Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 1 August 2014 " God’s supreme demonstration of love"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 1 August 2014 " God’s supreme demonstration of love"
Daily Scripture: Romans 5: Developing Patience
1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
Reflection Questions:
For many Christians, the salvation God’s grace offers us produce times of awesome joy and peace. But human emotions are volatile and erratic. At times of pain or doubt, even the strongest, most confident Christ-follower may struggle to feel that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts.” That’s why Paul based our ultimate security not in how we feel at any given moment, but in an event—Jesus valued and loved us so much that he died for us.
Paul twice used a verb that meant “to rejoice, be very happy.” In verse 2, the Common English Bible renders it “we boast in the hope of God’s glory.” In verse 3, we read, “We even take pride in our problems,” which may be a bit tougher to grasp. When have you experienced the progression of trouble, endurance, character, and hope bringing you a powerful sense of God’s love being “poured out” in your heart?
The Christian faith is not mainly about feelings. Our faith is rooted in a specific history—the history of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Paul said the vital proof of God’s love for us is not how we feel, but the fact that Jesus died for us. Are you secure in the reliability of the witnesses to the story of Jesus? (If not, writers like N. T. Wright, Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham can help you study the historical evidence.)
Today's Prayer:
Lord God, thank you that you weren’t content to love our little planet from a distance. Thank you for coming in Jesus, and for putting your saving love into sacrificial action on our behalf. Amen
Insight from Darren Lippe
Darren Lippe helps facilitate Journey 101 “Loving God” classes, guides a 7th-grade Sunday school class, is a member of a small group & a men’s group, and serves on the Curriculum team.
“White Rabbit!”(As our friends from the British Isles know, if you say “White Rabbit” first thing on the first day of a month, you’ll have good luck the entire month. Now it HAS to be the very first words spoken, otherwise it would be rather silly.)
I was intrigued by the idea Paul expresses in today’s letter about being “at peace with God.” When one considers the great amount of time, treasure, & talent that has been expended through the centuries to appease the gods (small g) of our world, this was a revolutionary concept to his original readers.
The Bible cites some 28 distinct pagan gods that were fashionable at one time or another. Ancient cultures, believing in a vengeful/angry god, developed elaborate rituals (up to & including human sacrifice) designed to appease the gods of fertility, wind, sun, rain, etc. Of course, there is never peace with pagan gods; rather more like a brief truce – until even more sacrifices seemed needed “just to be on the safe side.”
Aside: I appreciate the lighter touch to these grim rituals of the old Far Side comic depicting two women being carried on a board up to a great volcano with one gal saying to her friend, “Did you see how their eyes lit up when I told them we were Virginians?”
Fortunately, thanks to science, we no longer believe that some ritual or sacrifice will actually change the course of nature.   The ineffectiveness of this exercise is captured perfectly with the dialogue from the 1978 movie, Animal House:
Otter: I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture to be done on somebody’s part.
Bluto: We’re just the guys to do it!
However, lest we think pagan-esque sacrifices are completely relegated to the past, consider the following: In 2007, Nepal Airlines had to suspend operations due to the discovery of an electrical glitch in their airplanes. To appease the Hindu sky god, Akash Bhairab, the airline sacrificed 2 goats on the runway in front of the plane to see if that would help solve the problem. (Well. I think we have our winner in The Frequent Flyer Flight Delay Story Contest.)
And we modern thinkers can even find ourselves tempted by the siren song of superstition. Perhaps it is an 8th grader who wears “lucky socks” on test day, or a salesman with his “special” tie that “always closes the deal” – coincidentally when his price is lower, or particularly new parents when their baby sleeps through the night for the first time. (Let’s check our journal…we read “Goodnight Gorilla,” walked around the room counter-clockwise 8 times while singing “I’ll Love You Forever,” then gently laid him down in the crib slightly angled to the NW corner, & slowly tiptoed backwards out of the room.)
But Paul emphasizes in the very next phrase of today’s passage that our peace with God has been made possible by only one event: the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. There is no service, no sacrifice, and no gift that man can possibly offer that could appease God or satisfy His perfect justice. The only propitiation/sacrifice that could be acceptable to God and reconcile Him to man had to be made by God Himself. Thanks be to God for this incredible act of not war, but peace. This is the reason we eagerly attend church – not to placate or pacify Him but to worship & celebrate this loving God. What a joy!
So go ahead & walk under that ladder, open that umbrella indoors, & pet that black cat crossing your path, because the God of Creation has already made the greatest sacrifice on our behalf that will give us the opportunity to enjoy a relationship of peace with Him forever. (Um, you know, knock on wood.)
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