A light-bulb went on inside my head today. We are going through Andy Stanley’s ‘Brand New’ serious. Absolutely worth watching although some who hold to very traditional church expectations may be offended.
I sort of felt Andy covered the lesson that had to be learned in the first 3 minutes of the message.
He started off with a comment about the people he disliked most in the world…. the easiest people to dislike. In fact, it could be said that these people are the ones that illicit almost hatred and distaste in your life.
They are the people who hurt your kids.
Don’t mess with my kids.
If your kids have been hurt, you know how you feel about those who have hurt them.
If they have stabbed them in the back, broken them down, criticised them or mocked them, there is not much that the offenders can do to win back your approval or friendship.
Here’s where Andy put the point across.
- You can give me money.
- You can give me gifts.
- You can make wild promises to me.
- You can worship my holy name.
But it will be very difficult to please me, if you hurt my kids.
That was pretty much to the point.
He went onto say, that on the converse, if you want to honour me, be nice to my kids. The greatest thing you can do to honour me is to be kind to my kids.
It was quite a light-bulb that went on in my head. I remember years ago, David got quite a hefty parking fine for parking illegally at UCT. I didn’t mention it on the radio, but I did mention it to someone in our listening audience in an email. Unbeknown to me she knew of someone at UCT and someone, whether it was her or someone else, I do not know, went along and paid it.
To honour me, they paid my son’s fine.
If you want to honour me, do something good for my kids.
And therein lies the most important lesson of all as we walk through this life, as we are eternity thinkers – as we are trying to fulfil the most important commandment.
If you want to honour God, do something good for those He has made.
- You can give Him money.
- You can give Him gifts.
- You can make wild promises to Him.
- You can worship His holy Name.
But it will be very difficult to please Him, if you hurt His children.
There is so much more to this message.
View it here…
Find the whole series here.
John 13:34
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
These are the days – let’s live them well.
Keep the smile going!
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