Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father remind us of His Will for us, and how we are to be "us" you and I and all the rest, together. Father, bring us together, each of us in our own home churches, in the name and pursuit of the likeness of your Son Jesus. Pry our clutching, grasping fingers from our every-day lives, Father, and help us to share our each and every day with each other. In the name of Jesus, may we obey your call to us for us to be together according to your desire and your design. May we together say amen, amen, amen.
Your Morning Song: "Create in Me" by Acapella
Your Morning Scripture: Colossians 3:16
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
...
We don't do this.
In order to obey this verse, not to mention any of the others that deal with how we ought to interact with each other as the Church, we must be living shared lives. We cannot be teaching and admonishing each other if we only ever see each other on Sunday mornings.
And I completely understand why. It is hard to merge your every-day life, with your Sunday morning family. I'm not being sarcastic. It is hard. Our culture is constantly isolating us from each other, as the very technology that makes being together easier, also now makes it more tempting not to. And we have our preferences, our rhythms, our habits, all the very specific things that make our life, our life. And yet... Our Sunday morning family is not supposed to be only on Sunday mornings. Once a week for less than half of a football game is not enough.
It is hard to invite our brothers and sisters in Christ into ever-day life. But it is worth it. Not only is it worth it, but either we do it, and obey God, or we don't do it, and we disobey Him. I don't know about you, but I would rather do something difficult that makes me uncomfortable, than do something that displeases God.
So, we'll try it. But how? What does that look like? I'd say just pick anything in your every-day life that you can share. Invite someone over for, or out for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Have to take a bit of a drive for an errand of any old sort? Invite someone along. Have coffee with someone.
And then add on top of that. Attend a Bible study. Start a Bible study. Meet together with a handful of people to pray. Get in the habit of asking others how you can pray for them. And then start praying for them, with them. Be present when the worst happens to others. Invite others to be close to you when the worst happens to you. Blend your brothers and sisters in Christ into your every-day living until they become load bearing walls, and you for them.
And all of this will work if the foundational, driving, daily, desperate, practical motivation of our hearts is sharing in the lived-out, life-giving message of Christ. It is by and for Jesus, who came in the flesh, that we now live our lives together, in the flesh. And this life we are to share is to be forever. Death ceases to be the end and is now a mere momentary interruption that cannot hold us, just as it could not hold Jesus.
If we value the message of Christ, then we will do whatever is necessary to obey it and found our every-day living upon it. Then, and only then, will we be wise, will we be able to teach and admonish each other. Only then, when we are obedient to God's command in this, will we be able to sing with gratitude in our hearts.
May we be a people known by our Christ-like love for each other.
May we be a people known as "Desperately Together."
