It would be so easy each week to say something like “we came, we set up, we sang songs, we were taught, we tore down, we left”

After all, isn’t what we do week in and week out?  We show up, we do our thing, we leave… or is it something more than that?

Is church something that is more than just a place that we show up once a week to get our weekly feeding and feel good about ourselves because we “go to church”

Uh, yeah!

Church isn’t a place.  Church isn’t a weekly fill up.  It’s not just something we “do” week after week after week.

Church is who we are.

But some weeks, it feels like a place we go to do our thing.

For me, Sunday was one of “those” days… or at least it started out that way.

But God…

I so love those words!  But God.  What would my life be if not for all the times that life was going along, but God interveined?  Things were looking down, but God turned them around?

But God stepped in and answered the prayer of my heart on Sunday.  He reached down to this insignifigant child of His and touched a heart that was stony and softened it.  He reminded me that church isn’t a job.  It isn’t “what I do” – it’s who I am and who I minister to and who I am called to love – and be loved by.

So, with that in mind, here’s what we “showed up and did” – ha!

• Glory To God Forever
• Salvation Day
• Your Mercy
• Here is Love
• kids storytime
• Every Move I Make
• announcements
• message
• The Wonderful Cross
• communion

It’s pretty hard to keep a stony heart in your chest when you are singing about the glory and majesty and mercy and love and sacrifice of the wonderful, amazing God that we serve!

After all, where would any of us be if it were not for the “but God’s” in our lives?

Wow – what a great morning of worship!  It was one of those days (for me) that you just can’t help but praise God.  I like those days.

Admittedly I wasn’t feeling it when I got to church this morning.  I had overslept (accidentaly turned the alarm OFF instead of snoozing) and was running late.  I was preparing for an extra long day with the Back to School Rally coming up after church, and I was having a really hard time waking up.  But by the time we were on the chorus of the second song I was ready to dance!

God is good!

Anywho, here’s the list:

• Salvation Day (Beeching)
• Happy Day (Jesus Culture-style)
• We Will Worship You (Whittaker)
• Here Is Love (Cook/Rees)
• kids message
• I Am Free (Egan)
• announcements
• message
• Reign In Us (Starfield)
• communion

I mean, how can you NOT be happy with Salvation Day and Happy Day back to back?  Seriously?

It was a great time of worship, and Pastor Chris followed it up with a great message on how to love your enemies a la David.

After church we headed over to President’s Elementary School for the Back to School Rally, and gave away around 500 or so backpacks filled with school supplies.  Lots of local churches and businesses joined forces to fill them and give them away – along with lots of other fun goodies at the rally.  The hot dog line at our church booth was mighty long.  I think they cooked & handed out around 400 hot dogs this afternoon!

It turned out to be a fabulous day… and now I’m tired.  It’s a good tired though, a very good tired. 

How was your weekend?

I know this isn’t the “official” verse for today, but it fit so well that I had to use it.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…
Matthew 25:35 – ESV

We have been learning about loving our enemies this week, and this verse in Matthew gives us a practical way to do it.

Service.

You can serve someone while grumbling.  You can set out to help them and let it create bitterness in your heart… but you can also set out to serve them and pray that God will use that time to change your heart towards them.

And while you are doing these acts of service, you can pray for them.  After all, it’s pretty hard to hate someone when you are lifting them up before God.

Feed them.  Give them something to drink.  Welcome them into your life.  Smile.  Bring their trash can in from the road.  Mow their grass.  Buy them a cup of coffee.  Get to know the person behind the facade – you might be surprised to find out that their circumstances aren’t that different from yours… and that what has hurt you was simply a knee-jerk reaction on their part.  Who knows, you may even find a friend.

Yes it’s hard.  Yes it takes sacrifice on your part.  Yes it takes an act of God in your life because it’s not the natural human reaction.

It’s the God reaction.

And if you need to, consider it a way to strengthen your faith… because it will if you let it.  And it will also serve to help you be more like Christ.  To be known by His love.

1 Peter 3:8-9 is pretty clear on how we are to treat everyone we come into contact with.  I have pulled the verses from a few translations to shed light on the passage from different angles:

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. ⁹ Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. – ESV

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Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. ⁹ Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it. – NLT

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⁸To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; ⁹ not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. – NASB

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Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren [of one household], compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted and humble).  ⁹Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing [from God--that you may obtain a blessing as heirs, bringing welfare and happiness and protection]. – Amp

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^8-9Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing. – The Message

It doesn’t really matter what translation you choose, the message stays the same.

Love one another.  Sympathize with one another.  Bless one another.  Have compassion for one another.  Live in harmony instead of dischord.

And when you receive evil – be it insults, biting sarcasm, scolding etc – don’t retaliate with the same.  Instead follow what our momma’s taught us and “kill them with kindness.”

