A Gathered Inheritance

Here is a guide to devotions for each week of the year. The priests of old tended the fire in the tent of meeting, where the people offered their gifts and rededicated themselves to God. Because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we no longer worship with burnt offerings. Yet we must tend and preserve the spiritual fires. Brother Lawrence, Martin Luther, and many others have fanned the flames. Jesus Christ is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Yet we must stir the fire to understand this Truth better as we build on the illumination of previous generations. As the world changes, we apply God's Word to new challenges so that all might know Christ as Savior and Lord. Since the Holy Spirit encourages and inspires us, we will not run out of fuel for our task. Our faithful forebears moved beyond fear and rejection of their world and embraced the love of God. Out of that love flowed their genius. Church fathers and mothers such as Origen, Bonhoeffer, McDonald, and Mother Teresa have promoted love for God, God's people, and all of God's creation—at some risk, yet always in hope, building on God's promises. God's saints are flashes of lightning in the sky. The darkness is never the same again because their light reveals what life can be in Jesus Christ. On these pages Ignatius, Nee, Tolstoy, Guyon flash across the sky. This gathered inheritance brings memory, possibility, renewal.