The Divine Neighbor
___
Scripture: John 9
The Lament: There’s Something Wrong with This Picture by Galactic
Take It Further: “This Is the Call and This Is the Beauty” By Kim Cameron
For the Lord is Good and His love endures forever!
His love for me endures forever.
But He sees all
my faults, my insecurities, my failures
—all the ugliness that I push way down.
He hears all
my questioning, my doubt, my unbelief.
He knows all
my fears and all my struggles
—all my past and all my present
—all He is in for when He knocks on my door
—and yet He knocks.
Not shyly, and not just once—
secretly hoping I won’t hear so at least he can say he tried.
No, He knocks boldly!
He wants to be my neighbor
—to be a guest in my house.
He desires to embrace me as I am.
Will I invite Him in?
This is the Call and This is the Beauty
Salvation is free.
God wants to know me personally.
He desires to transform me.
He does not want pleasantries, he wants to go deep, know my sorrow.
He has compassion for me.
He doesn’t see my trials as my sins.
He wants to heal me.
He longs for me to let him love me
—to be my neighbor.
He wants to walk beside me, not pray and walk away from me.
He wants to meet me where I am.
He comes to me arms open wide,
His heart already accepting me.
And, In his divine, he whispers
This is the Call and This is the Beauty
In community, sharing our differences
struggling in the hard conversations
differing in politics, religion, and opinions
In our fear of rejection
loving freely and unconditionally.
So enters this moment of understanding.
This is the Call and This is the Beauty
Knowing he can make the blind see
Knowing our God can turn death threats into sugar cookies,
knowing he can love through all the darkness of this world
That he loves us and sees our need, not the sin,
Recognizing his divine purpose in the way he loves
and then invites us to love him and one another
This is the Call and This is the Beauty
Knowing this…
Am I able to step out—on faith?
Can I walk up to your door
willing to disagree freely
accept unconditionally
love divinely
—Will I knock boldly?
I arrive at your door—hand hovering, questioning
Conjuring all the reasons to run—
But I understand now;
I hear his voice clearly.
This is the Call and This is the Beauty
I knock—I knock boldly!
Will you open the door and worship with me?
###
We’d love to hear from you. Please share with us below your thoughts and insight. We would love to see Take it Further be a place where as a community we dialog, and together we all take the conversation further.
*Note: If you wish, you can look up this and other Bible passages online at youversion.com
Copyright © 2018 Warehouse 242