It seems to me like a good way to do what Paul suggested: intentionally keep our minds on the forest, intentionally set – or maybe re-set – our minds on things of the Spirit…every time we get together.
First Christian Church, Grand Junction – Praising God, Changing Lives!
First Christian Church, Grand Junction – Praising God, Changing Lives!
Sermons on 1 Corinthians
All this stuff, it sounds like it fits together pretty well. But I wonder, does it sound like it’s consistent with the efforts being undertaken right now across our nation to pursue change? If not, I would suggest there are far too many people pursuing change for something other than Christ, too many people pursuing change out of something other than love, too many people pursuing change that will result only in the continued in-breaking of the kingdom of people instead of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God.
My friends, if we get this living out of our knowledge of God’s future plan thing right, we should never, NEVER miss the beauty and wonder of what’s in front of us in the present moment. Through Christ, God has freed us to cease our worrying, let go of our fears, ENJOY God’s creation, and truly live. With the knowledge that our future is secure, it’s time to stop worrying about the future and start enjoying the present.
I had the most overwhelming sense that we’re in a very URGENT time to remember and to call others to remember, so that God’s love will replace the hate, the pain, the anger, the vengefulness, and all the things that are dividing us. I had the overwhelming sense that time is running short, but that if we could just remember and lead some others to remember, EVERYTHING can change for the better.
My friends, with regard to politics, haven’t we been doing what Jesus warned us against for too long? Haven’t we been loving only those who agree with us and not our metaphorical enemies, meaning those on the other side of the aisle? Isn’t it time for us to follow the example of God’s love, God’s preference even for sinners, so that we might show the world a better way?
Folks, we live in a time in which people are searching for hope. They can experience philosophical and political disagreements anywhere they go in our society. They can experience people selfishly demanding their own way anywhere else in society. They can experience stingy, exclusionary behavior anywhere else they go in society.
What they can’t get anywhere else, what they should be getting HERE, what they will flock here to receive, is the gospel of hope, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that reminds them that what they do MATTERS in the big picture.
A little less than 2,000 years ago, something amazing, something world changing happened. God made a decision to put the power to change the world in the hands of Jesus’ followers. God made a decision to put the power to change the world and achieve God’s great desires for the world into the hands of US. That’s “what this means.” What are we going to do about it?
I don’t know about you, but I have a suspicion that if we start becoming known by the agape love we share with the world around us, if we start becoming known by agape love in the way we interact with one another and with EVERY other in the Grand Valley, the same kind of explosive growth that was characteristic of the first church as described in the book of Acts – great numbers being added to the Church each and every day – will be characteristic of the Church here in the Grand Valley of Colorado.