Day of Praise

We, 01/08/14, "Day of Praise"

Galatians 6:1 - "If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

This is a hard verse about being in mission for Christ. In sum, God's saying that we have a ministry that we "should" do; we cannot do nothing. And what we do should be done in "gentleness." And on top of how we're supposed to do it there is this warning which basically is a warning against becoming full of ourselves and thinking we're better than others. It's a hard charge.

To illustrate, I was with my daughter, Cassidy, yesterday, getting lunch. A very well-dressed guy went to the soda machine three times to fill his drink; each time he over-filled his cup, turned around, watched his cup overflow onto the ground right next to our table, and looked around to see if anyone noticed his mistake. He was clearly embarrassed. (He never did notice the drink splash onto my pants and feet.)

According to today's Bible verse, what should I have done? Should I have a sense of humor and comfort the guy, saying that I do that all the time too, (which I do)? Should I be silent and smile at him? Should I look the other way as if I don't see what's happened repeatedly? Each of these responses has the potential to be right. Each has the potential to be wrong.

Ultimately, there's only one thing to do, based on today's Bible verse. Do something with faith that God will do what God promises to do, namely, God promises to work through all things together for good.

In sum, boy oh boy, do we all need God's help, or what? May God help us all!

And God surely does.

We know this in Jesus Christ.

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson