WATCHWORD:
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. John 15:9-12
Meditation:
Me thinks, perhaps, tis’ not sin that bedevils me. (Reading too much Shakespeare?)
Said a different way, maybe it’s not sin that causes us to fall short. I wonder if we are confused by the whole concept of sin. Here’s the thing, in 1 Timothy 1:15 the Apostle Paul refers to himself as the worst of sinners, yet I wonder if there are times when I am part of that club. Guilty of sin in the first degree?
Then, there’s another part of me that says, wait a minute! I believe that my Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, took the sins of the world, including mine, to the cross, and there he crushed them for all time. That being the case, what am I guilty of?
Somewhere along the line of my faith-walk, I was instructed that the only sin that leads to death and hell is denying Christ. If that is the one sin remaining in my life span, then I wonder about my feelings of guilt. How do I deny Christ? What form does my denial take as I live my life, day by day? Let’s let that question hang in the air for just a bit.
Let us assume that with the exception of that one sin, we are reasonably sin-free. If I were truly sin free, would I be at peace? Honestly, I am not always at peace. So, what’s the deal? Why am I not at peace? We have no sin, so it can’t be that. So…
Let’s face it, we are humans, and as humans we are saddled with our…guess what…our human nature. Huh! Our human nature, our tendency to think and act like flawed humans. Worse than that, we are influenced by forces, outside of ourselves, that on any given day we would have rejected. Sometimes our human nature is dominated by emotion. One symptom is “foot in mouth disease”.
We are told we are saints, and yet we wonder. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. Oswald Chambers makes this statement: “There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to ‘stand still and see the salvation of the Lord…’
There is something to be said for following our Lord’s example of never following the impulse of His will, apart from the Will of the Father. In today’s political climate there is a dominating impulse to defend, defend, defend. If we don’t agree with something, then the truth is questioned.
Wait! Don’t go there! Danger, danger! Your human nature is bedeviling you, and will continue to do so. Here is the deal, all you who believe in Jesus the Christ. The conflict is over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be so. It involves making reasoned, moral choices. If you want a more scriptural definition, try this: “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another.”
You obey that Commandment, and you will turn your natural life into a spiritual life. Now to the question hanging in the air, “How do I deny Christ?” I think we deny our Lord every time you choose NOT to love another as He has loved us. What do you think? Amen.
Bulletin Board:
A little farm humor in 3 parts:
Part #1. A city man is driving down a country road, when he spots a farmer standing in the middle of a huge field of grass. He pulls the car over and notices that the farmer is just standing there, doing nothing, looking at nothing. The man gets out of the car, walks all the way out to the farmer and asks him, “Excuse me mister, but what are you doing?” The farmer replies, “I’m trying to win a Nobel Prize.” “How?” asks the man, puzzled. “Well, I heard they give the Nobel Prize . . . to people who are out standing in their field.”
Part #2. What kind of things does a farmer talk about when he is milking cows? Udder nonsense!
Part #3. Why did the cow cross the road? To get to the udder side! Why did the rooster cross the road? To prove it wasn’t chicken! Why did the horse cross the road? To visit his neighborhood! Why did the farmer cross the road? To get all of his animals back!
Morning Prayer:
God, I want to believe that you’re with me and that I am known and loved by you… but some days, it’s hard. Help me to speak the truth from your Word back to myself. Take it from my head to my heart. Give me peace and wisdom courage to live like a conqueror – because you’ve already given me victory over every challenge and obstacle. Amen.
