DAY 324--AGENT OF CHRIST
2009-02-05

Ok. One more day until the weekend. You can do it.


Here's the daily prayer for the President from the Praying Through the First 100 Days site.

For President Obama to have the spiritual support and nurture needed to excel in office
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
�II Timothy 3:16(NIV)

Heavenly Father, we praise You today for Your active involvement in the writing of Scripture, an involvement so powerful and pervasive that what is written is the infallible and authoritative Word of God. It is our life manual, by which we can know how to live a righteous life, through Your direction, that is pleasing to You.

Knowing this, Lord, we now intercede for President Obama, that You would place men and women in his life that would teach and, when needed, correct him from the pages of the Bible. Help President Obama to be open and desirous of this instruction, and guide him, O God, to seek the Scriptures for himself so that he may have the principles and wisdom necessary to excel as our president. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.



Psalm for Today: Psalm 15:4

in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change,

(Remember, we are still answering the question posed in verse 1, "Who shall dwell on your holy hill?")

"Hence it is, that we generally see so much unfaithfulness among men, that they do not consider themselves bound to perform the promises which they have made, except in so far as it will promote their own personal interest. David, therefore, condemning this inconstancy, requires the children of God to exhibit the greatest stedfastness in the fulfilment of their promises."

In other words, keep your promises, even if you're losing out in some way.

(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin On the Psalms)



Day 324 in The Message//Remix:Solo

Titus 1:1-4

Paul describes himself, in this passage, as "God's slave and Christ's agent for promoting the faith among God's chosen people..."

Can I describe myself as "God's slave and Christ's agent?" Does that describe my life? Hm. Definitely not all the time, that's for sure. There are days where, yes, I could say that I might come close to almost living up to that description. But there are also days when it couldn't be further from the truth.

Those days, I'm too busy filling my own needs, my own desires. Even my own temptations. But there are times when I do what I know God wants me doing, even if it's not my first choice for the day. There are also times when my "obedience" is joyful. Those are the times when I'm closest to being "God's slave."

Paul also says that he is "getting out the accurate word on God." Should my life be about that, as well? I'm not sure that this is something that I need to try to hold myself to. You see, Paul was an itinerate minister, a church planter. This was his job. Even though I'm on a "church staff," and am a "worship leader," I don't feel that it is my life's work to be "getting out the accurate word on God." I can, however, be active in "promoting the faith," as Paul also says he does. And, once again, this is kind of "hit-and-miss" for me. Some days I promote the faith pretty well. Other days, it would probably be best if people didn't know I represent Jesus Christ. Hopefully, most people who read this will understand what I mean, because we all have those days.

But we can be promoting the faith, both in word and action. Probably more in action than words. Somewhere in the book of James, it says that it does no good to tell someone "be of good cheer," when they are cold and hungry. I have also heard it said that a man can't hear the gospel of Christ when his stomach is rumbling too loudly. Point is, our actions do say more than our words. Why do you think people hold televangelists in such low esteem? They preach an empty gospel, because their greedy actions counteract their words.

So, my actions need to line up with my words as I go about the business of "promoting the faith," which is something I can do in my everyday life. I don't have to beat everyone I meet over the head with the Bible to do that, either. I can do it gently.

Paul also speaks of raising hopes "by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago--and he doesn't break promises!" My hopes have certainly been raised. Consider our world today. Both my wife and I are blessed to still have jobs. But every day, I wonder how much longer our jobs are going to hold out. Both of our jobs are related in some way to retail sales. I work for a company that delivers retail goods to the stores. Stores whose sales have dropped over 20% already this year. My wife works for a company that runs an online directory (the Verizon Superpages, to be exact). Not totally tied in with retail, but still affected by the economy.

But God is faithful. And even if we both lose our jobs, we will have hope, because our hope is not in this life. We may struggle. We may even lose things. But...they are only "things." It's only stuff. We can't lose God. And no one can take Jesus away from us. So, yes. My hopes are raised. And, hopefully, I can do the same for others in my feeble life.



Jesus, I ask for help in being your "agent." This takes discipline. Discipline that I frequently seem unable to find. So I ask for that in my life. Let me be a better "slave" for God. Help me do a better job of "promoting the faith." This involves the kind of responses I give to drivers that come to my dispatch window every night. They can leave with one of two impressions of me (or three, I guess). That I am a caring person, with a pleasant demeanor, or that I am hateful and mean. I guess that I could also come across as just not caring, totally apathetic. I don't want to be either one of those last two. Father, I want to be seen as someone with compassion. Help me choose my words more carefully. Help me demonstrate caring to people that I meet. Some of them may only see me once. How can I affect someone positively that I only see once? Help me be that agent for you in those cases. In all of these things let me respond rightly to your Word.


Each day, I need to begin my day remembering that I am going forth as an "agent" of Christ.

Carpe eternus vita, friends!



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