Today’s Readings: Psalm 71; Isaiah 49:1-7; John 12:20-36; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Psalm 143
Featured Readings: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Every political season, I observe a phenomenon that fascinates me. Candidates who run for office go to great lengths to call attention to their faith. In most cases, this means they talk about their Christian faith. The way the candidates talk, it makes it sound as if the Christian faith is synonymous with words like “power” and “privilege”. That’s an interesting way to look at our faith – for it stands in direct opposition to the way Paul talked about it in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. In that passage, Paul wrote: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27 from The Message). It would be interesting to hear a candidate talk about their faith in this way: “Yes, I am a Christian. But that doesn’t make me better than others. It just means I recognized I needed God’s grace and mercy to help me deal with all of my shortcomings.” What a statement that would be! All of this makes me wonder how you view your call. Do you feel you were called because you were someone special, or do you believe you were called because you were in need of all God has to offer? How you answer that question will go a long way in shaping how you live out your call. Til next time…
Featured Readings: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Every political season, I observe a phenomenon that fascinates me. Candidates who run for office go to great lengths to call attention to their faith. In most cases, this means they talk about their Christian faith. The way the candidates talk, it makes it sound as if the Christian faith is synonymous with words like “power” and “privilege”. That’s an interesting way to look at our faith – for it stands in direct opposition to the way Paul talked about it in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. In that passage, Paul wrote: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27 from The Message). It would be interesting to hear a candidate talk about their faith in this way: “Yes, I am a Christian. But that doesn’t make me better than others. It just means I recognized I needed God’s grace and mercy to help me deal with all of my shortcomings.” What a statement that would be! All of this makes me wonder how you view your call. Do you feel you were called because you were someone special, or do you believe you were called because you were in need of all God has to offer? How you answer that question will go a long way in shaping how you live out your call. Til next time…
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