15 August 2010
Genuine Church
08/19/10 12:13 PM Filed in: From the Pastor
“Lord,
All these messages about genuineness are beginning to scare me. Genuine faith and the practical insights of Pastor James clearly reveals to me that real faith impacts my attitudes and actions in ways I’d sometimes like to let run wild with little control and restraint. Genuine love as revealed by Simon Peter is a journey that demands that I pay attention to matters of morality and how I treat people. I’m well acquainted with the message of grace and I live each day so grateful your compassion and forgiveness are eternal gifts. But genuine love reminds me that you call me to a type of lifestyle that honors righteousness and demands my character is transformed by truth. Genuine works, as made clear by the Apostle Paul, are the ways in which I walk in the purposes that you prepared for me in eternity past. Works become my expression of gratitude as I live out my days on this earth and they provide a connection from this life into eternal life,
Now Lord, you have me studying and preaching on “A Genuine Church.” I look at your specific words to congregations and pastors in the past and I hear your eternal voice specifically to our church family and me. Genuineness I assume means a degree of transparency and honesty, with myself and with others. So here goes. I easily get distracted and even sometimes discouraged by the day-to-day pressures of church life. Folks I love get frustrated and out of sorts at times and they behave in the oddest of ways. Financial matters weigh heavily as we navigate blending the worlds of vision and blessing with the harsh realities of budgets and patience. And then there’s the daily grind that everyone seems to be going through that finds expression in so many ways. Has it always been like this, Lord? Is there really anything different about the times in which we live? I want to believe so but in my heart I know better. And even if it is different, your call to our congregation today is the same as it’s been to every church in every century. Simply put, genuine faith, love and works will find expression in very practical and recognizable ways.
Lord, may Christ’s Chapel be a genuine church that you look at with pleasure. Our study during the next few weeks will hopefully reveal your heart to us. It will also probably revel our hearts as well. I trust you with the journey. Amen.”
All these messages about genuineness are beginning to scare me. Genuine faith and the practical insights of Pastor James clearly reveals to me that real faith impacts my attitudes and actions in ways I’d sometimes like to let run wild with little control and restraint. Genuine love as revealed by Simon Peter is a journey that demands that I pay attention to matters of morality and how I treat people. I’m well acquainted with the message of grace and I live each day so grateful your compassion and forgiveness are eternal gifts. But genuine love reminds me that you call me to a type of lifestyle that honors righteousness and demands my character is transformed by truth. Genuine works, as made clear by the Apostle Paul, are the ways in which I walk in the purposes that you prepared for me in eternity past. Works become my expression of gratitude as I live out my days on this earth and they provide a connection from this life into eternal life,
Now Lord, you have me studying and preaching on “A Genuine Church.” I look at your specific words to congregations and pastors in the past and I hear your eternal voice specifically to our church family and me. Genuineness I assume means a degree of transparency and honesty, with myself and with others. So here goes. I easily get distracted and even sometimes discouraged by the day-to-day pressures of church life. Folks I love get frustrated and out of sorts at times and they behave in the oddest of ways. Financial matters weigh heavily as we navigate blending the worlds of vision and blessing with the harsh realities of budgets and patience. And then there’s the daily grind that everyone seems to be going through that finds expression in so many ways. Has it always been like this, Lord? Is there really anything different about the times in which we live? I want to believe so but in my heart I know better. And even if it is different, your call to our congregation today is the same as it’s been to every church in every century. Simply put, genuine faith, love and works will find expression in very practical and recognizable ways.
Lord, may Christ’s Chapel be a genuine church that you look at with pleasure. Our study during the next few weeks will hopefully reveal your heart to us. It will also probably revel our hearts as well. I trust you with the journey. Amen.”