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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion February 23, 2009 “What Is” and “What Ought To Be” |
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Frontline Devotion for Monday, February 23, 2009 by Fritz Foltz
“What Is” and “What Ought To Be”
I Thessalonians 1: 8-10 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Christians live in the tension between “what is” and “what ought to be”. We hang the crucifix before us to remind us of that stress. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is executed as an enemy of humanity. Things are not what they ought to be.
Christians can never accept the world’s rationalization. We shall never “Get real” or “Be practical”. Some things are evil; often we sin. There are some things that ought to be, no matter what.
Christians are always waiting. We are never satisfied; we are always reforming. We are waiting for God’s will to be done, waiting for all things to be made right, waiting for the time when death will be no more, mourning and crying will be no more, pain will be no more, war will be no more, torture will be no more, abuse shall be no more, lying will be no more, betrayal will be no more, no more, no more, no more.
Christians are always waiting for Jesus to rule. Not many in the twenty-first century see this in first century imagery. We have no idea what it means for Jesus of Nazareth to return on clouds surrounded by angels. None the less, we wait for him to rule, to rescue us from our self destructive passion. And until that time we live in the tension between “what is” and “what ought to be”.
Let us pray: Come, Lord Jesus. Come rule our world in your love that we might know peace at last. We pray in your name. Amen.
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