THE QUESTION—A NEW WAY of LIVING
What plans do we have for today?
What goals have we set for this new year?
What lists have we made?
What calendar appointments have we created?
Schedules. Lists. Plans. Goals.
All of these things are so important in order to accomplish our daily tasks.
Our kids need attention, & our families need this or that completed.
The floors need mopped, the furniture dusted, the sink scoured.
The calls need made, the copies need stapled, and the emails need sent.
The laundry needs washed, dried, and put away in the closets.
The groceries need purchased, and the bills need to be paid.
We are certainly task-oriented people. Even if we took a six-month journey away from “all of it,” still we would find ourselves making daily—plans. That’s just who we are as people. We like to think we are “carefree & fancy-free” on our holidays; yet even there, on our vacation-time away from the day-to-day grind, still there: We Make Plans!
There is an old adage that goes something like this: “Life is something that happens while we’re making other plans”—BUT—MAYBE WE’VE GOT THIS WHOLE “LIFE-WALK” ALL WRONG!
Maybe life is NOT just something that should just “happen” while we are making our lists, our appointments, our plans, and setting our goals.
Maybe today, it is the day, when we STOP making, planning, setting, or doing as we please.
Instead, let us begin today asking a single question as we arise from our slumber.
THE QUESTION:
GOD, what do YOU want me to do on this day YOU have gifted me to live?
Saul of Tarsus was a changed man. He knew it and felt it, and he lived it. We would never find Saul again—ever—dragging fellow believers (brothers and sisters in Christ) off to jail as Saul once was set out to do. Yes, that’s right. Saul was a changed man, and not only that, but God also gave Saul a new name. Saul of Tarsus was now the Apostle Paul. However, if he looked into a mirror or if he passed another person on the street, his appearance had not altered from the red-headed, short-statured, tent-making, Jewish Law-abiding man he had always been. What changed came from within and permeated out to his actions, his words, his behavior, and his walk.
It is the Apostle Paul who penned these words inspired by Almighty God’s salvation that now permeated through Paul.
“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live for God.
(Galatians 2: 19-21 & 3: 11 NASB)
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly. . . .
Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH.”
- Are we living as if we are changed from within?
- Are we choosing our daily plans based upon THE QUESTION?
- Are we walking—A NEW WAY OF LIVING—since we encountered Jesus?
- Are we still who we always were—OR—Are we someone new?
- Are we “Christians” but not sold-out “Christ-followers”?
- Are we “believers” but not following what we know God is leading us to do?
- Are we really who we say we are—OR—Are we merely living that way on Sunday?
- Does the world around us know we are Christ-followers in everything we do or do not do?
Are we the children of God, obedient to the Father?—OR—Do we merely say we are His?
When Moses was led to the mountain (the second time), God told Moses he was going to receive a covenant, a promise for all God’s people. Moses knew how God would perform miracles, different from anything the people had ever experienced. Moses also knew (from God) how the people would react when they saw the miracles performed. God told Moses where to carry the covenant and where to not, and Moses obeyed God. Moses was a man just like you and me. Moses had a family just like you and me. Moses desired that his life make a difference just like you and me. Moses knew that this was only possible—when he walked with God.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
(Exodus 34: 27-29 NASB)
So he was there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, [God wrote the words of the covenant] the Ten Commandments.
And it came about, when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shown because of his speaking with Him.”
- Let us (who believe in Jesus) be crucified with Christ.
- Let us (who accept Jesus as Savior) no longer live for self.
- Let us (who confess our sins to God) not live only in our flesh.
- Let us (who are called Christians) live by faith in the Son of God.
- Let us (who are called the Redeemed) remember daily how Jesus loved us and gave Himself up for each of us.
- Let us (who live, walk, and breathe—changed) not live in such a way that others see our lives and think Christ died needlessly—because they see no change in us.
- Let us (who are Saved) tell the world that it is NOT the Law that justifies us but that it is God alive and living within our being who fills us with His righteousness.
- Let us (who are God’s children) spend time with our Father, staying long enough day-after-day until our countenance glows with the reflection of Jesus Christ.
- Let us (the heirs of heaven because of God’s Amazing Grace) shine in this dark world because of our time we stay, listening and talking with God.
- Let us be different—in this world where we live, move, and have our being.
- Let us speak differently—standing out peculiar as we go.
- Let us be a part, living in this world, but not OF this world.
- Let us allow God to write His Commandments upon our hearts.
Let us ask ourselves THE QUESTION every day we live—
GOD, what do YOU want me to do on this day YOU have gifted me to live?
Then, let us live in obedience to the answer God provides!