Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Can we see God’s people there?
Psalm 119:63
I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.
Acts 8:30-31
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Words of Grace For Today
It is pretty well established that we mimic those we live with and among. So losing weight in a city where the BMI is sky high and obesity a huge matter for the health care system is going to be much tougher than say in Vancouver where it seems everyone takes a 5 km hike before work and on the way home, as well as a 25 km hike on the weekend, or a ski, or a swim (though the strait is not really clean water for that!)
So when we want to lose the weight of sin, degradation of life, and worldly concerns (like material security, status, and domination over others) we would do well to live among those who strive for the same, or better, among those whom God has gifted freedom from sin, degradation of life, and worldly concerns. Those who strive for this on their own, though, strive in vain. And God frees us all, and yet we all remain captive to sin. So where can we live to thrive, and live well, as God created us to live?
Among God’s people. Who are God’s people? God created us all.
The best we can do is keep companions who fear and love God. (Keeping God’s precepts is impossible so those who make such a claim are full of it.)
The best we can do is read and listen to God’s Word, asking for guidance from those who can actually help us comprehend and appropriate what we read. That is not an easy thing to do, nor is it simple to tell who can help us, and who is just full of it, wanting to control others with their whims, BS, and lies.
Ah, what are we to make of it anyway.
Take the visualization above. What can we make of it? The larger the piece of the pie, the more power in this world that country exercises. What of the projection that China will overtake the USA by 2030? That’s just 8 years ahead. What of Tuvalu and so many others like it who have so little in the Global Trade Game? Which does God value more? Which do we value more? Which must we be aware of most?
Tevia’s Rabbi’s prayer comes to mind. God bless the Czar and from us keep him very far. Trouble is with globalization distance is not always a measure of safety.
We can pray that such values as world power, do not play in our lives a great part. So that we can still bend low, serving the outcasts and poor, eating with the least valued, sharing with the most needy.