The humanity of the word
Jesus said to him,
‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Mark 10:52
Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13—16
The Good News is not a human word. If all I did, if all my church did, was to follow our best religious instincts, say we worked out our philosophy of life on a whiteboard, and said, ‘Let’s do it,’ no one would have heard of us or our religion by the turn of the year. But I’m still reading tonight about the word that is called ‘not a human word.’ Two things I note about this. One is that the word that is not a human word truly humanises me. I have found that it makes me a forgiven human, for one thing. More than any other word or life option I know the Good News makes me truly human. The other thing is that the people who have been captured by this word are, in fact, worth imitating. Yes, the church of the Thessalonians, told that the word of God was not a human word, are, in the next breath, assured that there are plenty of real humans who live by this word, and you can get the whole idea by checking them out. Really, it’s a very human word!
Prayer
Dear Father, all the time I spend coming away from my normal pursuits to spend with you, sometimes I wonder if I’m missing out on life by doing this. Sometimes a little voice tells me that I’m missing out on something. Tonight my thoughts have led me to thank you. Everything you speak to me through Jesus Christ is for the renewal of my full humanity. Forgiveness. Life in Christ, the true man. Obedience to him. You give this life with faith in him. It’s a faith that makes me whole. I pray my life be a model of what human life can be when it is lived in Christ and restored from sin.