Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Clearly marked trail

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Matthew 7:21
Jesus said to his disciples: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."

God's will ... what does this mean? Luther asked that question over and over in his catechism, and I was one of countless Lutheran middle-school and high school kids who learned to recite at least some of his explanations.

God's will is inscrutable? God's will is clear and written on the Bible page for all to understand? God's will is unique in each of our individual lives? God's will is for all of us? God's will is the scary part of God? God's will is what gives me life? I think all of those statements are at least partly true.

God's will is expressed through the words of Jesus ... that sounds like it should be true. Which words? My favorite Bible prints Jesus' words in red letters. All of them. Tony Campolo and others have formed a following they call the "red letter Christians," a name adopted from the comments of a country-and-western DJ in Nashville who was interviewing Campolo's partner Jim Wallis: "So, you're one of those Red-Letter Christians--you know--who's really into those verses in the New Testament that are in red letters!" *

Here is what Campolo says:

In those red letters, He calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn't kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers.

Figuring out just how to relate those radical red letters in the Bible to the complex issues in the modern world will be difficult, but that's what we'll try to do.

Gandhi once said that everybody in the world knows what Jesus was teaching in those verses--except Christians! We will try to prove him wrong.*

I learned of this group in a book written by A. J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically, in which he strove to follow all the Bible's rules, not just some of them. Doing that changed his life. Doing that changes everybody's life.

Lord, I turn to you and thank you. You are good and your goodness endures forever. You love me, and your love endures forever. When I cry out to you for help, you set me free. With a friend like you, I am not afraid. You are my strength, you are my song, you, oh Lord have become my salvation.

This is the day you have made, oh Lord; this day we call today. I will rejoice, and be glad in it. Psalm 118

* http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2006/02/Whats-A-Red-Letter-Christian.aspx

Devotions Archive

Clearly marked trail

Thursday, December 3, 2009