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Cor. 10:31 – 33 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for
the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the
church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not
seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
In my earlier post by this name I suggested
that my faith, my relationship with God made a direct difference to the
world. I have wondered this numerous
times as the entire aspect of salvation and redemption seem to be rather
self-centred affairs. In that post I
considered, and asked you to consider, that our faith extended beyond ourselves
to the entire world. Considering that our
faith made the world a better place and made us “the salt of the earth.”
Today, I want to take that another step.
Could it be that my spiritual life, what I
do away from the church, impacts your faith?
We show up Sunday morning, if we can get away with it we play a
pre-service game of tag, we sing songs together, listen to the teaching, have
communion and go home. Maybe we go for
lunch, maybe not. But then at home, I
live my faith out.
Paul tells us, “Now you are the body of
Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”
Can anyone part of the body, be healthy,
and not affect the rest of the body? Does
my praying benefit you, even though you are not the one I am praying for? Does my studying scripture make a difference
in your life? Do my acts of generosity
benefit you?
Likewise, do my acts of sin and rebellion
have an adverse consequence on you? Does
my swearing at the idiot that cut me off in traffic, encourage you to be rage filled? Does my tolerating my looking at women in
lust, create you an acceptance of reducing another person to how you can use
them? Do my acts of selfishness throw an
obstacle in your way of being Christ-centred?
I think so.
I am not sure how, maybe it is that original sin is that of being
Self-Centred and Self-Serving, but I have always considered acts of faith,
obedience and gratitude as being beneficial mostly for me. “Hey Jesus, remember when you were in trouble
and I showed up?”
Likewise, my attempts at not sinning kept
me from being punished. “Honest God, I
did not swipe those other three cookies like I wanted to, so spare me from
punishment.”
Jesus told his disciples to go into their
rooms and close the door to pray. While
this is admittedly an admonition to not engage in public displays of adoration
(PDA), does it reveal a deeper truth? Do
our private acts have public consequences?
What is called for is not only a shift in
personal faith, but in the concept of God.
Most of my self-centred and self-serving
faith and obedience comes out of a concept of a God just itching to send me to
hell. In this scenario, Jesus died on
the cross not to save us from our sins but to yell at us “After all I’ve done
for you!” Yes, products of a tortured
mind, but I don’t think I am, or was, alone in this vision of God.
This approach to faith, in my opinion if
you didn’t already realize that, calls for an understanding of the nature of
salvation. We have been freed from a
system of worship that called for obedience to a list of rules that we would
never be able to satisfy. We have been
freed from our self-serving, short sighted, self-centred way of life. We have been freed from those appetites that
in the end destroy us. It is based on
the belief that we are able to approach the Throne of God with confidence. That God loves us, that he wants to be
involved in our lives.
This approach to faith calls us to acts of
gratitude and compassion arising out of the grace that has been so freely
showered upon us. It calls us to act in
ways of inviting others to this celebration.
It invites us to recognize that we have been created in the likeness of
God.
Anyone who knows me, knows my love of
paintball and bruises. I offer to take
people with me, I show the wonderful rainbow colour splotches on my skin. It is clear that I thoroughly enjoy the sport,
and my love of the sport can be infectious.
Sadly, I don’t do quite as well with my
witness for Christ. Those who know me,
do know I love Jesus, and what he has done in my life. But I am also mindful that other people have
for various reasons decided that Christ is not for them. Some of those reasons are legitimate, us
Christians have often acted in very unethical ways, others of those reasons not
so much. There are times that my enthusiasm
is not quite as contagious.
Back to my point.
I am becoming convinced that what we do in
the secrecy of our lives has an impact on those around us. That your acts of kindness, grace and
compassion extend to those not present at the moment. Even when we try to keep the left hand from
knowing what the right hand has done, it changes everything.
Suddenly these words don’t seem as
intimidating:
“Everything that is secret will be brought
out into the open. Everything that is hidden will be uncovered. What you have
said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered to
someone behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops. Luke 12:2 &
3.
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