It’s easy to get off-balance in loving God, and loving His people. \u00a0We talk about “getting involved” and “ministering to others” as if that were the important thing about church. \u00a0It may be the most obvious thing to our own eyes, but it does tend to take our eyes off the most obvious thing of all: that church is people gathering to tell God how much we love Him, a Body-group of people who are not the same, learning to live together in love the way He intends us to. \u00a0True, there is much work to be done, of teaching and building up, and helping those in need, and speaking out the good news of the gospel– but it just becomes so much busy-ness if we don’t put first things first. \u00a0And first of all, we are commanded to love, to put on Christ-likeness, to be transformed from the inside out. \u00a0All the doing will follow, quite naturally.<\/p>\n
Like Paul said, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal.” \u00a0 <\/em>So why is it easier sometimes to fill up with doing instead of the all-important business of loving? \u00a0Maybe we feel more comfortable with the work of our hands than risking exposing our hearts. \u00a0Maybe if we focus on the doing we don’t have to face the difficulties of forgiving, or of talking through the conflicts. \u00a0Maybe if I keep busy I won’t have to stop and see how poverty-bare of love this heart can really be. \u00a0All the noise of busy cymbals drowning out the still small voice that says, “Come away with Me awhile and learn of Me, abide with Me.”<\/p>\n And of course that is right where The Enemy wants us, scurrying around using our abilities for God and forgetting that it is not the same thing as loving God. \u00a0So easy to make idols of good things. \u00a0We needed that commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your \u00a0heart and with all your soul and with all your might”<\/em> and with it the reminder to “teach [these words] diligently to your sons and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up….and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” \u00a0(Deuteronomy 6:5,7,9) \u00a0<\/em>A whole life built around loving God with every breath, the framework for everything else to fall into place. \u00a0Being right with Him first, then doing for Him….in<\/em> Him….as response.<\/p>\n Our real work on Sundays and every time we are together is to open our eyes to see people where they are, to open hearts to accept them, to come alongside and listen, to pour out praise and thanksgiving to God as a Body-group because He has knit us together into a family. \u00a0Love God, love people….it’s all relationship and who we are becoming. \u00a0This is what He wants from us, first and foremost.<\/p>\n And the spiritual gifts He has given are simply personalized ways to love others with His Spirit’s strength, whether it is by praying in faith for their needs, or teaching them the truths of Scripture, or helping them with willing hands, or encouraging the weary and wondering….“as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” \u00a0(1 Peter 4:10)<\/em> \u00a0Again, doing flowing out of being. \u00a0It’s just a matter of putting first things first.<\/p>\n “A<\/span><\/span>s Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.\u00a0She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord\u2019s feet listening to what he said.\u00a0\u00a0But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, \u201cLord, don\u2019t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMartha, Martha,\u201d\u00a0the Lord answered,\u00a0\u201cyou are worried and upset about many things,\u00a0but few things are needed\u2014or indeed only one.\u00a0Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.\u201d \u00a0(Luke 10:39-42)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s easy to get off-balance in loving God, and loving His people. \u00a0We talk about “getting involved” and “ministering to others” as if that were the important thing about church. \u00a0It may be the most obvious thing to our own … Continue reading