Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

"Amos has written a whole book on doing justice; Hosea has written a whole book on loving mercy; Isaiah has written a whole book on walking humbly before your God. But Micah is going to sum it up in one wonderful expression--what does God want of you!?
He wants you to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him.
And ofcourse Micah got it wrong,and we now know better. We know what God requires of us is to read our bibles, pray, and go to church. Now don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with praying--if you love the living God you'll talk to Him. There's nothing wrong with going to Church--the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says, "Don't neglect meeting together as is the habit of some." That's really important; Thomas missed out on the first meeting of the church so he missed out on the Lord of the church. Don't fire when it comes to getting together. And don't miss out reading your Bible, you want a living God's world, God's way--read God's word, it's absolutely crucial! But reading your bible, praying, and going to church are not the evidence of your faith! They're the benefits, they're the blessings of your faith. The evidence of your faith! What the world is world is waiting to see! Is that you do justice.... love mercy.... and you walk humbly with your God."

"What do they mean? Well it's like going up a staircase and Micah starts at the bottom-- the lowest rung is doing justice. And it's not speak justice. It's not sign a petition or make a public statement. Justice is something you do and doing justice means giving people what they deserve- giving people what they should have the right to half. We're here to do justice folks."

"Then Micah takes it up a notch--love mercy. Hosea calls it loving kindness it's the loving kindness of God. And we're called to love mercy and mercy means giving people what they don't deserve."

"You do justice--it means you give people what is their right. You love mercy--means you give people what goes way beyond their right.
And then the third one is walking humbly with your God. And the problem is when you do justice and you love mercy you normally get proud of it. And that's why it's so important to walk humbly with your God."

"So God sent his first born, his only Son and he died. The only one who'd done justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God--gave his life. Why? 'Cause you can't even do justice--let alone, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. You can't even give people what they deserve. You can't do it. And because you can't; Jesus died. And he died not in order that you might read your bible, pray, and go to church. He died that in order that when his spirit came and flooded your life--you would have the power to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him. What comes first? What's the most important? The proclamation of the Gospel. Because you can't do social action without Jesus."

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Now playing: Clive Calver - The Church Pursuing His Fame
via FoxyTunes

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