Good Morning Friends,
Using our freedom as Christians for selfish gain and benefit places our faith on shifting sand and not the rock-hard foundation of obedience to Christ’s New Covenant. Things do not just happen. Even with fruit trees, the garden must be tended. It takes the work of people who are intentional about outcomes that make things happen. The same thing is true in our spiritual lives. If we do not put in the effort, not much good will happen. Today’s message is about making our spiritual growth an intentional thing in our life, not the worship of Idols for a mysterious outcome, but the worship of God who gives us the assurance of salvation. If we hope, as a witness, to become our best self, trusting God to do the rest, we need to be on point and focused. So, Are You Paying Attention To Loving Jesus In A Way That Is Obedient To Your Calling?
Scripture: Therefore, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? What do I imply then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
1 Corinthians 10:14-22 (NRSV)
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
Luke 6:43-49 (NRSV)
Message: What Jesus is telling his disciples in today’s Gospel reading is that those who have followed him have to pay attention to some spiritual issues. The thing is that no disciple is perfect. And disciples are not just people who made a one-time commitment to Jesus. True disciples carry out a life-long process of applying that commitment in a way that reflects who we are. Our words and our lives need to match up. In some ways the Sermon on the Mount is a message about applying our commitment to Christ on a daily basis now being visible Salt and Light in the world. Today’s focus is on the foundation. And the foundation in this parable is obedience; the foundation is doing the things that Jesus commanded. There are some people who hear the words of Christ, but do not pay attention to it, they ignore it, put it aside, throw it away, thinking they can go back to it later, but too often never do. In other words, they were not intentional in putting the commands of Christ into practice and therefore the foundation of their faith is shallow or non-existent. The hope is that we each will have a strong foundation. But to do that we must work at it in a way that honors the gifts we have been given as individuals and is obedient to the work of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. Three things help. First, we must dig into our lives looking for the bedrock of who Jesus is in our experience and who we are as individuals in that relationship. This is different for each of us. Reading scripture helps and so does being around people who honor Jesus with their lives, but it has to be applied with who we are as individuals and the skills and gifts we each have been given. Then once we have found the rock of our salvation in an honest relationship with Jesus that applies to our lives, we need to be intentional about laying down the foundation of this existence in our daily activities. There is nothing accidental about this. If we desire to build up our spiritual life it is not accomplished by aimless hoping that somehow our drifting will get us to where we need to be. Instead, the person who wants to build up his spiritual life is very deliberate and intentional in working at it.
And So, the problem is applying the foundation of one’s commitment to Jesus in our daily life situations. The challenge is to discover ways of loving Jesus intentionally each and every day. It is not so much a question of what Jesus would do, but what Jesus would want each of us to do with who we are this day. If we have not been taking steps to obey God, or worse yet consistently ignoring the commands of Christ, then when the crisis comes, it will be very difficult to deal with. The way we are to handle crisis is determined by what we do before the crisis comes. Maybe you feel confident are you that you can deal with a good or a bad crisis. The thing is that the best way to deal with them is to take care of spiritual business right now. And for disciples of Christ, we not only should cry out “Lord, Lord have mercy on us,” but we should also do what he says. And that means being intentional in doing what Christ has commanded. So, think of doing one thing that you know Christ wants you to do. Start with that, keep at it. Do not give it up. Then you will be digging a stronger foundation in your life.
Pray the foundation of our belief in Jesus supports the base for our existence and is a visible sign in our daily life as Christians. Pray the foundation though invisible, is underneath our life, and provides the strength for our life. Pray we pay attention to the foundation of our faith. Pray we realize that storms come to everybody, and it is not a question of why or how or where but when. Pray we prepare for the storms of life by practicing obedience. Pray we honor Christ’s command to pray even though we may not feel like praying. Pray we are obedient to Christ’s command to read and digest the scriptures. Pray we are obedient to giving ourselves to God in worship and work, listening to the call of the Holy Spirt in guiding our actions. Pray we are obedient in serving others who are in need, whether physically of spiritually. Pray we are intentional about building the foundation of our faith as disciples by being obedient to Christ’s command to love one another.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 