Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me, “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.” But I will reply, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.” [Matthew 7:20-23 (NLT)]
When my children were younger, there were several occasions that I wanted to pretend I had no idea to whom they belonged! There was that time one noticed (and used) the red emergency stop button on an escalator, or another discovered the meaning of the “domino effect” after pulling over one stanchion at the airport and seeing another ten follow suit, or one managed to be so nasty to the babysitter that she went home in tears, or when hotel security came knocking because of spitballs dropping from the window of our children’s adjoining hotel room. I really didn’t want to admit I knew them, let alone had given birth to them. We expected better from our children and their conduct certainly didn’t bring honor to our name. Unfortunately, their behavior, while unacceptable, was a somewhat unavoidable and unpleasant part of their growing up. Fortunately, those times of boundary testing are long over and I am now proud that they bear my name.
Those thoughts came to me after our visiting pastor opened worship with these words: “May we begin our service as we live our lives—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” His words lifted me until I felt them convict me. “As we live our lives…” Once home from church, I asked myself if I truly live my life in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or only worship in their names. As they see me throughout the day, can the holy trio proudly say, “That’s our girl—she bears our name!” or, rather than claiming me as one of their own, would they just as soon say I belong to the other team? While I worship and pray in the name of the Holy Trinity, I asked myself if I truly live my daily life in their names. Do any of us? Do we harbor anger and resentment in His name? Do we gossip or slight someone in His name? Do we ignore the homeless or swear at the guy who cut us off in His name? Are we rude to the waitress, curt with our spouse, or impatient with the children in His name? Of course not, but yet we do all of those things and more (at least I do).
Although we pray and worship in the name of the Holy Trinity, prayer and worship are not isolated events. The way we live is our offering to God and our behavior should always bring honor to His holy name. Today and every day, may we truly live our lives as we worship—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
When I was a little girl, although I was allowed to roam freely throughout much of my residential neighborhood, I was not permitted to go as far as the business section several blocks west. I had some playmates, however, who were allowed more freedom. One day, in defiance of my mother, I walked to the grocery store with them. Once there, they dared me to steal a candy bar, something they apparently did frequently and successfully. As young as I was, I knew shop-lifting was wrong but the chocolate bar looked so delicious that I took the bait. Even though I saw the trap being set, I stepped right into it and stole the candy! On the walk back down our street, I ate the chocolate and, as I recall, it didn’t taste nearly as good as I thought it would. When I returned home, guilt-ridden and ashamed, I told my mother what I had done. She marched me right back to that store where I paid for the stolen candy bar with my weekly allowance.
Second Chronicles tells of Uzziah, a man who became king of Judah at the age of sixteen and reigned for fifty-two years. A successful and renowned warrior, he defeated both Philistines and Arabs and expanded Judah’s borders. Uzziah was also a great builder; during his reign, cisterns were dug, towers fortified, forts built in the wilderness, and catapult-like machines that could sling stones and arrows were built on Jerusalem’s walls. With God’s help and guidance, Uzziah became famous and powerful.
I recently received an email from a Christian bookstore apologizing for one of their advertisements. Apparently, there had been objections to their “journaling” Bible ad, not because of the possible defacing of a Bible with doodles but because of the ad’s subject line: “Channel Your Inner Creative.” Customers protested their use of “inappropriate” New Age language. While the store’s goal had been to “embrace and celebrate the gift of creativity,” some people thought they were touting “channeling,” a New Age form of spiritualism. When channeling, people yield control of their discerning and reasoning faculties and enter a meditative or trancelike state in order to receive messages from a spiritual guide. When I first saw the ad, I gave no thought to its wording; I simply thought they were offering Bibles with extra wide margins so the reader could write notes or prayers on the pages. In their apology, the store promised to be “more vigilant and discerning” about their messaging. My first reaction upon receiving the apology was, ”Come on people—get a life!” I considered the complainers to be the kind of prissy judgmental people who give Christians a bad name.
According to the Boston Globe, the college class of 2015 graduated with an average of over $35,000 in student debt. That’s a mammoth $56 billion in student debt, giving them the dubious honor of being the most indebted class in history. It’s likely that honor will pass to the class of 2016 come June. While a few occupations may qualify for student loan forgiveness programs, one way or another, that debt must be repaid. Recent college grads aren’t the only ones in debt. According to NerdWallet, the average American household carries nearly $131,000 in debt for such things as student loans, credit cards, mortgages, and both auto and personal loans. Even if we are fortunate enough to have no personal debt, the national debt of over nineteen trillion dollars still weighs heavily on each and every one of us. With a nation that has clearly spent more than it can afford, it’s too bad we no longer follow the laws in Deuteronomy for the Israelites that prohibited charging interest and canceled all debts every seven years.
