Praise the LORD!!!
There are many days where the LORD allows me to go through most of the day without garnering a verse for me, until later in the day. This seems to be one of those days, for I've worked through my network twice already and nothing has come to heart. I worry not though, for the LORD led me to understand, when the idea of a daily devotional was first laid on my heart, that there would always be something to post. Whether a re post or fresh writing, there would always be something to give readers to ponder!
Colossians 3:12-17
12 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
A list of orders, you could say, for us to follow in our walks for the LORD. I said, "you could say," because for one there are few 'orders' or "commandments" for the new testament church. That is one thing that separates our faith, from religions. In religions you must follow these rules and regulations or find yourself outside of its body. In the Christian faith though, we are free from almost every form of "must do or don't do." Yes, we do have those things that CHRIST commanded us to do, as we follow HIM, but truly these are few and mostly simple in nature, so simple that a child can follow them( Mark 10:14,15). Something that is almost impossible for the followers of any religion to state. For to properly follow religion, it normally takes years of study and formal training to accomplish them at even the lowest of levels.
If we look at the first verse, verse 12, you can break these requirements up into two groups. One to practice towards others and one for our own benefits:
"clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness," ; " humility, gentleness and patience."
We as Christians are called, now this is a commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves( Matt. 22:39), This is why Paul places these two first. For this is how others will know we are JESUS' disciples(John 13:35), because of our love for others and not just those of our Christian family. Then comes the attributes that we need working on the inside of us, still very important though. These in a great way, influence the way we practice the first set of behaviors also. For in our being humble, gentle and patient, we'll have a greater level of compassion and kindness towards our fellow man.
Here in lies the reason for the LORD's laying these verses on my heart. Our calling as Christians is to primarily to focus on others and not ourselves. Which isn't quite what you seem to see these days. We tend to see churches that have an inward focus. Focusing more on their own intentions and operations then on those outside. Now you do see a good bit of outreach going on in some churches, but there does seem to still be a focus on themselves. What do I mean here? When a good number of these do outreach, they tend to focus on getting the people they reach, to attend their own church, and not having the focus on these peoples general salvation. This is part of what is wrong within the church today, they've become prideful and worldly and taken on the ways of the world. They're coveting after the numbers and the money. Ways that are far from those that are supposed to be exhibited by the church.
To center one's focus on oneself, keeps you from being able to reach out with empty hands to help others. It's kind of hard to hug a person, if your arms are wrapped around yourself already. Kind of like when we pray to GOD for blessings, but we refuse to release the things of the world that we already have in our grasp, so we can receive those blessings. Now these three sayings may be over stressing our need to release ourselves and focus on the needs of others, but there truly seems to be a major problem with this. In the individual and in the corporate senses. The pride of the flesh has grown into a major problem within our faith. Almost everyone we speak with seems to focus their practice of Christianity around themselves. I see the prophets and apostles out there constantly acclaiming their understandings and knowledge over that of what is written in scripture and this, constantly! There are so few that truly relate scripture any more without placing numerous references on self, in some way, shape or form. I know if I were to listen to myself, I'd most likely fall into this group also. It has to do with the fact that over the last century or so the church has been growing more and more worldly and taking on the ways of the world in their pursuit to stand out as a denomination and not just some branch of one.
The original intents of these devotionals was to help others grow as I also grow. Well truly, I think today this latter part has surely been witnessed. For in writing this, it has caused me to turn my eyes inward, into myself and look upon my own practices in the faith. To draw me closer to the LORD, for I've had to pray and ask HIM to reveal my inner most self to me and the intents of my heart in my own relationship with HIM. This is what a devotional is about, it draws our eyes upon our relationship with the LORD, and helps lead us into a perfecting of it, so as we can better serve HIM daily. I pray that this days readings will bless you as they have me! I'd love to get some feed back from those that read these. Let me know if they're helping your walks or what, positive or negative. I truly do seek the truth.
These last several days I've not been led to place a lot of extra reading on the table, if you miss it, let me know and I'll put it before the LORD. As with all things this is WHO makes the decisions, so that which is HIS will shall be done!!!
Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org
Our other blog, 'Blogs from the Vine'
GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries
Vine Ministerial Network International
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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