God Sends the Rain to Everyone

God Created the World

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Matthew5:43-48 The Message

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

For Reflection

God does not discriminate.  God's resources are available to all.  Some of us gather more than others, but that which we accumulate is not ours.  It all still belongs to God.  We are merely God's stewards. God expects us to provide for the equitable comfort of all of us, those who have much and those who have little.  
Life is not a zero-sum game.  If one wins because another lost, then both have lost.  What is yours is yours and what is mine is yours also. God owns it all.

Pray

Pray so that you will, "Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

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The Wind and the Water Obey the Voice of Jesus

God Created the World

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Mark 4:35-41 The Message

The Wind Ran Out of Breath

35-38 Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”
39-40 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?”
41 They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!”

For Reflection

It takes great courage and trust to face life's squalls.  Following the example of Jesus, we can rest in the knowledge that God makes all things right.  Even when we meet death without fully understanding what comes next, we can praise God for the life God has given us and face fearlessy whatever challenges beset us.

Pray

Pray so that you will face human life fearlessly.  Pray for the courage to practice your faith.

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God Provides the Water

God Created the World

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Isaiah41:17-20 The Message

17-20 “The poor and homeless are desperate for water,
    their tongues parched and no water to be found.
But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,
    and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.
I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,
    spout fountains in the valleys.
I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,
    the waterless waste into splashing creeks.
I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,
    also acacia, myrtle, and olive.
I’ll place the cypress in the desert,
    with plenty of oaks and pines.
Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—
    unavoidable, indisputable evidence
That I, God, personally did this.
    It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel

For Reflection

Try to imagine what it must be like to be desperate for water when you are prevented from drinking the water that surrounds you. Living a life of social, economic, or spiritual poverty in a society of plenty is like that. As a Christian, you are God's fountain. You have the ability and skill to help people who thirst for relief from the arid desert of their suffering.

Pray

Pray so that you will become sensitive to the needs of others and work to aleviate the suffering of others.

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Renewed by the Creator

God Created the World

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Colossians3:8-11 The Message (MSG)

5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
9-11 Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

For Reflection

Christianity is not about you. Being a Christian is all about Humanity. Being a Christian is all about aiming your life to become more and more like Christ and like Christ, loving and elevating other human lives. Being a Christian is all about being courageous enough to sacrifice your life for the elevation of all humanity toward fulfilling the will of God, to live in peace and grace.

Pray

Pray so that you will have the courage of your choice to become a Christian; to follow Christ.

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In Your SufferingTrust the Creator

God Created the World

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

1 Peter 4:15-19 The Message

14-16 If you’re abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It’s the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they’re on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that’s a different matter. But if it’s because you’re a Christian, don’t give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!
17-19 It’s judgment time for God’s own family. We’re first in line. If it starts with us, think what it’s going to be like for those who refuse God’s Message!
If good people barely make it,
What’s in store for the bad?
So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it.

For Reflection

God, the Creator, maker of the universe, designed it all to fit together harmoniously.  Everything that was created was good and elegant in its design. The entire universe material, flora, fauna, and yes, even people evolve according to God's blueprint.  As Hebrews tells us, we are not only made in God's image, but we are also complete having all the necessary characteristics to choose to become perfected. Christ is the proof that God desires us to mature into the image of God; to fulfill our highest human potential, to love, to shepherd, to steward and to treat God's universe with reverence and awe.

Pray

Pray so that you will mature into the human being God has intended you to be. Examine your life and strive to be more like Christ each day.

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Speak Truthfully, Always

The Way of a New Life

Practicing Justice

Ephesians 4:25-30 The Message

25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.

For Reflection

Let's not quibble about lying. We have all done it at one time or another.  We have all compounded lie upon lie.  We have all been caught at it.  We know what a lie is and we know that it is fear that motivates it. Despite the constant attack on truthfulness in today's environment, the truth is knowable. Getting the facts right is imperative. We cannot survive long if the truth is irrelevant.  Because of the Christ event, we no longer need to fear the truth or the consequences of truthfulness. Some people just can't handle the truth. Can you?

Pray
Pray so that you will be able to share the justice of truth.

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Life in the Spirit

The Way of a New Life

Practicing Justice

Romans 8:1-11 The Message

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms

8 1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

For Reflection

"WWJD," What Would Jesus Do? Would Jesus devise manipulative schemes to absolve himself from public criticism or would he meet the problem head-on with responses that originated in love and fostered loving relationships? Responding in the commonly accepted manner is many times the anthesis of a love-inducing response. Follow that place in your heart in which the Holy Spirit resides.

