Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
August 4, 2024
Psalm 105:3-6, Colossians 2:6-7

Give praise to God’s holy name!
    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
Pursue the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always!
Remember the wondrous works he has done,
    all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared

Psalm 105:3-5 (CEB)

So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. Be rooted and built up in him, be
established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.

Colossians 2:6-7 (CEB)

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The third simple Rule from John Wesley is to “attend upon the ordinances of God.”  In short, this means to attend to regular spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, Bible Study, participation in worship, etc.  These are the practices that helps us nurture our ongoing
relationship with God.

In modern times, we don’t think as much about “ordinances,” so it is often reframed as “Stay in love with God.”  In other words, do whatever you need to stay in love with God.  Consider any loving relationship you have; a marriage, another family relationship, a friendship, etc.  Every relationship takes work.  You have to spend time together.  You have to communicate with each other.  You have to have a genuine interest in one another’s lives.  You even have to serve one another, which sometimes requires sacrifice. 

Spiritual practices or disciplines are the ways we do all of these things with God.  They are like a trellis that supports our relationship with God and helps us grow more deeply in love with our creator.  Without these regular spiritual practices, it is nearly impossible to live out the first two rules, to do no harm and to do good.  Why?  Because it is our love for God and God’s love flowing through us that produces the fruit of good works. 

Here are a few questions to consider as you think about your own trellis, or “rule of life.”

1. What rhythms / practices is God inviting you to establish or strengthen at this time in your life?

2. Tinker with arranging your calendar to  accommodate your chosen practices. Rearrange where necessary. Experiment. Revisit and revise it.  A rule of life is to support growth in holiness of heart and life.

3. What do you feel are the challenges you might face as you seek to live into these new rhythms?

4. Consider the arrangements that will need to be made. How will you need to adjust your schedule in order to consistently choose this rule of life?  What conversations or arrangements do you need to make with those with whom you live and work?

5. How do you need prayer from another as you move forward?

“IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS there is nothing we can do to transform ourselves into persons who love and serve as Jesus did except make ourselves available for God to do that work of transforming grace in our lives”  (Robert Mulholland, Invitation To A Journey).

Do Good

Do Good
July 28, 2024
3 John 1:11, Acts 10:38, Luke 4:18-19

Friend, don’t go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God’s work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn’t know the first thing about God.

3 John 1:11 (The Message)

You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him.

Acts 10:38 (CEB)

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“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

While the attribution of this well known quote to John Wesley is heavily questioned by scholars, it remains true to the Wesleyan Spirit and the second of our General Rules, “to do good.”   As our conference youth put it, we are called to “do good however, whatever, wherever, whenever, forever.”

Like our rule last week, “Do no harm,” the rule to “Do Good” seems fairly simple and straight forward, but there are a lot of  open ended questions.  How much good must we do?  How often?   To whom?  How much do we have to sacrifice for the sake of doing good to others? 

I once saw someone pose the question, “What is the least I have to do and still be a Christian?”  While we may not ask it quite so crudely, if we’re honest we often ask a lot of similar questions.  We try to be good people, but in the back of our minds we may question if we have been good enough or if we have done enough?  The truth is there is always more to be done and compassion fatigue is very real.  Our resources are limited, not only financially, but also physically and emotionally.  We don’t always have enough information or enough bandwidth to do all the good we would like to do and it is easy to feel overwhelmed and give up altogether. 

I think that’s all the more reason to reflect again on the quote so often attributed to Wesley.  Consider using it as a prayer of examen at the end of each night.

1.  Today, did I do all the good I could do?

2.  Did I use every means possible to do good?

3.  Did I do good in every way I thought of?

4.  Did I do good in every place I went?

5.  Did I do good to every person I encountered?

6.  Did I keep doing good to the end of the day without giving up?

If we’re honest with ourselves, the answers will often be “no.”  We all fall short and these questions should never make us judge or shame ourselves.  They should, however, invite us to ask in every moment, what is the most good I can do, right here, right now, in this situation… and trust that God will use it and multiply it and that it will be enough.  They also give us an opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for the good God empowered us to do.

In what specific ways is God calling you to do good this week?

Do No Harm

Do No Harm
July 21, 2024
Galatians 5:13-15, Proverbs 3:28-29

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love.  All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!

Galatians 5:13-15 (CEB)

Don’t plan to harm your neighbor who trusts and lives near you.

Proverbs 3:29 (CEB)

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John Wesley, in his instructions to all those desirous of salvation, explained that the evidence of their
sincerity was "First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most
generally practiced ..." (Book of Discipline 2000, ¶103, p. 73). Even before listing good things to do, Wesley began by listing harmful things to avoid doing. There is a powerful lesson for Christian leaders in this instruction — as valuable as good works may be, it is even more valuable to avoid those things that might harm others or destroy the foundation of trust of the congregation. 

~ excerpt from UMC Discipleship

In theory, the idea of doing no harm seems simple. 

Perhaps that’s why Bishop Reuben Job calls it the first of “Three Simple Rules.”  It’s simple because in general, we do not seek to do harm to others.  We don’t usually try to hurt people.  At the same time, we know the reality that it is often the people who are closest to us that we hurt the most, often without even realizing it. 

Consider a few of the ways we commonly do harm to others without necessarily intending it:

1. Gossip - We all have opinions and easily find fault with other people, but it is far to easy to talk “about” those people rather than talking “to” them or “with” them. 

2. Unfair Criticism - It is so easy to criticize someone for not living up to our expectations, but in truth, we have no idea what is going on  in their lives.  Scripture calls us to turn our criticism into encouragement to build one another up in the Lord.

3. Rumors - similar to gossip, rumors or mis-information is widespread in our culture.  Even fact checkers have been challenged as false when they don’t line up with “what we have heard” or “what we already think.”  As Christians, we must be far more discerning about the information we spread, especially when it is about someone else.

4. Respectful discourse even in disagreement - As much as we may want to avoid conflict, often brushing our disagreements under the rug and not dealing with them can do even more harm.  We must learn to respect one another’s opinions while also challenging those places where those opinions, including our own, may cause harm to others. 

5. Apathy - One of the easiest and most common ways we do harm to others is simply by not doing anything at all.  When we refuse to speak up on behalf of a person or group who is experiencing harm, we are part of the problem. 

What other ways do you see harm in our world, or even in your own life? 

How will you work intentionally to “do no harm” this week?