Galatians 5:13-15
You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!

God has created us with the ability to make many choices about our lives, including how we reach out to those who do not know Christ. Our role is to take what we’ve learned from God and pass it on to others.

Why? Because there is a hurting world out there. It is a world where the majority of people don’t know Christ, and don’t think they want to know Christ.

And we all get to choose what we are going to do (or not do) about the people in our own communities and throughout the world who don’t know Christ. We get to choose how we will reach out to offer help to those who need assistance, to those who need to know someone loves them and that someone cares.

When Jesus was being talked about by the villagers in Jericho for befriending Zacchaeus, note what Jesus said to the crowd on that day, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

This captures the heart and ministry of Jesus. Can we say the same? Is this our focus? We might ask ourselves the following: If people followed me – would they get to Jesus?

Prayer: God, give us a heart like the compassionate and caring heart of Jesus. Stir within us a passion and burden for those who do not know you. Help us to get out of our comfortable places and begin to see people like you see people. AMEN

The Rev. Daphne Moses
Chairperson, Order of Deacons-Memphis Conference