HONORING ONE ANOTHER

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.”  (Romans 12:9-10 NLT)

We can honor others in one of two ways. One involves ulterior motives. We honor our bosses so they will reward us, our employees so they will work harder, the wealthy so they will contribute to our causes, the powerful so they will use their power for us and not against us. God’s way involves love. As Christians, we honor people because they have been created in God’s image, because they are brothers and sisters in Christ, and because they have a unique contribution to make to Christ’s church. Does God’s way of honoring others sound too difficult for your competitive nature? Why not try to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10 ESV)? Put others first! 

-- From the “Life Application Study Bible”

#6440

DEEDS DONE IN SECRET

“He who walks uprightly walks securely; but he who takes a crooked way shall be found out and punished.”  (Proverbs 10:9 AMP)

Scripture says to shun even the “appearance” of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). There’s a reason for this. If you always walk circumspectly, never giving anyone cause to question your motives, you’ll never have to retrace your steps or explain yourself. But those deeds done in secret will always come to the light of day. So make it a practice to live your life as though you were living on a stage before the whole world. 

-- From “God’s Little Book of Proverbs: Timeless Wisdom for Daily Living”

#5206

A LOADED QUESTION

“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”  (John 5:5-6 NIV)

It’s a strange thing to ask. A man is severely handicapped and spends his days hanging out at a healing pool. Does he want to get well? Do people at the gym want to get in shape? Would Gilligan wish to disembark the island?

Seems like a silly question -- unless it’s a loaded one. But the longer I serve people as a minister, the more I understand the question Jesus asks here. The answer is not self-evident at all. There are lots of people who like to hang around the waters without actually wishing to be healed. A lot of people come to church but don’t really want God’s help.

People do things for lots of reasons, not always the most obvious ones. They have motives they themselves may not even understand.

So Jesus gets right to the issue: You’ve been stuck in neutral for a while. Do you really want something better? Or have you laid down roots in a place of quiet desperation and low expectations?

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: When Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”


#4762

ONE-DAY-AT-A-TIME DISCIPLESHIP

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV)

Discipleship means living one day at a time as though Jesus were near: near in time, near in place, the witness of our motives, our speech, our behavior. As indeed He is.

-- Brennan Manning


#4620