Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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International day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking

1 Thessalonians 5:5-10
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. (V.6)

What does it mean to be a good Christian?  We go to church, we read our Bible, we pray twice a day, and complete all the other model behaviors of the ideal Christian.  These behaviors are instilled in us from a very early age and are foundational in the development of our faith.  However, if we lead our spiritual lives by only completing these checklists, we can draw parallels to the lives led by the Pharisees during the times of Jesus.  These were people who led upright lives and did all the right things but struggled to develop their faith from the foundations in understanding the message of Christ.  This is the message that we love the Lord our God and love one another.  In order to live this message in our lives we must first learn to deny ourselves to take up His cross.
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he encourages them to keep awake and be sober in their faith. We must reflect and ask ourselves if we have become drunk with our self-concern and fallen asleep in our spiritual lives.  In today’s culture of self, our faith has become an exercise of self-glorification. We are doing all the right things for ourselves but are we building on the foundations in understanding the message of Christ?  Are we building up the body of Christ?
What does Christ call us to do? According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “when Christ calls a man he bids him to come and die”. This is a call for us to end this culture of self. We must therefore look beyond to serving the body of Christ.  We must look to those that can be found at the margins. Today is the international day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. As many of us may not be directly impacted by these activities we must awaken ourselves to be aware of the pain and suffering occurring at the margins. We must pray for our brothers and sisters that are suffering from these afflictions. 
If we are the body of Christ, then what are we doing to look beyond ourselves?  Christ brought His message to the sick, the poor, and the afflicted.  It is our sinful human nature to ignore, take advantage, and criticize those at the margin.   How do we live our lives as Christ lived His?  How do we encourage one another and build one another up in the body of Christ.
We must challenge ourselves to wake up… for the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
Prayer: Lord we pray for you to wake us from our slumber….Amen
Thought of the day: Let us encourage one another and build one another up so that we keep awake and sober as children of light to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ


Jorge V. Wilson, M T C, San Francisco 

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