March 7: The Ministry of Love the the Saints
♫ Music:
Day 23 - Thursday, March 07
Title: THE MINISTRY OF LOVE TO THE SAINTS
Scripture #1: Galatians 6:7-10 (NKJV)
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Scripture #2: Hebrews 6:10 (NKJV)
For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Poetry & Poet:
“Hurrahing in Harvest”
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty,
the stooks arise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely
behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-waiver
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across the skies?
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our
Saviour;
And, eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding
shoulder
Majestic - as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! -
These things, these things were here and but the
beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off
under his feet.
SOWING IN THE SPIRIT AND DOING GOOD
Exhaustion can cause mental overload and spiritual heaviness, resulting in a kind of chaotic weightiness making it hard to breathe. Weariness whispers lies like, “It would be better if you give up. Walk away. Nothing can change.”
Weariness skews perspective. Like a kind of emotional sunburn, any comment received in exhaustion lands in an overly tender and painful manner. Have you experienced that recently?
Deception uses fatigue to elevate apathy, hopelessness, and selfishness as our primary motivations. In exhaustion, we move to survival mode, eliminating all nonessentials and operating from a scarcity model, where fear of loss, of not having enough drives our decisions.
This is why Jesus’s invitation (e.g. Matthew 11:28-30) to draw near to him, receive comfort, and learn how to approach what’s before us with his guidance is such an incredible gift. The God of the universe offers to teach us the rhythm of his grace so that we might experience true rest in the very core of our being.
Are you in need of rest right now? Does it feel like an impossible pursuit? The apostle Paul knows this challenge well (Galatians 6:7-10). He slices through the thick fog of fatigue with an alert command: Do not be deceived.
Friends, do not let exhaustion misinform you about the truth. What you’re doing right now, it matters. What you’re dealing with right now, it has an impact.
Don’t be deceived is our first caution. Don’t grow weary in doing good is our second. We’re not meant to work without rest. Rest is a holy practice.
Rest orients us when everything feels upside down. It may be instinctual to keep working, keep trying to fix what’s broken. Sometimes broken things must be surrendered. Rest is an orienting surrender. What if you started pursuing rest like it’s essential to your work?
The song for today’s devotional identifies this deep ache, weaving in the echoing words of Christ: “Your labor is not in vain. For I [the Lord] am with you. For I have called you, called you by name.” The Lord is with you. He is by your side. And, like the Sower artwork for today, we may not see the result of our work in the moment, or even in our lifetime, but God sees it, and there will be a result nonetheless (Hebrews 6:10).
Don’t grow weary in doing good isn’t an urging to keep working without rest. It’s an urging to stay focused on the goal. What is our goal? “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
So, friends, what if today we asked the Lord to help us clarify how we might invest in what the Spirit is already doing? What if we asked him to renew our hope in the work we’ve been given, and integrate the role of rest in doing work well?
We don’t have to do it alone. We’re not supposed to. We can offer what we have to the Lord and see what he might do!
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you are good. Your goodness is not defined by my circumstances. When I am weary beyond comprehension, may your goodness be my resting place. When I am losing hope, may your goodness be my guide. When I cannot see how to move forward, may your goodness be my light. Oh, great Advocate, please walk before me, beside me, and behind me. Show me how I might respond to your call, for your glory.
Amen.
Dr. Arianna Molloy
Associate Professor of Organizational Communication
Division of Communication,
School of Fine Arts & Communication
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
The Sower
Bernardas Bucas and Morfai
1935 - The Sower bronze statue by Bucas
2008 - Street art enhancement by Morfai
Spray paint on a wall
Kaunas, Lithuania
At first, there was just the sculpture entitled The Sower that graced the streets of Kaunas, the art deco capital of Lithuania. The sculpture, created by Bernardas Bucas in 1935, represents a peasant sowing grain. Years passed and then one night the sower began sowing stars instead of grain. In 2008, the street artist Morfai had put emphasis where it needed to be placed—in sowing hope to people.
https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=lt149
http://morfai.blogspot.com/2017/04/after-8-years-stars-seeder-was-restored.html
About the Artist #1:
Bernardas Bucas (1903–1979) was a Lithuanian sculptor. He studied in Rome and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, and after completing his military service, he worked as a freelance artist. In 1936 he received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education to study in Paris. After his studies, the artist returned to Lithuania, where he created sculptures, sculptural groups, statues, tombstones, reliefs, busts, paintings, and graphic works. Though his early work was characterized by stylization, his sculptures created after World War II were more naturalistic.
