It is Halloween and yes, I'm going Trick or Treating with my granddaughters tonight. They are getting older and soon they won't want to go trick or treating...and I guess then I'll just have to go alone! No, those days will be over, but I still look back at what it was like to go trick or treating years ago as a kid. Our parents would give us some parameters as to where we could go and even though none of us had watches, we knew when it was time to head back home. It was a different time and people were different. We wandered all over the neighborhoods that night in a group from our block. The parents knew that the older ones would look after the younger ones and make sure that we stayed together, didn't walk down the middle of the street, go inside anyone's house and just generally use common sense. But we didn't let anyone in the group get separated and we stayed together until we got back on our block where our homes were. As I think back on that, I like to think that the church is meant to be and act kind of like that. We are called to be a body together, to help each other, sometimes warn each other and even weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, like the Bible says. But on that night our group was committed to the journey together and if anyone needed help, encouragement or even rest, we made sure that no one was left behind. That's an image that we can strive for as a body of believers. We live together, share the journey with each other and encourage and build each other up. And at the end of the journey...well, we will have treasures that go way beyond the booty we gathered on those brisk Halloween nights. So as a follower of this Jesus of the Bible, make sure that you are committed to the journey, not as a lone ranger, but as a part of group that is made up of different people with different gifts and often different ways of doing things. But you are part of a family...that is called the church.
Here's our Bible verse for today...
1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. (11) Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.
Remember I'm praying for you!
With love, PJ
Here's our Bible verse for today...
1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. (11) Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.
Remember I'm praying for you!
With love, PJ