How Beautiful Are the Feet!

In my opinion, feet are not beautiful!  In fact, they can be unpleasant.  Yet as I read Romans 10 this morning, I was reminded of that beautiful passage from Paul where he referred to how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of Jesus Christ to others.  Paul said, "How are they to call on the one in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in one whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him.  And how are they to proclaim him, unless they are sent?"  Something to think about today -- we are all sent to proclaim the good news in our own special way, whether our feet are beautiful or not!   Even they are not technically "beautiful", God can make something beautiful out of anything we offer in his service.  

The Gospel

I was reading Romans 5:8 this morning -- "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us."  That verse is our theme verse for our Confirmation class and it communicates so well the core of our faith.  God proves his love for us in the gift of his Son Jesus Christ.  God did this for us before we were even born or had knowledge of God.  Christ chose us before we chose to follow Christ.  We love because he first loved us.  That is the good news -- the gospel. 

Change

This month we will be reading through Romans together.  I was reading in the second chapter of Romans where Paul wrote: "Don't you realize that God's kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life."  It hit me once again that the good that we do is all in response to the love and grace God has first shown us in Christ.  God's love and kindness are not just meant to end with us.  They are meant to be lived out in our lives and passed on to others through the little things we do each day. 

Rest

I was reading Exodus 35 this morning and in particular verse 2 where God commanded the Israelites: "Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord."  All of us should observe a Sabbath in our lives.  God gave us the Sabbath as a gift, knowing that without it we cannot live healthy spiritual lives.  This week I will think about ways that I can observe a Sabbath. 

Let My People Go

I was reading Exodus chapter five this morning -- "Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.'"  I think it is interesting that God said to let the people go so that they could worship.  They were not to be let go from their captivity to live self-centered lives but to live lives focused on the One who set them free.  How do I live in response to being set free by Jesus? 

Second Chances

I was reading in Exodus 2 this morning about the time that Moses killed one of the Egyptians.  Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of Moses' fellow Hebrews and took matters into his own hands.  He killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.  Perhaps one of the most amazing things about Moses' life was not coming down the mountain with the Ten Commandments or crossing the Red Sea with the rest of his people, but the fact that God still decided to use him to lead his people out of Egypt, in spite of his past.  Our God specializes in second chances.  There are examples after examples throughout scripture.  When has God given you a second chance?   

Courage

During the month of January we will be reading the book of Exodus together.  I was reading in the first chapter of Exodus this morning where Pharaoh was concerned about the multiplying population of the Hebrews.  He planned to stop the growth of the population by instructing the midwives to kill every male baby that is born to the Hebrew women.  The midwives believed in God and couldn't do such a thing.  When Pharaoh asked them why they didn't follow orders they came up with a humorous answer, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."  They were lying through their teeth!  What courage they displayed to protect the children.  How do we stand up for what we believe is right today?