What do we owe?

Micah 6:8  "He has told you O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Did Micah strike a key note here? How do we pay what is due to God in the way we baptized Christians live?

1. Do Justice

What is Justice? Do we mean our idea of Justice or God's idea of Justice?

It had been a long day at home, 13 year old Jimmy had done everything that irritated his mother and she had yelled at him for each violation. Finally in exasperation she said, "Jimmy, I would like to go at least one day with out yelling at you!"  To which Jimmy responded, "You have my permission."

Doing justice daily takes being aware of God's presence in our point of view and in the way we see the lives of the other people around us.

2. Love Kindness.

It was DO JUSTICE but it is LOVE KINDNESS. And there is a difference. Even the most ornery person can do kind things now and then. But to love kindness is to embrace the passion for kindheartedness to all people. It is a life style for daily living.

3. Walk Humbly with God

     The foundation for doing justice and loving kindness is to be aware of our loving relationship with God as creature to creator. To walk humbly is not simply to walk with ones head bowed but to walk through life with the constant awareness of presence.

My wife Melanie and I love to take long walks together. She is four foot eight and I am six foot and it would be easy, given our size difference for me to overlook or ignore her presence. However I am very much aware of her powerful personality which more than makes up for her size. My constant awareness of her blesses me and I often forget our difference in height.

As I walk through life - because I can not see God with my physical eyes, it would be easy for me to ignore God's presence with me. But because I am constantly aware of God's powerful spirit, I am blessed. That constant awareness allows me to recognize my position in life and live in awe and walk humbly with God.

It is a most wonderful thing that God chooses to walk through life with us. We pay our proper dues to God by walking through the life God has given us, humbly in God's presence.