Good morning:
We’ve all had them, those calls that come to your cell phone with no identifying name. Most of us probably ignore them or block them from calling again. Suppose this morning you are curious enough to take the call. Suppose the voice on the line asks, “What is your address? What is your opinion on the candidates running for public office?” Would you give out the information? Suppose the questions were more personal: “What is your Social Security number and bank account password? What medications are you taking? Anything you feel guilty about?” At that point any one of us would reply, “It’s none of your business!” and immediately end the call.
Certain aspects of our lives are off-limits to others. It’s none of their business. Do you ever tell God that? Are there parts of our lives which we don’t want Him to see? Maybe it is certain habits. We don’t want to think too hard about whether they are God-approved, because we don’t want to give them up. It could be places we go, what we spend money on, or how we treat a coworker or classmate. To what degree are we accountable to God? Does it go beyond Sunday morning? It does. Every part of our lives is God’s business. We owe our very life to Him. “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13). We are accountable to Him for every thought, word, and action. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10).
But unlike the scammer on the phone who is only interested in your personal information to steal money or your identity for his own gain, God wants only blessing for you. He knows us through and through. There is nothing we can hide from Him. His Law condemns us. Yet He loves us even to the point of taking on our identity and suffering our punishment. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
It’s unnerving to have a stranger call and ask for personal information, let alone to imagine that they might be able to get it. It’s none of their business. But thank God that He has graciously made us His business and has worked out our salvation in Christ. Rather than try to keep our lives off-limits to Him, may we come to Him, freely confess our unworthiness, rejoice in His forgiveness, and pray for the Spirit to fill every part of our life with His presence and power.
In Christ,
Pastor
Services tomorrow are at 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday school begins at 9:15 a.m. and adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. In Bible class we will pick up with our review of Baptism and how it is not an empty ceremony but a saving work of God and daily blessing for our lives.
