I have been struggling lately with two topics. The first one I want to address here. What are Christians to do with our spare time? Many of my friends have been asking me to play card games with them (they enjoy losing a lot!) and watching movies. I was taking a look at what the early church did - primarily Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37. The apostles did a few primary things: eat together, live together, pray together and learn the Word together. Using this as a context for Paul's words, "All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial," (1 Corinthians 10:23) I question what we should be doing in our spare time. Is our devotion shown in what we do? We are constantly worshipping and witnessing to something. Are we showing our devotion to lesser things when we spend more time watching television, playing video games, surfing the internet, or playing communal card games (not trying to make an individualistic religion v. communal religion debate) showing our witness that these things deserve our time more than serving others, interceding to the Lord on behalf of others and spending time with the Lord?
I believe the early church had a very real understanding that the presence of Jesus Christ through (and?) His Spirit dwelt inside and among them because they were always talking about Him! Maybe instead of jokingly poking fun at each other or spending time in other ways we could be encouraging towards each other and feeding one another with the Truth. Maybe our community will have more meat and a more concrete understanding of the presence of God in us and through us to other people.
Jesus says "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)
4 comments:
This is really good. I really truly agree with you that we do spend too much time tearing people down instead of building them up. I think that tv doesn't help that much nowadays either. It shows so much violent stuff that people do to others just because it is fun. God is amazing and it really does help us to grow closer to Him as a community and as His people if we pray together, eat together, or even just study His Word, whether alone or together.
Keep up the good work Daniel.
Alba
Would Jesus approve of posting blogs?
Just kidding. I am trying to keep from wasting time also. Right now I really enjoy fellowshiping with others and learning the word, but it's not like you can tell by how often I do it.
Love you
I'm finding that some things are only good in small portions, or maybe never (NO!) but it's all for the sake of Christ's kingdom. I tend to question... would Jesus do this (WWJD? <---- pretty obvious answers normally)) or would Paul/Peter/etc? Or worse, is this what is best for those who need me? The youth I will serve or those that I do now, my brothers and sisters being persecuted over seas, my family, friends, Dordt community?
The gifts we have been given are for the community that we live in and serve now. Thus, we do them a huge injustice when we waste them or chose not to invest them - intentionally or not.
I just read this again... I think that if we encouraged each other all the time we would be more confident to step out of our comfort zone and try on a bigger pair of shoes. Who knows, maybe in my dorm room there are 6 Apostles/Billy Grahams/Tony Campolos/Rob Bells/Tommie Zitos/Jim Ellis' waiting to be discovered!
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