Keepin’ It Clean

“You are to distinguish between the  holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.”
                                    Leviticus 10:10

Most of us are like this cat. We have our own ideas about what it means to be clean. God uses words like clean and holy to describe a state of being more than not having dirt on your body. Here in Leviticus God is specifically talking about staying away from idolatry. Today idolatry could be anything from spending all of your time worrying about who is going to be kicked off of the Bachelor, to being more focused on earning, and getting money than on spending time with family. Maybe your idolatry is being more concerned with books and learning than the people in your life who love you. John Wesley once said,

“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge”

The cleanliness and holiness God requires is the love of God which becomes more important than everything else in our lives. When we love God we will love others because God loved the world so much God sent Jesus to die for us. When we love others we will have a care about what we say, and the way we act because we do not want to do anything to cause our brother or sister to stumble. When we love God first above all things our self love will be held in check. Tina turner once asked, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” It seems to me, from God’s perspective, Love is the reason for living, and Love is what makes living worth while.

In His Peace,
Richard

 

 

 

Called to Work

I am working on Matthew 20:1-16 this week for my sermon. My District Superintendent was kind enough to give me Reuben P. Job’s devotional book “When You Pray, Daily Practices for Prayerful Living.” Job’s book follows the Lectionary, and has been very helpful in keeping my mind on what I am doing. As I was rereading the passage this morning it occured to me the owner of the vineyard in this story is a lot like God’s work through Prevenient Grace. For those of you who are not Methodist or do not know what Prevenient Grace is the the Doctrinal Standards of the United Methodist Church defines Prevenient Grace this way.

“We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God.
   God’s grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith.”
(2008 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church ¶101 p46)

John Wesley explain prevenient grace this way in an article he wrote called, “God’s Preparing, Accepting and Sustaining Grace;”

“God’s prevenient grace is with us from birth, preparing us for new life in Christ. “Prevenient” means “comes before.” Wesley did not believe that humanity was totally “depraved” but rather God places a little spark of divine grace within us which enables us to recognize and accept God’s justifying grace. Preparing grace is “free in all for all,” as Wesley used to say.”

In the story from Matthew the land owner goes out and looks for workers five times. Every time the master finds people looking for work, and every time the master puts them to work in his vineyard. This story is not dissimilar to the employment situation in United States right now. Similarly our God, King, and Master is always looking for people to work in His Kingdom. The payment is offered up front – salvation, and the work brings satisfaction and joy the way only Kingdom work can. Why should we grumble and feel as though those of us saved as children are the last to receive our pay when people ask for God’s grace on their death bed? The truth is God’s grace has already been at work in us, and just because we have been saved doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to be done. Perhaps we should spend a little less time grumbling and a little more time working for the glory of the Kingdom.

In His Peace,
Richard