The Power of Response

I can't help but marvel at how God works in people's lives. It's not that I doubt that God will act, but that when God does act, it's always amazing and impactful and makes me want to shout myself! It's our simple faith in the hands of God that can produce unimaginable fruit. And it's always way-more than we could ever expect.

This is the wonder that struck me about Aaron's blog post today. His experience in worship with others who have given themselves so completely to the work of God and with the people they have all been sent to care for and love with Christ's love has forever imprinted him. And how that will work into the rest of his life can only be known by God, whether it means his work back in Indiana will change, his passion for leading worship will change or if it means giving up all that he knows and moving to the far reaches of the world to follow Christ's leading. What matters most is that he and Kendra follow the direction of God. (Which they obviously have at this moment!)

This is the passion that brought the Gospel to us! Men and women who have been impacted by Christ, his touch, his words, his presence, giving themselves wholeheartedly to the work of God. That's the truth about which I spoke yesterday. The impact of the resurrected Christ upon a life is what's really truth, not the "facts" of history or of speculation or even of theology. The Council of Nicea could not even begin to explain it. Dan Brown's novel cannot undo it or even the church cannot contain it. It's the very power of God upon people of faith.

Paul described it like this, "Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life." (Galatians 6:4-5, The Message)

The very thing that The Da Vinci Code left out is the very thing that makes all the difference, the very presence of God in Yeshua Natzereth, in the people who followed him throughout the Galilee and Judea, in the Apostles, in the Bishops that gathered at the Councils of Churches, in the missionaries around the world still today, in you and me.

The power of that presence on us will be known by the fruit produce in us and through us.

Sink your teeth into that...

...and your life into "the work you have been given."

Peace ><>
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