GDLC Audio

This week’s focus seems obvious and yet, it’s still a struggle. We are not called to serve ourselves...which is our go to...but we are called to serve the Lord in every way and every day. Interestingly, serving the Lord is actually best accomplished by serving others. In saying that we’re reminded that the order of service is the Lord first, our neighbor second and ourselves, a distant third. Hard to do? Yes. Impossible to do? No. This is not only the Lord’s will for our lives, but it’s also His doing in our lives. What God requires, God provides. So today we’re reminded that serving the Lord is God’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!

This week’s focus seems obvious and yet, it’s still a struggle. We are not called to serve ourselves...which is our go to...but we are called to serve the Lord in every way and every day. Interestingly, serving the Lord is actually best accomplished by serving others. In saying that we’re reminded that the order of service is the Lord first, our neighbor second and ourselves, a distant third. Hard to do? Yes. Impossible to do? No. This is not only the Lord’s will for our lives, but it’s also His doing in our lives. What God requires, God provides. So today we’re reminded that serving the Lord is God’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!

We come to a very important place in our Lenten journey together. Today’s society desperately needs to hear the message today. You see we live in a very disrespectful time in history where people freely and openly combine a very judgmental spirit with a very sharp tongue. As Christians we are called to act like the man in our story from Matthew and show honor where honor is due. And of course, alongside that truth, to remember that the Christian has no right to judge anyone and furthermore, is called to tame their tongues...both truths from the book of James. In all this we are reminded that showing honor is God’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!

This week’s focus seems so obvious and yet is also so difficult for us to do. We tend to be loaners in our lives lived in America. Some of us are better about it than others, but all of us tend to be more self-focused than we are ever other-focused. And yet the Holy Spirit of God calls us to not just love our neighbor as ourself, but to extend to our neighbor a love that brings them into our family. The people around us, the saved and the unsaved should experience family love, or brotherly love from us. Brotherly love is the Lord’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!

This week’s focus seems so obvious and yet is also so difficult for us to do. We tend to be loaners in our lives lived in America. Some of us are better about it than others, but all of us tend to be more self-focused than we are ever other-focused. And yet the Holy Spirit of God calls us to not just love our neighbor as ourself, but to extend to our neighbor a love that brings them into our family. The people around us, the saved and the unsaved should experience family love, or brotherly love from us. Brotherly love is the Lord’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!

We’re taught by our parents as Christian children not to “hate” anyone or anything in any way, shape or form. As Christians we don’t even like the word “hate” and sometimes correct our children from using the term. So it’s difficult, even though it makes perfect sense in this case, to start out our Lent saying that we “hate” something...and yet, in this instance, we must. We must hate evil. And we must because the Lord does. The Lord abhors evil and as the Psalmist writes it for us in Psalm 5 “evil may not dwell” with Him. As we celebrate Ash Wednesday we do so with the reminder that hating evil is the Lord’s will in our lives and is one piece in the beautiful tapestry of the Christian life!