Along The Way

In the New Testament, it is recorded that Jesus often met the needs of people along the way.  Some examples are talking to a Samaritan woman at the well, calling Zachaeus to come down from the tree, turning water to wine at a wedding, healing a Centurion’s servant, calming the storm when in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and healing a blind beggar. 

In our Wednesday night Bible study about The Tangible Kingdom, we discussed what the world’s general perception if of Christians and agreed we are perceived to be judgmental, hypocritical, self-righteous generally annoying.  This is certainly not the way God wants Christians to be as we see from the following verses:

Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children:  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.  Ephesians 5:1-2

Jesus went out to where the people were.  He did not sit in the temple all day.  As Christians, we need to show we love God by loving people in our everyday lives and make the gospel of Christ real by showing His love to them by our actions.  Two weeks ago, our Wednesday night Bible study group went to a local park and picked up trash.  Instead of sitting in the church talking, we went out into the community to do something helpful outside of our church. 

I am a task-oriented person but am learning to look at interruptions in my routine or schedule as God-given opportunities to be a blessing to others.  Although this may seem like a little thing, it is huge for me.  Here are a few examples that came up recently:  

On the bus that week, instead of burying my nose in my book, I actually talked to a woman sharing my experience with Cancer and convincing her she definitely should get a mammogram. 

As I was walking outside on break reading a book one day, a woman came up to me asking for directions to the library which I gladly gave her.

On my morning walk to the bus stop one day, one of my neighbors showed me her yard had been torn up by a skunk.  We had that same thing happen to us last fall so I told her we used Grub-X to get rid of the grubs.  I had just recently come across another solution which I shared with her:  place some cucumbers in an aluminum pie tin and place it in the yard.  It makes a scent that the grubs do not like so they leave.

How can Christians change the world’s perception?  By imitating Christ by going out into our world and meeting needs of others.  Make some non-Christian friends and leave the judging to God.  Ask God to give you an opportunity to be a blessing to someone along the way today.

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