"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.John 15 :: 11-17 [the message]
"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
"But remember the root command: Love one another."
On Sunday morning, Alec spoke on John 15 :: 1-17. He commented on the personal nature of this text.
Sunday was great because we had an open testimony period... We had 9 testimonies (I was one) in total, which... for any testimony time... is a record. The Lord is really working in Bellshill and people were bursting to tell their fellows.
Rena spoke of her delight at seeing the person she had spoken with at the Street Fayre came along... and followed up with our need to be "out there in the big, bad world" - a thought we share.
Anyway, my thoughts have been on love lately and the way churches tend to rip themselves apart from the inside out. Its like the analogy of the boiling frog - outside persecution is easily seen as an attack and we react accordingly... but attacks from within are more subtle... and we react like a frog where the temperature is slowly raised.
We need to love each other :: its a commandment! Olly and I are witnessing a church community going through real pain because people are simply not following this commandment ((not Bellshill btw)).
We need to love one another the way Jesus loved us. This is truly the very best way to love. Putting others before ourselves is something we need to learn and relearn.
Reading ((tallskinnykiwi)) it scares me the way we are comfortable fighting with other Christians instead of taking the fight outside... Andrew Jones is a person I deeply respect for his innovation in new expressions of church in today's post-modern culture. To see him attacked in this way hurts... and I don't even know the guy beyond his blog. Where is the love?
1 comment:
i agree with you
and like you i am praying for andrew
not to worry too much though
mr jones is remarkably resilient in these matters
maybe it's because he lives up north now ???
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