Pray

Pray so that you will become obsessed with obedience to God's command to love. 

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Life with Christ in the World

The Way of a New Life

Practicing Justice

John 17:14-19 The Message

13-19 Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

For Reflection

If you accept the full value of your transformation into the likeness in the form of Christ, you are consecrated with the truth of your purpose to serve the will of God. Complete God's mission with confidence, patience, and humility.  God will assure that all will be right.

Pray

Pray so that you will be armored against the will of the people and emboldened by the will of God.

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God's Example in All Relationships

Buried in Baptism; Raised with Christ

The Way of a New Life

Practicing Justice

Colossians 2:6-15 The Message

From the Shadows to the Substance

6-7 My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
8-10 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
11-15 Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

For Reflection

In the days of Christ, much religion was born in mystery, shrouded in secrecy, and conflicted by rules. When God gave us Jesus the mystery was revealed, the secrets unmasked, and the rules simplified. To know Christ is to understand God's intention for humankind. What you have been is not what you will become in Christ. The record of your past is wiped clean and exists no more.  Your passed indiscretions are forgiven. You are free to choose to live in the manner of Christ that God intends for you.  

Pray

Pray so that you will keep to the path of Godley living.  Pray so that you will know the rest that is found in God's grace.

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New Life in a Christian Community

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

Romans 12:1-3 The Message

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

For Reflection
God has made us humans in God's image.  God has shown us how to live the life God has intended for us to live.  So, embrace God's Gift of humanity and live it in pursuit of the image of God.  

Pray

Pray and strive to become a more perfect human.  Seek to become equivalent in form to Christ.

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Don't Act by Human Standards

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

1 Peter 3:8-12 The Message

Suffering for Doing Good

8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things.

For Reflection

Tit for tat is an act of vengeance. Blessing one who has abused you is a loving response.  The strength in such a response is not widely accepted probably because much of the result is long range. A bigger stick is not the answer to violent acts.  Vengence and a violent reaction to a violent action give the purveyor of violence the upper hand.  One is more vulnerable to violent acts if one accepts the provocation.

Pray

Pray so that you dare to avoid the seduction of vengeance.  Pray so that you will have the will to face abuse as Christ nonviolently has taught us.

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Treat Enemies with Love and Mercy

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 The Message

Tearing Down Barriers

10 1-2 And now a personal but most urgent matter; I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ. I hear that I’m being painted as cringing and wishy-washy when I’m with you, but harsh and demanding when at a safedistance writing letters. Please don’t force me to take a hard line when I’m present with you. Don’t think that I’ll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I’m an unprincipled opportunist. Then they’ll have to eat their words.
3-6 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

For Reflection

The way of the world is not the way of Christ.  He has shown us the difference in graphic detail.  His life was a testament to the efficacy of Godliness. His death and resurrection underscored the power of The Way and the threat that it imposes on the perverse human perception of justice and power.

Pray

Pray, so you will have the courage to live as God has intended you to live. Pray, so that you have the strength to face a corrupt culture and structure a life shaped by Christ.

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Respond to Abuse with a Blessing

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

1 Peter 3:8-12 The Message

Suffering for Doing Good

8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things.

For Reflection

Tit for tat is an act of vengeance. Blessing one who has abused you is a loving response.  The strength in such a response is not widely accepted probably because much of the result is long range. A bigger stick is not the answer to violent acts.  Vengence and a violent reaction to a violent action give the purveyor of violence the upper hand.  One is more vulnerable to violent acts if one accepts the provocation.

Pray

Pray so that you dare to avoid the seduction of vengeance.  Pray so that you will have the will to face abuse as Christ nonviolently has taught us.

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Aim to Live by the Spirit

Generosity Results in Mutual Thanksgiving

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

2 Corinthians 9:11-15 The Message

8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,
He throws caution to the winds,
    giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
    never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.
12-15 Carrying out this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. This relief offering is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ. You show your gratitude through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need. Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!

For Reflection

All that you think you possess is not yours. It all belongs to God.  We are the stewards of God's universe. We are created to share and be good stewards, not hoarders and gatekeepers of God's largess.

Pray

Pray so that you are moved by the extravagance of God.

