I walked past the blueberries one morning in mid-April. They were in full-bloom, more blooms than we’d seen in years. The eastern sun shone straight into those white blossoms, nearly blinding me, when I thought I heard something. I stopped and listened. Sure enough, there was a hum coming from the blueberries. Even with all the birdsong going on around me, the dogs yipping and playing in the field, and the truck traffic on the highway through the woods, that hum was loud and clear. It was nearly as loud as the fan motor in our air conditioner.
I couldn’t see them, but a sudden whining zipping past my face told me the answer to my unspoken question—bees. The bushes were full of them.
A preacher’s wife I know once told me about a congregation she had worshipped with for awhile. She had run into someone in the community who did not have any reticence about telling her what he thought about that group—those people would never do anything for anyone, not even each other. They were known for going to church on Sunday and then ignoring everyone else the rest of the week, including their own brethren.
You cannot read the New Testament without having your nose rubbed in the fact that the early Christians were indeed known by their communities, but for exactly the opposite sorts of things. They were in each other’s homes constantly. They were helping others at every opportunity that arose, both believers and outsiders. Paul told the women who had been widowed young that they should remarry so they could stay busy; he told the older men that they should be an example of good deeds to the younger. Peter told Christians that their good deeds would “put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
There should be a hum about the church, a busy hive of activity, showing the character of Christ through, not only our “incorrupt doctrine and sound speech,” but the good we do for others. What exactly did Christ say to those goats in the Matthew 25 judgment scene parable? They were lost because they did not do for others, because by not doing for others they had not done for their Lord either.
It is a shame that somewhere a church that claims to be a part of the Lord’s body is known for doing absolutely nothing. They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate, Titus 1:16.
Wherever you are today, make sure you are not the one in question. Keep the hum alive.
Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify until himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works, Titus 2:13,14.
Dene Ward
I couldn’t see them, but a sudden whining zipping past my face told me the answer to my unspoken question—bees. The bushes were full of them.
A preacher’s wife I know once told me about a congregation she had worshipped with for awhile. She had run into someone in the community who did not have any reticence about telling her what he thought about that group—those people would never do anything for anyone, not even each other. They were known for going to church on Sunday and then ignoring everyone else the rest of the week, including their own brethren.
You cannot read the New Testament without having your nose rubbed in the fact that the early Christians were indeed known by their communities, but for exactly the opposite sorts of things. They were in each other’s homes constantly. They were helping others at every opportunity that arose, both believers and outsiders. Paul told the women who had been widowed young that they should remarry so they could stay busy; he told the older men that they should be an example of good deeds to the younger. Peter told Christians that their good deeds would “put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
There should be a hum about the church, a busy hive of activity, showing the character of Christ through, not only our “incorrupt doctrine and sound speech,” but the good we do for others. What exactly did Christ say to those goats in the Matthew 25 judgment scene parable? They were lost because they did not do for others, because by not doing for others they had not done for their Lord either.
It is a shame that somewhere a church that claims to be a part of the Lord’s body is known for doing absolutely nothing. They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate, Titus 1:16.
Wherever you are today, make sure you are not the one in question. Keep the hum alive.
Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify until himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works, Titus 2:13,14.
Dene Ward
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