Jeff Klein 0:09
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose in the Word of God. It's Monday, April 22 - this is Jeff Klein with your weekly reminder to take your faith and move it Beyond Sunday.
Jeff Klein 0:20
In Luke 4, there's this curious little verse: "Jesus went to the synagogue as was his custom." In other words, Jesus made a habit of attending synagogue gatherings as part of his walk with God and as a member of the community. But Luke doesn't say that his custom was to simply hang out in the synagogue. Jesus went for the gathering, then he went back out to his normal life. Jesus' normal life was spent on the road and among the people. Jesus hung out at Wells - these were the natural gathering places of the ancient world. Jesus didn't invite people to come to his synagogue and hang out with him there, he went to where people lived and lived among them.
Jeff Klein 0:54
If we want to walk the way of Jesus, we need to get out of our Christian huddles and get out to where people live their lives. We need to live among the people and go to the gathering places of our modern world. Those might include coffee shops, bars, sidelines of travel sports events and other places. Our approach to sharing the good news has been to invite people to church and to come and hang out in our spiritual environment. But Jesus approach, it was different. Where can you go this week to meet people who need what you have inside of you? How will you leave your spiritual gathering and get out to relate to people where they live their lives?
Jeff Klein 1:29
Let's pray. Jesus, give us eyes to see in the places where we are already going - where we could be your witness there among the people. Help us to see the people that you've put in front of us that we can actually make an impact on with our lives. In your name we pray, Amen.