Living in the Spirit
July 22, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 14

Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
   They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
   there is no one who does good.  

The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind
   to see if there are any who are wise,
   who seek after God.

 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
   there is no one who does good,
   no, not one.  

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
   who eat up my people as they eat bread,
   and do not call upon the Lord? –Psalm 14:1-4

The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center.* While this statement is probably not news to most of us, it somehow becomes more real when etched in black and white statistics.

What may be more alarming are the number of people who are using God as their weapon of choice in political battles. How do we discern who has called on the Lord or not when we see God’s people being oppressed in God’s name? Is it any wonder people turn away from what they perceive to be wrong? I find myself totally discounting people who quote chapter and verse out of context to prove a point. Yet I, too, struggle to understand the application of ancient scriptures in today’s world. Indeed, people have been human since their beginning and we human’s do tend to fail to learn from our past mistakes. The truth in those ancient scriptures matter and we must seek their truth.

We seem to be driven by the fear of rapid change, and forget one of those oft repeated phrases running throughout the Bible in a wide variety of contexts, “Fear not, I am with you.” While we run around being scared of every little shadow that seems to move, we fail to remember that we serve an awesome God full of wonder and grace worthy of our fear.

Prayer: Lord, we do call upon you now to guide us and undergird us with your love enabling us to be productive participants in your work. Amen.

*http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

 All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.