Ooh – that one hit home.  As someone who jokes that English is my second language – sarcasm is my first, well, let’s just say that it’s not that easy to hold my tongue when someone gives me a tongue lashing.  Sarcasm is my first line of defense.  It’s my counter-attack.

Oh, wait…

…we aren’t supposed to be attacking others. We are supposed to be blessing others.

crud.

Boy do I have a long way to go… and many apologies to give.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. – Psalm 119:105, ESV

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Some days I just need this reminder that God is leading me step by step, and it doesn’t matter that I can’t see the end – or even what’s around the bend in the road – because I know that He is in control.

Yes, I know, there are two Word Filled Wednesday posts this week.  But this one goes with Amy Deanne’s verse so much better.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12

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Loving our enemies falls under loving one another.  Jesus still loved the Roman soldiers as they were nailing his hands and feet to the cross.  He called out to God to forgive them for the act of murdering Him – while he was hanging there in agony.

He loves us even though it is our sin that made Him hang there.

Are we more holy and pure than Jesus that we can’t forgive those who say something that pierces our hearts?

We don’t have to like what someone does to us, but we are still called to love the person doing it – through God.

We love them through Him.

This week we are focusing on love for our enemies.  It’s a worthy topic, and one that I’m sure most of us could learn a bit more about.

There are also verses each day in this study that are there to help support the basic idea, and today’s verse – found in Galatians 6:3 – seems to exist to remind us that we really aren’t all that and a bag of chips.

Check it out:

³For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.

That’s in the Amplified version.  I also liked the New Living Translation:

If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Ouch.

This gets back to biblical servant-hood.  You know, that thing we are called to as heirs to the Kingdom of God.

I don’t know about you, but serving my friends isn’t all that challenging.  Serving the church, yeah I can do that (after all, it is in my job description).  But serving those that I don’t really like?  Not so easy.  Serving those that have hurt me?  Even harder.

But right there in Galatians God is telling me that I’m cheating myself when I find it beneath me to serve someone.  I’m deluding myself to think that I’m somehow better than they are.

I’m just not that important.

To myself, of course, I can often times think “I don’t need to do that,”  but if I follow through on that thought I’m not following God.  I’m setting myself up as my very own idol on my very own pedestal… and I’m going against God.

I don’t want to go against God, because I know who will win every single time… and it ain’t me.

But I also have to fight that battle against my own flesh that wants to do things my own way and doesn’t want to have to fold the laundry or clean the toilets or pick up trash in the auditorium or set up and tear down the sound system twice each week.  But I have also seen the blessings that come from doing each of those things – my family has clothes to wear, I’m not embarrassed when someone uses my toilet, the auditorium looks better when everyone else gets there, and relationships and camaraderie are built when I humble myself enough to serve others.

And you know what?  I actually like to set up the sound system.

But I’m still scared to crawl under that stage to get the snake out.  Can I pass on just that one?

I’ve been reading this Summer… a lot.  The girls have to read at least 30 minutes per day, and I have been reading with them.  I have also been staying up with Eric as he works into the wee hours of the morning, and most often I read then as well.  Needless to say I’ve read quite a few books in the past 2 months.

But something I read tonight in one of these books struck a chord with me, and I thought I’d share it.  It is in response to a question about how a place that the characters are visiting is making them feel – giving them a completeness, a wholeness, a rightness to the world that they have never known.

“There is a love here that is rarely found on earth.  Perhaps in families, certainly between a husband and wife on occasion, but almost never in the world at large.  Love governs everything here.  Everything.  Love and the continually practiced presence of the Most High.

“Yeseph explained it once to me.  He said that the Most High is indeed ever-present with his creation, with us.  But we often lose sight of him – we fall away from him unless we practice his presence.  By that he meant we must keep him with us in our thoughts and deeds, lest we forget.

“For it is not the One who forgets us, but we forget him.  It is how we are made, a defect perhaps, but one that makes belief necessary.  And belief is the Most High’s greatest gift.  So even there he has rescued us.”

“Rescues us from ourselves.  I see.  Is it love that transforms even the common things – the sunrise yonder, for one – into such works of beauty?  Is it love that makes me feel as if all my life until now was a life lived in shadow?”

“Oh, yes!  Love, and the knowledge of the Most High”

“But I know very little of the Most High.  How can it be that I feel as I do?”

“In your heart of hearts you know him.  Durwin used to say that all men were born with the knowledge of the Most High in their hearts.  The trick is to spend more time remembering, and less time forgetting what we already know.”

“From now on I will spend all my time remembering.”

This is an excerpt from “The Sword and the Flame” by Stephen Lawhead.  It’s the third book in the Dragon King Trilogy.

I think that it is quite applicable to our lives as well.

We do often lose sight of God in the busyness of our day-to-day lives.  We do often forget Him as we go along through life.  The trick, it seems, is to spend more time remembering.

How is your memory today?