A couple of quick things caught my attention as I reflected on this week’s message.  It is absolutely amazing that Jesus, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of all things, would focus His life on you and me.  Quite frankly, most “really important” people don’t seem to have time for me–and actually I can’t blame them, why should they?  As Mike and Sallie sang Sunday morning, “Who am I . . .?” Aren’t you glad Jesus is radically different than the “really important” people (whoever they are)?  For Him, it really is all about you. He said He came to seek you, to serve you and to save you (apologies for the sermonesque alliteration).  God said He loved you so much that He’d rather die than live without you (John 3:16).  He’s definitely looking out for you; who are you looking out for?

When Jesus was asked by an expert in the Old Testament Law (one of those “really important” people), which commandment was the greatest, He immediately told them where their focus should be: He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and most important commandment (Matthew 22:37)  Our primary focus is to be on our God–to love Him with everything we are and everything we have (More on that starting Feb. 10th).   I hope that message really came through in my thoughts on walking into a new outward focus. The heart of our focus has to be on Jesus Himself. He really is the “Center of the Universe.” We have to look up and then reach out–as Jesus says, . . . The second (commandment) is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).

I went to our Primetimers’ Hymn sing Sunday afternoon (I love our Primetimer’s events–they make me feel young), and it reminded me what a challenge an outward focused life can be.  In many (if not most?) churches, the biggest on-going discussion (sometimes argument) is about what kind and style of music to have in worship services.  Do we sing mostly (or exclusively) praise and worship songs? Or do we sing hymns? Or do we sing hymns with an occasional chorus at the end? Or do we sing choruses with an occasional hymn in the middle? And some lone soul always wants a polka band, don’t they? 

We all profess to know that ultimately we sing for an audience of One–but then again, God doesn’t seem to have a preferance of music; He’s more concerned about whether the song comes from your heart, and whether your heart belongs to Him.  Nevertheless, we have a lot of musical preferences and we often find it difficult to follow the Bible’s outward focused advice:  . . . in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the intersts of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:3-5).   It’s an on-going challenge for all of us. But I believe we are up to it, and more . . .

 blessings,

pastor greg