Day 032: Signs

"And Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also."  Romans 4:11

One of the defense mechanisms that we have evolved to have is one of classification.  We can classify those who are with us and those who aren't in order to maintain our own safety.  However, we have allowed this classification to go too far, where we are considering other human beings, other people who are living the same life with all its challenges, to be the other.

Even worse so, we isolate people from our faith communities.  We turn our churches into social clubs, where people have to come in with a set of prerequisites in order to participate, but they can only participate with a certain set of ideas.

But Paul is telling us about something else.  Despite the fact that the Jews of the time discriminated against those men who were uncircumcised, calling them faithless or heathens, Paul says that the Gospel was not restricted by that specific ritual.  In fact, faith itself transcends all signs.  He states that there were those who were circumcised who were faithless and/or wicked.  In the same way, there are many out there today who are baptized who are wicked; and, there are those who are not baptized who are faithful.

God doesn't require signs from us.  God gave us these signs so that we would have something tangible to represent a difficult concept.  Faith is not that easy to grasp, but it is something that we can grow.  And what's the only way to grow a good plant than to take care of it?

We need to tend to our faith so that it may grow and prosper.  God calls us to live our faith, that all things we do are in good faith, living the Gospel at all times.  We need our faith to become something so great that we no longer need a sign to represent it.

Day 009: Divine Command

But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel." Acts 9:15

Go.
This is a recurring command in the Bible, and it usually means to leave one's comfort zone.  God told Abraham to go from his home.  Jesus commanded the disciples to go and preach.  Here, Jesus commands Ananias to go and finish a conversion of one of the most terrifying men in the early church: Saul/Paul.

Now, the Bible is also quite clear that many who are called will talk back to God, will have some sort of resistance.  Ananias, though, makes an argument that sounds quite weak, for he says "I have heard about that man."  Hearsay.  That's a very troubling thing that we as humans like to rely on.  We love to add fuel to our judging engines whenever we can.  Despite the fact that there are records of all the trouble Paul had done, Ananias says that he relied on what he heard.  I find this as an opportunity for us to learn to trust in God.

If we are to assume that God is our Father, then how should we treat God?  Shouldn't we obey?  I'm sure many of you have experienced the chastising from your parents, whether physical or verbal or both.  Eventually, we children learn to obey without talking back.  And, most of the time, things go the way they are supposed to when we listen and obey.  Doing that homework assignment got us through school well; not eating too much candy helped us feel better in the long run; sleeping on time for school made it that much better for us.  If that's how our relationships with our parents are, how much better would God's plans be for us?  Why must we talk back to God?

God has a history of challenging us, and that only makes us better people.  God challenged Abraham and Sarah to have faith in their future progeny.  God challenged many scholars to devote themselves to wisdom.  God challenged Joseph and Mary to accept the gift of bringing up Jesus, the Christ.  God challenged Ananias essentially to walk into the den of lions so that the church may grow in an unimaginable way.

How is God challenging us today?

The Gospel Centered Life

"But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ." (Ephesians 4:15)
Here's the simple message from Paul, this time, which calls us to love.  The only way we can grow into Christ is through love.  It's simple because the only way we learn anything is through careful practice.  As a musician, I feel like I know this all too well.  For starters, one must practice so much to be good. However, mindlessly spending hours on things only makes a habit, as opposed to perfection.  My teacher always says that I must focus whenever I practice.  Therefore, playing through the things I'm good at only reinforces the things I'm good at, and, consequently, makes everything else glaringly bad.  However, when I focus on a certain issue for a given amount of time, I make my playing all the better.  In the same way, the only way we can make our lives closer to the Gospel is by living in love.  However, we cannot just practice loving those we already love or those who already love us back.  We must practice loving those who may not be easy to love.  We must love those who have hurt us.  We must love those who preach against us.  We must love those who don't understand us.  By practicing what Jesus already did and what God teaches us daily, we will live a truly gospel centered life.

God Is Unfailing

"But you are always the same, and your years will never end."
(Psalm 102:27)
Today's readings concern the times of trials.  Jesus reassures us of God's mercy and grace with the beatitudes.  Paul stands up against the authorities and speaks out to the Jews with a sermon that is nothing more than a summary of his life: a living testimony.  People escorted Paul around like a wild cow: always wandering but never belonging.  However, Paul preached without wavering.  I believe that that is how we should be as well.  We must live our lives in Christ at all times, regardless of what is going on around us.  Jesus always teaches us to give our lives to God, for God will use us how we need to be used.  Our will becomes God's.  So in the face of a test, remember that God is there with us (1 Corinthians 10:13).  When your LGBT family asks why God, simply remind them that you are of the same family, and live your life as a testimony to the goodness of God!