Day 3396 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

1 Peter 2:12 NIV

Let us live to leave no doubt.

For such is the calling of all those in Christ as for any to truly be in Him and He in them demands a distinction now defined as a line we walk that shall not again be crossed for the sake of the cross within we now ourselves consider this life as loss for the gain of knowing our share in that Name which is so far above our own that we care only to do and say whatever may glorify the Author of grace that called us into that grave from which we are too now walking toward the hope of Heaven, a journey justified in our leaving behind all that’s been before as in Him we’ve now plenty more to concern ourselves for than the way of life as lived wasted within a world walking away.

Indeed and again, how we walk tells those watching where we’re going.

Each step is an evidence of the self-perceived outcome of our entire existence. Every word we speak can and thus should carry life unto those who may happen to hear what we claim we’re here for from now on. Yes, every action, every moment, every intention should be of such divine intervention that there’s left no contention that we’re not contending for the content of His calling. We should see in the Son something done that demands we now do something so vastly different from the world in which we still walk that there’s left no denial that we are indeed His people.

And yet anymore it seems that we tend to take each of these opportunities so nonchalantly as if we’re doing nothing at all within everything we’re doing. We walk and talk as if we’ve a million steps left to leave and a few billion words with which to fill the boredom they’ve become. And such is a right tragedy in and of ourselves in that it’s we ourselves who continue to sell these seconds as if a substance not worth what we keep receiving in return. It’s a most confusing concession in that we give away what we’ve been given while getting what we can’t give away.

We’ve become a people of such misplaced understandings as proven inside all these assumptive wins we’re winning without anything otherworldly about them, about us then. Yes, we live as if all we can do is just continue what we’ve done and how we’ve done it, assuming always safety inside such stagnancy. As if our changing nothing can absolve us of the responsibility to now live reasonably on this side of what was at one time a good confession that claimed we’ve considered the cost of these lives we’ve lost and look now to live for nothing short of His eternal victory.

But what are we doing that is in any way proving to anyone at all that we’re at all any different than we’ve always been before?

See, what truly scares me is this argument against evidence as shown in our lives looking differently, a proof proven only in our doing differently. Rather than understanding such radical simplicity, no, we’ve instead resorted to the twisting of truth in order to better adhere Him to what we want, which is always to do as little as possible. From the cherry-picking of verses to the ignoring of entire passages, Scripture has even become to us something of a subjective quality that’s found already in overflowing quantity in our lives. We do enough subjectively, we cannot abide by an insistence that God’s Word become the same.

No, His Word isn’t what’s in need of change. Doesn’t need to be updated. We’ve enough translations. Plenty of denominations thus debating amongst themselves as to which is reading it right. Indeed, Christianity anymore seems to have so many factions and fractures that the outside world is left looking in seeing only a thousand man-made religions each claiming to be the only one right enough to know how Heaven’s hope is found. As if it’s on us to find such a home as that which none of us have ever thus far seen or even lived as if we care to contemplate.

You see, that’s a rather big concern in terms of the time we have left which is running out so quickly that you’d think you’d see a bit more ferocity in regard to this fight between the darkness we’ve been and the light which came to call us to be now something more. Yet you don’t. Lines are so blurred that it’s like we’re all walking within this fog of frivolous fellowships assuming firmness in a foundation of foolishness as found within our friendship with the world still being what His Word has always said such is seen as being.

Our being friends with this world wasting away within their enmity with God is not the question mark within this story of our second chance at a life well lived. No, the question comes in whether or not we remain who we’ve been or if we endure the pain of now becoming something new. And it is painful, growth always is. That’s why they call them growing pains, for it’s a life launched into new territory, a higher trajectory which is one we’ve never seen nor felt before as having been littler all this time than we’ve the chance to be now.

But is that a chance we’re willing to take? And as those who claim a resounding ‘YES!’ to that question, is there evidence left in the aftermath of our afterburners now burning to the ground who we’ve been that is indeed undeniably evident of our growth in grace, a fact proven in our not being any longer like this place?

For there should be.

Indeed, we should be so on fire for the Consuming Fire that is our Father that we fear only that we falter and fall again in to failure to be faithful to this most merciful opportunity to now live like we’ve been saved, a stance of such substance that we want only in this life one more chance to tell one more person, show one more stranger the truth of the danger we have all been in, the death He saved us from. Yes, that should be our perception, our perspective, a priority so perfectly placed that we yearn to look into the face of those who call us fools and show them love without fear or failure.

But is it? And if it is, do they see it? Does He see it? Is our purpose now properly prioritized in such a way that the people around us have no question as to where we’re going?

For again, how we walk tells those watching where we’re going. So, friends, where we going?

