11 August 2017 - you are loved

Today's Readings

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?

Aren't we trying to gain the world, though? And how might today look if we really choose to take up our crosses and to lose our lives for the sake of Jesus? What might it be like to live for him and not just for our own goals and aspirations? We can't easily believe it. But if we respond to the invitation of Jesus we actually find peace, joy, and freedom.

One reason the things of this world can compete in our hearts for position with God and his Kingdom is because the things of this world give us some limited satisfaction. We want to be loved. The world does not love us, but it does distract us from that need. In order to be able to live for the Kingdom we have to know that we are loved. Otherwise we'll be doing it on our own. We'll be all too ready to accept any substitute for love that comes along.

Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?

We are given life before we give it away. This is how we know that we are loved first. There is nothing that can be earned. There is nothing we have which we did not first receive (see First Corinthians 4:7).

We are called to first remember who God is.

This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart,
that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.

Second, we are called to remember who we are to him. We are chosen. We are loved.

Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

We are called to remember that this love is so great that while we are yet sinners Christ lays down his life for us (see Romans 5:8). Only after this are we ourselves called to give ourselves away. It no longer sounds threatening. It is an invitation to join in the very love of the one who first loved us.

O God, your way is holy;
what great god is there like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
among the peoples you have made known your power.