» “…taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” 2 Cor 8:4-5.
» I am so grateful and encouraged by your response to the need at the Stachofsky’s. There were plenty of barriers to this: they live in Duval, the particular challenges they face are unfamiliar to most people, they are relatively new to CPC and haven’t had a lot of discretionary time to make new friends. But as of this morning Dan said they’ve been “inundated” with responses.
» There are so many encouraging pieces to this that are fundamental Christian virtues: love, servanthood, self-denial, considering the needs of others, faithfulness to Christ and his body, real sacrifices of time and money. The fact is, we don’t really know Christ until we make an effort to live the life he lived — and this is how he lived.
» At presbytery meetings there are many shared, unspoken assumptions. One of those is that every minister’s mission is to try to embody, and to teach, the “other-directedness”of the Christian life. There’s some strangeness in this. None of us would be Christians in the first place but for the radical other-directedness of the Lord himself, and all Christians know the calling to that life. Yet in spite of all the talk in churches about love and service, we all know the reality — and at some level accept — that most followers of Christ are self-absorbed. We all excuse ourselves, citing our busyness with important matters, and resting in comparisons to other Christians who are equally self-absorbed. Yet buried beneath the tyranny of the urgent there is a nagging voice, “some day I’m going to stop obeying my calendar and start obeying Christ.” This was that day and I praise God for it.
» Be encouraged. This is a battle, this change in focus, for every church, every soul. Even though the Macedonians were his best churches, Paul was still shocked (text above) at how they gave themselves, proving both points: such behavior is rare and such behavior is right. Let’s stay in this fight, encouraging each other, loving and serving each other. One of the greatest evangelistic tools we have is for others to see the love that exists in Christ.