Greetings, Precious Family:

May the Peace of the Lord be with you always.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about people’s relationship with church and organized religion as a whole.

We both knew several people who wanted a relationship with Jesus but did not want a relationship with the church. I know that church hurt is one of the toughest hurts to heal because it involves the mind, body, soul, and spirit of a person. A lot of layers of healing that must take place…

There are so many people who have lost faith in organized religion. The main reason is that people forget the three most important aspects of Christianity and being followers of Christ.

Our first lesson, as Christians, is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves. The third and final rule of Christianity is that Jesus said the world would know we are His by our love.

If we can’t get these three aspects of our faith down, we should not worry about any other aspect of “church” life. Churches should not be able to move forward building congregations until these three building blocks are successfully practiced.

We are the Lights of Christ. When people have an encounter with us, they should be having an encounter with Christ. We are the ambassadors for Christ. We are beacons of Jesus’ holy Light.

Holy Scriptures

John 13:34-35

Tree of Life Version

³⁴ “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Matthew 22:37-40

Tree of Life Version

³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ^[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^[b] 40 The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Worship Video of the Week

I Am Light

This week’s video is by one of my favorite artists, India Arie. When she sings, she sings to the spirit of a person. She reminds us, in this song, that we are all connected to and divine reflections of a beautiful God. When so much of life tries to crowd out our spirit, this song calls us to remember who we are…We are the Lights of God. We carry the Light of God. Remember who you are and SHINE BRIGHT!!!

Once we get back to a place where we make our soul work a priority, so many things will change. What if every spirit journey, across the globe, was about the mastery of Love? How would our world change?

Your sister,

Rev. Marcia Davis

Covington, GA