for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
“Once you had no identity as a people;
1 Peter 2:8-10
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
Today, as I was getting ready to teach – or at least facilitate – the Tuesday morning men’s Bible study, it occurred to me that there is a lot of overlap between what I’m talking about here and what I plan to share next month when I travel to Ohio.
It makes sense, of course, to be pretty much on the same page. Plus it fits into a general approach I have tried to cultivate over the past few years, which is to identify a general theme, something I can use as a frame for most everything I write and teach over the coming months.
For 2024 it is the idea of Upping our Game as people made in the image of an awesome Creator, and of responding to the question, “How can we live more effectively as witnesses to the love, light, grace, peace, justice, and mercy of God?”
In Ohio, I have been invited to speak at a mixed gathering, a mini-retreat with the men’s ministry folk, the combined Sunday morning Christian Education classes, and then the entire church during worship.
As part of the publicity for the weekend, the leaders asked me to make a couple of videos. This one, at right on 85-seconds, ran the past two Sundays.
That’s pretty much what floats my boat in a nutshell.
“Excellence” “vs “Perfection”
This morning, meeting with the guys at church, we noted an important distinction between “excellence” – which is what God calls us to, and “perfection” – which is unattainable.
“Upping our Game” as followers of Jesus is about offering God our very best, about bringing life and light and goodness and redemption to every situation because we are in the proximity of Jesus – and in response to the grace we have received.
If we invite Jesus to be present, then it’s the best conversation, the best dinner party, the best meeting, the best date, the best Bible study. We are not pressured to shoot for unobtainable standards, but invited to live beyond the strictures of mediocrity and “into his glorious light.”
This holds true as I think about my relationships, lead a men’s Bible study, prepare to speak in Ohio, and plan my activities for the day. My best, always – and God’s “most excellent way.”
Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31