The Well Church OKC

This week has been a tough one for our country. The opposite of love has been powerfully on display. The enemy has had vivid and public successes among our people and in our nation recently. Sometimes it seems like we are inevitably eroding into chaos and division, one graphic news story after another.

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The commands of Christ were not intended to simply be an exercise in spiritual consideration. Nor were they to be considered best by scholars, professors and religious leaders. These directives were, and are, meant for the everyday believer (all of us,) in everyday situations (all of ours.)

As people, it is apparent that we are remarkably bad at choosing people for the best reasons. We are predictably drawn to what we see, to the outward appearance. This is often the natural inception of our understanding of others, and this is not always a bad thing. However, we have to move to a much more accurate assessment of someone by viewing who they are in the inside. When we miss this, we end up with all kinds of trouble. We elect, hire, marry, reward attractive people, or people who perform well, but miss the much more important beauty of so many who may not have the appearance of others. In the same way, we have learned to have the outside of our cups clean and decorated in specific ways in order to be accepted.

Jesus bids us do do the impossible virtually every time He commands us. His requirements are unreasonable, unattainable, and discouraging. At least on the face.

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You ever get tired? I don’t mean just need a nap tired, I mean tired to the core. Aching and overwhelmed to such a degree that even the most basic things seem impossible? This tired comes when you have pressed and pushed and strained for so long that you can’t even remember the starting of the striving. Not only can you not recall the beginning of your toils, the overwhelming truth is that before you looms a future of the same or greater challenges. You can’t see an end any more than you can recall the beginning. The weariness that descends when we don’t know when relief will arrive, if ever, penetrates to the center of who we are.

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Without Christ, we are nothing. Our lives amount to a net negative, no matter how we live them. With Christ, we are eternally saved and also in a position, with His guidance, power and love, to live our earthly lives richly and in a way to bring honor to the One who saved us.