Today's Scripture:
We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.
Daniel 9:18
As I finally sit down this day and take time out for devotion I reflect back on a very busy and eventful week. Several people close to both my family, our Selah family and in my Mt.Olive Pickle' family experienced the loss of loved ones. I had the chance to visit with several others both in the hospitals and homes and still others in temporary homes as they heal from various sickness and conditions.
As a christian and a pastor I feel those obligations and longing to do all the right and perfect things and to speak and listen and pray in perfect Joel Osteen or Billy Graham fashion, but that is not how our days and weeks unfold. When you've done everything you can to be everything for other people and you still feel disappointed and perhaps it is not enough to make God happy; that my friends is when we've miss his point. That brothers and sisters is when we find out that none of can be as good as we think we need to be...ever.
As I read of the appointments the President-Elect Obama has planned to make of both Senator Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State) & New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner(Secretary of Treasury) I noticed how it has taken a team of lawyers and analyst to help them decide if they are good enough and if they can manage the jobs or tasks before them. Do we drag our feet this same way and try to measure where we are at before we accept his grace?
If only, when God smiles and says we are saved, we'd simply salute him, thank him, and live like those who have just received a gift from the commander in chief.
We seldom do that, though. We prefer to get salvation and forgiveness the old fashioned way: We try to earn it. To accept grace is to admit failure, a step we are hesitant to take. I see a Mixed Martial Arts clothing line that plays on Christ ability not to give up...they imprint there shirts and merchandise with "JesusDidn'tTap.com" taken from the idea of to "Tap" or "submit" to something is being a quitter or failure. You and I often opt to impress God with how good we are rather than confessing how great He is. We dizzy ourselves with doctrine. Burden ourselves with rules. Do you think all that we've done to stay on track will make God smile on our efforts. He doesn't!
Selah people' and friends God's smile is not for the healthy hiker or marathon runner who boasts that he made the journey all alone. It is instead, for the crippled leper who begs God for a back on which to ride. Choose today, like myself to humble ourselves and ask God to give us a lift. Perhaps if He has already uplifted you and you are feeling that surge from His Spirit pick up another who is down and as you do it you will pass on the Smile that He intends for us all to share.
"Peace be with you as you accept the Gift of God's Smile."
Your pastor,
Rev Muston(PreacherPatrick)
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