Ever since attending our Circuit Convocation I have been praying for God’s daily guidance in walking with Jesus on his mission. Greg Finke, the speaker, emphasized two little self-examination questions: Know what? So what? Or, put another way, how does what we know change what we do (or how we live)?
How’s this for a “know what”? “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2.8-10) We – that is you and I – we are totally free – free to give our lives in joyous, loving service to others.
Which gets us to “so what”. I like Greg’s answer. I’m not sure if it’s from Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 19.19, or Mark 12.31 because they all say the same thing! “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And, as I’m sure you know, love (like faith) without actions is dead … or not really love at all!
So, allow me to throw some quotes from Greg’s book, “Joining Jesus on His Mission” at you – as I did from the pulpit to the people of Bethlehem last Sunday. “Joining Jesus’ mission doesn’t require us to know more than we already do but to do more with what we already know.” “It’s not what you know that will change the world, but what you do with what you know that will change the world.” “It’s better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”
I will follow this up with stories of two doors God recently opened for me. One: We have been praying for our neighbor for the better part of a year as she has been undergoing cancer treatments. However, as winter seems to go, we have not spoken to her or her husband since before Thanksgiving. Then this week, as I was walking to move a hose, the husband was sitting on their patio. I wandered over … we talked .. his wife came out and joined the conversation … and they are doing very well. God had opened the door for a great conversation.
And then there is story Number Two: Last Saturday I received a text from a gal whose 20-something son died a month or so ago. I had seen him in ICU (at her request) multiple times and Pastor Gladden conducted the funeral. Now her ex-husband – and the boy’s father – was in ICU on life support. I went to see him Sunday afternoon, but he was elsewhere in the hospital for a test. As I stood in his vacant room I prayed for him and left a note. I returned on Monday. The note was gone and he was in in his room, still on the vent. I had an absolution-centered devotion and left another note. Wednesday when I returned he was out of ICU, but sound asleep in his new room. The second note was gone. I read some Bible passages to him, prayed. And left note number 3. Now I am just wondering what God has in mind next.
Isn’t it great that actively loving our neighbor is just this simple! Doing simple little things to show them that some-one cares about them – opening the door for them to see how we are simply reflecting the greater love of one far greater than us – Jesus. “In this is love, not that we have 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 also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4.10-12)
And this takes us to “now that you know this … Now what?” You are forgiven, free, and informed. How will you show this to someone else today who truly needs what you have? I’ll be praying for you … and them.
