Sup Guys,
Decided to read micah this morning, if u read carefully u start noticing this pattern of God telling israel/judah to listen to his accusations and declaration of retribution, and then follows it up with a promise of grace and mercy. Through this prophet's words u really get a sense of God's hatred of sin juxtaposed with his love of his children. Micah ends with this graphic image of a loving Father ripping all that would harm his sons and daughters and casting it away from them.
But enough about scriptural poetry, I also love the encouraging message embedded in chapter 4, where man asks of God what he should bring as an offering - and starts listing off sheep, cows, oil - sacrifice after sacrifice. God's response was simply that man should walk humbly with him. More importantly, he makes a promise to show man what is good. This was done, i think, through the example of Jesus who is an exact image of the Father. Jesus himself said that if you knew him, you knew the Father as well. So there is this command in effect, to be good we must follow the example set by Christ.
The early believers at Antioch were so zealous for God that they were dubbed "Christians" which means "follower of Christ" BUT i've also heard it translated as "one who is Christ-like." I dont believe it was because of their spiritual giftings that they were given this title which we tend to take for granted today - afterall, the church of corinth had no lack of spiritual giftings. So often, we get caught up in serving the church, in giftings/callings, and in our responsibilities to our brothers/sisters that we assume we're doing ok spiritually or we become too burnt out to even consider imitating Christ. Encouragement for this week, lets forget about our sacrifices and services for a moment and consider the words of Paul - our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. In humility, love, and serving of each other, let us all strive to resemble our Lord. Jesus was meant to reflect the Father in the same way that we were meant to reflect him. I want to be a Micah.
Have a happy wednesday!
Edward
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to show mercy and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8
"He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." - Colossian 1:15
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18
Funny video about tetris, courtesy of Kang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alw5hs0chj0
P.S. Congratulations!! =)
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