The other day at 2:30 in the morning the phone rang with a reverse 911 call. In the frigid weather an at-risk elderly man was missing. The operator descried his physical characteristics, stated that he might be carrying a green blanket and requested people to be alert and look around buildings in their area. I doubt if anyone got dressed, grab a flashlight and join the search party. However the call was not totally wasted. Those believers crawling back into bed no doubt sent up prayers for the situation. I understand that the gentleman was missing for about two hours, however he is now safely back in his environment. “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph 5:14b NIV)
4 comments:
Gail;
-----I would hope that everyone who received this call at least searched their own property. Even if there were no one in this man’s life who loved him (which I speculate there was,) God loved him. And his crossing over whatever property for a moment made him the property owner’s neighbor to be loved. The light Christ gives those who wake up comes from transformed mind and behavior. Love for a neighbor does not reside simply in fluffy emotions, and love within a transformed mind is not merely euphemized thoughts, “...for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” (Eph 5:9) It is good to be concerned about someone in a risky situation; it is right to do whatever you are able to do about a concern; it is true that you do not know this man is not freezing to death on your property until you have taken a flashlight and actually looked. I don’t discount the power of prayer (in this situation it was effective.) It just seems to me that only rolling over in bed and praying would be asking God either to send someone else to check out my property for me, or that even if he were on my property he might be found somewhere else. Sometimes love requires effort. Sometimes effort must validate prayer.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Now you are really meddling.
Grace and peace.
Ouch Steve…I was one of those who crawled back into bed and sent up prayers. Now I’m hearing shades of the Lord telling Peter and the sons of Zebedee, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? Are you still sleeping and resting?”
Gail
Pumice and Gail;
Paul asked why his liberty should be determined by another man’s scruples - whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. (I Cor 10:29-31) James said, “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17) But we do not all know the same things. And of the many things we do know in common, we each know them a little differently than anyone else does. So one person forms scruples of complete sense for his life, and if he fails to live by them he sins. And another may form different scruples. So, when someone speaks from his scruples, no matter how reasonably they proceed from the Bible itself, one person may receive it as meddling and another as inspiration. Nonetheless, each will be right. Christ patiently endures whatever errors we have so that He can lead a meaningful relationship with each regardless of them.
We can neither disregard one another nor each others’ scruples. Granted, we do not have to live by each others’ scruples, according to Paul. But the person holding them does, according to James. That makes them important to his life in the Lord. Then, the importance of his life in the Lord is to us makes his holding of them also important to us, even as silly as they may seem. Moreover, if the requisite were that no one speak of his own scruples (yet Paul implies some should be kept to the self,) that of our spirituality which would not die in solitude would certainly be distorted out of proportion by solitude. Our lives were not made for complete solitude. For the invalidation or validation our ideas receive from others helps us to trim and maintain the aspects of our lives, including the scruples we hold. So, be sure I did not mean to meddle or to incriminate, but merely to offer a thought for whatever effect in another’s life that they might make of it with the Lord, and certainly for the good effects your responses made in mine.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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