You Just Might Learn Something

Daily Reading: Revelation 2

Scripture Focus: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 2.7)

Devotional Thought: Jesus said that one who has an ear must hear what he says to all the churches.

Consider...

·       Every Christian is unique.  As Jesus spoke to the churches, he addressed individuals about specific things.  Not everybody was patient (Ephesus), poor (Smyrna), persecuted (Pergamum), sensual (Thyatira), sleepy (Sardis), weary (Philadelphia) or lukewarm (Laodicea), but everybody needed to hear that others were.  Jesus’ words served as a warning against falling into bad behavior and also as an encouragement to follow good Christian disciplines.  He also wanted to encourage mutual understanding and support.  In the church, we must realize that our struggles may not be another’s struggles; our strengths may not be another’s strengths.  We need to be not only self-aware; we need to be others-aware.

·       Every church is unique.  Another mistake we make is in thinking that people like the same kind of church that we like.  It is hard for us to realize that someone else’s taste in music and worship style may be different from our own.  In the community where I last pastored, there were eight congregations in the Ministerial Association.  Each one of the churches was different.  Some people were Catholics.  Some were Methodist.  Some were even Nazarene!  We all “did church” differently.  That did not make some of us right and others wrong.  God has made different kinds of churches to reach different kinds of people!

Some of us remember Sly and the Family Stone’s 1968 hit Everyday People.  In that song is a phrase that applies here: “different strokes for different folks.”  Jesus knows that people and churches are vastly different.  Yet, he still wants each of us to hear what he says to the others.  In other words, "Pay attention.  You just might learn something!"

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that in your wisdom and creativity you made all of us different.  In the Church, help us to hear one another and learn from  one another.  Grant us open minds that we may see things from one another's perspective. Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 101.1-8

1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will make music.

2 I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;

3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

4 A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.

6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.

7 No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.

8 Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.