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardas_Bu%C4%8Das
About the Artist #2:
Timotiejus Norvila or Morfai (b. 1985) is an artist from Kaunas, Lithuania, who has attracted the most public attention by illegally enhancing The Sower, the sculpture of Bernardas Bucas in downtown Kaunas, with stars that fit perfectly with the object and shine in the dark. Although his street artworks are the most popular, Morfai also experiments in photography, illustration, painting, and design. Artworks of Morfai can be found in Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
https://opengallery.lt/en/artists/the-epic-of-the-crossing/
About the Music:
“Your Labor Is Not in Vain” from the album Work Songs: The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Volume 1
Lyrics:
Your labor is not in vain
Though the ground underneath you is cursed
and stained.
Your planting and reaping are never the same,
But your labor is not in vain.
Your labor is not unknown
Though the rocks they cry out
and the sea it may groan.
The place of your toil may not seem like a home
but your labor is not unknown.
For I am with you, I am with you.
I am with you, I am with you.
For I have called you,
Called you by name
Your labor is not in vain.
The vineyards you plant will bear fruit.
The fields will sing out and rejoice with the truth,
For all that is old will at last be made new:
The vineyards you plant will bear fruit.
For I am with you, I am with you.
I am with you, I am with you.
For I have called you,
Called you by name
Your labor is not in vain.
The houses you labored to build,
Will finally with laughter and joy be filled.
The serpent that hurts and destroys shall be killed,
And all that is broken be healed.
For I am with you, I am with you.
I am with you, I am with you.
For I have called you,
Called you by name
Your labor is not in vain.
About the Composers:
Isaac Wardell, Paul Zach, and Wendell Kimbrough
Isaac Wardell is a record producer and composer who primarily writes sacred music. He is the director of Bifrost Arts, an ecumenical organization closely linked to the Presbyterian Church in America that produces written and recorded religious music, and frequently performs at Christian universities and conferences. Wardell founded Bifrost Arts in 2008 "to enrich the Church and engage the world with beauty and truth through music beautiful enough that non-Christians are attracted to it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Wardell
About the Performer:
Paul Zach (b. 1986) is the director of worship at Portico Church, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Zach explains his journey in becoming a worship leader: “..... since working for a church I feel much more creatively fulfilled than I ever did touring with a rock band, I think there’s something fun about writing songs that are meant to be sung together and if people aren’t singing with you then you aren’t doing your job right. It’s grounded me in a different way that’s really helpful for me. I’ve found that through seasons of doubt and facing those fears, songwriting for me has actually been one of my main ways to commune with God.”
https://www.paulzachmusic.com/
Wendell Kimbrough is a songwriter and performer who is reimagining the psalms for emotionally honest modern worship. His music makes space for the whole range of human experience, from lament, grief, and anger to playful, joyful celebration. With singable melodies, steeped in the sounds of folk, gospel, and soul music, Wendell's songs are sung in hundreds of churches around the world. His music has been featured in Worship Leader Magazine and World Magazine, and Under the Radar Media podcast selected his 2016 album, Psalms We Sing Together, as an honorable mention for albums of the year. In 2020, he was invited to serve on American Songwriter Magazine's prestigious panel of lyric judges. Kimbrough lives with his family in Fairhope, Alabama, where he serves as worship leader and artist-in-residence at Church of the Apostles. In 2020, Wendell began an ambitious new journey—recording and releasing a new song every month to supporters on Patreon.
https://www.wendellk.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) is regarded as one the Victorian era’s greatest poets. He was raised in a prosperous and artistic family. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied the classics. In 1867, he entered a Jesuit monastery near London. At that time, he vowed to “write no more...unless it were by the wish of my superiors.” Hopkins burned all of the poetry he had written and did not write poems again until 1875. He was ordained in 1877, and for the next seven years carried out his duties of teaching and preaching in London, Oxford, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Stonyhurst. In 1875, Hopkins, deeply moved by a newspaper account of a German ship, the Deutschland, wrecked during a storm at the mouth of the Thames River, began to write again. Although his poems were never published during his lifetime, his friend poet Robert Bridges edited a volume of Hopkins’ works entitled Poems that first appeared in 1918.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gerard-manley-hopkins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Arianna Molloy
Associate Professor of Organizational Communication
Division of Communication
School of Fine Arts & Communication
Biola University
Arianna Molloy is an associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at Biola University, where she teaches courses in organizational communication, research methods, nonverbal communication, small group communication, and communication and calling. Arianna’s research focus is in communication about meaningful work and work as a calling (involving factors that impact motivation, sustained loyalty and satisfaction, as well as significant costs such as burnout). She is published in premier journals such as the International Journal of Business Communication and Communication Studies. In addition to being an active speaker in academic settings, Arianna works as a consultant for nonprofit organizations and as a speech coach for business professionals and ministries. Arianna is happily married to Allen Yeh and they have a little boy, Asher, who is the delight of their lives. For more information on Dr. Molloy’s work on calling, burnout, and organizational communication, visit ariannamolloy.com