Living in the Spirit
November 4, 2016

Scripture Reading: Romans 13:11-14

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Several years ago, high school students from around the states were invited to a huge gathering at our local civic center to hear some outstanding speakers regarding drug and alcohol abuse maybe; I cannot remember the topic. This event was inadvertently scheduled on the same day as the statewide college entrance tests. Most of the leaders or student role models did not attend the meeting opting to take the college entrance tests. The meeting was a catastrophe. The program sponsors lost control of the crowd very early.

We, as followers of Christ, choose to be the standard bearers for a way of life with a foundation of love and justice for all. Over the past forty or so years, our unity has been eaten away by one wedge issue after another. As we fight over who possesses the correct truth, we move further and further away from fulfilling our calling.

If we do nothing else following this election, we must reclaim our moral center defined by loving one another, all one another’s. We must recognize that bigotry is underdeveloped wholeness in our spiritual growth as individuals and as the church. We must delve more deeply into understanding what Jesus meant in John 10:10, the whole verse not just the second half, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. And we must understand deep in our souls that the abundant life is for all and we are commissioned to work toward that reality.

Prayer: Lord, standing on the precipice of your vision is scary. Draw us in the Spirit’s tether for when humbly in your name, two or three are met together you are in the midst of them*. Let our meetings be filled with your presence. Amen.

*From Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether, page 392, Chalice Hymnal, Chalice Press, St. Louis, Missouri, 1995.

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.