First night of a new Semester

The new bible study kicks off tonight. We will be looking at Francis Chan's Crazy Love. It looks like we will have a couple extra faces and a few more people interested. I think that the "trailer" that the DVD offered was a great intro to our study. It was amazing timing that today kicks off our study. I say that because one of my favorite stops in the interweb is SCL. Jon's post today was just perfect. Both because it spoke to me personally with what I have been struggling with and because it went along well with the theme of giving of ourselves to God that Chan talks about.

I will just talk about how it affected me personally. Jon talks about how we are reluctant to give up our time in order to see God's will accomplished. I think that this is a major problem with the body of believers today. We have so long raised money for foreign missions, or held a love offering for things far away from us. However, we seldom have given of our time to show God's love. Our money, while not always easy to give, is much easy to part with than a Saturday when we wanted to sit and do nothing. We live in a culture that is so involved with what we can get and what we think we deserve. Our pastor Jeff gave an illustration a few weeks ago about this. Have you ever been driving in a parking lot and people have refused to walk along the sides and instead walk right down the middle of where you are supposed to be driving? Even if its not really verbalized, they are thinking that they don't have to move, that you will have to move around them.

Seldom do we take the time to realize how blessed we are and how much we can give, even if its just our ears to listen or our hands to help. I don't point fingers, because more than anyone else reading this, I am guilty of it. I have been so self-involved that I have been more willing to give my "free time" to TV than to take 30 minutes to talk to the God who loves me more than I realize.

I am going to be confessional about this stuff tonight. I want to be more willing and more open to using all that God has given me for His glory. I don't want to be closed off. I want God to show His love for others through me. Isn't that what we are called to do? Isn't that supposed to be our greatest goal? That's where my mind is right now.