If I Live Right
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:45 God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Over the years I have seen people getting completely destroyed by the troubles in their lives, and here is why. There is a premise underneath our lives that is so deep that we do not even realize it is there. The premise is this: If I live right, my life should go right. So if your life goes wrong, you either say something is wrong with me, or something is wrong with God for not keeping up with His part of the deal. You either hate yourself because you must be a failure, or you hate God because He is not treating you as you deserve. This premise that if I live right that my life should go right is going to lead you into self-hatred or God-hatred, and your life will be poisoned. Something has to destroy the premise.
Jesus lived the live we should have lived. He lived a perfect life, yet His life on Earth did not end right. He says, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That is the only time in His entire life when He does not call God, "Father." On the cross, He was losing His Sonship and relationship with His Father because He was getting the punishment that we deserved. Jesus loses the Sonship so that we can have it and so that we can become sons and daughters of God.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining