PEOPLE in the PEW

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

"...The people in the pew

The ones sitting next to me and you

Mom whose face is frozen in a frown whose son is sittin’ in a cell downtown.

Man crying as we sing the songs, the girl with NEEDLE TRACKS all down her arms. We’ve all got something that we’re going through…

Surely we’d have more love if we only knew about the people in the pew"…Talley’s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoGhtnTOyDQ

I was driving back from Columbus with Beth Saturday night when this little song from the Talley’s came on the XM-Sirius radio. Now I know I have been sharing a lot of song lyrics of late, but when you are logging “a few” miles in the car each week you need to fill your brain with “good” stuff when you can.  So the radio was on some "good stuff". And this song, especially the lyric I shared above, caught my heart and my attention; especially that line about the "NEEDLE-TRACKED" girl.

For yesterday I was awakened to a text from a friend. She said another friend had succumbed to overdose.  This was the girlfriend of "ZB" who I had the sad assignment to help lay to rest back in the summer of 2015 from a heroin overdose.

The Talley song reminds us of how IMPORTANT it is to “pay attention” to the people in the pews next to us. There ARE hurting there.

The question today is, "Are we loving?” 

Are we even aware? Do we take the time to know? 

We talk about caring.

Are we? 

It is messy business to care.  It is.

Can be heartbreaking.

This little girl who bought into the lie of heroin may have one day sat in the pew next to you.  I know she did in the one of the pews at First Assembly in Xenia as we grieved her boyfriend and I said this:

…it promises euphoria and delivers pain

…it promises escape and delivers bondage

…it promises relief and delivers oppression

…it promises fun and delivers tragedy

…it promises acceptance and delivers rejection

…it promises the highest of highs and delivers the lowest of

lows – death 

What is it?

Heroin

But it still wasn’t enough.

Or maybe we did too much.  

It is a tricky balance, being aware...CARING...

But CHURCH, it is still "our" assignment...

Friends I have shared this little quote before…

“The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.” PDT

Learn to love the flawed.  

They are in the pews.

We all NEED the "CHURCH" (that is us by the way) to be the place for confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification. 

…A place, a person, for the “people in the pew”.  

…in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)

I love you all.

Have a great day.

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)