The reading today from the Transformation Journal through Ginghamsburg UMC was on a topic that has been on my heart and mind lately. It is the topic of my devotional for our committees this month. The topic is matching our inside with our outside.
Sometimes we go through the motions of being religious on the outside. We can say the right things or we can do the right actions and we think that shows our faith. Yet at the same time our heart is not connected to these words or actions. We are just going through the motions. And no one really can know this is happening expect for you and God.
But God wants to work on making sure our heart is filled with his love and grace, which then leads us to action. I do know that sometimes we need to act like we love God until we do love God, but I also know it is important for us to work on our hearts. We work on our hearts through prayer and daily time with God. Quiet reflective time with God will grow our hearts closer to him.
This idea of matching our inside with our outside also came to my mind as I thought about the new outside our church family will be moving into soon. When we have this new church building will our insides change? I know there are parts of our congregational heart that I hope will only grow, like our love for one another and other people. But I also hope our heart will not want to just do "church" like we did in the old building. Our new exterior will open up new opportunities to do God's work. I believe the change in the outside will grow our heart inside.
I encourage you all as you daily work to gain that balance between your heart and your action.
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My attempt to connect each day with God and his people.
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About Me
- Pastor James
- I am married to the beautiful and talented Helen. We have two wonderful children that keep us on our toes. Together we pastor St. Paul's UMC in Williamsburg, Iowa, a congregation that is growing and following God's great adventure.
5 comments:
Okay, I was right there with you until you said,"just do 'church' like we did in our old church". It implies that we weren't the type of church you want. I understand that our insides need to match our outsides and all that but when we were in our old church, many of those people had "better" insides than we had outsides. Know what I mean? I don't think all of us just do 'church', but I will agree that sometimes that happens. so to quiet me down, tell me ehat you mean by that, will ya? Thanks. Oh, and Jamie may be late in her comments. It's field day for Jeana this morning. Jeanie
Jeanie, thanks for asking for clarification there. I did not mean for it to sound like in the old church we just did church, although I do see it sounding that way. What I meant was for us not to go into the new building with church already in a box. I don't want us to already have boundries set on what church is, but be open to new possibilities.
And I do not really think many of us will do this, but a few might. Too bad it is not as easy to move out of our skin every once in a while to recognize the possibilities God has for our hearts.
Oh I totally get that! I have to agree that in our old building we were all very close but yet we did the regular/normal church thing where I can say that we have STARTED to "step outside the box" and I think James you are saying that too, right? And that you hope we can continue on that path?
Okay, I get it now. Sorry, I just get a little defensive sometimes. RE: Jamie's blog from Monday May 5th might explain a little bit about that. That whole "Momma Bear" thing...anyway, I too hope that we can expand our vision. But I also hope that we can cling to our hertitage as well. The people that came before us laid down some impressive footprints themselves and I really don't want to see it all swept under the rug. I enjoy the traditional service so much because of that. It is a comfort to use the words and hymns I grew up with in praise of Him. On the same hand I really like rocking out to the praise band music and letting the emotions of the spirit wash over me. There are times when I want to reach out my arms but the "Methodist" in me keeps them to my sides. That freedom of expression is so much easier in my mind than in my body. And there are times in the traditional service that I can get so reflective, I cry. Right, Joan K??? :-) So I am glad we have two different and diverse types of worshhip service. I just wish they could be at the same time!!!
I think Pastor James' sermon on Sunday goes right along with your comments Jeanie. He mentioned that the Christian church is suppose to "swing" by leaning back with it's history while kicking forward into God's future. I think St. Paul's is doing a great job with this as we continue to embrace and cherish our heritage while visioning for the future and what God has in store for us as a congregation.
By the way, I do love the mother-daughter tag-team bloggers.
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