ODB: the only place to start
July 31, 2009
READ: Galatians 1:6-12
If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. —Galatians 1:9
When a publishing company asked me to write an endorsement for a new book, I said I’d be glad to. It appeared to be a helpful effort directed to young people, challenging them to live for God in a changing world. But as I read the book, something troubled me. Although it had lots of Scripture and great spiritual advice, it didn’t explain that the starting point for any relationship with God is salvation through Jesus Christ.
The writer seemed to imply that the essence of living spiritually in modern society is based totally on action—good deeds—and not on saving faith in Christ. I didn’t write the endorsement.
The culture of the church is changing rapidly. Often left behind in the rush to find exciting new ideas is the essential nature of the gospel. The apostle Paul was astonished that people so readily embraced a “different gospel” (Gal. 1:6). What he preached was not from man, but a direct revelation from Jesus Himself (vv.11-12).
We must never let go of that true gospel: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification, declaring us righteous before God (Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). This alone offers the “power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). If we want to live for God, this is the only place to start. — Dave Branon
Faith is the hand that must take God’s gift of salvation.
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July 31, 2009
READ: Genesis 3:6-13
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness (v.7).
Yashwant Rao’s life in Karnataka, India, included some personal vices that made him feel ashamed. Then a life-changing thing happened. Yashwant received Jesus as his Savior after a pastor in his village repeatedly and lovingly reached out to him.
Then God led this new believer to share his faith with the Dalits, or “untouchables,” the lowest of the low in the Indian caste system. In the past few years, he has seen many of these shamed people become believers in Jesus!
Shame is as old as Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). When they disobeyed God and chose to chow on what He forbade (v.6), they “suddenly felt shame” (v.7). The trust with their loving Creator had been broken. The trust they shared with each other had also been broken—remember whom Adam blamed when God confronted him? “It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit” (v.12).
Their shame became our shame. We became “untouchables”—poisoned by the sin of the very first man and woman. But that’s not the end of the story . . .
Much like Yashwant Rao extending his hands of mercy to the Dalits of India, God extended His grace to us. “The sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15).
When we choose to receive Jesus’ grace and salvation, we are set free from shame. We are free to worship Him with joy. We are able to fellowship with Him—and others—with clean hearts!
If you are a believer in Jesus and have repented of your sins, the shame of your past is gone. You have been lifted up. You are no longer “untouchable,” for you have been touched by God’s cleansing grace. —Tom Felten
What are you ashamed of? How does God view your sins and failures in the light of His grace?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: getting involved
July 30, 2009
READ: Luke 10:30-37
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. —Psalm 111:4
Isn’t anybody going to help that poor guy?” Fred exclaimed as he and my husband, Tom, realized what had been causing traffic to creep down the busy five-lane road. A man lay sprawled between the lanes, bicycle on top of him, as vehicles simply drove around him. Fred turned on the warning flashers and blocked traffic with his car. Then both guys jumped out to help the shaken man.
Fred and Tom got involved, as did the Samaritan man in Jesus’ story in Luke 10. Like him, they overcame any reluctance they might have had to reach out to a man in distress. The Samaritan also had to overcome racial and cultural prejudice. The people we would have expected to help showed indifference to the injured man’s plight.
It’s easy to find reasons not to get involved. Busyness, indifference, and fear often top the list. Yet as we seek to follow our Lord faithfully, we will become more aware of opportunities to show the kind of compassion He showed (Matt. 14:14; 15:32; Mark 6:34).
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus commended the man who had acted out of compassion even though it was inconvenient, difficult, and costly to do so. Then, to us He says, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). — Cindy Hess Kasper
True compassion puts love into action.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: the future is now (partly)
July 30, 2009
READ: Isaiah 11:1-9
In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together (v.6).
Bafaluto, a small village of three hundred in Gambia, was barely surviving. Without access to clean water, the entire population was stuck in a cycle of abject poverty, relentless disease, and hunger—until Brian Harrold and Pamela Morgan, entrepreneurs from Northern Ireland, spent a small fortune digging an 80-meter well for them. When asked what compelled him to do it, Brian responded, “Just to not do any harm in this world [is not] good enough.” Similarly, the prophet Isaiah saw the world’s disorder, and he portrayed a compelling vision of the world as God intends for it to be. In this new world, God will wipe clean humanity’s vast inequities, giving “justice to the poor” (Isaiah 11:4). In this new world, God will undo every impulse toward violence—so much that even “the cow will graze near the bear” (v.7). While such a vision echoes our hearts’ true longings, it seems fanciful and unrealistic. Are these lines from Scripture theoretical sentimentalities, or do they have concrete touchstones in our world?
God does not live in the abstract—somewhere in the foggy future. He lives in the now. While the culmination of God’s good end for His creation stands in the distance, He has already begun His work toward that conclusion. Following the Eden catastrophe, God immediately put into action His rescue through Jesus—the rescue that would be obediently modeled by God’s people. First Israel, now the church.
Paul’s letters present how we, God’s tribe, are (as one writer puts it), “an anticipatory sign of God’s healing and restorative future for the world.” Even now, our love and works of justice and proclamation of the gospel reflect God’s intention for “the earth [to] be filled with people who know the Lord” (v.9).
—Winn Collier
Where does your world most need God? How can you join His redemptive work there?
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