Do you remember those one-credit classes in college … the LAB?  You would take a three-credit class with all the lectures, reading, homework and tests … but then you’d have this extra one-credit lab assigned where you had to go and do experiments, analysis and reporting. (I also remember the one-credit lab being more work than the three-credit class at times – but that’s an analysis for another article!) The thing about the lab, it always seemed to me, was that this is where the most learning took place.  There’s something about having to actually DO the stuff you’re learning about.  When you take the head knowledge and put it into practice and see how it actually works in real life – it’s then the learning sinks in.

 

I often think of our church family as the lab of our Christian faith.  We can read the Bible, listen to sermons, go to Bible Studies, even engage in social media discussions about topics of faith … but it’s in the one-on-one relationships of love that we have with others where the real stuff of Christianity takes root.   Jesus’ disciples had sat with Him, heard Him, observed Him and learned from Him, but He told them (and us) to put that learning into practice by loving one another!

 

 

The Apostles Peter, Paul and John echoed Jesus’ teaching as they each remind us to love one another in virtually every one of their epistles (letters). This is clearly an important topic for us as Christ followers.  So we are going to be spending the season of Lent looking at this topic of Love … not just Love “knowledge” … but Love expressed, as we reflect upon the great love chapter of the Bible 1 Corinthians 13, in a new sermon series called “Love is…”

 

This series is going to cover both Sundays and Wednesdays in Lent, as we look at some of the ways we can reflect Jesus’ love using the Apostle Paul’s description of what love is from 1 Corinthians 13. Lent is a season that calls us to reflect on the great love that Christ has for us – a love so great that it moves Him to die. We, of course, are not only to reflect on Christ’s love, but reflect out His love to the world.

 

And that’s one of the things I love about Redeemer!  We’re a congregation that not only thinks about what Jesus has done for us, we seek to make Christ’s love for others visible and tangible in the world.  From our Sunday School classes, to our Growth Groups and service projects, we are actively engaged in loving one another, and bringing Christ’s love to the world around us! We’ll be talking more about this in the coming weeks.  I hope that you’ll join us on Sundays at either 8:30am or 10:45am, and on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. Visit: https://www.redeemerbythesea.org/love-is-sermon-series/ for more information.

 

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Augie