Imagine Jesus talking to his disciples and saying that there was once a lazy husband named Scott whose wife went away for a few days. She left him in charge of the house telling him that she wasn't sure when she would be home but to be alert and don't get caught short. You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be Scott.
Relevance can also make or break a church. One of the biggest complaints we hear about organized religion is that we just aren't relevant anymore. They ask, why should I get up early on Sunday morning, shower and put on clean clothes, and waste my time going to a church that isn't relevant?
John Wesley said, "employ whatever God has entrusted you with in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree, to the household of faith, to all me."
The point of giving is not so much the amount we give. In fact, John Wesley said in 1785, "When you do what you can, you do enough." What matters as Christians is why and how we give. God does not want our gifts to be given grudgingly.
The Beatitudes are not multiple choice. You don't get to pick one you like and ignore the rest. You can't say you'll be a peacemaker and that's it because the other stuff sounds too difficult or sappy. It doesn't work that way. The Beatitudes must be taken as a whole. They describe what we should be like as Christ's followers.
On my honor, I will do my best to live in harmony with others, to be sympathetic and responsive to the needs of others, to love others treating them as brothers and sisters, to be compassionate to the plight of those who are suffering, and to be humble in my dealings with others in encouraging them and rejoicing in their successes. So help me God.
"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come from miles to watch you burn." John Wesley.
If we are going to be relevant, if we are going to truly make a difference, we must practice what we preach. We have to program our minds to do the right thing at every opportunity. We have to let our gentleness be known to everyone.
Our response shows the world that our faith in God is how we deal with fear and tragedy. We show the world that God does promise to deliver us and that God promises to sustain us and force good to come from the painful events we experience in this life.
"After all, those who will live in peace must agree to disagree in many things with their fellow labourers, and not let little things part or disunite them." Rev. George Whitefield