Would You Like To Be My Neighbor
Mister Rogers, I’m not really sure where this man fell in your time period of childhood, but I remember as a little girl watching and listening to this program on PBS. I did think he dressed kinda funny, but even as I type this post I can hear his voice at the end of the show singing “won’t you be my neighbor.”
Community is something that is bibilically commanded. All the way from Genesis until now God has said that it is not good for man to be alone. It is not good for someone to try to go through life, for a Christian to go through life with out support, with out love, and without community of brothers and sisters who deeply care sharing in the laughs, in the tears, in the anger, in the struggle of life.
Our winter bible study is through 1,2,3 John so obviously we have been hitting on the topic of brotherly love. Somehow we have thought that loving and community is equated to hanging out on the weekends with someone. I think back to college and how popular sororities and fraternities were. All of this money being thrown in each semester in order to have friends and relationships and things to do together.
In Acts 2 the greek word that is talking about community is litereally meaning to endure life together. They were there when hard times came, and God honored them. Our view of community has become nothing more than our buddies that we share and gossip with, or a Sunday school where you show up, sit, and leave with no realy expression of how God is working or not workin your life. It has become something that we cover with saying that “I’m praying for you” and it gets to be nothing more than a glance and a smile.
How many of us are really trying to get involved in other peoples lives and enduring with eachother. Daily enduring with one another, and not just saying that because we have the same interests as someone, or because we play on the church softball team together that we know, that we intamitly know what is going on within the souls and the minds of our brothers and sisters.
Community isn’t something you can cop out of. It is just as important as prayer, and reading your Bible, and yet we take it like it is something we can choose to do or not do, and if that is the case repentance needs to take place.
I’m Tired
Dear God,
I’m tired. I feel like all that has been worked toward is something lost and not worth anyones time. I am tired of longing for this deepening relationship with you and with those that I teach, and those that are my brothers and sisters and find nothing more than rejection and shallow. I am faced with situations that I try to lay down at your feet and know that I am in no way in control, I have no answers, I have nothing. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know how to love correctly, I dont know how to be obedient the way you want me to, I don’t know how to fight the battle of wanting to throw in this spiritual towel.
Please give me strength, give me words, give me loving arms, and a mind that can discern your will. God I have no problem saying here I’m struggeling, and although it is in front of the entire world wide web to see, I feel even more vulnerable and helpless infront of you, the one that says that you have control and I dont trust, the One that says that you are love, and I don’t run to you for it.
God give me rest, give me clarity cause I am really am just tired.
Scatterbrained
Josh and I were in bed late last night going over our sermons for the week. (This sh
ould show how much of Bible nerdiness is going on in our household, but it was after Gilmore Girls so that could be our saving grace to being cool and cultural.)
I am speaking this weekend on John 21:15-20 and I was reading the context around it. I have to be one of the most undisciplined studiers in history. I have this habit of reading my text and I wont stop reading and I get on these little tangents of going through the comparison of the gospels and yada yada yada. I know this probably furthers my knowledge of the Scriptures but it still takes away from what I actually need to be studying.
So I wanted to leave you with these Scriptures for the day. I read it and just thought it was so cool how it was worded. It’s amazing how often I will read and go through studies and there are just little things that pop out of God’s Word and sticks. So here is my encouragement/ really cool passage I want to leave with you this morning for your midweek readings.
John 21:24-25
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
