Daily Readings, First Thoughts May 9 2007

Morning: Psalm 99:1-9
Jeremiah 32:36-44
Romans 13:1-14
Luke 8:16-25
Evening: Psalm 9:1-20

Thank God there is a way to come into the light of day, and leave my dark deeds behind me: through faith in Jesus, who covered all my sins, past and present. These passages affirm for me God's great mercy when I deserved to remain in exile, empty-handed and hard hearted, like Israel was. I have freedom in Christ, who paid for it all, and now leads me as a child - to love and serve God, when I could never do it perfectly in my own power. The Lord says through Jeremiah: I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. ³⁸They shall be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for all time, for their own good and the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. ⁴¹I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

Yet now that I'm free, walking in the light of grace, living on the promises of God, I am more compelled than ever to remain in the light. Jeremiah tells us, God promised us "one heart and one way," in the covenant we have with God (God's covenant, not ours, by the way). Paul seems to suggest this one heart and one way is to love God alone, and submit to God's authority. Practically speaking, submit to the authorities God has placed over us. Jesus too, reminds us of the same: ²¹But he said to them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."

I think we all struggle with authority of any kind. Children to parents, citizens to our President (his rating is below 30% now, so why bother we say?), church members to denominations, employees to their supervisors, created to Creator, saved to our Lord. This obedience and submission thing in our times is subjective, conditional and relative to our own needs and goals and desires, subject to our own interpretations and applications and ideologies. "The flesh" the Bible calls that.

But Christian love and obedience go hand in hand. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

I believe we need to consider every day what these fleshly desires are in our lives: not just sex, drugs, junk food, and rock and roll, but pride, the desire to win and be right, ego and ambition, a lack of compassion and indifference to the word of God. A sloppy attention to our families, poor stewardship of the earth, and the feeding of our critical natures. And the big one: a disregard for authority placed over us that confronts our sin natures, strives to help us stay pure and healthy, and reconcile us to each other through discipline. I see this as absolute, not relative. One heart, one way - One God, one Kingdom.

I don't always like doing things God's way, and I certainly have a long way to go to understand God's heart for goodness and justice and purity and peace in our complex world.
But thanks be to God, I am free to try and free to fail, knowing God will bring me back into the light every time. God promised.