This past Sunday

I spoke at High Point Christian Church this past Sunday morning for both services and it went really well. I was asked to join in on their series called Fight Club and I spoke on fighting for relationships with your kids. The first part of the message was specifically geared for those that were parents, while the second half was focused more on the community as a whole accepting, loving, and investing in students.

 

We looked at Genesis 22 and the example that Abraham set before Isaac. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 has specific instructions on how to raise a child. To impress the word of God upon them, to talk about it, to allow God to be part of our everyday lives, and that there should be symbols in our lives that show Him.  We also jumped into 1 John 3:11, 15-16 which calls us to be love to each other. I love the way the Message describes this passage.

 

“If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.”

 

In the context of the message, I urged the community of believers to love. To make students feel welcomed. To invest in students, because sadly enough in today’s culture a lot of parents are too busy to raise their children.

 

Anyway, that was my Sunday.

 

Aaron

obsessed with love

 

“Measure your life by loss instead of gain.

Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth.

For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice,

And whosoever suffereth most hath most to give.”

- Hudson Taylor -

 

I think that I fool myself into believing that I do not fall into the “world’s” standards of measuring – that I really believe that God’s measuring is what I value.

 

But then I feel cheated when I experience loss. My reactions make me realize that I have placed worth in what I have, what I do, or whom I am. I feel that these things are mine – therefore when they are taken away, I am angry, sad, and feel betrayed.

I want to measure my life through God’s eyes.

No keeping score, no indication of completion or final success.

A continual pouring, an open hand, a heart that is not attached to what has been given to me (or what I feel entitled to)…

I have an image of sand pouring from a clear glass. It is transparent because nothing is being hidden or protected – everything is offered. It is pouring, but it is not being measured, weighed, or compared.

 

What is poured out is gain, for we then have the most to give.

The math does not make sense – there is no logic.

 

God is a madman, obsessed with love.

I am His beloved.

Yes, I am His beloved! 

 

 much love, Courtney