ODJ: behaving badly
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human (v.14).
READ: Romans 7:14-25
Evelyn Waugh is the author of such literary classics as A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. He possessed a scathing wit, and numerous other personal flaws we won’t enumerate here.
After flirting with agnosticism, Waugh converted to Catholicism. Yet he still struggled. One day a woman asked him, “Mr. Waugh, how can you behave as you do and still remain a Christian?” He replied, “Madam, I may be as bad as you say, but believe me, were it not for my religion, I would scarcely be a human being.”
Even for those who possess a genuine belief in Jesus, there’s no guarantee that they won’t behave badly. The classic passage on this internal battle comes from the quill of the apostle Paul himself. “I am all too human,” he wrote, “a slave to sin. . . . I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (Romans 7:14,19).
He continued: “There is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (vv.23-24). Paul satisfied his own rhetorical question: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.25).
Followers of Christ are transformed in an instant, but they don’t “arrive”—not in this life, anyway. One of Jesus’ closest friends, the disciple John, summed it up this way: “We are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is” (1 John 3:2). —Tim Gustafson
Have you truly taken your struggles to God and asked for His help with them? What might He be teaching you through your weakness? What is the danger of believing that you have somehow “arrived” spiritually?
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Loading ...CIA Agents Mission #1: Season Speech with Salt
By Isaac Tan, 20, Singapore
“Stand up, stand up for Jesus” is an old, familiar tune that many Christians have sung before. It is much like an anthem and it calls on God’s people to remain resilient and steadfast in the faith as soldiers would. But how many of us really stand up for what is right amidst this trouble-filled world?
In Jakarta, Indonesia, there stand four like-minded Christian youths who intend to make their school a better place, one student at a time.
Ranging between the ages 10 and 12, Sarah, Won Hee, George and Jessica came together to kick-start the “Christ Is Awesome” campaign. Their aim was to try and improve the social environment of their community. Cleverly calling themselves CIA agents, they set out to address issues for the greater good of those around them.
While thinking about what they should first do, they looked at their peers and decided to tackle the issue of insults and vulgarities.
The issue of vulgarities is an ever-prevalent issue in almost all parts of the world. The “cool” image that goes along with each expletive spurns a whole lot of delinquents with limited vocabularies. The ugly side of human beings is certainly showed forth whenever these words are used as frequently as punctuations.
So, with the motivation of helping those around them, the CIA agents cracked down on their first case—discouraging the use of vulgarities.
Armed with a petition in one hand and a pen in the other, they scouted for parties who were willing to help fight the cause and discourage the use of expletives. Initially, they had planned on inviting only the primary school children to be a part of this project but they realized that the Secondary and Junior College students also needed to change.
Within just a week of hard work, they collected 210 signatures. This is indeed a remarkable effort. In tandem with their petition, they have also set up a Facebook Group Page and garnered the support of 170 members.
These young individuals love God over and above their possible fear of rejection. They show that they are indeed salt and light to the world.
How then will you respond?
Let’s be a part of the CIA agents, and help those around us to see that it is not a good thing to go around insulting other people. This is, as the second greatest commandment says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38b).
Let us not both praise God and curse man with the same tongue. Rather let us do as Colossian 4:6 says, “Let [our] conversation be gracious and attractive so that [we] will have the right response for everyone.”
Be a CIA agent today!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: confidence in what?
July 23, 2010
READ: 1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. —1 Corinthians 10:12
While walking through a home improvement store, I saw a man wearing a bright red T-shirt bearing this melancholy message: “Confidence: The feeling you have just before you understand the situation.”
I laughed at this humorous concept, but I also realized that the shirt carried a sane and sound warning. It’s a reminder to all of us who try to get things done through confidence in our own ability or credentials but without consciously trusting in the strength of God. If we think we can accomplish life’s tasks in our own strength, that false confidence will inevitably become our undoing—and we’ll collapse under the weight of our own failings.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this by recalling ancient Israel’s penchant for self-confidence and self-sufficiency. He described everything the Israelites thought they had going for them; then he told how they had turned those benefits into a license to sin and an almost arrogant confidence that would prove to be their undoing.
Paul said their self-confidence should warn us. His conclusion? “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Psalm 118:8 shows us the best way: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man,” or in ourselves. Where is your confidence? —Bill Crowder
Confidence in Christ is the right kind of confidence.
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