Transformed | Inspired | Called

Becoming a Blessing

- by Bruce Yoder

The question about how to understand the church, its identity and purpose, has moved to the forefront of things I think about recently. Ideas abound across different Christian traditions, even within our own Anabaptist stream, so that we have both common understandings and differences.

Transformed. Inspired. Called: An MCEC Devotional

It's Good to be Here!

- by Rene Baergen

It’s good to be here!

This is Peter’s response to what we call the transfiguration of Jesus, in Mark 9. Jesus doesn’t necessarily disagree with Peter, but he also seems to be on a schedule. There is work to be done after all. So, very quickly it’s down the mountain for the disciples—don’t breathe a word—and back into the fray of life, to help—to minister—to the needs that await. That’s how I’ve tended to read the story of Mark 9. I’ve tended to read the story of Mark 9 as a call back into the busy-ness of life. There’s not a moment to lose. The world is a hurting place. And life is not lived on the mountain top.

But today, with the sun that glints on the leaves blushing red outside my window, I am caught by Peter’s words: It’s good to be here.

Transformed. Inspired. Called: An MCEC Devotional

When God Says NO

- by Craig Frere

God ALWAYS answers our prayers.  When I was growing up in church, that is one of the things I remember being taught in Sunday School or at youth group.  That conversation was then followed up with the qualifier that God doesn’t always answer them with a “yes”.  We would talk about how sometimes God answers with a “no” if my prayer is a selfish one or if it doesn’t line up with God’s plans and purposes.  We would also talk about how God sometimes answers our prayers with a “not yet” when our timeline doesn’t quite lineup with God’s.  While that answer is a bit simplistic, at the time, I still found it satisfying – and sometimes I still do. 

Transformed. Inspired. Called: An MCEC Devotional

Thanksgiving with Grateful Hearts, Faithful Hands

- by Yoel Masyawong

Have you ever noticed that we could receive 99 blessings and still complain about the one thing we don't have?

The Israelites did something similar. They had just experienced God's deliverance from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. Yet, when they became hungry in the wilderness, they complained. Suddenly, they remembered Egypt as if it were a wonderful, delicious Thai restaurant with “pots of meat and full table of bread."

Transformed. Inspired. Called: An MCEC Devotional