The book of Hebrews reminds us that
to whom much is given much is required, it calls believers to completeness and
holiness and it reminds us that through Jesus we are free to approach God. The
final chapter of this book is filled with directions for our lives as believers
that are based within the three themes mentioned.
We are called to continue to love, as
the first direction. To persevere in love is not always an easy task, however
as it says in John 13 “by this all men will know that you are disciples
by the way you love one another”. I often wonder when hearing the world’s
understanding of the church and it’s representation in the media, what happened
to this command, that we would be known as Christ’s by the way that we love,
not the way that we judge. Let us pray that the love we have for each other
would be what is reported as it is the love of God that the world needs to
receive.
We are called to entertain strangers,
to remember those in prison as if we are chained with them, to have hearts
established by grace and to not forget to do good. We are called to represent
the heart of God in the places and situations we find ourselves both inside the
church building and out of it, and what a wonder it would be to realise we had
entertained angels!
As part of the body of Christ Church,
where can we activate a deeper sense of love for one another? Think about a way
that over this next week you could entertain a stranger.
“Therefore continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to
His name”
Reading this verse again reminded me
of a conference that I was at recently, where one of the speakers had an alarm
that went off every 10 minutes during the day, and it reminded her that she
needed to stop what she was doing and praise God and to be thankful to him.
This continuous act of worship required sacrifice. She had to consistently stop
through her talk to worship. I thought about what it would be like when you
were having a bad day, running late stuck in a traffic jam, when the alarm went
off and you had to praise God and be thankful. What this would do to our
perspective, Praising God and being thankful brings us back to who He is, and
who we are in Him. What a privilege we have to praise Him, and let his praises be
continually on our lips. Let our worship be a continual overflow of our hearts.
(member of the staff team)