Do You Have Spiritual Capital…Do You Have Love?
Good Morning Friends,
One of my friends Bill Milliken coined the phrase, Tough Love, and another one of my friends, Reid Carpenter coined the phrase, Spiritual Capital. They complement each other in interesting ways to change people’s lives for they are from the same root. An example and demonstration of what these phases mean was seen in Pope Francis’ recent visit to Sarajevo. He came as a pilgrim of peace and dialogue to a place with wounds of the past that needed to be set aside for the common good. His greeting was warm because the Church had been praying as a way of taking part in the process of reconstruction for decades and its members uniting in the work of community. Do You Have Spiritual Capital…Do You Have Love?
Scripture: 2For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself,*
3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:1-3 (NRSV)
8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:8 (NRSV)
16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’
John 3:16 (NRSV)
Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set.
Exodus 17:11-12
Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, . . . and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
“I ask to only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in and because of their great age.
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
Zechariah 8:4-5 (NRSV)
Message: Forgive me for the number of scriptures today, but I wanted to show you how the Body of Christ is knit together for a purpose in us.
I want you to see the relationships between various forms of wealth and power that form the fabric of our lives in the love of God made manifest in Christ and made manifest in us in our relationships. I wanted you to see that to be rich spiritually one needs to believe that spiritual wealth is offered in Christ and from this all else comes. For all this experience of life is about the gift of Jesus and the treasure of our desires when we are confronted with something that is broken. So today we explore the wisdom of all the treasures manifested in the Body of Believers becoming the Body of Christ. Today on this Lord’s Day we contemplate the mysteries of God becoming knowable and the treasures of God attainable. Friends let’s face it, no one wants to be spiritually poor. No one hopes for hopelessness. We need Spiritual Capital to get things done. We need Spiritual Capital in Building up the Body. And this is what happens when we focus on Christ. Here we see the love of God. We see it in our work in the convergence of dynamic solutions, markets, human resources, management, institutional readiness and vehicles of giving when God is in control. And here in loving one another we as the Body of Christ we activate Spiritual Capital. Here we are fearfully and wonderfully knit together in love as the Body of Christ much like how Jesus and the Father and the Spirit are knit together as one. You see, God is working uniquely in each of us as a demonstration of love to show the world how love and the fruit of the spirit combine together for the common good. And as Christ poured out his life into the lives of others so too are we. It is about our task as disciples rooted and established in love. It is about commitment to a process. You see, there is a connection between spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual and financial capital. And how it works together is through discipleship in the context of community… a network of relationships. Here committed relational capital grows as it pours faith into one another and this requires time and physical capital. You see, if we are to invest our spiritual capital we also need to invest our physical and financial and intellectual capital. Get this right, to live in community, to be relationally rich, we need to expend time. And here we get a return on our investment that prompts us to invest more and to seek and expend financial capital as well. Here we learn things old and new. Here we learn that to be relationally rich we need to spend time and money and this is not a cheap endeavor. But at its core is a gift and a need to invest for the Kingdom. The attainable thing is a gift. All this is through faith. The priceless gift of Christ is offered at the cost of faith and even the faith is a gift as well and so the Holy Spirit regenerates us for grace for each day…emptied and obedient to show us how far we can go if we love.
Pray we are committed to offering intercessions and practical love to the poor and to those most in need. Pray we recognized the connection between various forms of capital and the teachings and example of Jesus. Pray we see beyond the things of the world. Pray we be interdependent on Jesus, not just on each other. Pray we love each day in the unforced rhythms of grace. Pray we receive and share the gifts of life.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 