Works for Wednesday

Work=activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

Ergon (Greek word): deed, doing, labor, work. From a primary (but obsolete) ergo (to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication, an act — deed, doing, labour, work.

John 6:27-29

“Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

I read this passage and walked away wondering…Am I trying to make this so complicated? Am I trying to find a formula or isolate those areas that “work” for me rather than keeping it as simple as believing in Him? Maybe, just maybe, it’s more of a risk in trust to venture confidently with belief rather than reason, logic and oh, yes…experiences or what’s worked in the past. I don’t want to get what I’ve always gotten…I want to let Him take me places that go beyond what I can ask or imagine.

Just a few rough-edged thoughts…what do you think?

Messy Relationships

Ephesians 4:15

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,

The balance between truth and love in relationships makes a BIG difference.

Here are some thoughts from group discussion on the varying levels of truth and love:

All Truth

• Cactus Christian–always poking and pointing out wrong things or “truth”
• Chameleon

All Love

• Minnesota Nice
• Shallow
• No Vulnerability
• Passive Aggressive
• Two-Faced (in instances where someone is nice to the person and then talks about them behind their back)
• We shy away from conflict

Other thoughts

• Anger doesn’t have a place at the table even if it’s just–“If I take anger to the table, I will sin”
• Healthy balance
• Getting so intensely angry that we shut down and refuse to let relationships and conversations happen
• Mercy included
• Making mentoring and relationships a priority–addressing conflict or issues
• Matthew 7
• Power of prayer!

Finally, we went through a sheet on confronting sin.  The examples happened to be 3 situations regarding sexual sin.  After the examples, I was thankful that one of the people in the class made a point to address the fact that the church so often obsesses and focuses so much on sexual sin without addressing other issues like pride or greed.

Also, something that I found interesting was how in classes like that we really DON’T know where a lot of the people are coming from and the experiences they have.  This is beneficial to the class because then we can learn so much more.  A couple people shared about their experiences dating non-believers and one even was currently dating someone.  Then there’s also the question of who in the room has dealt with sexual sin.  Plus, this isn’t even counting the day to day struggles each person deals with.