November 13, 2016

Sunday Devotional With Mr. E: TOGETHER


One of my favorite lessons to teach the fourth graders is sewing soft sculptures.  Most of my students have never used a needle & thread before.  That really levels the playing field.  All the students are approaching the lesson excited...but nervous about doing something they've never done.  There are tears, frustration, excitement, success, and failures. It is rare for any negative words to be exchanged between one another during this project because they know that the struggles are real. THEY FEEL IT TOO!  The students start encouraging one another...helping those that might be struggling...giving advice for those who are stuck...and congratulating one another's successes.  Something about a shared experience like this to bring a group together.


Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.  If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.  To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4: 10-11

Our country....our world....seems to be more fractured than ever before.  Fingers can be pointed, blame can be spoken, heads can be buried in the sand....none of which will help the situation to improve.  So what can we do to help our community, our country, and our world?    I think 1 Peter 4: 10-11 gives us the perfect path to take. He has wired us uniquely with a purpose.  When we use the gifts/talents/abilities we've been given to serve God & serve others....we will begin to see things around us change.  It will hopefully start with our own heart!  Serving God by ministering to others is never about who deserves it....but realizing we are all in the same boat.  Sinners set free by the grace of God...not from anything we deserve..but by him alone!! When we see that we are all the same...reaching out, extending grace, serving, loving, giving....it becomes a whole lot easier.  It doesn't matter if they look like you, think like you, believe like you, vote like you....God can use your act of love & service to meet them right where they are at.  It is never our job to change someone...that is God's!  

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