As I stepped from my house this morning, I was greeted by two neighbours. One was completing his morning walk. We remarked on the weather – the wind has died down.
The second was on her way home from work at our local seniors complex. She also said “Hi.” Then we verged into talk about her kids, the opportunity to get together for a meal and about church.
I’m glad for early morning risers. Makes the day begin well and encourages me that my home here is a great place to live.
Writing about a 1/2 century ago, A.W. Tozer talked about the term, “Accepting Christ”. In our day and age, that is still bandied about, but certainly not as much part of the vocabulary of the regular person.
The part that struck me was his thoughts on being inclusive and exclusive.
As you know, our society has made inclusivity the hallmark of a citizen. We must include everyone in everything. The flattening on society has meant that excellence is not necessary, nor is a sense of right and wrong. Those are general statements that carry exceptions. But, “in general . . .”
Tozer states that a Christian is all-inclusive. All of their life is given all to Jesus. Not a part – all of life is included in our commitment to Jesus.
A Christian is also all-exclusive. There is no giving of partial allegiance to Jesus and partial allegiance to another person, force or consideration. All to Jesus!
Reading these statements a 1/2 century later means I am in a different world than that in which Tozer wrote. But somehow the atmosphere of life has not changed. Christians live in the balance of exclusivity and inclusivity. Just not the way our society proclaims these terms.
What fun to watch the final episode of “Master Chef” with some friends. Being the neophyte cook that I am, I had all sorts of comments. Mostly, from my vast store of experience, I would pronounce truths of culinary expertise!
NOT!
A few months ago, I knew very little. Now I know a little more. But not much, in comparison to those who have made this their passion.
Now, I enjoy cooking more than I expected. And I tend to have opinions on many things. As the evening went on, though, I needed to zip my lip (quite literally).
What makes us experts when we have so little knowledge? Often times this may be part of our learning curve – when others help us see our stupidity. Other times we are full of ourselves and what we know – when we know very little.
And every ONCE in a while you may actually hit on a great nugget of truth. I remind myself – every ONCE in a while. And last night was probably more on the other side.
But it was fun!!!!
That’s what happened at our morning breakfast for our Family Bible School yesterday. We knew this kick-off would be without some of our teachers. In fact, 1/2 of them would be unable to attend.
This we knew. What we didn’t know was that more new participants would want to take in the meal. And the games. And the social time. And the food. And the friends. And the introductions.
Considering we had a regular attendance of around 35 last year, when more than 50 showed up, we were surprised. Of course, the food people were prepared.
A little aside here! I’ve decided when you are put in charge of providing food, you overdo the quantity. Next week we have a Men in Kitchen potluck. Already I’m hearing that some men are planning to bring a main dish, a salad and a dessert – just in case, “the other men don’t bring anything!”
So, in the end the morning was beyond our expectations – we hadn’t even set enough tables and had to pull out more!
Next week? I get my first chance to teach my prized Grades 5-7 class – with up to 15 possibly showing up. Won’t that be fun 🙂