Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 70

Jeff Klein

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:00 

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose in the Word of God. It's Monday, January the 6th and this is Jeff Klein reminding you to take your faith into the week, Beyond Sunday. At a recent holiday neighborhood party, a discussion broke out about spiritual ideas. These guys know I'm a preacher and they brought up their number one question: "what's this whole concept of spirituality anyway? I mean, spirituality subjective. Wouldn't a Muslim define it differently than a Christian or a Hindu?" Someone else proposed, "well, maybe it's connected to living a good life and treating other people well!" So I asked, "If Jesus was the most spiritual person to ever live. What does his life teach about spirituality?"

Jeff Klein  0:54 

The guys got kind of animated. They described Jesus life. They said, "Well, he taught, washed feet, created stirs and challenged authorities. In addition, he prayed and went off by himself and retreated." Spirituality (at least in light of Jesus example) wasn't simply an internal, ambiguous sense of beliefs or morals inside someone's head, but an active change-the-world kind of life. Are you a spiritual person? How can we tell? When Jesus was asked by an expert in religious law, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." This is what we usually think of as spiritual. And, that is spiritual to do that. But then Jesus added, "And love your neighbor as yourself." The horizontal component: The most spiritual people love the people God has placed around their lives actively (like Jesus). This expert immediately showed that he wasn't spiritual when he asked Jesus who his neighbor really was. Jesus responded with the Good Samaritan parable.

Jeff Klein  1:56 

Do you want to get more spiritual in 2025 Do you want to grow deeper in your love for God and your following of Jesus? Do you want to become a spiritual person who changes the world? Then love and serve your neighbor. How? Tell them what you believe. Love them enough to invite them to an Alpha. Do some random act of kindness and go out of your way to bless the people God has placed around you - then you'll grow in your love for God and for your neighbor.

Jeff Klein  2:26  

Let's pray. Jesus, help us not to define our spirituality or feel like we're spiritual because we sit in Bible studies and go to church and do these churchy things. Lord, help us to define our spirituality like you did. An active change-the-world kind of faith where we love the Lord our God,and that moves us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Make us that kind of people and that kind of church. In your name we pray, amen.