Saturday, November 19, 2011

Saturday, November 19th

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Ezekiel 11-13; 1 Timothy 6

Two quick things I wanted to comment on for today's passages.

"This is what the Lord says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind." Ezekiel 11:5b

God is all-knowing. Not only can He see things we do in secret, He knows our very thoughts! He is the only legitimate mind-reader out there. So, why do we still try to hide our thoughts or motives from Him? We can't fool Him. We can't trick Him. We can't put a mask on in front of Him - He sees right through that. He sees into our very souls.

And the amazing thing is, He loves us anyway. He still longs for relationship with us. No matter how far we can get away from God, no matter how vile our actions or thoughts - He won't give up. He will go to incredible lengths to show us His love, or to discipline us, or to shake us out of our complacency. Truly amazing.

And just like God is far from a passive God, our faith should be far from passive too. Just look at this 1 Timothy passage....

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12 (emphasis mine)

We're not supposed to just sit around and wait for God to act on our behalf. Our faith must be an active one - training, discipline, obedience, working hard, sacrificing, standing up for Truth, doing the right thing even if we're the only ones.

We're part of a team. And when we slack off, it effects the whole team - others have to pick up our slack, our "reputation" is weakened and our effectiveness goes downhill.

But can you just imagine, for one second, the opposite? If every Christian vigourously trained spiritually, humbly sacrificed self, all in a unified front, in order to glorify God and spread the gospel - can you just imagine the results?!


Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 14-15, 2 Timothy 1

1 comment:

Miriam said...

No actually, I don't think we can imagine the results. Good thoughts today, thanks!