Any day now...
... my brain can come back to me! I don't know what is wrong, but I have lost it! :) The doorbell rings and I pick up the phone. I need a phone number for a county office and I find it for the wrong state. I go to make copies and I don't put the original in the copier. I leave heading towards a potluck and I forget the only thing I am taking. I try to do to many things at one time and I lock my keys in my trunk! I'm sure there are more!
Locking my keys in the car!!!!!! I've never done that. So my car is sitting by the musical arts building, in a fire exit, where I have been unloading hand bells and I was on my last trip. The keys got put in the trunk so that I could lift the last thing out and I shut the lid. Brian (the pianist who I was practicing with) decided to leave the handbells in the rehearsal hall, go to my house where I open one of the ground level windows... all ready to climb in... when Brian discover that the back door is unlocked. So... not only have I locked my keys in my car... I have left my house unlocked for the world to get into. I tell ya... count me insane.
I was reading last night in 1 Thessalonians.
"We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everwhere. Therefre we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
2 things stood out:
* your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope
* The Lord's message rang out from you
To be known and remembered in this way. Imagine the life they must have lived and the changes they must have made. They must have changed their culture that they lived in while their neighbors continued living in the "norm". There is now way they just mixed in with the crowd. Whatever the life style was, whatever the activities and hobbies that they held... they were with the culture but not in. I wish I could read a diary from someone in the Thessalonian church.
Yes I've made changes, but thus far in my life... would anyone be able to say this about me. And not just anyone, but a non-believer? Someone who doesn't know the "signs" to look for?
So how do you make these life style changes, without moving to a "mission" field, and be part of the culture but not in it? Is the simple answer of opening your home to your neighbors/coworkers on a consistent basis really all that needs to be done... at least physically. Spiritually is a different story!
I'll keep searching and if you have any input... let me know.
Locking my keys in the car!!!!!! I've never done that. So my car is sitting by the musical arts building, in a fire exit, where I have been unloading hand bells and I was on my last trip. The keys got put in the trunk so that I could lift the last thing out and I shut the lid. Brian (the pianist who I was practicing with) decided to leave the handbells in the rehearsal hall, go to my house where I open one of the ground level windows... all ready to climb in... when Brian discover that the back door is unlocked. So... not only have I locked my keys in my car... I have left my house unlocked for the world to get into. I tell ya... count me insane.
I was reading last night in 1 Thessalonians.
"We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everwhere. Therefre we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
2 things stood out:
* your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope
* The Lord's message rang out from you
To be known and remembered in this way. Imagine the life they must have lived and the changes they must have made. They must have changed their culture that they lived in while their neighbors continued living in the "norm". There is now way they just mixed in with the crowd. Whatever the life style was, whatever the activities and hobbies that they held... they were with the culture but not in. I wish I could read a diary from someone in the Thessalonian church.
Yes I've made changes, but thus far in my life... would anyone be able to say this about me. And not just anyone, but a non-believer? Someone who doesn't know the "signs" to look for?
So how do you make these life style changes, without moving to a "mission" field, and be part of the culture but not in it? Is the simple answer of opening your home to your neighbors/coworkers on a consistent basis really all that needs to be done... at least physically. Spiritually is a different story!
I'll keep searching and if you have any input... let me know.
posted by Erica at 10:23 PM
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