Living in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
September 18, 2014
Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:21-30
Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel,—Philippians 1:27
The fractured nature of the church universal right now is distracting many of its members from fulfilling the call to be one. When we are not one in Christ, we are not the whole Body of Christ. It will take the whole Body of Christ working together to meet the goals of love set for us by Christ. If winning the debate is more important to us than loving the persons about whom we are debating, we have moved from being a catalyst for progress to being a stumbling block.
Education has become a political football in Oklahoma and probably throughout the land. It has fallen into the abyss of wanting to have our cake and eat it too. We want the best schools in the land with little or no investment of time or talent, much less taxes. We argue about test scores and classroom sizes, parental responsibility and teacher tenure, state financed storm shelters or county financed shelters in schools, and what standards will we follow anyway. These disputes meet their goal: inertia. We are left now with no standards, not enough funding, and no new storm shelters—not a pretty picture. Of course, every school day without adequate resources and planning means every child falls a little more behind attaining his or her full potential.
The church cannot and should not be solely responsible for solving government’s problems, but surely the church should be setting an example for working together, for being one with a common mission. I fear that the lack of mutual respect in our churches today are being reflected in our society in general and that is showing up in classrooms across this land.
Oklahoma Fact: in 2013, Oklahoma ranked 40th among the states in education of our children*.
Prayer: Merciful God, forgive us when we place our desire to be right above your call for us to be one. Heal our souls, O Lord, so that we can move past ourselves and truly consider the needs of the others we are called to serve. Amen.
*http://oica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-KC-State-Profile-OK.pdf
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.