When a local elected official
continued to miss official meetings one supporter came to her defense saying, “I’m
sure she had a reason, she is a very busy person.” It goes without saying that the
elected official, as well as everyone else, can make a claim of busyness. However,
constituents have an expectation that elected officials prioritize and perform
their duties and serve the needs of citizens. Likewise, the Lord has an expectation
that believers will perform their duties and serve others. A claim of busyness isn’t
valid and Paul is a good example of one who didn’t conjure up excuses, “Paul
looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my
duty to God in all good conscience to this day” (Acts 23:1
NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----All men are false. Only God is true. It should give us a clue about our natural inclinations, about the human proclivity to serve self. When God left Adam and Eve to fend alone He did not withdraw all of His providence. Had He done that all things would have fallen apart. But He left it up to mankind to pick up where His support ended by serving righteousness.
-----Righteousness isn’t a warm, touchy-feely word that most people appreciate. To most it represents a bar set so high that they have not even a hope to get over it, let alone a chance. To the most of the rest it means what they have achieved, so they need no others. And they especially don’t need God’s ideas interfering with their righteous discernments.
-----But righteousness is really pretty simple. It means doing what’s right, where it’s right, to whom it’s right to do it, for whom it’s right to do it. Sometimes righteousness involves serving self. That happens at least three times a day, 1) readying for bed at night,. 2) quieting to sleep through the night, 3) dressing one’s self in the morning. Most significantly, it includes obeying the Lord so He can save your self from eternal destruction. But through the course of the day many needs fall across our paths that are right for us to fill. If everyone in the world lived by a heart for righteousness, filling whatever need they crossed which was right for them to fill, then this world would be nearly as blissful as God created it to be. And that will happen sometime very soon.
-----As it is now, though, righteousness is scary because there’s so few people doing it. That means the fewer who love righteousness are confronted by myriads of needs sucking at theirr time and supplies continually such that if one were to live in total righteousness he would be continually sucked completely empty.
-----So that we could have this righteousness which will make God’s kingdom forever, Christ did just that, He emptied Himself and was sucked completely dry of life by our sins on His cross. All we have to do is join His good sense and empty ourselves a little here and a little there, meeting the needs we have provision to meet, and praying for the rest, until one day it will be time to lay it all down. If we do righteousness, which begins with following the Lord who defines righteousness, we will spend eternity where everything serves everything for God who serves everything more than anything else does.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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