A thought for the day(s)

Saw this in a friend's tag line and loved it:

Love Generously,
Care Deeply,
Speak Kindly

& Leave the Rest to God

In a nutshell

Sometimes we make faith complicated. But there are two simple principles that can govern every action, every thought, every motive of our every day lives. It's this:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. One these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37

That's it. Easy to do? No. Not if I hold every thought, every action, every motive up to this standard. But it's hard to say I don't understand when it's been made this simple, isn't it?

Freedom in Christ

Living in America we hear a lot about freedom. Being thankful for freedom, fighting for freedom, honoring those who paid the price for our freedom. It's a freedom that sometimes we celebrate while forgetting the price that was paid for it. And one of the ironies of that freedom is how many people take it as license to do many things that run contrary to the freedom they enjoy. They live the freedom but they won't acknowledge the responsibility that comes with it.

Christians too, talk about freedom. Freedom through grace. Freedom from the penalties of sin. Freedom from the law (of the Old Testament). It's a freedom that should be celebrated. Christ's death and resurrection on the cross paid the ultimate price so that we could be free from sin and back in a relationship with the God that created and loves us.

But the price of that freedom isn't simply a license to carry on with no consequences. Paul says in Acts 6:1, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

My concern sometimes is that we, as Christ followers, forget that we still have the responsibility that comes with freedom. But it's not always black and white. Our behavior, our choices still carry some eternal consequences even though we may have the freedom in Christ to do them. While we have no law that forbids them, they can still be sin. And we have the responsibility of being an example to others even while we live in freedom.

"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?" (1 Corinthians 8:9-10)

Paul is addressing a specific action here but what if we substitute some other choices?

For if anyone sees you _________, won't he be convinced he can __________? (lose your temper, sit in a bar, talk negatively about your pastor, watch an R-rated movie, ...)

Why is this a problem?

"... So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." (1 Corinthians 8:11-12, emphasis mine)

Ouch.

Let's keep in mind that our freedom in Christ, just like our freedom as citizens of free countries, still carries with it a responsibility to point people to Christ. Let's exercise our freedom accordingly.

Succeeding (on God's terms)

I was able to visit a favorite church of mine recently and the pastor was speaking on the life of Joseph. As part of the service, we got to this verse:

"... the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did." (Genesis 39:23b)

Well, isn't that nice for Joseph.

But stop for a minute and look at where Joseph is experiencing this success.

He's in jail. He has grown up in a highly dysfunctional family, been sold into slavery by his own brothers, falsely accused of attacking his boss's wife and now sits in jail, working for the warden. He had been responsible and trustworthy and given great responsibilities. But even then, every time it looked like things might be leveling out for Joseph - WHAM! Life smacked him again.

Had Joseph done anything wrong? No. Perhaps he'd been foolish about a few things (see Genesis 37: 5-11) but he hadn't sinned. And yet he still found himself destitute, working for a jail warden, with nothing and no one to rely on but God.

And this was God's idea of success for Joseph.

What can Joseph's story mean for us? Sometimes we feel like we are just getting smacked around by circumstances. It's one blow after another and we don't see how God could possibly be working. (Or we just wish He'd pick another way.) But I would encourage you to have hope. God is still with you as he was always with Joseph (Genesis 39:21). Your very reliance on him counts as success.

If you read on in Joseph's story, God was uniquely positioning Joseph and preparing him to lead the entire country of Egypt, along with its neighbors, through a long period of famine. Joseph's position let him save his family (the future tribes of Israel) by being able to provide for them, and let him be reunited with them.

Who knows? God may be preparing you for your greatest achievements yet. Trust Him to have your success in His hands.

Joseph's family story is a fascinating one, with all the twists and turns you could imagine from any afternoon soap opera. If you want to dig further, read Genesis 27-37 & 39-47. Whew! That was a family that knew drama!

Before The Morning (Josh Wilson)

A large canvas...

"... We often forget that God is painting on a large canvas. He sees the big picture. We only see what's happening to us at the moment. That's why God allows events to come into our lives—good things and bad things; things that make sense and things that don't.

What you and I may think is harmful and destructive God can use for our good ... He will allow nothing to happen to us that isn't first filtered through His screen of protection."
-Micca Monda Cambell, 6-11-10 for Proverbs 31 Ministries

Overcoming evil (not Hollywood style)

Thanks again to Rick Green at Organized Doodles for this "picture translation."