Tag: community

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Knotholes

Daily Reading

Hebrews 7-10

Daily Thought

Brubaker is a crazy, brilliant, amazing guy I served with in youth ministry. Whenever Bru meets you, he spells your name backward in his head, just to see if it does something interesting. He’s fun like that, so when we put him in charge of introducing first-time visitors to the youth group, we never knew what was going to happen. One week he handed out a piece of paper and scissors to each new person. He instructed them to cut a hole in the paper, hold the paper up to their face and peer through it. “You are looking through a knothole,” Bru explained, “because we are glad each of you are here, and we consider ourselves not whole without you.”

I cringe at the pun, but admire the point and still remember it. We often choose to come to church because we love God or it’s the right thing to do or it will be good for us or we enjoy seeing others or something like that. But Bru reminded each of us of a very important truth. When you’re not here, you may lose out, but so does everyone. You are robbing others of something very important. You are robbing us of you. We are not whole without you.

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” ~Hebrews 10:24-25

Daily Prayer

My God, the only God, God of all things, there is no question that You are worthy of my worship and trust. I place my life in Your hands. You are my Lord and Savior, and all that I am, all that I do, I give to You.

You have changed my life, and have placed me into a community of others that You have touched as well. May we grow close, learning to love unselfishly, sacrificially, like You, and may our love escape the walls of our church buildings and flood into the streets and neighborhoods of our towns and cities.

Amen

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Built To Last

Daily Reading

1Kings 8-9

Daily Thought

An Episcopal church in Manhattan, The Church of the Holy Communion, opened its doors in 1844 as a place of worship and a help to the needy. It had a good run, but by mid-20th century, neglect began taking its toll. In 1983, The Church of the Holy Communion was converted into the Limelight Nightclub, the once reverent spot into a house of decadence. Yet, it would sink lower still. In the Spring of 2010, the Church turned Nightclub was reborn as the Limelight Marketplace, with 35 upscale boutiques and restaurants, complete with stained-glass windows. What had become of the house of worship?

God warned Solomon there could come a time when, “Everyone passing by the Temple will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them'” (1Kings 9:8-9).

The first Temple, 960-586BC, Solomon’s, was destroyed by the Babylonians. The second, 516BC-70AD, by the Romans. Why then exert the effort, take the time, pay the price to build a house for God? Not because God needs the Temple, but because the Temple and its people need God. These temples lasted a long time, but they did not last forever. No building of man can.

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1Corinthians 3:16). That “you” is plural, not singular. The Christian life is community. Do not go it alone. This is the Church, the people of God. You are that house. Built to last, because the Church is not a building of man, but the handiwork of God.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and righteous. I am not. You made me in Your image, so deep inside I have always known what I should be like. But, on my own, I wouldn’t do anything to change. Thank You for seeking me and inviting me to follow You. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus said, “Follow Me.” God, I commit to following You with all that I am. Help me keep that promise. Do not allow me to chase after empty religion, but may my religion be the kind of religion that You embrace, that I will keep myself pure, unpolluted by the world, and that I will look after and serve the poor, the marginalized, the orphans and widows. You are, and shall always be my first love. With all of my heart, with all of my mind, with all of my strength, I will love You, follow You, and serve You.

Amen