I'm so jacked up. I mean like I have a terrible temper, I make poor choices... I love Jesus and yet sometimes if my insides were changed my outsides wouldn't be this way.... So the deal is that I think everybody's got something. And the church has gotten a terrible wrap because in some ways we deserve it. As a whole we can be judgmental, and I'm sorry if that offends you, but if you've got Facebook you see how hateful the world can be, or maybe it's just me. I don't know, and I don't mean to put my own "things" on any of you, but sometimes I'm just a jerk, oh if you don't believe me, just leave knives full of peanut butter and jelly or nasty dirty dishes in the sink downstairs and watch...
All that to say that I strive to be more like Jesus.
I want to Love God and love people. And I want to do that well because isn't that what God called us to do? I want to get that right, and even if I love and somehow get it wrong, I want to know I did all I could to love someone. One of my favorite sayings is “I’ll never be sorry I loved”
I want to reach people, I want them to know Jesus. I want them to know that God loves them no matter what, like somehow if He can love someone like me, He can love them too, I always hope to lead people to see all Jesus can do, experience His grace, and let Him do that saving.
I want to give up all the things in my life that doesn’t make me like Jesus. I want to give up all the things that don’t point others towards Jesus. And so about 3 years ago, I started studying the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and SELF CONTROL. Those things, they attract Jesus.
I’m not at all perfect, but He, He is.
So on Sunday's I walk around the
neighborhood and chat it up with God about the people in our neighborhood. How
do we reach them? What can I do? I've
had mornings when I've seen no one, mornings where I almost had to change my
pants because some dog scared me, or there was one morning that I spent with an
abuelo and two kids, and taught the little boy a very important life skill...
How to spit. Me and my broken crappy Spanish. I offered talk to the cashiers at
e&l and ask them how they really are... They always ask me if I live around
here, i point to courage and say "that's my church, I hope to live here
soon" sometimes they look at me weird.
I’m proud to be a part of this church, we are small but mighty.One of the things I pray for when I walk around the neighborhood is that we are a beacon of hope for the people around our church, jobs and restaurants are great, and that provision from God is needed but people need Jesus, and so that's how I want us to pray tonight. That we set aside all the stuff in our lives, to become more like Jesus, and shine Him and let Him get to saving.
I take seriously love one another. Even if I get it wrong, there's a lesson in how not to do it next time. But I still struggle. It’s hard when people aren’t nice, or the fake homeless people on the side of the freeway. I know that so many people need help in so many ways but sometimes, a lot of times, I am a jerk. Its easy to love a child, but for me it’s much harder to love someone who lies straight to our faces, is dirty (or not), but they need Jesus too. I gotta get this part. I gotta love, no matter what. Me smaller, Him greater like it says in John 3:30.
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