Hello Church Devotion Aug.28, 2013

All of us, no matter where we are from or where we end up have cultural roots and family histories. We have things that define us and differences that sometimes cause quarrels. But now more than ever we are more aware of the challenges and struggles that people face on any given day. There is an apparent shift to be tolerant of all people and all differences. This tolerance is often veiled as love and kindness. Now on the surface that seems good and very much like something we should get behind, but it seems the world in this push for love has forgotten a key component of the world’s existence, God. The world wants us to forget our brokenness and seek to dig out of the old decrepit ways that cause wars and famines. Yet we must not overlook the world and ourselves for what we truly our, sinners. You see, John 1:10-13 says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

The world in its sin would have us believe that we can pull ourselves up from our fallen realities. It would have us believe that if we just teach love and tolerance, and accept everything that we agree is not bad then things will get better. The world is missing the truth that stares us in the face. We are sinners and apart from God we can do nothing good in ourselves. Yes, there are times in culture where it seems the world gets it right, we come together despite religious differences and pick each other up. But in the midst of these good, even great acts of kindness we can miss the temporal nature and worldly perspective at their foundation that ultimately misses the big picture.

These acts of kindness aren’t bad in themselves but they can lack an eternal perspective. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done (Matthew 16:24-27, NIV).” Here you have a question that smacks us straight in the face, verse 26, “what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” Yet, how often do we applaud and let the world lift up and promote this same behavior as that in which we should aspire to? When in reality, the world is often times going to reject us if we follow our Savior. The world rejected him and he didn’t come to do anything bad or harmful to anyone.