What Sets Us Apart?
Good Morning Friends,
God has a way of upping the ante when we think we have made it even after we have achieved something. I think that is to make sure we never lose sight of our need for God but also to challenge us to set our sights on an ever more perfect purpose that is holy. Still people want some recognition and they prefer the positive kind, but will settle for the negative kind as opposed to nothing. We are all obsessed about receiving love, it is natural, yet God wants us to radiate love too and this is the answer to today’s question even before it has been asked. What Sets Us Apart?
Scripture: This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments; for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.
Deuteronomy 26:16-19 (NRSV)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48 (NRSV)
Message: I have been watching some of the Winter Olympics and the competitions and the performances of the athletes is not only entertaining but instructive as well. And what is relevant for the message today is the reality that each of the athletes has been set apart to perfect a sport and spends hours each day working out the details, hopefully with a fire in their belly to go for the gold. So too we have been set apart as Christians. Now this morning one of those sports is in the news. And it is really an amazing sport called curling. Now you may have heard of stones shouting in the Bible but in curling men shout at stones. And maybe that is why Mr. T is such a fan and was moved just before game to call the Skip of the U. S. Men’s Curling team to give him a Christian pep talk. I am not going to go into the history of curling but I will say it is very Biblical to witness a drama where the unlikely competitor becomes the winner. Were it not for the fact that Korea beat Japan, the U.S. would not have even been in the metal round. We all know the story of David and Goliath. David picked out five smooth stones as a sign of God’s grace. And that the U.S. team got five stones in one end to win the gold match this morning makes me smile for that is just about as unlikely an outcome as David hitting Goliath in the forehead with a stone. The thing is that the U.S. wins Gold because they loved enough to set aside the time to get great at the sport. And the thing that sets Christians apart is love too. Without the active engagement of the Holy Spirit moving in our very being with love there really is not much to set us apart from all the other things going on. Historically Israel was set apart for a purpose and ultimately for Christians we are set apart to perfect a faith focus on the covenant of love. And yet of all the things we do, love can be the most difficult and love with a holy purpose can be the greatest challenge of all to do consistently. And yet the process of sanctification exists. So, keep practicing the faith and go for the prize of Christ. This love is what sets us apart and motivates us to join in the winning plan of God. Follow your passion in a way to glorify God. Keep the love alive.
Pray we are chosen for a Holy purpose. Pray we embrace the covenant of Christ and respond with obedience of faith. Pray our lives are transformed from the inside out. Pray we are committed to a process of allowing Jesus to perfect our faith. Pray we love with a holy purpose. Pray when we win we glorify God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 