What is it about your life
or mine that would make someone else want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a
person of faith, a part of a congregation?
The purpose of inviting
other people to follow Jesus is to help them rediscover love -- God's love --
and to provide a community that gives sustained focus, energy, and resources to
developing the spiritual life. No other
community besides the church has as its purpose the deepening of such elements
of the human soul as hope, forgiveness, generosity, service, joy, peace,
justice, gentleness. Love is the key to
unlocking the door to ultimate reality, and in the community of Christ we
intentionally practice receiving God's love, loving God in return, and loving
others. We invite people into a life of
love, surround them with the everlasting arms of God, and encourage them to do
the same for others. We love because God
first loved us.
To bear witness to Christ
involves more than inviting people with words.
It means living with such grace and integrity that our lives themselves
become appealing to others. The second
chapter of Acts reports that people were drawn into the way of life of the
followers of Christ. They found
Christian practice utterly compelling and irresistibly appealing.
Is this true for us?
-- Robert Schnase in Five Practices of Fruitful Living
#3324
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