The Daily Word
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Believe and Be Saved
Whose voice do we listen to? The voice of the world that tells us we must strive for immediate gratification and do whatever makes us happy and feel good? The voice of prosperity gospels convincing us that God will bless us only if we give a certain amount of money to them? Or, the voice of God who tells us that all we need to do is to believe in Him? We are bombarded by so many voices, whose will we heed?
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“Then he brought them out and said,
‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved.’”Acts 16:30-31
There are many people out there telling you that if you were to invest in their product or company or idea, you will make a profit or be made a promise of some incentive or benefit. Experience tells us that we really cannot believe in them because no human being or company can give us 100% guarantee of anything. On TV or the radio we hear of this prosperity gospels — give to me X amount of money and you can be sure God will bless you and you will be given all these things. God never made such promises. The Good News, the Gospel, and what God did say is that if you believe in Him, you will be saved.
Our world and society is full of distracting voices telling us that we must do all these things to be happy, healthy, live a longer life, etc. Those are all voices of anxiety, rooted in the world that will pass. I am not saying that medicine, technological advances, and growth mindset are bad; I am just saying that if we place those things above God and His Word then it is bad. All those things are good as long as they are used in accord with God’s will and each to their end.
Amidst the noisy world today, we can be sure of one voice — the voice of the Father. As humans we long for intimacy and relationship, and we unfortunately look for them in material things and temporary pleasures. We must not settle for such things. We were made for heaven; we were made for eternity. We were made for God. At the heart and core of all that we really desire and want in life is deep and lasting love, and that can only come from God. And the voice of God says to you today, “Believe in my Son, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”
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God Delights In You
God delights in you. God finds favor in you. God loves us. Oftentimes we look all over the place and in all the wrong places for love and affirmation, hoping that certain people or groups would accept us and make us one of their own, and so we change who we are. That is not love. They love not you, but what you have changed to become. But God loves you as you are — the good, the bad, and the ugly. St. Damien of Molokai spent the final years of his life ministering to lepers, the outcast of society. He delighted in them. God delighted in them. God delights us even in our own leprosy.
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“The Lord takes delight in his people.”
Psalm 149:4a
Imagine someone saying to you, “You’re special” or “You are a very good person” or something along those lines, how do you think you’d feel? I think I’d feel pretty happy. Deep down I think we all want to be loved, wanted, chosen, and desired. And sometimes we may look in all the wrong places, including people, to have this need met. We want to be so accepted and wanted that we become someone we are not. Yet we do not see that the person who they have come to like is really not our most authentic self. So, when all is said and done, they really haven’t accepted me. We may turn to other extreme means to find this acceptance, all falling short because whatever we may have come to receive lasts only a few moments.
While we try to look for this love and affirmation from other people, places, and things, there has been Someone who has always loved us and affirmed us — God. God delights in us. In all our imperfections, sinfulness, weaknesses, strengths — everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly, God chooses us, accepts us, pursues us, and loves us. God loves us for who we are. Brothers and sisters, we are created in God’s image and likeness. Even when buried under the layers of filth and sin, God sees our truest self — His beloved sons and daughters, the ones in whom He delights.
Today we celebrate St. Damien of Molokai, a priest who spent the last part of his life ministering to the outcast of society on an isolated island — lepers. No one wanted to be near them because this skin disease was thought to be highly contagious. Yet Fr. Damien chose to go and minister to them. I believe that Fr. Damien chose to go close to the lepers because he knew and believed that God first chose Him and drew him close to Himself. It was in his chosenness that Fr. Damien came to choose the outcasts of society. God delights in the outcasts of society. God delights in you and in me. What is the leprosy that is eating away at us? Let God enter into it and bring healing. God delights in you.
Knowing Love
We often hear of people loving, feeling love, feeling loved, experiencing love as if love is a thing, feeling, or concept. Yes, to our human nature and experience it may be all those things, but in its essence, Love is really a Person. Love is God. Jesus Christ is love. Let’s try to know Love so that this Love may truly be in us, and we in Him.
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“Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”1 John 4:7b-8
What does it mean to know love? Isn’t love a feeling or an emotion? How do we know love? Shouldn’t we just experience it?
Love is not an emotion or a feeling or a concept. Love is a person. Love is God. Love is Jesus Christ. To know love is to know God. All that we know about love must be known and experienced from God’s perspective. True love cannot be apart from God. Some may scoff at this and say “Well, I don’t need God to love,” but the truth is yes you do. Without God love has no meaning. Without God we don’t really know what love is, because God is love. Without God, you may strive to love, to experience love, to do all that you can to find love, but if you do not love with God you will always only be searching, and never really finding love.
We can never find love or love anyone else if we do not first receive love. We can’t give what we don’t have. But God became man for us and He has given Himself to us. And so, if we believe this and live this, then we will truly know love, and will receive this love, and then we will be able to truly and unreservedly love.
Love consists in this: “Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” Let’s get to know this Love who has come into this world so that we may have the fullness of love and so live life to the full. How? Speak to God and rest in the silence of His love today.
