Behind The Struggle To Love Others (Lu. 7:47)

Read Luke 7:47.

Your struggle to love others is because you don't realize how much you have been forgiven by, and therefore loved by, Jesus.

Quote By A. W. Tozer

"Humility always wins where force cannot win."

Tozer, A. W.  Voice of A Prophet.  Ed. James L. Snyder.  Minneapolis, MN:  Bethany House, 2014.  p. 62.

The A-B-C's of Churchgoing

• Am I accepted? Do I feel welcomed?
• Do I belong? Do I feel wanted? Do I “fit” here? Does this feel like “my church” or is it just “a church I attend”?
• Am I connected? Is there relationship with anyone beyond Sunday morning? Does friendliness on Sunday extend into caring Monday through Saturday?

What does that mean for us who have been here a while? 

1. Just because someone attends regularly doesn’t mean he feels a sense of belonging
2. Friendliness is not enough. Ask the next question. Take the next step. Caring is always a “do” posture.
3. People come to church looking for relationships. What we believe is important. However, people don’t care what we believe until they experience value and significance.
4. Those who have experienced acceptance, belonging, and connection must be committed to helping those who haven’t. 
5. We must provide acceptance, belonging and connection so the local bars won’t have to.

Connecting (Larry Crabb)

I started reading Connecting by Larry Crabb. Below are three quotes from the introduction. This is shaping up to be quite the read.

"...When two people connect, when their beings intersect as closely as two bodies during intercourse, something is poured out of one and into the other that has the power to heal the soul of its deepest wounds and restore it to health. The one who receives experiences the joy of being healed. The one who gives knows the even greater joy of being used to heal. Something good is in the heart of each of God's children that is more powerful than everything bad. It's there, waiting to be released, to work it magic."

"The core requirement is that I be godly. It's easier to get educated."

"We are all disconnected people, and it is the unbearable reality of separateness that causes us so many problems."

Self Sabotage (Mt 7:1-6)

Today's reading is Matthew 7 and Luke 6.

This paragraph shows you how to hurt yourself by destroying relationships. Just what you wanted to know, right?

1. You hurt yourself when you have a judgmental attitude. That judgmental attitude forms the basis for a negative example of the Golden Rule (Mt 7:12). When you're judgmental, you're telling others, "It's okay for you to treat me this way."
2. You hurt yourself when you blow out of proportion other people's sins and shortcomings. Today, you would say you're "making a mountain out of a mole hill." May God's love help you cover a multitude of sins. God, help us to look beyond things.
3. You hurt yourself when you don't take seriously your own sins and shortcomings. How easy it is to condemn in others what you excuse in yourself. You can be a master at self-deception, just as I can. Remember what Jeremiah says about the heart (Jer 17:9). You can spin anything to make yourself look better. This is the Jacob nature (To understand Jacob's propensity for self-advantage, read his story in Genesis chapters 25-33, 35, 45-46, 48-49.).
4. You hurt yourself when you continue to help people who, by their words and actions, have made it clear they will not change. The "dogs" will bite and growl. The "pigs" will charge you, but only after they've taken another mud bath. (Caution: Be careful about prematurely labeling someone "pig" or "dog.")