Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:9-21
“What follows in Romans 12 is an inventory of what the new behavior in the kingdom of God might look like… Mature materiality focuses on the new behavior appropriate to the new regime. Mature materiality concerning the body consists in generosity, diligence, compassion, and cheerfulness, genuine love, mutual affection, hope, patience, and perseverance in prayer, hospitality, harmonious living and association with the lowly, peaceableness, rejection of vengeance, and generosity toward one’s enemies. This remarkable list of practices, taken to be quite ordinary for those embedded in God’s grace about which Paul has written, quite frontally contradicts the way of the world. The mature body is put to different use! Thus the bodily sacrifice offered to God is the self given over to the radical ethic of God’s graciousness now enacted as graciousness toward the neighbor.”
Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 43-44.
“The mature body is put to different use.” This statement says it all.
Generosity, in plain terms, takes shape as giving ourselves to new behavior fitting with the new regime, the reign of Jesus Christ. As His living sacrifices, we live, giving, serve, and love in a way that “quite frontally contradicts the way of the world.”
I think God wanted me to serve and suffer with God’s workers in Nepal to help them chart a new course for the future.
GTP will host a special zoom called “Prayer and Next Steps for Nepal” in English and mostly Nepali. The time for Americans is 7:15am PT, 8:15am MT, 9:15 CT, 10:am ET, and for the work, sync with 8pm Nepal Time. Join here. Passcode: Hope.
The fellowship we have enjoyed and our perseverance in crisis has bonded us closely together.
Would people around you say your behavior matches or contradicts the way of the world? Ponder with the Holy Spirit how you would want them to answer and what changes you may need to make.
I am still sheltering in a safe place in Pokhara, Nepal until Saturday morning. Thanks for your prayers.
As for my personal rhythms, I will wake early tomorrow and rest on four flights to Kathmandu, Delhi, Newark, and Denver, getting home on Sunday midday. It will take about 40 hours to get home. Sunday afternoon I plan to rest from the rigors of travel.
I actually feel enriched rather than exhausted from travel. I think God made me to do it.