With God All Things Are Possible

Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians encourages some bizarre acts, because, when you live for Christ, that means every part of your life, not just Sunday mornings.

A few years ago at Creation Fest, a Christian music festival, my buddy Patrick came back from a concert and began soliciting passersby for “High Fives for Jesus”. If it seems crazy, that’s probably because it is. The looks some people gave him seemed in the same vein as those they might give to a man in a straight jacket using a riding lawnmower in the fast lane of I-5. Maybe he was “out of his mind…for the sake of God.”

High fives are innocuous enough. We give them in lieu of handshakes, as a means of celebration or as greetings. But when you add for Jesus on the end, they become bizarre acts worthy of the Manson family. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians encourages such bizarre acts, because, when you live for Christ, that means every part of your life, not just Sunday mornings.

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James wrote that “faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14). But Paul told the Ephesians that we have been saved by grace “through faith…not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Sometimes we forget what James wrote after the oft-quoted “faith without works is dead” verse: “you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (James 2:19). It is possible to believe a million things without faith. It is even possible to do a million things without God. “Jesus said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:26). This is our new life in Christ: that the old limitations of man are gone, and now we do all things through Him, for Him, and by Him.

Pray: Dear God, it is easy to forget that I have no limits. Give me the strength today to do everything for You, even those things that seem impossible for me, for they are always possible with You. Amen.

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