Imagine...

Imagine indeed!  Do YOU know you are loved?  Who loves you?  Family?  Friends?  Perfect strangers?  We all have someone who loves us, even if we don't really know this in our hearts.  Sometimes we have been 'burned' by people in life, and we tend not to trust, not to believe anyone can really love us.  Perhaps we've been so 'bad' in our lives - in our opinion, at least - that we don't think anyone can really love us.  And so we live out our lives feeling unloved and incapable of giving love.  And that sucks...

READ:  Romans 8:39

"Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord"

Not feeling loved or capable of giving love sucks because the Bible tellls us about Someone who SO loves everyone.  That's right - EVERYONE!  That means He loves you in spite of what you've done, in spite of who you are, in spite of where you've been, and most especially just because He is God and He is love! 

Do you still feel unloved?  Do you still feel you cannot love others?  C'mon, how are you able to feel this way after reading Romans 8:39?  I mean, seriously, NOTHING, but NOTHING, but NOTHING is able to EVER, EVER, EVER separate us - you, me, everyone - from the love of God.  You might run, you might hide (or try to, at least!), you might tell God to take a short walk off a long wharf, but in the end, GOD STILL LOVES YOU AND HE ALWAYS WILL.  Yup, and guess what?  YOU are never able to escape that fact.  You might have done really bad things, and you might have been known as a really bad person, and you might have said some really bad things, and... well, you get the drift!  But GOD LOVES YOU!  Oh, that everyone who breathes would know that - REALLY know that. 

GOD LOVES YOU!

Did  you hear that?

Let me repeat that, in case you went temporarily deaf...

GOD LOVES YOU!

• Do you know that God loves you?
• Have you felt God's love for you today?
• Are you loving others today, like God loves you?

My hope is that, as you read this, you will know that GOD LOVES YOU!  (Oh, those caps just come on everytime I write that - weird, huh!).  My hope is that you will feel, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head, the LOVE OF GOD.  Personally, I want to know God's love for me so much, that it just spills out of me, and splashes onto everyone with whom I come in contact.  And if you know me, you know that sometimes happens, but not often enough.  God, help me to show your love to anyone, everyone...

May this be YOUR prayer, too! 
Oh, did I mention - GOD LOVES YOU!

PRAYER
God, thank you for loving me.  Help me to show your love to others.
Amen.

Sing, sing a song...

"It is not you that sings, it is the church that is singing, and you, as a member...may share in its song.  Thus all singing [together] that is right must serve to widen our spiritual horizon, make us see our little company as a member of the great Christian Church on earth, and help us willingly and gladly to join our singing, be it feeble or good, to the song of the Church"  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Don'tcha just love singing?  I mean, don'tcha just REALLY love singing?  Okay, maybe or maybe not, but let me say - I do!  Singing is so... I don't know, healing... calming... inspiring... and oh so much more!

But this quote really isn't talking about singing, in the sense of bursting into glorious song.  It is talking about the Church being the Church, and people being a part of the Church.  By being a part - by sharing, caring, loving, etc. - we join the song already being sung by the general Church, and we become a part of the song, a  part of the fabric if you will, of the Church - the Church being believers on Earth.

READ:  Psalm 150

Are we praising God with all our hearts?  Are we getting to know Him in a deep and close relationship?  Are we growing in our faith?  If not, why not?  Because if what we are doing is not 'widening our spiritual horizon', then why are we doing it?  Is it something we should, or could, be doing?  If it is not helping us grow in our spiritual life, then why would we want to do it?

All questions we should ask ourselves because if we don't, then what will our song be like when we try to join it to the song of the Church?  Will we be in harmony with the ebb and flow of the Church, the music of the Church, or will we sound a bit off, be a bit off?  God wants us to be growing in the knowledge of who He is and what He is all about, and if we aren't doing that, then how might we join in the chorus, the song, of the Church?

In his book "Crazy Love", Francis Chan asks this question:

• To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid 'big' sins - is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

When the music of the Church is resounding off the heavens, what does our song sound like?  Are we singing backup, or are we in the choir, our voices blending and bouncing off the walls of the universe?  Is our song a song of freedom and hope and grace and love and all the attributes of God, or is our song one that falls flat because we are singing in our own strength?  God wants 'passionate, wholehearted' people to be in His Church, to join the song of His Church and sound, well, just right!

Lift your voice to the heavens, and join the song of the Church - it's there, it's awesome, and it's just waiting for YOU to be a part.  Will you?

PRAYERGod, thank you for the Church, for the song we hear from it.  God, I want to join this song; help me to grow ever closer to you, and to join my song to your song, the song of the Church.
Amen.