Day 35: What Is Required Of Me Now?
Read: Micah 6:6 - 8
It is the day after the 'perfect storm 'Sandy'. We spent the better
part of the week in front of the television watching this storm develop,
running amok in the Caribbean, moving up though Florida and then the
Atlantic Seaboard. There was great loss of life and property as the
storm did what storms do so well - wreak great havoc where ever they go.
Along the way there was great flooding, homes lost, property damaged by high winds and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. It had to run its own preordained course. All we could do was prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Well, it has run its course. What's left to do but call the Insurance Company and clean up and try our best to move on?
When all around us becomes daylight again, we'll get ourselves out of
our beds and begin the process of assessing what has happened to us
individually, as a family and as a community. We will look in our
basements to see for ourselves what water has come in. We will look out
our windows to survey our properties. We will look to the rising streams
and rivers with renewed interest and prayers that all the water stays
away from us or begin the arduous duty of cleaning up what water has
come in. We will look for the fallen tree limbs and if they are not too
heavy and their are no wires flailing about the well soaked ground, we
might just try to move them safely away.
Either way, it is not
as if there is not enough for anyone and everyone to get busy with. If
not the clean up we have to do for ourselves that awaits us, it what we
are presented with in our neighbors yard as well that gives us the
opportunity to do stuff for someone else who might just well be
overwhelmed by what has occurred. It is an overused, but never the less
relevant cliche' to ask "what can I do for you?" "Can I help you?" or
say something like "Let's organize ourselves" or "Let's come together!" "Let us be the Body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus and assign
ourselves to the most immediate mission field the storm Sandy has
unceremoniously placed before us. God reminds us of His mission priorities:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
First: God deeply appreciates it very much when you take the time to do
things for your neighbor in need. God appreciates any effort when any
one of us freely chooses to apply themselves to the task of building or
re building His kingdom when storms come through and messes things up.
Give to God yourself selflessly not selfishly. God is far more concerned
with your personal actions 'heart attitude' on behalf of others than
with any mind more focused on selfish self centered "see what I am
doing" stuff.
Second: What God requires of us is that we do what is right and fair in our day to day relationships with other people. There is an old saying, “honesty is
the best policy.” For the Christian, that slogan should be, “honesty is
the ONLY policy.” Are you treating the people around you fairly and
equitably. Are you doing the right thing at the right time for the right
reasons regardless of the personal cost to you? Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring all the issues of life.”
Let Us Pray: Lord, in such a time as this, show us what we must do and
how we must do it that we may be the beating hearts, the strong willing
hands and the sure and steady feet of Body of Christ in the building up
of Your kingdom on this earth.
https://www.youtube.com/
Read: Micah 6:6 - 8
It is the day after the 'perfect storm 'Sandy'. We spent the better part of the week in front of the television watching this storm develop, running amok in the Caribbean, moving up though Florida and then the Atlantic Seaboard. There was great loss of life and property as the storm did what storms do so well - wreak great havoc where ever they go. Along the way there was great flooding, homes lost, property damaged by high winds and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. It had to run its own preordained course. All we could do was prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Well, it has run its course. What's left to do but call the Insurance Company and clean up and try our best to move on?
When all around us becomes daylight again, we'll get ourselves out of our beds and begin the process of assessing what has happened to us individually, as a family and as a community. We will look in our basements to see for ourselves what water has come in. We will look out our windows to survey our properties. We will look to the rising streams and rivers with renewed interest and prayers that all the water stays away from us or begin the arduous duty of cleaning up what water has come in. We will look for the fallen tree limbs and if they are not too heavy and their are no wires flailing about the well soaked ground, we might just try to move them safely away.
Either way, it is not as if there is not enough for anyone and everyone to get busy with. If not the clean up we have to do for ourselves that awaits us, it what we are presented with in our neighbors yard as well that gives us the opportunity to do stuff for someone else who might just well be overwhelmed by what has occurred. It is an overused, but never the less relevant cliche' to ask "what can I do for you?" "Can I help you?" or say something like "Let's organize ourselves" or "Let's come together!" "Let us be the Body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus and assign ourselves to the most immediate mission field the storm Sandy has unceremoniously placed before us. God reminds us of His mission priorities:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
First: God deeply appreciates it very much when you take the time to do things for your neighbor in need. God appreciates any effort when any one of us freely chooses to apply themselves to the task of building or re building His kingdom when storms come through and messes things up. Give to God yourself selflessly not selfishly. God is far more concerned with your personal actions 'heart attitude' on behalf of others than with any mind more focused on selfish self centered "see what I am doing" stuff.
Second: What God requires of us is that we do what is right and fair in our day to day relationships with other people. There is an old saying, “honesty is the best policy.” For the Christian, that slogan should be, “honesty is the ONLY policy.” Are you treating the people around you fairly and equitably. Are you doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons regardless of the personal cost to you? Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring all the issues of life.”
Let Us Pray: Lord, in such a time as this, show us what we must do and how we must do it that we may be the beating hearts, the strong willing hands and the sure and steady feet of Body of Christ in the building up of Your kingdom on this earth.
https://www.youtube.com/
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