NEW DEFAULT INSTEAD OF OLD DE-FAULT

NEW DEFAULT INSTEAD OF OLD DE-FAULT

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Romans [GW] 12:1-3 Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God's compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. Don't become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect. Because of the kindness that God has shown me, I ask you not to think of yourselves more highly than you should. Instead, your thoughts should lead you to use good judgment based on what God has given each of you as believers.

2Corinthians 5:17-20 Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn't hold people's faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. Therefore, we are Christ's representatives, and through us God is calling you. We beg you on behalf of Christ to become reunited with God.

2Corinthians 6:1-4 Since we are God's coworkers, we urge you not to let God's kindness be wasted on you. God says, "At the right time I heard you. On the day of salvation I helped you." Listen, now is God's acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation! We don't give people any opportunity to find fault with how we serve. Instead, our lives demonstrate that we are God's servants.

  Reading WORLD Magazine, April 30 issue, I discover a Facebook posting by U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger: “PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal, including 5 where the penalty is death, yet they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided [transgender bathrooms]ordinance about letting men into the women’s bathroom?”

  Once upon a time reading such information my focus would have been acutely centered upon the issue cited. This new day it is not, for as one of God’s agents of reconciliation I strive to center on being His effectively fielded ambassador.

  The obvious double-mindedness of PayPal reminds me first of all that I must examine and consider eternal priorities. The initial question being: Am I too unstable, delighting in spotlighting inconsistencies in others at the expense of the integrity of my proper foremost vocation as Christ’s representative? (Mt.7:1-5; Lk.6:39-46)

  Will you join me this day in quietly inviting God’s Holy Spirit to highlight our unrecognized conflictions at the dire cost to being able to always determine what God really provides for and expects of us. (Eph.2:10)

   So, since we belong to the day, we must be sober in sense and sensibility. We must above and in the midst of all issues be clad in faith and love as our breastplate and the anticipation of salvation as our helmet, and dare not suppress God’s Holy Spirit within us. (1Thes.5:8-22)

EBB4