Saying? Doing?

"but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead."  (Romans 4:24)

Have you heard the expression "don't do as I do, do as I say"?  Have you ever used the expression?  Did you have a good reason for saying it...OR ignoring it when someone else said it to you?  I confess I not only recently heard someone saying it I agreed with the reasons they were saying it.  The person was struggling with the activities we were doing and finally started giving the directions instead of doing the activity.  The rest of us, in the group, all followed the instructions.

The readings today are about actually "doing" something.  In Genesis we see God giving Abram the covenant.  God will "be your God and the God of your descendants after you." (Genesis 17:7)  Paul is telling us, in Romans, how Abram - now Abraham - kept the covenant "that God had power to do what he had promised." (4:21) AND how it is also "for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead."  The Gospel reading is Jesus talking to the Pharisees - the leaders of the church and community.  Jesus is pointing out how what is "inside you--be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you" is the "doing" of what we believe. (Luke 11:41)  

So.....  Are you doing what you say?  Are you doing what you are asking of others?  Are you "generous" with others or questioning what they are doing?  I know schedules are busy, we are tired and it is easy to question instead of do but an interesting question was given in a study I'm doing for Lent: "Do you need to resign from you post as gatekeeper and take up the new role of door holder?"  Something to think about......