The Journey Continues: Spiritual Choice
My journey this week is about the role of spiritual choice in our lives. I found a news clipping saved years ago from The Baptist Standard. Dr. Foy Valentine, then executive director of the Christian Life Com mission of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote: “We hear so much, it seems, about what religion is AGAINST. What we sometimes lose sight of is what religion should be FOR.” “Religion is a life-transforming relationship with the Lord God resulting in a life-expanding relationship of service to others following the example of Jesus, our Savior,” Valentine said. “For Christians,” he said, “pure religion is living in the conviction that:
• Love is better than hate.
• Peace is better than war.
• Wisdom is better than knowledge.
• Faith is better than doubt.
• Stability is better than wavering.
• Patience is better than fury.
• Love is better than lust.
• Discipline is better than license.
• Mercy is better than judgment.
• Blessing is better than cursing.
• Giving is better than getting.
• Tranquility is better than strife.
• Order is better than confusion.
• Honesty is better than hypocrisy.
• Righteousness is better than wickedness.
• Friendship of God is better than compromise with the world.
• Humility is better than pride.
• Godly poverty is better than corrupt wealth.
• To forgive is better than to hold a grudge.
• Purity is better than profanity.”
As I looked over his list, what struck me is that these are good stepping stones for getting across the river of daily life.
“Why do you call me, Lord, and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, be cause it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed, and its destruction was com plete.”
In Luke 8:48-49(NIV)
