Love and Devotion
Two of my favorite stories in the Bible few people ever talk about. Both stories reveal believers working behind the scenes living their lives and when opportunity presents itself without hesitation, they show Jesus their love and devotion.
In Matthew 21:1-4, before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem Jesus sent two of his disciples into town ahead of him. Jesus stated that as they entered the town, they would see a donkey tied up. They were to untie the animal and bring it back to Jesus. Someone, other than a disciple, owned the animal. When the owner of the animal asked the disciples, what are you doing untying the donkey? The disciples replied, “The Lord needs it.” I love this story! There was no credit given the owner of the animal. We don’t even know the person’s name. But God knew their heart and they were ready to give what they had to Jesus.
The other story involves the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume before his crucifixion and burial found in Mark 14:1-11. In the midst of a dinner party at Simon the leper’s house the woman, acting out of the fullness of her heart, courageously entered the house, disrupted the conversation, broke the jar of perfume and anointed Jesus. The dinner guests grumbled about what she had done, wasting money like that. But Jesus affirmed her actions saying, “She has done a wonderful thing for me”, “She has played her part.”
In recovery as we work through the 12-steps we discover who we are apart from our hurts, hang-ups and habits. We learn we are not a mistake but are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. We have something to contribute, a part to play in God’s Kingdom.
So, the question for us today is this, how can we live love and respond to God’s request of us while maintaining our distinctive identity? We may not have a donkey or an expensive jar of perfume but what do we have that when God asks us to use it, give it or offer it, we gladly play our part.
Note: The thought of the days along with other key updates will also be posted on our facebook page (Celebrate Recovery at Crossroads Church Facebook Page) and for those without facebook, they will also be posted on the following blog site: https://crossroadscr.blogspot.com
UPDATES/REMINDERS:
- If you are in need of prayer, please send your prayer requests to CelebrateRecoveryatCrossroads@gmail.com and we will forward those on to our celebrate recovery prayer team. The Crossroads Church Prayer team would also love to pray for you, so when you send your E-mail, please note if you are okay with us forwarding your prayer request to the church.
- Fridays at 6:30pm, We are hosting "CR Friday Night Live." To subscribe to our youtube channel please click on the following link and select the subscribe button. CR Youtube Channel Link . There will be a song or two of worship and then a short recovery based dialog between a couple of CR members. This will be streamed on youtube.
- Fridays we will be hosting on-line open share group meetings at 7:30pm. There will be one mixed issues group for men and one mixed issues group for women. Men's Open Share Group Sign-Up Link / Women's Open Share Group Sign-Up Link. These meetings will take place using the Zoom App. In order to participate you will need a tablet, smart-phone or computer with camera. In order to ensure confidentiality of these meetings everyone who participates will need to find a private room to set up, have their camera on, so others can see that there is no one else in the room and they will also need to wear a pair of headphones so that they are the only ones that can hear. This is a free app and you can download it on google play, apple app store or through your web-browser on your computer. For help on how to join a Zoom meeting please click on the the following link, which will take you to their support web-site Zoom Set-Up Help
James U.
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