Day 10: Living Heartfully

Readings for January 10: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32, Psalm 85:1-4, 7-8, 10-13, Romans 2:17-29

Are you baptized?  Really, you are?  Good.  So what of it?  What right have we to boast in our baptism if we do not then live as one baptized?  How are we different from the Jews who were circumcised and did not follow the law.  They say actions speak louder than words.  Why?  Well because lies easily come out of the mouth, but we cannot lie about what we do.  A hypnotist cannot command someone to kill themselves if they did not prior have suicidal thoughts, or, likewise kill someone else if they did not have murderous thoughts beforehand.  Likewise, even though we can say all we want, we can say we have the greatest faith in the world.  But if we do not do what is right, if we do not do what is commanded, so what of it?  “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Does that mean we are saved by our works?  Certainly not.  It is only through Christ and His death and resurrection that we are saved.  However, if we simply say we believe, but continue to live as though we did not, then we believe in God with our mouth only, and not with our heart.  And it is not our mouth that God wants, but our heart.

“Furthermore, the slave and the hireling have a law, not from the Lord, but of their own contriving; the one does not love God, the other loves something else more than God….Each man is a law unto himself, when he sets up his will against the universal law, perversely striving to rival his Creator, to be wholly independent, making his will his only law. What a heavy and burdensome yoke upon all the sons of Adam, bowing down our necks, so that our life draws near to hell. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom. 7.24).

“In this life, I think, we cannot fully and perfectly obey that precept, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all you mind' (Luke 10.27). For here the heart must take thought for the body; and the soul must energize the flesh; and the strength must guard itself from impairment….It is therefore impossible to offer up all our being to God, to yearn altogether for His face, so long as we must accommodate our purposes and aspirations to these fragile, sickly bodies of ours. Wherefore the soul may hope to possess the fourth degree of love, or rather to be possessed by it, only when it has been clothed with that spiritual and immortal body, which will be perfect, peaceful, lovely, and in everything wholly subjected to the spirit. And to this degree no human effort can attain: it is in God's power to give it to whom He wills. Then the soul will easily reach that highest stage, because no lusts of the flesh will retard its eager entrance into the joy of its Lord, and no troubles will disturb its peace.”

And so my prayer for us today is this:

Dear Father, enthroned in heaven above, Who continually watches and guards us, and who continually provides for us, grant us Your Spirit, that we may learn to live as You want, and learn to love and believe in you with our whole being, not just our mouth.  Cleanse us from all sin, and help us forgive others.  For you reign forever with the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

###

Today we celebrate the lives of Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nissa, Pastors and Confessors.  From CPH:

“Basil and the two Gregorys, collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers, were leaders of Christian orthodoxy in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the later fourth century. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers; Gregory of Nazianzus was their friend. All three were influential in shaping the theology ratified by the Council of Constantinople of 381, which is expressed in the Nicene Creed. Their defense of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and Holy Trinity, together with their contributions to the liturgy of the Eastern Church, make them among the most influential Christian teachers and theologians of their time.”