I always look forward to Sundays. It's just about the worship, but about being WITH God's people and seeing how Judson seeks to encourage all who come. Looking ahead to this Sunday we have another baptism during the second service (awesome!), and will focus on Week 2 of the Story - God Builds a Nation, which is the events surrounding Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
That is a lot of material to cover in one morning (all the more reason to be involved in a connect or community group), but we will focus on the agreement, or covenant that God makes as he seeks to create a people who will be a blessing to all other people. As the Old Testament continues to tell the story we will see how difficult it was for the people in God's nation to see themselves in this way. They saw themselves as set apart for protection, not set apart for blessing others. Sounds a little like the church, doesn't it?
When God calls us it is so easy to begin to have a sense of entitlement (You owe me, God) and isolation (I don't want to be around bad people). We see the first part of the covenant - "I will bless you and make your name great," but forget the second part - "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." There becomes a tendency to ask God to continue to bless us, but a failure to ask God to bless all the families around us. Even good Christians seem more concerned with what we receive from God than what God wants to do for others who are currently away from God.
Well, there is so much more we learn through this part of the story. This is God's story. How is your story connecting with God's story?
No comments:
Post a Comment