Despite preaching today on being the light and love of Jesus, I witnessed a scenario that demonstrated that the message had not gotten though to some people. I saw people hurt and attacked by words, by attitudes, by thoughtlessness, by rage, by indifference.
The results of today’s altercation is that one and possibly two people will not return to our church. The result is that those hearing the altercation were also hurt by the pain of those who were attacked.
What does it take to get the message of God to sink in to our hearts? This is not a new problem. It has been around for as long as people have been alive. Jesus’ gave a parable about the seeds sewn, some on rocky ground where they could not take hold, some on shallow ground where they quickly sprouted up and then died, and some on fertile ground where they thrived.
If we can’t make our churches fertile ground, we will lose more and more people. Jesus asked us to love one another. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and your neighbour as yourself.
We all hurt some days. We all fail some days. We all have sorrow and pain. But Jesus told us to gather together in our church families to be healed…..not to be hurt even more. Where is our faith, our love, our compassion, our caring? Where is our support, our willingness to reach out to others, to provide help and instruction? Where is our fellowship? It seems we have closed our doors to those who do not think the way we do, behave the way we do, those who are not like us.
This is not Jesus’ way. He said, Come unto me all those who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He invited us then to come to him and we, who are his followers, should be inviting those around us to come to him through and with us. Why aren’t we?
Faith makes us whole. Not deeds. I John 4: 7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”
I John 4: 10-11 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
Yours in love
Fran
P.S. There are five things that you cannot recover in life:
(1) The Stone...........after it's thrown,
(2) The Word................after it's said,
(3) The Occasion......after it's missed, and
(4) The Time.............after it's gone.
(5) A person...............after they die
