Table Fellowship

A friend of mine and I were discussing Jesus' use of table fellowship a few days ago and it was very eye-opening. To me it shows Jesus putting Matt 22:36-40 into practice. He ate with everyone. When I read the comments Jesus made about his dinner companions it leads me to believe that Jesus asked everyone he ate with to follow him. Not all did, but many did. How could he do it? He ate with the well respected and the not respected of society. We have trouble even asking people just like us to follow Jesus. How can we change? The concept that keeps coming back to me is "Love God and love others as I have loved you."

Everyone knows this quote and it has been used so much it has become almost trite. (It shouldn't as it has hasn't lost its power.) Maybe one problem is that we don't really feel like we have experienced God's love. Knowing that God loves you is such a subjective feeling, especially if you have experienced little or any love from people you can actually touch and feel. The Father says he loves us, the Son says he loves us, but how do we know? For me I know the same way I know anyone loves me, what he/she has done and is doing for/with me.

Let me bring this back around to the original idea of, "table fellowship and following Jesus." When we recognize the love God has for us, then we have reason to love others enough to invite them to follow Jesus.

Do I want to be like you?

I have recently read about two separate incidents that cast Christianity in a negative light. The first is the protest over the new NBC show "The Book of Daniel" and the second is a new policy at Oklahoma Christian University dealing with employment. I wonder why there more stories of Christianity "shooting-itself-in-the-foot" than examples of love and compassion. Is it just easier to be against something than to be for something? I wonder about the ratio of positive and encouraging statements and acts of compassion done by Jesus as opposed to his rebutes and criticisms. So I wonder where am I? What of kind image do I portray?

This is important because we live in a culture, where many consider truth as relative. When you begin to share the gospel with these people it is not whether Chrisitianity is true or not but they think ,"Do I want to be like you?" If I reflect the love and grace of God they are more likely to listen. So Lord help me to reflect the love and compassion you have shown me.

Shaking the dust off

It seems that whenever we venture into Mark 6:10-12 or similar verses it leads to a discussion of how long do you try to teach someone. I have come to the conclusion that this is the wrong question to ask in our everyday lives. The context is an evangelistic trip, that had a beginning and end. If they were going to specific towns then they had a limited time to talk to people and it would be better to talk to receptive people than non-receptive.
Today the vast majority of us are not on an evangelistic trip, but living normal lives of going to work, coming home, and maybe raising a family all from the same location. Consequently we meet mostly the same people everyday. If we look at sharing the love of God as relational, there isn't a time limit, as the apostles had. A relational approach is not asking the same person everyday to study the Bible. It is getting to know people and living our life so that others know we are believers. We help people know God through our friendship and talk about God at times when it can help. This is the opposite of just making friends to convert someone and then dropping them if they don't respond in our time frame.
Not everyone is going to respond to our friendship, and there will probably be people we just can't be friends with. But this does make the question of "how long do I to try to teach someone," irrelevant. After thinking this through I reminded myself that there are no absolutes in personal relationships, so remember that as you think on this.

Help for Domestic Abuse

I just finished Ron's book, Setting the Captives Free and it is a excellent book. This is my first serious investigation into domestic abuse and Ron's book was a well documented introduction for me, but it is more than an introductory book. He gives good definitions of the participants such as abuser, victim, victimization, and etc. His explanations of why the faith community has not been a leader in the solutions to this problem should provide a much needed wakeup call to churches, as well as a well deserved slap-in-the-face. To our benefit he does spend more time on what the faith community can do to help in the situations than just show our failures.

His discussion of the concept of a covenant is worth the price of the book, because the word covenant is not a familiar concept to most people. His detailed discussion of God's covenant with Israel provides for a good explanantion of the marriage covenant.

If you have any type of leadership position in the faith community and are concerned with married people, you need this book.

HOOK'EM HORNS

There is only one thing to say,"Welcome to the Vince Young Show"

Some Feelings from the Past Year

The major event in my life for 2005 was a quadruple bypass heart surgery. But it was only an event that led to other important happenings and changes. Some of this I have recognized and adapted, some is still floating–around. I thought I would list some of the feelings I experienced this last year, although the memory is not always accurate.

Apprehension – Something is wrong with me physically, how serious is it?
Fear – It is serious.
Fear tempered with confidence – Doctors say they can handle it, God says, “I am in control.”
Love – From my wife and family and friends.
Support – From family and friends.
Assurance – It is out of my control but in the hands of people I chosen to have confidence and a God I know loves me.
Pain and grogginess – The breathing tube down my throat and being vaguely aware of people around me.
Joy – The operation is a success and recovery is progressing nicely. Thanks God
Patience – Certain movements are painful, later certain movements are still painful, much later certain movements still painful but not as much.
Concern – The medical bills start coming.
Love – Friends help raise money.
Thankfulness – A way is provided to take care of the bills.
Overconfidence – Tried to do too much, where is that patience?
Normal? – I think not. But that is not bad. More aware of life, probably. A desire to recognize what is important, but trying not to be obnoxious about it.