Greetings my dear
Blessings to you today. Recently I was struck by the candid comment of one friend to another. The friend suggested that the other was gentle in public, but not in private. Sounds familiar? And what of us public figures who carry two personas? Or us who live the faith on our terms? Would Jesus’ comments in today’s Holy Nougat hit the bullseye?
““What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”
Matthew 23:23 NLT
Of course, Jesus did not offer the other option for which some of us are guilty – we don’t tithe, AND we ignore Justice, Mercy, and Faith. Yet we are observant Christians; we say the right words, we keep the Sabbath, we preach, we teach or we pray the most beautiful prayers!
Today, God is asking for more – God is asking for lives to reflect intimacy with God. For what does it profit us (or anyone else for that matter), if we quote the Bible from cover to cover, chapter and verse, if we are not intimately connected with the One about Whom it is written? Who does it help when we talk the walk, but cannot walk the talk?
For our faith must be lived. We ensure we spend Quality time with God, that’s the glue (my friend Kitty would say that’s the gumption) to our relationship. We tithe – that’s important, especially in these times – as unto God, not to the human administrators here on earth. And our actions ought to reflect the depth of our intimacy through our response to Justice – Whose lives matter (yes all; but is that demonstrated in the way others are treated around us?) – to whom do we extend mercy, the bureaucrats or the ones trying to eke out a living?
What does mercy look like? Arresting persons for minor infractions when there’s the opportunity to effect transformation by helping their situation? Or ministering to the lonely, lost and least? We gotta up our game folks – some of our actions are letting our team, God’s team, down. And then there’s faith.
Faith is a Verb. Probably not in the English language; but very much so in practicality. For faith has to be done to be an ‘it’. We have to exercise faith that God will do all the impossibles we ask and hope for, and some of them are done without conscious thought. It’s the other practical bits that sometimes challenge us. Like speaking healing (especially after nothing happened the last time), walking in the miraculous, birthing the prophetic, and sharing love with the unlovely.
Only by God’s grace and solely for God’s glory.
Passion and motive. May God help us to live in open testimony of Who God is in our lives.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
