"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love."
Revelation 2:4
My last day to substitute teach this year fell on the day of the school talent show. My six remaining students and I watched group after group perform and the children discovered their friends had talent. Pre-K through 5th graders sang, played instruments (from drums to piano to violin), danced, presented comedy routines, and performed gymnastic routines. For the final act, the curtains closed and the lights went out. When they opened again there stood a group of glow-in-the dark robotic skeleton looking creatures who danced to "Ice cream and Cake." When the lights came up again they saw the glow in the dark dancers were seven of their teachers.
Revelation 2:4
My last day to substitute teach this year fell on the day of the school talent show. My six remaining students and I watched group after group perform and the children discovered their friends had talent. Pre-K through 5th graders sang, played instruments (from drums to piano to violin), danced, presented comedy routines, and performed gymnastic routines. For the final act, the curtains closed and the lights went out. When they opened again there stood a group of glow-in-the dark robotic skeleton looking creatures who danced to "Ice cream and Cake." When the lights came up again they saw the glow in the dark dancers were seven of their teachers.
Jesus Calling opens today with "Seek to live in My love, which covers a multitude of sins: not only others' sins but also yours. Wear My Love like a cloak of Light, covering you from head to toe." I know my body is the temple of God because He knocks around my heart and brain rearranging the furniture and lighting up the dark corners. However, it may be time for me to clean the windows of the temple since His Light doesn't radiate clearly through dirty windows. I wonder what the church could do if we "danced" side by side in this darkened world letting God's Light shine unobstructed by our personal grime. At some time or another all of us need to apply the ammonia to the following dirt so God's Love and Light people should see glowing in us and covering us.
*Divisions and drama, drama, drama. We need to get the chips off our shoulders. We must forgive and forget past hurts and move on to love love each other deeply.
"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
1 Peter 4:8
*Doctrine: People don't care what you know until they know you care.
"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:2
*Gifts and Talents: Do I use my gifts and talents to encourage the Body and point people to God or to draw and keep attention on myself?
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
1 Corinthians 13:1
*Obsessing about weaknesses and failures in our lives and in other believers' lives: People struggle with weaknesses and failures and they need to see in us that God's Love is big enough to cover it all.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
1 John 4:18
*Service and sacrifice without love: Is what I do for my own glory and satisfaction or is it a natural outpouring of God's Love through me to others, with no thought to the sacrifice?
"If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,
but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:3
Dirty windows ruin both the view in and the view to the outside world. When it's hard to see other people through God's Eyes and with His Love for them then it's time to wipe away our grime.
Father, help me clean away all that dims Your Love in my life. You shine and shine but we cover the Light with every imaginable lid. Fill our eyes with Your Holiness. Emblazon Your Loving Light in our hearts and show us how best to shine Your Love to others and how to see them clearly in the Light of Your Love.
In the Name of Jesus, Grime-free and our Light, Life, Love
Inspired by Jesus Calling
photo from photobucket.com
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