Be Fully Known. Psalms 139-140; James 2

May the mumbling commence!

Do you want to be fully known?  Do you want to fully know yourself… to the greatest of your capacity?  Then go to God.  No one knows you better than the One who formed you and created you.  No one knows you better than the One who planned your life out before your birth.  Read from Psalm One-hundred Thirty-nine:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother's womb. 

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—

and how well I know it. 

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed. (Verses 13-16)

What care and love are evident in this descriptive passage!  We are delicate and complex – marvelous to experience.  It is overwhelming to think about!

But, if you have the wish to be fully known and to know yourself better and better, then be forewarned.  Your life will never be the same.  God has plans for you.  God has plans for me.  God has plans for us.

Are we ready to embrace the plans of God and eschew our own agendas?  It is frightening to place yourself into the hands of the living God.  But there is no better and safer place to be.

That place is a place of love and rightful relationships.  Let’s live by the law of love.  Read from James chapter two:

Yes indeed, it is good when you truly obey our Lord's royal command found in the Scriptures: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  But if you pay special attention to the rich, you are committing a sin, for you are guilty of breaking that law. 

And the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God's laws.  For the same God who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." So if you murder someone, you have broken the entire law, even if you do not commit adultery. 

So whenever you speak, or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law of love, the law that set you free.  For there will be no mercy for you if you have not been merciful to others. But if you have been merciful, then God's mercy toward you will win out over his judgment against you. (Verses 8-13)

Liberation theology speaks about God preferential treatment of the poor.  Though it may seem so to us, it is not.  We tend to give preferential treatment to the wealthy.  God does not.  God evens the playing field… lifting up the lowly and taking down the prideful.

So let’s love everyone as we love ourselves.  Grant all people the same mercy that God has extended to you through Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out