Stephanie made it through another day. Praise the Lord! And she has a pretty good feeling about her TAKS test. We're still waiting on word of when the next ARD meeting will be.
For a bi-partisan spirit to preside over Washington, D.C. impacting the Congress, the cabinet departments and all who serve
We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.
--III John 1:8
Lord, we praise You today that You have given us the ability, through Your power, to be able to love others, even when their actions may be seen as unlovable. We praise and thank You, O God, for placing within each of us the capacity to care for others and show them hospitality and good favor, even when we may not agree with their actions or their agendas.
Loving God, we ask You to enable each member of Congress and every leader on President Obama�s cabinet team to show grace and hospitality to one another as they serve our country. Lord, we ask You to do this so that they will be able to work in unity for the betterment of our nation and its people. Bring a spirit of togetherness, precious Father, to our country�s leaders. Thank you for hearing our prayers today, amen.
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
"When he says, they are altogether righteous, the meaning is, They are all righteous from the greatest to the least, without a single exception. By this commendation he distinguishes the law of God from all the doctrine of men, for no blemish or fault can be found in it, but it is in all points absolutely perfect."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
1 Peter 1:13-22
As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy."
Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.
Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it.
These are words penned by the guy that denied Christ shortly before Christ was sentenced to die. He speaks of being holy. He also speaks of making the journey through life with a "deep consciousness of God." What does that mean for me? It's more than just the occasional, "Oh, I need to think about God now." When I hear the words "deep consciousness," I think of having something/someone so embedded into my being that I don't have to try to think about them. In this case we're speaking of God, so it would mean that God is so much a part of my inner being that I am conscious of him all the time, very deeply. But it's also almost "subconscious." So I'm not really actively thinking about God all the time, but in the back of my mind, he's there...thoughts of him are there, coloring everything I do. This would mean that when someone does something that would normally annoy me, I don't have to stop and think, "What would Jesus do?" I just do it. (Not a huge fan of WWJD, by the way, for that very reason. It shouldn't be something that we have to ask ourselves.)
Earlier in the passage, Peter said "Let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life..." What's that mean? To me, these two verses say almost the same thing. If I'm making my journey through life with a "deep consciousness of God," then God's life is shaping my life. This is all part of what lectio divina is all about. Spiritual reading. Letting the word of God shape my life by reading it. Not making the word of God fit my life, but making my life fit the word. The idea of letting myself be "pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life" is actually pretty exciting right now. I seriously think that is what is going on right now, and I'm very happy about that. What does it mean, practically? That is yet to be seen. I can't answer that because it is still happening. I believe it will have an impact (note the proper usage of that word...) on everything I do, every reaction, every decision.
Finally Peter tells us to "love one another as if your lives depended on it." (Please note that I decided which verses to quote earlier before I ever read the "Think" portion of this devotion...) What would this require of me? It's a sobering thought. What if my life did depend on my loving all of my brothers and sisters in Christ?? Egad! I might be in serious trouble, eh? When I think of this, I think of, once again, words written by Rich Mullins years ago, trying to describe the love of God. He described it as a "reckless, raging fury." Now Rich may have very well borrowed that from someone one else that he read...I don't know for sure. Nevertheless, those words have stuck with me over the years. That's how we need to love each other, as well. My love for all who are in Christ needs to be a "reckless, raging fury!"
Carpe vita eternus, friends!