Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 78

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein 0:07  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Monday, March 3. This is Jeff Klein reminding you to take your faith Beyond Sunday and into the week.

Jeff Klein  0:17  

I've always liked what Rick Rusaw wrote in his book, The Externally Focused Church: "The Christian faith (for the most part) has been reduced to a philosophy - principles and tenets we believe and defend, but don't necessarily practice our actions towards others. Separate Christianity from philosophy. It's tying loving God to loving our neighbors as ourselves that puts legs to our faith. So, let's be radicals and practice our religion." I love this. Our actions toward others make us radical. One of the most radical ways to be distinctively Christ-like is to actually notice what's going on around us. A busy and rushing world can make it feel like that's nearly impossible to do, but noticing isn't something we have to add to our lives. We can go where we normally go, do what we normally do, but do the radical thing and pay attention along the way. John chapter 9 opens with these words: "As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. He noticed as he walked." Jesus constantly paid attention. He didn't get involved in each person's life that he noticed, but he was aware of what was going on around him. Who will be around you today? Who needs you to pay attention? Who needs you to see? Maybe even to stop. Maybe that stop will turn into a Jesus-appointed moment for you to change a life.

Jeff Klein  1:35  

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, help us to have the same eyes you had when you walk planet Earth. In our busy rushing around, help us to see what's going around us. To see the needs, potential and become radical in loving our neighbors. In your name we pray Jesus, amen.