Gracious God of wholeness and peace, share Your blessings on the needs of this dear reader in all they may need or face today; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text today comes from Romans 13:8-14: This morning we use The Message version, which is fresh and challenging at times:
8 Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. 9 The law code - don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of - finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. 10 You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love. 11 But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. 12 The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. 13 We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. 14 Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
We're all in debt. To God, that is, for His great love for us. Dont' you love the summary given in that short passage about the debt of love? You owe me love! I owe you love! How many times have we said or heard that? Probably slim to none, right? Yet, what a wonderful message for Christians to hear, have, and live: Living as if we were in debt to each other out of love. With the debt of love message we can better understand the Ten Commandments; Paul says (in Message form): "Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love."
The rest of the message in this passage is a call to action. I was joking with my Sunday school class (Sundays at 9:40 a.m. in the RCC Meeting Room. Hint) about the number of retreats the church has had and still has. Many have said, Why don't we ever have charges or advances? Have we lulled ourselves to sleep awaiting something to happen? The truth is that God awaits our faithfulness to come to life and our willingness to go out and love folks! If we were to live our lives based on love and treat others as we treat ourselves in positive, loving ways, the results would be great for Christ's church.
So, as Paul said above, "Get out of 'bed' and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger...dress yourself in Christ" and get busy!
PRAYER: Loving God of love. I am in debt to You and others in love for the great love you always have for me and all of us. Help me to arise, dress, and go be the person of love You've called me to be. In Christ Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
PRAYER REQUEST: For baby Allegra McCallum, in the hospital with roto-virus. For Mom and Dad and grandparents. For Nicho Salazar, who has a blockage in his brain. He's in the Floresville hospital.
