Daily Office - Saturday, April 4

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:1-5
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over to see this strange sight - why the bush does not burn up."
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
"Do not come any closer," God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Devotional
God's presence in us is like the fire in the burning bush. It gradually takes us over, so that although we remain fully ourselves, we are being made over into our true selves, the way God originally intended us to be. He is light, and we are filled with His light - maybe even literally, as some saints were said to visibly glow. The term for this transformation is fairly scandalizing: theosis, which means transformed into God, divinized or deified. Of course we do not become little mini-gods with our own universes. We never lose our identity, but we are filled with God like a sponge is filled with water.

Question to Consider
What is one area of your inner-person that the fire of God's presence might want to burn away (e.g. selfishness, greed, bitterness, impatience)?

Prayer
Jesus, I believe that you came to save me from the penalty of my sins - death - and for eternal life. At  the same time, you came to save me from the poison that flows in my veins, from that which keep me from your light. Come invade me with your burning fire that I might become the person you have created me to be in you. In your name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)