On January 14th, 1995, my life changed forever. That was really the beginning of both my relationship with Heidi and my youth ministry. Now I have a wonderful family and a church family beyond compare! As I learn more and more about how to successfully do youth ministry, I'm realizing that it applies to all ministry. Loving relationships are really all that matter.
Circumcision and other traditions don't matter if they get in the way of our relationships with God and his children.
Paul and Barnabas are asked by Peter, James, and John to remember the poor. Loving relationships.
We are taught that we are "not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ." Loving relationships. "No human being can please God by self-improvement, by trying to be good, but only by trusting in the Messiah."
The line that made me laugh out loud, because of the truth found in it is "Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect?" That doesn't mean we can't be loving.
Too often we are faced with being right or being loving. Paul quit being a "law man" so that he could be God's man. Here's how, in the words of a former Christian killer: "I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not 'mine,' but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. If a living (read loving) relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."
There are great power in those words. We would be wise to live by them.
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