Loving God of joy and peace, pour out Your rich and wonderful blessings upon the life and needs of this dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
At the World Methodist Conference we heard from a man who when a boy lost his home and belongings to an army of occupation. The home and the land his father owned was taken from them and they were forced to walk many miles to a refugee camp. It had been the father who had told the family that this army was coming and they needed to accept them for they had had not place to call home for many years and they were a persecuted people. They did as the father said and welcomed them, fed them; and within a few days the army sends them away from their own home. This would have planted the seeds of hatred in most of us. Many of our lives would have taken a different course and many of us would have sought ways to pay back this injustice.
Today's text comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verses 1-8:
1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. 4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. 5 The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, 6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; 7 if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; 8 if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. (The Message)
This young man grew up with love for all people and dedicated his life to God as a priest. Yes, he is a Christian. And the army to which he lost everything was the Israeli army (Jewish). He is a Palestinian Christian living alongside the Jews who took his land. It was in 2005 when the Israeli police chief of his town called him frantic that something tragic had happened and could get worse for both sides if he did not help out. The situation was that a young Jewish soldier riding in a bus filled with Palestinians lost his temper and shot the bus driver dead. He shot the nephew of the bus driver, and he shot dead two young women. One was on the bus to the bridal shop where she was to buy her wedding dress, and the other on her way to her college graduation ceremony. The other passengers on the bus stoned the young soldier and killed him. There was a standoff between Palestinians and Jews. The police and army could not retrieve the body of the soldier and thus the call to this priest to help them recover the body and to stop and prevent further bloodshed. He accepted the call and went. He asked permission to board the bus and was given it. He talked to the Palestinians and told them what he was going to do. The police chief told him the bus was wired to explode. He entered the bus and said he saw blood everywhere. He wanted to know which was Palestinian blood and which was Jewish blood. He said, "It was all the same!" With God's help he diffused the situation and allowed the people to go home without further bloodshed. This priest is now the Archbishop of Galilee.
Paul writes to Christians about Christian behavior. In fact, a lot of the New Testament is Paul writing to Christians about Christian behavior (or the lack thereof!). Paul is basically saying, let God bring out the best in you! He was echoing Jesus about this type of living that makes no sense to the world. It inspired the famous prayer, "where there is hatred, let me sow love," etc., God bring out the best in me.
May your life today be the best that God has brought out in you!
PRAYER: Loving God, bring out the best in me. Let me truly be an instrument of your peace; let me show love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy; no matter what the world may show. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
Prayer Request for Mrs. Marcelina Alegria, who suffered a fall at a convenience store in Bryan, TX, on her way home to Corpus Christi. She was airlifted to the hospital with various injuries and is now recovering at her son, Rev. Frank Alegria's home. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.
