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Signposts: Daily Devotions

Written by Jim Palmer

Tuesday, November 23

Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
—2 Corinthians 3:3

NIV

Someone asked me to communicate in words the good news of God without using any religious or theological verbiage. Okay, I’ll give it a shot:

  • God is Love.
  • Love (God) seeks the highest good of the other.
  • The greatest good God (Love) could offer is himself and so God made all people a reflection of himself in order to form an intimate bond with humankind.
  • In God, we experience life, love, freedom, joy, and peace. God is pleased and smiles.
  • Doubting God, we seek fulfillment our own way and fall short of experiencing what God desires for us.
  • This path of independence bores a deep sense of separation from God into the heart of humankind, out of which the brokenness and suffering of the world flow.
  • God passionately resists this reality because he (Love) insists his creation know the highest good, which is possible only in relationship with himself.
  • Love (God) sacrifices everything in order to heal the wound of separation.
  • The cross and empty tomb sends a resounding message to the heart of humankind: all is forgiven, there is no separation, there is only grace, you are loved.
  • The soul is awakened to the life of Christ within and we begin operating differently; seeing through Christ’s eyes, thinking with Christ’s mind, feeling with Christ’s heart, and acting with Christ’s will.
  • We become instruments of love, peace, compassion, community, healing, justice, reconciliation, and beauty in the world.
  • We look past the human exterior of others and affirm all people for the reflections of God they truly are.
  • Another soul is awakened to the truth, and another, and another.
  • Words are no longer necessary; our lives individually and collectively are the good news of God and his kingdom.

God, I’m not the most articulate person in the world; let my life do my talking. Amen.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2006.