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Excel in Generosity

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 The Message

The Offering

8 1-4 Now, friends, I want to report on the surprising and generous ways in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province. Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.
5-7 This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. That’s what prompted us to ask Titus to bring the relief offering to your attention, so that what was so well begun could be finished up. You do so well in so many things—you trust God, you’re articulate, you’re insightful, you’re passionate, you love us—now, do your best in this, too.

For Reflection

What are you doing to help the poor? Being economically strapped does not cause unhappiness if you are rich in spirit.

Pray

Pray so that you will respond to the needs of others.  Pray so that you become rich in spirit.

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Generous Self-giving of Jesus

The Widow's Generosity

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

Mark 12:38-44 The Message

38-40 He continued teaching. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”
41-44 Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins—a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”

For Reflection

A widow
Disrespected in her society,
A woman, with no husband
Shunned by most
Struggling to get buy,
A woman, strong in faith
A woman, who lives in Grace.

Pray

Pray so that you will live in Grace.

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God Provides Food to the People

The Way of a New Life

Global Economic Justice

Exodus 16:13-18 The Message (MSG)

13-15 That evening quail flew in and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, man-hu (What is it?). They had no idea what it was.
15-16 So Moses told them, “It’s the bread God has given you to eat. And these are God’s instructions: ‘Gather enough for each person, about two quarts per person; gather enough for everyone in your tent.’”
17-18 The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed.

For Reflection

We are a world of haves and have-nots.  There is sufficient generation of wealth to serve each of us equitably.  But, many live in abject poverty. Many Nations grow more prosperous every year yet somehow the wealth never trickles down.  Yes, some of the causes are political which at the root are greed and selfishness.  While we may not be able to do much about the political circumstances in some countries, we can champion equitable distribution of health, human services, and food. In the developed countries we certainly have no excuse for ignoring the needs for the necessary sustenance of human life. If the government will not provide a capable vehicle for equitable distribution of basic needs how can we as Christians use our resources to solve these human conditions?  How are we using our wealth?

Pray

Pray so that you will be moved to seek solutions to spiritual and economic poverty.

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Doers of the Law Are Justified

The Way of a New Life

God's Justice

Romans 2:12-16 The Message

12-13 If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
14-16 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.

For Reflection

The intentional sin in our actions destroys our relationship with God. It is like a lie. The first lie seems well justified by circumstance.  The second lie is more natural and the third and fourth become automatic. 


When we intentionally sin, a point in our souls "echo" God's warning. We can choose to change direction. We may still suffer the consequences of our sin. But, with courage and trust in God to make all things right, we will enjoy a life resting in the loving arms of God's love.

Pray

Pray so that you will become God-centered. Pray so that you will be a humble servant of all human-kind and a confederate in the establishment of the Kingdom of God here and now.

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Corinthians' Repentance

The Way of a New Life

God's Justice

2 Corinthians 7:9-13 The Message

8-9 I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss.
10 Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.
11-13 And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter. My primary concern was not for the one who did the wrong or even the one wronged, but for you—that you would realize and act upon the deep, deep ties between us before God. That’s what happened—and we felt just great.

For Reflection

This passage points to the role of suffering.  The Corinthians course toward separation from God was corrected through the distress they had experienced. Paul's letter, though distressful, pointed out their deviation from a God-centered existence.  No "I told you so" or blame from Paul.  His response to the turnaround was pure joy.
It works that way with individuals too.  Do as the Corinthians have done.  Turn the stress and anxiety of suffering into a change in perception.  See the distress as an opportunity to become more perfect in Christ.

Pray

Pray often about all things so that you can develop an ever-increasing bond with God and Christ. Pray at times of suffering and look for a change in your heart that comforts and strengthens you.

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Genuine Christian Behavior

The Way of a New Life

God's Justice

Romans 12:14-21 The Message

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

For Reflection

I went for a bicycle ride one day, and as I was unloading my bike, I noticed the car next to mine.  It was an older one and not well kept.  The paint was fading, and it looked as though it had not been washed for months.  The rear seats were piled to the roof with stuff.  In the front seat on the passenger side sat a sullen young woman. Standing beside the car was a tall rather thin young man whose hair had not been washed for quite a while.
"Are you living in your car?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied as the young woman turned to look at me.
I opened my wallet and pulled out the only bill there, a twenty.  "I hope this will help," I said. "It's all I have with me."

I often think of them and wonder about the rest of the story. I also wonder why we crossed paths just then.

Pray

Pray so that you may wonder about the rest of the story. Pray so that you will find chance encounters and feel moved by the circumstance.  Pray that you will find the place in your heart for giving.

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