Monday Morning Musings ...

Yesterday was another good day. We had some very good discussion in Sunday School class about prayer. I was encouraged by the discussion. Worship went well. The spirit in the service was very good again this week. It is no coincidence that we have had more people praying in recent weeks and the spirit in the services has been a reflection of that in my opinion. Singing seemed to go well. There was a real sense of openness during the message. People seemed very attentive. Our attendance was down from last week and disappointing, but the spirit and response was very good. There were even a couple people who came to the altar to pray though no specific invitation was given. Neither of whom were adults. We had a another good week in our prayer Sunday evening, though attendance was down there as well.

The message was on reordering your priorities (read previous post for more) from Philippians 3:7-11. This is one of our foundation passages for our theme this year "Whatever ... it takes", or "Whatever living". I asked "what really matters to you?". To determine this look at where you spend your time, where you spend your money and what you talk about most frequently. This will give you a good picture of matters most to you. Then we examined what this might look like (reordering your priorities).

Check the Bible for the foundation of priorities, it is literally the manual for priorities. Look at the life of Jesus, what mattered most to him. Evaluate your current priorities measured against scripture and the life of Jesus. Take steps to rearrange your life. Start with prayer, pray about it first. Then put first things first. Change your attitude, this might be the most critical one. How different would your actions be with a better attitude? How much better would worship be with a better attitude? Then eliminate what doesn't fit.

I told the story of David Livingstone, amissionary pioneer in Africa. When he died, his body was taken back to his home area in England but his heart was buried in Africa. That's right, his physical heart was buried under a tall tree in a small village in Africa at his request. He said that Africa was where his heart was so it should be buried in Africa. I then posed the question, "If your heart was to buried where your heart is currently invested where would it be buried?" In your place of employment? In your bank? In your recliner at home? In your boat, or on your golf course or your favorite mall? In front of your computer? Where would your heart be buried?

Here's hoping that your priorities line up with God's.