Little Paxton - Connecting with people

We thought about one another's lives and how some things are working out better this week, especially for Jim. We also thought about men and women in marriage, about church life and activities, and about finding a proper home/work/church balance in our lives. In a sense it's important to recognise that church life encompasses home and work anyway, it cannot be separated out. It's not a question of how much time church should take, but how deeply it becomes the important element in everything we are and do.

While we were discussing this, Sean was called away to help sort out an issue between two of his children. It struck me as ironic that we had this example of 'church/life balance' right at the time we were talking about it. Should Sean go to deal with the issue or stay for the church 'meeting'? For me it's a no-brainer, he should go, his family needed him and that is all part of Kingdom living.

Jim talked about connecting with people. He said that we need to connect more. We need to identify the needs that people have in the way that people like Gandhi or Martin Luther King did. And we need to meet people where they are, showing that we love them in practical ways, revealing the nature of Christ to them  by effectively being Christ for them. (We are his body here in the earth, all we need to do is obey the head like any healthy body does.)

Jim mentioned that the Lord does things bigger and better than we can imagine, this is true! Not only that, it's been proved true in our experiences during the past twelve months in so many ways.

He also said that we 'need to make good decisions based on the word'. The 'word' can refer to the written word, that is the Bible, or it can refer to Jesus who was the Word brought to life on this earth.