Devotional 170910

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good afternoon. There were a lot of last minute things to do before I take off to LA this afternoon for a weekend ministry. Please remember me and our team in your prayer. We will have two vision sharing dinners and one whole day of workshop on Bivocational missions. Pray that these events will mobilize more Christians to follow His will.

The main difference between Christians and others is that we take God seriously and they do not. We really do believe that he is the central reality of all existence. We really do pay attention to what he is and to what he does. We really do order our lives in response to that reality and not to some other. Paying attention to God involves a realization that he works…

God works. The work of God is defined and described in the pages of Scripture. We have models of creation, acts of redemption, examples of help and compassion, paradigms of comfort and salvation…

In every letter St. Paul wrote he demonstrated that a Christian’s work is a natural, inevitable and faithful development out of God’s work. Each of his letters concludes with a series of directives which guide us into the kind of work that participates in God’s work. The curse of some people’s lives is not work, as such, but senseless work, vain work, futile work, work that takes place apart from God…Be prepared. You are up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, very weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet (Eph 6:10-11).

We are always the recipients of God’s work. God is always active in His creation and revelation to mankind. We respond to His good work in prayer and service. It is He who began the good work in us and will bring to completion at the end (Phil 1:6). Thus, our attitude should respond with humility and obedient heart. Whatever happened to us is not a coincident. It depends on how you respond to the experience as a way to nurture your life in Christ. If we are too busy to think and meditate, then we will miss the lessons to grow our being. Hope you find time to listen to God this weekend.

Enjoy His loving companion,
Lawrence