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Our Weekly Devotional

Keepers of Lost Causes

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 • • General
Unlike others who don??????????¢??t know Jesus----humans equally capable of noble acts and unselfish service---- we fight with different tools and different strategies, and with the hope and perspective of eternity in our sights.

Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.----(Matthew  19:26)

     We are called to be the Keeper of Lost Causes. It is one of the many ironies in Christianity; this realization that God calls us to fight seemingly unwinnable battles against apparently overwhelming odds, frequently asking us to give up comfort and security and---- occasionally---- personal safety, in pursuit of these Lost Causes He appoints us to keep.

     And yet---

     Even if every leader of every government and every CEO of every corporation became a fervent Christian tomorrow, the world would still remain broken; even if every Christian suddenly became an ardent evangelizer, urgently pleading with their family and friends to become Christians, there would still be souls unwilling to surrender to God.

     So why bother?

     We "bother" because God does; and because we are called to bring Christ's redemptive impact on us to the people and places where we live and work.  We "bother" because our relationship with Christ should change us from self-focused seekers to compassionate servants.

     This is why we are called to choose jobs and careers that use our God-given gifts and talents to re-introduce the will and ways of God to others, and to the systems and structures we use to tend His Creation. We take back ground where we can do so with love, and we hold on to ground not yet lost in order to plant the flag of faithful living in places where salt and light can still alter outcomes. We work not just to feed ourselves and our loved ones, but because work is the way we honor God; the way we serve Him; by being where He is---at work in the midst of His Creation.

     Unlike others who don't know Jesus----humans equally capable of noble acts and unselfish service---- we fight with different tools and different strategies, and with the hope and perspective of eternity in our sights. We push back the darkness shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, who loves this world and its people so much He suffered the double insult of sins piled on his divine nature and pain inflicted on His human body.

     This isn't something we can do in our own strength; it must be laid against an intentional effort to engage the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible reading .  When we take our eyes off of Jesus, even for an instant, we begin to do things as we think they should be done, rather than as the Holy Spirit directs us. (For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.---II Cor 10:3)

     But with our eyes fixed firmly on Him, we can and will be proudly marked as the Keepers of Lost Causes, because "Jesus...said, "With man (this) is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt.19:24)  In other words, even those things which seem like lost causes to us become places where God uses us to redeem His Creation.

--Randy Kilgore

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