Because we claim to hope in Heaven. And that is indeed most hopeful hope, the most hopeful of all hopes in fact. Heaven is our only hope, but the gravity of that hope is that we cannot rightly hope in that home if we walk as if we’re not willing to war for those around us to know of that gift themselves. And so, where are we going as proven in how we’re walking, what we’re doing, the things we’re saying, the seeds we’re sowing, the love we’re giving?

We talked yesterday about the goodness of God now being things which should be seen in us: Kindness, compassion, humility, gentleness, patience. Because the harsh reality is, and it’s one we all know full well, those things are found few and far between among humanity anymore. They’re the entire antithesis of this life as we’ve lived it in accord with this world who’s taught us how to live like they do, look like they do, want what they want and love like they can’t.

Yes, we’ve for a long time been a people who know not what love is because there’s no evidence in our past of what love does. But is there any in our present? Will there be any in our future?

See, we claim to be a people following a Savior of such brutal mercy that He laid down His life for we who’ve confessed were indeed His enemies. That is love, a love the likes mankind cannot understand, a fact clearly seen within all this hatred and hurting we witness on a daily basis. He loved us, loves us still despite our doing so little in the way of worrying to get this right for once. Is that kind of love and mercy and kindness and grace seen in us, or are we still but replicas of a world raging against such a beautiful reality?

For indeed, though many would argue otherwise, the Gospel is reality. Jesus died for us sinners. Saved us from our sins so that we might find solace in the salvation from our suffering. How can we not now walk differently? If we have indeed been saved from such an outcome of unending death as demanded in a place void of all of God’s goodness, a place spoken of as one known by weeping and the gnashing of teeth, should not our lives be lived like we want for none to know that horror?

Because there is no selfishness in Christ, and thus there can remain none in us. We cannot walk as if we’re afraid of what the pagans may think. Because there is no fear in love, we’re told in fact that perfect love casts out fear. And what is a more perfect love than Jesus choosing to come and free us from a life lived so lost as to think we couldn’t lose our lives? And if we, as we claim, have indeed been perfected in love by our good confession of our having been sinners who are now set free by the Truth which does such a thing, where’s the evidence?

You see, this world is filled with a people who demand proof of everything. Faith is by and large the most glaring example of this sense of selfish entitlement. Seeing is believing down here, and since none of us alive today were there when He realived Himself, and since none of us can claim with any accuracy to know exactly what He looks like, and since none of us can offer anyone else a roadmap to or through Heaven, and since we cannot provide tangible evidence of His existence that would be enough to satisfy this world’s selfish need to see before they’ll believe, well then it’s on you and me.

We are here to be His hands and feet so that there is no doubt that He is there, that He is good, that Heaven is real and that we’re real sure that that’s where we’re headed.

But are we leaving in our wake along this walk now in the Way anything that can say that yeah, there is something different about us? Is there a lightness to our load, a yoke somehow less burdened than most are carrying? If Christ is indeed such things as mercy and joy and humility and honesty and modesty and responsibility and reason and righteousness all embodied before us, do they see any of the above in us?

Yes, upon that day when He does again visit us, this time to call us either home or banish us to hell, upon that day what will those around us have to say? That they came to know Him because we tried to be like Him and refused to leave any without the hope of that opportunity at the best possible side of eternity? Or that we looked like, loved like, lived like everyone else and thus made no difference as we resolved to be no different?

Friends, His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but there be still a yoke to carry and burden to bear. For as we read in Micah 6:8, He has shown us what is good, proven Himself that good without leaving any doubt. In fact, He left so little doubt that even we of little faith still claim to believe in Him! But what does He ask of us in return for His showing us what is good? To act justly. To love mercy. To walk humbly. With whom?

With God.

To act, to love, to walk with God. Because such will show the world that our faith is so real to us that we’re willing to stick out like a sore thumb in this land of those so sore at God that they live only denying His presence. Let us contend against that contention because such has always been the calling. To live such good lives among the pagans that they see our good deeds and confess before God that they indeed had no reason to deny Him still, when even a people so feeble and failing as we’ve always been fought to try to make a difference.

And no, it’s not to be seen by people that we do this as the glory is not ours. No, we do all we do unto the glory of God as He alone is our only hope, and thus the hope that everyone all around us needs to see in us however we might show it. And so let us show it.

We do that by walking like we’re headed home, not leaving it. For in the former our joy will grow deeper as the world settles instead for the latter only to find their love grows ever colder. Indeed, as we talked about yesterday, there is no coldness in God’s goodness, and so let us show the world the warmth of His mercy, for there are some who will begin to start seeking shelter from this most bitterly frigid world before long.

And by His grace alone we’ve the amazing opportunity to be those who tell the rest of the beggars where we’ve found some bread that doesn’t leave us hungry, some water that doesn’t leave us thirsty, some hope that will never leave us empty, a joy that will not leave us ever.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold