So we spent last week talking about the power of living in community toward Christ. We looked at the early church and the Great Commission and thought about what it means to us today, here and now. We also talked at length about LOVE and the mark of the Disciples of Christ. We came to the conclusion that if we are to call ourselves Christians there must be something about us that agrees with that self-diagnosis. LOVE is the key, we must be marked by love for Him and for each other and to love someone, you must know them, and to know them you have to spend time with them. We want to make that as easy as possible in this busy world so we have launched these gatherings all over Oviedo and E Orlando this fall, to study God’s Word, so we can know Him by spending time with Him, which will allow us to love Him better and deeper. While doing that we will gather with other believers which will allow us to get to know them better by spending time with them and thus being capable of loving them better and deeper as well. Easy-peasy; so sign up to host or attend, whatever God is calling you to do, but just get started and be a part of it with us!
Since we are we making it that easy for the first part of this effort we thought we would help out and make it just as easy for the second part. One of the end results of loving better and deeper is living a life of worship to God by serving others in His name. This is glorifying the Father in heaven, as it says in 1 Peter 2:12 “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” James covers this in length as well in Chapter 2 on his treatment of faith and works and their interdependent parts, and in Radical, by David Platt it is said this way, “The means of our salvation is faith in Christ alone, and the basis of our salvation is the work of Christ alone. We are not saved by (works) but caring of the poor (among other things) is evidence of our salvation. The faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves an internal transformation that has external implications.” To glorify God by serving others, seems simple enough yet I hear time and time again from people, “I would love to but I am just not sure how, when, where, etc?” Since the verse we landed on last week as motivation for all of this discussion was John 13:35 where Jesus tells his Disciples, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”, we thought we would start there, by your loving service to one another.
Starting in September we are calling every single one of you to serve everyone else at least once this fall. We want you to come and serve from start to finish, serve all day, meet the 9 o clock crowd, the 11 o clock crowd, serve them all. We know this will be a challenge for some with kids, etc so the other option is to come and serve at one service and attend the other, but if this is your best option then do it twice this fall. Why? Because we need the help? NO!!!! Because this is how community is formed in deeper ways, this is how you get to know someone, which allows you to love them and like it or not, that is what He told us to do, and what would bring Him the greatest glory…our Love for one another! So get signed up right now, and who knows you might even like it and want to do it more!
Recent Comments