This is a continuation of a series of Lenten thoughts appropriate to the remembering our Christ with all the awe He truly deserves.. Please consider sharing these Lenten thoughts with a host of your friends.
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)
What if on a Sunday morning all of the names of the church members and regular attendees were put in the offering plate and every Sunday those in attendance would each pull out a name, and to that person he or she had to report in on Sunday afternoon.
List all they had done the last week, and thought, and followed through on, and what Christian deeds had done or failed to do…good, bad and indifferent.
What would be the results?
Well, first, would everyone stop coming to church?
Quite probably.
Reporting in to God is hard enough. Reporting in to each other could be downright embarrassing.
For there is what we say we ought to do, and what we actually do.
What we say is talk. What we do is commitment.
What is commitment? Well, many people are more than willing to serve God as long as it is in an advisory capacity.
If your name were “Winter” and you were 32 years old and you shared with me what you had been busy doing, you would tell me that in the last seven years you had visited 4,122 Starbuck stores and drunk half a cup of coffee in each and every store.
You would tell me that it was your lifelong goal to visit each and every Starbuck’s that exists. It would be a monumental task because Starbuck’s opens ten new company- operated outlets around the world every seven days.
You would tell me that to achieve this objective you have been traveling and sleeping in your car with no air conditioning and that it smells like stale coffee. You would gloat that on one recent trip through Oregon you actually visited 28 stores in one single day. If I asked you why you were doing this, you would reply, “Starbuck’s is my life. I can’t foresee myself stopping. It is just too rewarding an experience.”
And I would weep and you would have no idea why I was weeping for you, because you would be totally committed, but why and to what end?
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)
What if on a Sunday morning all of the names of the church members and regular attendees were put in the offering plate and every Sunday those in attendance would each pull out a name, and to that person he or she had to report in on Sunday afternoon.
List all they had done the last week, and thought, and followed through on, and what Christian deeds had done or failed to do…good, bad and indifferent.
What would be the results?
Well, first, would everyone stop coming to church?
Quite probably.
Reporting in to God is hard enough. Reporting in to each other could be downright embarrassing.
For there is what we say we ought to do, and what we actually do.
What we say is talk. What we do is commitment.
What is commitment? Well, many people are more than willing to serve God as long as it is in an advisory capacity.
If your name were “Winter” and you were 32 years old and you shared with me what you had been busy doing, you would tell me that in the last seven years you had visited 4,122 Starbuck stores and drunk half a cup of coffee in each and every store.
You would tell me that it was your lifelong goal to visit each and every Starbuck’s that exists. It would be a monumental task because Starbuck’s opens ten new company- operated outlets around the world every seven days.
You would tell me that to achieve this objective you have been traveling and sleeping in your car with no air conditioning and that it smells like stale coffee. You would gloat that on one recent trip through Oregon you actually visited 28 stores in one single day. If I asked you why you were doing this, you would reply, “Starbuck’s is my life. I can’t foresee myself stopping. It is just too rewarding an experience.”
And I would weep and you would have no idea why I was weeping for you, because you would be totally committed, but why and to what end?
To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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