phone (in reference to my calendar and reminder app) my brain.  I refer to it as my storage space (with the downloading of Google Drive and Dropbox.)  It reality is a tool; it is something I use.  And I am the one who chooses how it will be used.

Shall it be in service?  Will it be dedicated to my self-centered aims or given over for the sake of others?

In Genesis 2 (today's OT reading), God creates the animals, brings them to Adam, who gives them a name.  Adam chooses the use and designation of the other expressions of God's creative activity.  The name and the task assigned is our partnership with God to see that God's will is carried forth.

What use will you make this day of the tools God has placed in your hand?  What name will you associate with the expressions of God's grace freely poured into the world?

Would that we had the eyes and the heart of the writer of Hebrews:   "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?"