Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4:20-23 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Love each other.”
What’s your attitude about the other people in your church? Oh, I’m not talking about sweet little Mrs. Emma, the older lady who is kind and humble and always smiling. Everybody loves her. I’m talking about the grumpy guy, the one who was obviously weaned on a lemon and has never lost the sour look on his face. I’m talking about loud and outspoken Mr. Opinion who has something to say about everything. I mean the bratty eight year old boy who evidently doesn’t get spanked enough. What’s your attitude about those people?
One of my favorite illustrations of the average church is that of “The Star Wars Bar”. You might remember the scene from the first Star Wars movie when Hans Solo and Chewbacca go into an inter-planetary bar. It’s filled with odd looking creatures from across the universe. Some have two heads, others have three eyes, some are small and purple others are large and green. In that bar there’s every kind of weird creature you can think of.
Yup, that describes most churches. It’s been said that God loves some mighty strange people – and you’re one of them! And so am I.
In 1 John 4:20-23 the Apostle tells us that we are to have love – genuine love – for our brothers and sisters in the family of God. That doesn’t necessarily mean we have to “like” them, but we do have to “love” them. Honestly, it can be hard to “like” someone who is argumentative, smelly, rude, or unkind. And yes, there are people like that in all of our churches. But you can love someone without liking them much. There are times when I’m sure my wife would like to choke me, but even then she still loves me.
As you prepare to gather with your church family this Sunday I want to encourage you to spend a little extra time in prayer preparation (maybe a lot of time, depending on the assortment of characters in your church!) Go through the church directory and pray for each person by name, asking the Lord to give you extra patience where needed, kindness and compassion in all cases, and the ability to show Christian love for each individual (especially for those you don’t “like” a whole bunch).
From time to time it’s a good idea to check our attitude about the people God has placed us into fellowship with. Do you love them, and does it show?
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 