| Something To Think About |
| Saturday, January 2, 2010 |
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What does it look like when God's people live out the life of Jesus in their community. God tells us in Isaiah 58: "Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard." (vss. 6-8)
Now, if you are not careful, you could interpret this to mean that God wants us to be the United Way. In many ways that is how the society has caricatured the Christian church's purpose. The world wants us to take off their plate the responsibility for the poor and the indigent but to be silent about anything "religious" that might offend them. But Jesus sent us into the world to proclaim His love, as well as to demonstrate His love. He wants us to have an authentic message which is backed up by unconditional love for our neighbor in whatever need or circumstance. We use the excess of what God provides for us to accomplish this. However, He always wants us to connect it to the Good News of Jesus to a "broken" world. The reason why there is brokenness is that sin has distorted what God wanted for His creation. We represent a Jesus who came into this world to redeem us from that sin and to bring about a restoration of a relationship with the God of creation who wants to be the answer for people. That is not necessarily what your neighbor wants to hear. However, by preceding it with an unconditional, random act of kindness, God opens the door for someone to ask, "why would you do that?" It gives us the opportunity to say, "because God has done that for me in Jesus, I am motivated to serve Him by doing it for you." Throughout this year we are going to focus on the theme BE THE CHURCH! We will be focused on serving and telling. Look for ways to participate in the activities which we do as a congregation to carry this out. Look for ways to practice it in your own neighborhoods and places of work . . . Now that's something to think about! Pastor Tim |