Mission Emphasis Month
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| Greetings Shawnee Family, |
“The life of a good religious person should shine in all virtue and be inwardly as it appears outwardly. And it should be the much more inward, for Almighty God beholds the heart and we should always honor and reverence him as angels, clean and pure, shining with all virtue.
We ought every day to renew our purpose in God, and to stir our hearts to fervor and devotion, as though it were the first day of our conversion. And we ought daily to pray and say: Help me, my Lord Jesus, that I may persevere in good purpose and in your holy service unto my death, and that I may now today perfectly begin, for I have done nothing in time past.” - Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
This quote made me think of a few things…
The first line about the inward and outward appearing the same resonated with me in this social media culture. I think of how we are tempted to present an outward appearance on social media that does not match our reality. Sometimes we feel we have to live up to a certain social media standard. I think of the fact that if I were to post a picture on Facebook at this very moment…
… it certainly wouldn’t be of the dirty dishes in my sink right now.
….it certainly wouldn’t be of the kids’ toys that did not get picked up before I left the house this morning.
I would be a little embarrassed to post something like that, but the reality is, some days I don’t get to tidy up the toys and dishes until after dinner and the girls are in bed… and that is okay. I don’t want to keep up appearances that life is always perfect. Everyone has good days and hard days. The beauty of true community is to be able to share the good and the hard together.
This applies to our spiritual lives as well… we are tempted to say outwardly things are going really well when inwardly they are not. Someone once told me they put on their “Sunday smile” before coming to church. That broke my heart to hear someone say. We should be able to reflect how we are feeling inwardly on the outside.
When we are so in tune with God inwardly it will reflect outwardly. Not in a way that is showy, like the hypocrites that Jesus spoke about praying on the street corners for attention (Matthew 6:5). Instead we want to live in a way that people recognize something different about us. We want to live out the Fruits of the Spirit that Paul wrote about to the Galatians saying: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this” (Galatians 5:22-23).
I love the second part of the quote that reminds us that we need to remember our desire to follow God daily. We need to remember so that it is fresh in our hearts and minds. When we desire to start each day seeking God’s purpose then we are reminded anew of our commitment to being a reflection of Christ in this world.
Let’s spend time in the Word and in prayer. Let’s be so shaped by our personal spiritual formation that we help others in our faith community draw near to God. Let’s be so shaped by our personal spiritual formation that when we encounter those who do not know Christ they will take note of our love for them.
May we be a people that pray: “Help us, our Lord Jesus, that we may persevere in good purpose and in your holy service unto our deaths, and that we may now today perfectly begin, for we have done nothing in time past.” Amen!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Cara
PS- if you have not had a chance to RSVP to the brunch on Saturday, please do so by responding to this email. The Grahams are so excited to be with us this Faith Promise Weekend!
Contact:
Shawnee Church of the Nazarene
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