Living in the Spirit
August 2, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
   remove the evil of your doings
   from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
   rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
   plead for the widow. –Isaiah 1:16-17

How much time do we spend examining ourselves and correcting our life course? Some invest much time in judging others and pointing out what the judging one perceives to be the others faults while being blind to their own. Others identify as sin only behaviors that do not attract them, while easily discounting those things which truly separate them from God. We are probably all guilty a little of both actions. Thus Isaiah’s instructions from God are important for us to heed.

Most are guilty of some form of indiscriminate discrimination. Discrimination is a neutral word. As humans, we must discern what is right and what is wrong every day. Problems arise when we practice discrimination without ethics, values, or complete knowledge to guide our decisions. In many cases, we accept as truth things we inherited from our culture without ever testing them.

The Body of Christ is called to be one in a diverse world. That will never happen until we can discern well the situations and cultures with which we are to mold. The USA has had a lot of experience at welcoming the stranger over its years. It was not always pretty but in most cases, we muddled through with God’s help learning to love the Christ in the new and helping them to see the Christ in each of us. It all starts with us seeing the Christ in ourselves.

Prayer: Lord, help us examine ourselves cleansing ourselves of that which is not of you while filling the gaps with your love. Amen.

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.