LIVING:

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I have been active more in LIVING!

Yes living…not ministry, rather LIVING…

You see, I think (generally speaking) we like to organise and sort things out in our minds…viewing our lives in neat segments…I mean it’s logical, isn’t it? We function best with structure and order; we know our children function well with routine, don’t we?

Yet in reality life is messy and rarely predictable; then add trying to LOVE God and others into the mix and we can find ourselves struggling…

We organise our lives into what we think is a neat, perfect routine…Here’s an example: ‘Half an hour of prayer and scripture reading in the morning, kids to school, work hours, lunch with our friend, volunteering after work on Wednesdays, Bible study group on Thursdays, blogging every second day, sport on Saturdays’…you get the idea.  And yet we wonder why at times we’re exhausted or we fall in a heap, why our relationships fail or our family gets into a crisis.

Jesus said we are to LOVE Him and others and this simple truth is resounding within me today in a deeper way.

We may think LOVE is ministry…our faith in action…but is it really, when our MINISTRY becomes more about meeting our own needs rather than LOVING God and others?

Because LOVING God and those He places in our life can be MESSY and often costly to us without receiving anything in return…Yet I am learning this is truly LIVING in Christ’s freedom!

Christ’s values are upside down to our worlds’ and He truly is the source of freedom and the way for eternal life…The world offers bondage to sin and an eventual slow destruction…Yet Christ is LOVE and liberates us by changing us to become FREAKS to this world…yes freaks, not people of religion who at the end of the day are no different to anyone else!

People of religion love to do things which make THEMSELVES feel good...Those who LOVE Jesus and others, have HIS love in them which makes them love unselfishly, privately and freely…and THIS is true LIVING!

People of religion can be too busy to actually LIVE…to respond in love to those whom God has placed in their life.  A person of religion will put serving publically over those from whom there is no immediate reward, or public acknowledgment.  Whereas a person who loves God and others will respond to the ‘less important’ people; will love and forgive when others don't; and will act in the best interest of others…

Walking in religion wears one out for that is being led by pride…There is joy when walking in LOVE because The Lord will never ask more of someone than they are capable of giving and will make a way for them to respond.

I cannot imagine standing before Jesus one day and him saying, ‘Now did you attend every church meeting because I seem to have some absences on my roll?’  But I can imagine Him asking, ‘Did you love yourself or others more?’

I have been LIVING more lately…not just doing ministry and it has been truly liberating…Loving God and others with no expectations.

No, I am NOT giving details…

But I will say that I’ve had to say goodbye to someone special for a short time to allow them to follow where Christ is leading them and this is both wonderful and challenging…

Jesus said we are to LOVE Him and others and this simple truth is resounding within me today in a deeper way…for indeed to LOVE God and others is such a simple premise, yet it is indeed life changing to put it into practice, as it is true LIVING!

In His life and service, Melanie.