Bible reading for Tuesday January 12th 2010 - Matthew 14
Jesus is amazing. In the beginning of chapter 14 his relative and the one who was "preparing the way for Him" is beheaded. This causes Jesus so much pain that He seeks to be by himself to mourn. He leaves the area by boat with the disciples to go to a remote place to pray and find some comfort from His Father no doubt. But when He gets to the place He's going to work out the emotional pain He feels there are all these people there waiting for Him!
Now, let's be honest. If you just lost someone, are you in the mood to care for, speak to, and encourage, or even heal a bunch of strangers?! Not me! I want to be alone! I want to be cared for - not have to do the caring!
But Jesus, instead of forcibly trying to meet His own emotional needs - meets the needs of others. Instead of caring for himself, he cares for those He's never met. Wow.
Compassion. It sees how you would normally feel or act or speak and moves you to do, feel or say the exact opposite. Compassion causes you to put the needs, concerns or feelings of others before your own. Compassion for the hurting. Compassion for the troubled. Compassion for the lost.
I want to be more compassionate. And I think that is what we need in the church too. Compassionate churches consider how the unchurched, presaved person would feel and then tailors their church to meet the needs of the people next door - not just the people in the next continent.
In 2010 Real Life needs to consider with more compassion the lost and hurting and helpless in our own community and then do the things on Sunday that would make that person feel comfortable so that they can have a place to go where they can be fed, encouraged, healed.
What can I do... what can we do as a church to show compassion to those we don't yet know? How can we connect with people so we can connect those people with Jesus?
Compassion doesn't just happen in other countries, it ought to happen every Sunday in every church as we welcome and build relationships with people we've never met, who need Jesus.
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