Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!

Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!
For those of you who would like to support the vision & ministry of Woodland Hills Community Church (the faith community I serve that continues to encourage me to minister outside the box), please click on the link just above.

Saturday, August 16

Today’s Readings: Psalm 58; Exodus 4:10-20; Luke 10:17-24; Romans 10:5-9; Psalm 48

We live in a day and time when a sense of pervading satisfaction or completion always seems just beyond our grasp. So often we think to ourselves, “Things would be great if only I got that promotion (and the accompanying salary increase) at work”, or “I would be happy with myself if only I could lose that last 15 pounds”, or “All my problems would be solved if I just had an extra 3 hours a day to get all of my work done”. Over time, we grow increasingly comfortable with the notion that we’ll never get a taste of satisfaction or completion in the context of our lives as we currently know them. Thankfully, we have Paul’s words from Romans with us today to challenge that assumption. In today’s passage, Paul reminds us: “It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us... That’s it. You’re not ‘doing’ anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting [God] to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: ‘God has set everything right between [God] and me!’” What I spoke of earlier as satisfaction and completion, Paul speaks of differently – Paul calls that sense “salvation”. The next time you find yourself thinking “My life would be perfect if only [and you can fill in the blank here for yourself]” stop and remember Paul’s words. Remember that sense of satisfaction and completion you seek – that sense of salvation – isn’t something that was created only for the future; that sense is something that we as people of faith can claim in the present as well. Then say aloud Paul’s wonderfully reassuring phrase: “God has set everything right between [God] and me!”. Now let your soul rest peacefully in that awesome assurance. Til next time…

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