Thursday, January 23, 2014

Saving Lives

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.  Proverbs 11:30

In his excellent commentary on Proverbs, Ray Ortlund Jr., opens by building a case for the relevance of the Proverbs to 21st century Christians.  He writes:
“EVERYONE IS ON A PATH. Everyone is going somewhere. When we feel stuck, even when we feel trapped, the truth is, we are still in motion. Life is a journey, and the end of it all is not just a place but also a condition. We are becoming the end of our journey, wise or foolish, and every moment takes us closer there.” 


This series we are in, The Good Life, is all about becoming men and women of character. This however is not a narcissistic quest, where our character is the journey’s end.  God’s glory and the good of people are the journey’s end and our becoming like Christ is a means to that end.

We see this throughout the Proverbs, as in Proverbs 11:30 above.  It states that our character can be equated to fruit that others feast on, so that we literally save lives!  Who is equal to such a task?  From my vantage point I see that proverb lived out daily through the lives of people who call PCC home. 

Just today I spent 5 hours in meetings strategizing how to tackle the #1 problem in Redwood City identified by our civic leaders: illiteracy.  It was all I could do to contain myself thinking about the social capital we have in our pews to disperse through our city and come alongside children helping them to learn how to read.  I thought much about how that one skill could be a game changer for their lives.  I also thought how the relationship could be leveraged by the Holy Spirit for a salvation far beyond this life!

Do you see the correlation between your journey on Wisdom’s path and others benefitting from it? Who is it on the path and alongside the road that will be refreshed through you?  What would that look like?

This Sunday we continue in Proverbs looking at Good Friendships! We also are hosting the African Children’s Choir Sunday Night at 7pm.  You won’t want to miss seeing that. 

I love being your pastor!