Saturday October 6, 2012

Plan to do just one thing that blesses someone else     tomorrow at church.

 

Read Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 10:1-4

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, was written as a parody of modern reality TV. It shows the ridiculous lengths society will go to, to be entertained. But in our modern reality TV shows, there really is no reality. Being locked up together and having the pressure to survive and to stay in the group creates anything but reality.  It’s not those who live in the real world that survive. It’s those who deceive and lie the best, or those who are the raunchiest or rudest or the most back stabbing. It’s anything but reality. And yet we flock to it like seagulls to abandoned food at the beach!

 

I suspect that for Old Testament Israel, with all the sacrifices and ceremonies, it would have been easy for them to lose that sense of reality - much like we can lose a sense of reality in the way we do church and celebrate sacraments and so on. It would have been easy to just go through the motions and to believe that doing certain things causes one to be righteous in God’s eyes. Certainly a group of Pharisees ended up thinking along these lines. Just read Galatians and you’ll see what I mean.

 

But God assures us that the ceremonies and sacrifices and celebrations of the Old Testament always pointed forward to Christ. They were visible and physical ‘signs’ that would have drawn the believer closer to God and created a hope in the coming Messiah who fulfilled these sacrifices and ceremonies. I wonder if the devout believer looked forward and longed to see the Messiah, the Christ, in fulfilment of all that God had given Israel. Certainly Abraham did. Again,

read John 8:56 and you’ll see that Jesus specifically tells us as much.

 

As we gather for church tomorrow it’s possible that you and I might lose touch with the reality of Christ and simply go through the motions of church. We can sing and pray and listen to the Word and mix with people without engaging in the reality of Christ. It’s possible to sit through the Lord’s Supper and simply eat and drink without connecting to Christ. It’s possible to have some idle fellowship without Christ being invited into that fellowship.

 

The reality is found in Christ. No church can make you engage with Christ. No service, no worship leader, no stage accessory can make you connect with Christ. You have to prepare yourself for worship. You have to come ready to meet with the living God. You have to come with a mindset and a heart that welcomes Christ in and is attentive to the Spirit of God. That ‘mindset’ that befalls many in a congregation each and every Sonday must be deliberately taken off and Christ MUST be invited in. Will you invite Christ into your heart this Sonday? Will you listen to the Holy Spirit this Sonday? Will you walk in step with the Spirit? Will you serve and give rather than sit and take? Make a new start this week. Plan to do one thing at church, just one thing, that blesses someone else.

 

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

 

Thanks:

 

Supplication:

¥ Pray that your service tomorrow will be an awesome encounter with the living God. Pray that each and every single person would come ready to meet with God and willing to listen and obey the Spirit. Pray that a spirit of generosity would come upon each and every believer.

¥ In Nigeria recently churches were attacked on a particular Sonday morning and bombs were thrown into the congregation. Pray for the safety of these churches and pray that the light of Christ’s love and forgiveness would shine brightly out of these churches. Pray that many would come to Christ and seek His forgiveness.