Everything that is Good...

James 1:17

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

I forget this, most days. Its kinda sad, really, but you know it is true, in our humanness, I, at least, forget that everything good comes from the Father of Light. I guess that I think my beautiful, wonderful wife was delivered to the earth by aliens and that my amazing little son came from a stork.

Seriously, considering how lame we are as people, honestly, how often do we disobey God and do our own thing, it is remarkable that God actually continues to give us good gifts, perfect gifts. Moreover, we change, but God doesn’t change. God is constant, even when we wander away or change our minds about how we feel about something or even how we feel about God, God remains the same. God loves us in spite of our fickle nature.

You may be thinking, I never feel fickle about God. If that is true then God Bless. I pray that your certainty may be given to us all.

So what is the point of all this rambling? The point is that the verse in James reminds me that everything good comes from God and that a lot of the time I forget that. Furthermore, James reminds us of the constancy of God and God’s overwhelming presence in the world. I hope that we might be more aware of that presence and be mindful of how we may share that presence with others.

Each Day

Ephesians 6:10=20

Do we live our lives in such a way that we reflect Christ in all that we do? To me that is a difficult task, but it is one that we are called to embrace.

That is what we are challenged to do in the Ephesians passage today. We are challenged to go out into the world, covered in the armor that is from God and spread the truth that comes from God.

And just as Paul asks the Ephesians to pray for him, we have to pray for each other. I am not going to write more today, but I want you to take some time and pray about where God is calling you and how you are being called to serve. Take a moment to think about how you might put on the armor of God each day and serve God in all that you do.

"Ain't no Reason

Psalm 84

Here is the official video for Brett Dennen's Ain't No Reason. Take a look at the video and then think about how the Song is challenged by the Psalm.

Dennen’s song begins:

There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.

I agree that there is no reason for the world to be the way it is. Why is there violence, poverty, hopelessness, and despair when we believe in a risen Lord. Moreover, things may ‘intend to stay’ ‘this way,’ but as followers of Christ we know that we have hope that things will change in this world. We know the Lord of heaven and earth and we know that in that Lord we have hope.

Dennen’s song points out injustices of our society and sheds light upon some very dark places, he even acknowledges that ‘love will come set him free.’ I would like to suggest that love, Jesus, will not only set us free, but love brings justice to the most difficult situations that exist. Love, Jesus, is present for those folks who no one will love. And Love gives hope to a world that believes things will never change.

That is where our Psalm comes in today. Psalm 84 gives us a brief description of what it might be like to dwell in the court of our Lord. And if we can find little hope for life on this earth, at the least we can find hope in the presence of our Lord. One day in the court of our Lord is better than a thousand elsewhere.

May we know hope this day so that we may believe that things can change. May we know that our Lord is ever present in this world bringing justice to those places that seem hopeless. May we know that our Lord is using us to change the world so that it will not remain the same.