“Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.”
(1Cor 7:17-19 NIV)

– what we do is so not related to who we are, in the sense that we
do not get our identity from what we do, but we do according to
what our identity is.
– Righteousness and favor with God does not come from our job,
economic status, anything. It doesn’t come from the righteous
look we have or the suffering we endure. There is a lot of
laboring and suffering and striving in the Bible, but it’s never
the awful and burdensome task that people sometimes make it out
to be. Following Jesus isn’t a task we grudge doing.
– Yesterday there were two times where something wonderful and
amazing happened to me. I was walking to work-a 30 minute walk.
It was about 100¬? out and I had a laptop, external hard drive,
and all the wires and cables in my backpack.
– I was buzausted, as David says
– And then I did something I read in “Lifetime Guarantee.” When I
read it I thought it was pretty silly and a little too much like
a fairy tale.
– I just prayed, “Jesus, I can’t do this. I can’t walk and be nice
to people and then be joyful at work. I need to you live in me. I
give you my body, my mind, my moods, whatever you want.” and as I
prayed this something uncontrollable happened. I smiled. I smiled
a big ole smile and just walked and after a while I was at work.
– On the way home it was harder. There were some traffic issues so
the roads were closed and no busses were running (even though it
was hotter in the busses) and I was walking home with the
addition of a kilo of potatoes, a 2 kilos of bananas, a bottle of
ketchup and some canned pineapple. And it was 5:00 instead of
9:00, so it was a lot hotter.
– My wife called and asked me to get bread too, and let a thought
slip, “Is it really worth it to walk instead of drive?” I was
mean to her on the phone, got the bread, and kept walking.
– I stopped and bought a bottle of water because I thought I was
going to die of heat exhaustion, only to mistakenly buy a warm
bottle of soda water. I drank the first half liter in about 30
seconds and belched my way up the hill into our neighborhood.
– Then I realized I was really angry and mean and being a real
jerk. so I did it again.
– Jesus, you can have it all. There is no point in me walking if
I’m going to get home and be mean to my wife and kids and grumble
during all this time I can be with You.
– And He did it again. I started thinking about joy. It’s the only
thing that when you put it on, your load gets lighter. God said
to me, “If you’re not going to do it with joy, then don’t do it.”
I think that’s good advice for my last 3 years! I then added on
“and you have to do it, so do it with joy.”
– When I got home Cindy asked me if I soaked myself with the hose
before I came in the house. That’s how wet I was with sweat.
– So was it worth it? It is my least distracted, uninterrupted time
with God I have all day. You bet. I’ll do it again today.

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