Can't stop posting green pictures, after our long winter. The world is so lush with spring right now.
Elisabeth Elliot speaks to my hermit heart this morning, as she writes in A Lamp Unto My Feet (pub. 1985) of our need to work out our salvation. Being a believer is more than just hopping on the Hallelujah train to heaven. "Gifts must be received, possessed and fostered." She quotes 2 Peter 1:10-11, where Peter lists the character traits we need to be nurturing in Christ: virtue, knowledge (so far, I'm good), self-control (okay, not so much), fortitude, piety, brotherly kindness (alright, I'm off the train), and love. My hermit tendencies love the part where we add knowledge (picture curling up with a good book), but not the part where I actually have to live my faith in kindness to others.
She continues, "It is still true that nothing can wash away my sin but the blood of Jesus. It is also true that God gives us responsibility--that is, the obligation to respond. How much do we care [about the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf]? The vigor of our response will reveal how much."
Do you, like me, struggle with the living out of your faith in relationships and action? Are you the one, like me, who loves to study about God but not put a toe out the door to help another? Then I say to you what Peter preached to me this morning: Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Peter 4:8-9).
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