Easter 7 - If You Represent Love, You Have Already Won!

Text: Ephesians 4:17-32 (see below)

There is so much going on in my life right now. I wish I had the time to write about all of it – and I will at some point. I never believed that I would be creating a blog post most every day and that my words would be read by others on all sides of the globe. The prayers, encouraging words, and support that I have received from so many is what keep me going. To my readers, I raise my glass and simply say, “Thank you.”

Given the events of my week, I thought the quote below by Doris (Granny D.) Haddock was particularly appropriate as I continue to seek justice, reconciliation and healing. It is an awesome time to be alive – when the efforts of so many are making a difference not only in local circumstances, like mine; but, in national and international situations as well.

In the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel, the author penned one of the most amazing and hope-filled phrases that I have ever known – “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it.” That Light walked this earth over two thousand years ago and made a difference in the lives of young and old, rich and poor, sick and healthy. Our witness, in our own time, is to shine that Christ Light each and every day - breaking down walls which divide; speaking truth to power; offering the healing "balm of Gilead" to those who are sick, lost and in misery; and being about the ministry of reconciliation.

Haddock writes: “Aren't we privileged to live in a time when everything is at stake, and when our efforts make a difference in the eternal contest between the forces of light and shadow, between togetherness and division? Between justice and exploitation? Oh, be joyful that you are a warrior in this great time! Will we rise to this battle? If so, we cannot lose, for rising up to it is our victory. If we represent love in the world, you see, we have already won.” (To Be of Use by Dave Smith)

Let your Light shine today. Be a champion for good.

Love One Another – Brian

Ephesians 4:17-32

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.