Tag: Loving one another

Making Things Better

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What does it look like to live with the end in mind? Perhaps a number of different things come to mind for us, but the list Jesus and the apostles created for us doesn’t always overlap with the things we might imagine first. As we continue in our series, Who Do You Want to Be, we are starting to get specific about some of the things we are called to do, some of the ways we are called to live as followers of Jesus, if He really is coming back one day. This first one is something God’s people have always been called to do wherever they happen to be: make our communities better places for everyone living in them. Let’s explore this together.

Making Things Better

Let’s start with what is going to sound like a strange question today. Have you ever been kidnapped and dropped off in a country that was totally different from your own? I can’t say that I have experienced anything quite that traumatic, but I can imagine it would be pretty terrifying and disorienting. Actually, check that. I probably can’t imagine how horrifying that would be. It would be even worse, though, if there weren’t any meaningful prospects of getting back home anytime soon. What can you do in that kind of a situation? There are basically two options before you. One is to do whatever you can to get out of the situation, whatever it takes. That’s certainly where our mind might go first. After all, who would want to remain in a horrible situation for even a second longer than is absolutely necessary? The other option is to stay put and make the best of your new situation whatever it happens to be. Now, to a certain extent, factors beyond your control will impact which option is meaningfully available to you. It may be that you want to remove yourself from the situation, but you simply cannot. 

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Digging in Deeper: John 15:12-13

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“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the long-running debates about the action/spy-thriller genre of movies is which super spy is the greatest. Realistically speaking, there are only two possible entries in the debate: James Bond and Ethan Hunt. Everyone else falls a distant second to them. Bond has the advantage of a whole series of books and 27 films. Hunt has 9 seasons’ worth of a television series totaling 206 episodes as well as 7 movies with an eighth to be released next summer. Both are cool, suave, and always collected. They always get the job done. And in getting the job done, they’ve saved the world more times than is worth counting. So then, which spy is the better spy? Having recently watched or rewatched all of the previous six Mission Impossible movies, I would like to stir the debate once again by making an argument in favor of Hunt. Let’s talk about why.

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Morning Musing: Amos 6:1-3

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“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria – the notable people in this first of the nations, those the house of Israel comes to. Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours? You dismiss any thought of the evil day and bring in a reign of violence.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There is a terrible disease wreaking havoc on our culture right now. It passes easily from person to person and young people are especially susceptible to catching it. Once you have it, it is tremendously hard to get rid of it. The medicine you need to fight it is costly and often feels enough worse than the disease itself that some people refuse to take it in favor of either trying to fight it on their own or else simply living with its effects. Curious what this scourge is? I’m talking about the disease of comparisonitis. Amos here talks about a particularly tragic case in Israel. Let’s take a look at this and talk about how it can infect us as well.

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Morning Musing: 1 John 3:11

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“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,”
(CSB – Read the chapter)

Today, I want to do something a little different. I am not going to analyze or invest very much time in unpacking this verse. I’m not going to review anything. Hopefully I’ll get to see the new Black Panther soon and will review that. Instead, I want to tell you about something I saw this past week that struck me as profound and worth sharing. I was treated to an example of love in action in a way I didn’t expect and haven’t seen very often. This is something a lot of people don’t even think really exists nowadays. I want to tell you that it does and that I saw it.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 13:1-3

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“Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

At last we come to the big finish. After twelve chapters and seven months, we are at long last on the final stretch of this incredible letter. With all of his main points now made rather thoroughly, the author closes things out with a kind of lightning round of miscellaneous advice and commands. There really isn’t a consistent theme to any of these, but there is deep wisdom in them all the same. He starts here with the rather appropriate exhortation to love, given how rooted in love is the new covenant. Let’s talk this morning about love in action.

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