Personal Mission Field/Demonstration

"In our minds, therefore, we must share the sufferings of our brothers, our fellow-members, who are placed in unendurable danger; and we pray to the Lord with them."

  - Adomnan, Life of Columba (Irish, 7th century)

Therfore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

  - 1 Peter 1.13

Each of us has enough of duties and distractions to just about ensure that we will miss a good many opportunities to show the love of Christ to the people around us. Isn't it often the case that we tend to think about what we might have done to minister to someone after we've missed the open door right there in front of us?

Peter says we need to set our minds for action and hope for God's grace to meet us as we go. Columba's advice to his monks - to put the needs and sufferings of others into our minds, and to make them matters of prayer - is a good way of making sure that, when opportunities to serve others present, our minds will be in gear and ready to move us forward.

What do you think about during the course of the day? What thoughts and images occupy the desktop of your mind, so that you just can't see the needs of people right in front of you? We can easily become so filled up with our own agendas that we fail to make room in our thoughts for the people God is sending us to, day-in and day-out.

But take the time to get to know people, become a good listener and an active prayer partner, and you'll find that they and their concerns are more frequently in your mind, so that you're better prepared to minister to them when an open door of opportunity presents.

And when it does, go right through. Take whatever step of faith comes first to mind, trusting the Lord to give you grace and guidance as to what to say or do in order to touch the person before you with the love of Christ and the hope of the Kingdom. The more you do this, the more you'll want to do it, until serving others, in small opportunities and large, becomes a part of your daily lifestyle.

And then the grace will flow through you like a river of living water.

Today at The Fellowship of Ailbe

What's the connection between morals and emotions? ReVision has some thoughts.

With King David, the shape of the Kingdom of God begins to become clearer, as we see in this week's Kingdom Civics installment.

Two more installments in the series, Things pertaining to salvation, at my blog on the website. On what are you leaning to be sure you're saved?

There's still time to order copies of The Legacy of Patrick to give to friends for the saint's day on March 17. Give your friends something substantial for St. Patrick's Day. Let the world give them the goofiness.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.