Quote of the Day

“When I was a kid we used to play this game called ‘Simon Says’. Most of us have played that...It’s so weird how in the church ‘Jesus Says‘ is a totally different game. If Jesus says something you don’t have to do it you just have to memorize it. You study it. You memorize it. You guys it doesn’t make any sense a lot of the things we do. When He tells us go out and make disciples and ho...w many people in our churches are actually making disciples? They memorized it. When I tell my daughter, ‘Hey Rach, go clean your room?‘, she doesn’t come back to me two hours later and go, ‘I memorized what you said. You said Rach, go clean your room. I can say it in greek. My friends are going to come over and we’re going to have a study on what it would look like if I clean my room.‘ She knows better than that. And so why do we think we’re going to come before the Judge one day and quote everything that He said...”

- Francis Chan

Do It Anyway!

A woman in my Bible study brought up a brilliant point the other day. When we were kids, and we didn't want to clean our rooms/eat our vegetables/go to bed/etc, our parents would generally tell us, "Do it anyway." (My dad would usually follow this with a command for me to "Get off my cloud - NOW!") Obedience was expected.
How often do we tell God that we don't want to read our Bibles/go to church/forgive the person who said horrible things about us/etc? What's God's response? "Do it anyway." God expects, and deserves, our obedience. Ideally, of course, it should be done with a willing heart. But even when we obey reluctantly (and here I'm pointing a finger right at myself), God can use us.

Angels Unaware

We were talking in Sunday School yesterday about the verse in Hebrews that mentions 'entertaining angels unaware'. When we do things for the least of these, we just might be doing it for an angel - or for Jesus Himself.
The prevailing opinion was yes, we should reach out to those who need it...just be careful not to be taken advantage of.
I gave that some thought later on in the day, and I came to the conclusion that too often we use the safety factor as an excuse. Are we to use common sense? Yes. A single woman should not pick up a male hitchhiker. However, I think far too often we ignore the Spirit's prompting because we're afraid of getting hurt. A woman needs a ride home from the grocery store? A homeless person on the street asks for a handout? We see someone being taunted or bullied? Far too often we look the other way. "It might be a scam," we think. Ok. So what if it is? Did God ever promise that if we do good we won't get hurt? Didn't Jesus heal nine lepers who failed to show any gratitude whatsoever? Obeying God is a risky business. Look at the Christians who hid Jews during the Holocaust. What if they had said "It might be a trick - someone might tell the authorities." They knew they were taking a huge chance, and some of them paid a very high price. But they obeyed.
God calls us to love and serve others, and He is worthy of our obedience.