| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians” Our Bible verse for today: “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people.” Colossians 3:23 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Mix a little blood in with your paint” Rufus Jones was a well-known leader in the Quaker movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He spent most of his life working as a writer, philosopher, and college professor. Jones believed we need to achieve a healthy balance in the Christian life between devotion and service. On the one hand, he was committed to pursuing the deeper spiritual life. He spent long hours in prayer, fasting, contemplation of the Scriptures, and seeking God at a deep level. But he also believed that deep devotion should show itself in passionate service. Jones did not believe Christians should withdraw from the world, not even for a lifetime of quiet devotion. Instead, a deep relationship with the Lord should be the motive force behind a life of activism and service in his name. According to Jones, it’s only then that a Christian is fully alive and truly living with purpose and meaning. Here is one example of his teaching on the subject: “There are stories of painters who have mixed their own blood with their paint. They are probably fanciful tales, but the idea is worth something at any rate. Until the very life stuff of the man goes into his task, until he grinds himself into his paint, his work will be ordinary and will lack the mark of inspiration. What a splendid sight it is to see a man who has been drifting along with the flow of the current, and who has put no blood into his work, suddenly wake up and throw himself with passion into his daily task as though his life depended on doing it. Everybody sees that something has happened. A new spirit has awakened. There is some power behind him.” What Jones was describing is also what Paul was writing about in Colossians 3:23. As Christians we are to live life with purpose and passion by committing everything we do to the Lord. We are to do it all for Him. We do need to cultivate that deep personal relationship with the Lord, and we need to nurture that relationship every day. But then out of that relationship should come zeal and passion and purpose as we live for Him, and as we serve others in this broken, lost, and confused world that we live in. Christians must live and work with purpose and passion. Mix a little blood in with your paint. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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