So how was your 4th?
I immensely enjoyed the blessed rest of the last two days. On Monday afternoon, Mandy, the girls and I caught Pixar's hot children's flick Cars with Allan, Carrie-Anne and their girls. We laughed heartily at the "Tractor tipping" episode.
At dinner following the movie, I asked all the girls about the point of the movie. And without hesitation, they replied in unision, "Friendship."
On the 4th, we watched the Hot Dog Eating Contest, cooked out, swam, watched a fireworks show, shot off our own fireworks, played games, and watched the finale of the Rangers game, a bitter loss to the Blue Jays following a valiant come-from-behind effort.
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"A friend loves at all times...Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one's nearest kin" (Proverbs 17.17a, 18.24, NRSV).
In James' epistle, he notes that Abraham, on the basis of faith, was recognized as the "Friend of God."
Life is so much more fulfilling and enriching when it is shared in the company of good friends. To have a friend, a soul-mate with whom life can be shared is a priceless gift.
But what would it be like to receive recognition as the friend of God? And what was it about Abraham that warranted such wonderful recognition in inspired Scripture?
Abraham, like many of the heroes of faith, was far from perfect. His skepticism rings through loud and clear when he is told he and his wife will have a son well past their child-bearing years.
But when that son was selected by God to be a sacrifice, and God ordered Abraham to perform the act, he did so without hesitation. Having no reason to believe as he did, the Hebrew writer says that Abraham reasoned that God would raise Isaac back to life.
Abraham's unflinching faith in the face of an extraordinary call of God surely accounts for the depth of relationship between he and God.
Is there an area of your life today where you sense the leading of God into uncharted waters? Is there an opportunity on the horizon of your life that God is summoning you as an envoy for His kingdom?
The faith to act in the face of that opportunity speaks louder than any words you'll ever say in a classroom. Or a pulpit. Or a home Bible study. What you do says more about your faith than what you say you believe. And what you do might just be a ringing endorsement that you are a friend of God!
