Monday, July 18, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
What does the Lord require of me?
God rises up.
Is anybody listening?
Arise, present your plea before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice! The Lord has a plea against his people.
Some of us stop up our ears with chewing gum, while others perk up and listen harder.
O my people, I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you. What harm have I done to you? Answer me!
This accusation demands a response. Take the chewing gum out of your ears, and think. Stop looking toward idols of the world. Turn your vision upward, and stop wanting everything for yourself.
| AMBITION
Ambition can be a stealthy thief, channeling all our energies to make a home, to make a name, to secure a future, to win the game, to build a legacy, to save the souls of many, to make the world better (from our perspective), to prove our worth. I have been guilty of all of these and more… at your expense… and you have suffered and endured. But now, but now my love, my only ambition is you. My soul ambition is to love you better. – Clarence Heller, 7/14/22, A Piece of Goodness I am not a cheapskate. God requires my best – I will not give him bloody dead sheep and stuff. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think it’s Passover in Egypt, and he wants my firstborn, a sacrifice of blood for God, decimating my family. In those moments I cringe and cry, my wife awakens and holds me while I weep, calming my hysteria, coaxing me back to sleep. The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? No, stop it! This is not what God wants now, or ever. He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? I am too much like the Pharisees, wanting signs and more signs, questioning God rather than letting Him question me. Jesus called us “an evil and unfaithful generation.” Has there ever been anything else? We do not stand firm, let alone act justly, love mercy and walk humbly before God. I don’t, anyway. I do realize, and appreciate, that these miracles of human behavior do not happen without the salvation and strength that only comes from God. But God says, “Try harder, David! Find the balance. I’ll help you find it. It’s there!” |
(Micah 6, Psalm 50, Psalm 98, Matthew 12)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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