Git er Done!

Some words just strike me as being important and worth remembering. 'First, and foremost show up. Then do the good that lies nearest.' The words are not Scriptural, they come from the 'Spiritual Memoir' of James O'Donnell entitled, 'Walking with Arthur. But they made me stop and think about the importance of doing.

Of course 'doing' is very Scriptural. James 1:22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Maybe you are more familiar with the Apostle Larry the Cable Guy's shorter version of this verse- 'git er done'.

I love the word study James 1:22 presents. What we translate as 'be', really could read 'keep becoming' as in keep becoming doers of the Word. And 'doers' (poiew in the original Greek) can mean an 'agent' but really so much more. Here's a starter list: to be the authors of, the cause of, to make ready, to prepare, to produce, bear, shoot forth, to acquire, to provide. Doing can take alot of forms can't it?

Thinking about this hit home for me as this past week we received our VBS materials. Sherri and I are beginning the process of working through the material to determine what we need and what our Egyptian VBS will look like. Here's the point, nothing we do as a church for outreach in my mind is as important as VBS. It's not about adding members to the church roles either, it's about being used by the Holy Spirit to create and build faith in children and parents. What could we 'do' that would be more important than this?

In my readings this week three different times 'discipleship' was the main point. Each author wrote about the importance of 'doing'. They brought to mind for me a Bible Study where we learned Jesus' disciples weren't interested in knowing what Jesus knew as much as they were interested in being what Jesus was. Their focus was more on 'learning to do' than it was on 'hearing to know.' I think today's church, maybe even our church often reverses that priority. What do you think?

Do you remember when Jesus walked over to a fig for a bite to eat? The tree was full of leaves pretending to be fruitful, but Jesus found none and cursed the tree which then promptly withered. A church pretending to be fruitful is likely to meet the same fate. Leonard Sweet in his book '11' wonders if the only difference between yogurt and your church is that yogurt has a living active culture in it. We need to be about Jesus' call to make disciples. We're gonna have the opportunity to do just that in our VBS this August. I want you to help in this mission of fruitfulness.

I know we are saved by faith- a great gift of God. I also know that faith that flourishes produces fruit. The time has come for us to put our faith in action, to share the Gospel with a church full of kids. The time has come to 'show up and do the nearest good'. The time has come to 'git er done'! See you fruity people Sunday.

Blest regards,
kp