Malcolm Potts August 31st 2014 ~ Start with Jesus and finish with Jesus. Simple... but hard to do.

Cheryl and I are in Melbourne this week on a Leaders' Retreat and then a few days with my mum for her 87th birthday.  (I love my mum.)Meanwhile, you folks are on week 3 of Five Weird Weeks where we are speaking on the little letters of John, Paul and Jude.I was pondering what 2 and 3 John said to me and I believe the message is really important, if simple. The old man, John the Elder, battle-scarred and frayed by a life of discipleship, tells the leaders of two little outlying churches two things:  he tells them it's all about Jesus. Jesus’ love, sacrifice, generosity, humanity and deity. Don't add to Jesus or subtract from Jesus. Start and finish the day with Jesus.  That's the first thing. That's 2 John.The first thing was reflected brilliantly by the video we showed recently of the Vice Chancellor of NSW Uni, who shared about prayer when his wife died suddenly.  Love and listen were his learnings - Jesus’ love and ‘Listen to Him’.  Start with Jesus and finish with Jesus.  Simple…  but hard to do.The second thing, in 3 John, is about how we are.  Are we for people, or mean and controlling, and against people?  Be for good things.  Be for your church, be for your community. Resist your mean streak.John Pearman recently shared four things a great family needs, and they have stuck with me: faith in God, loyalty, generosity and forgiveness. This is how Gaius, in 3 John, runs a church. Diotrophes is controlling, mean, self-advancing, a bully.  I bet he can justify every mean thing he does.  But he is deathly.  We get to choose how we will act and who we will be like.  So choose, with your eye on Jesus.Today, Pam is sharing from Philemon, a great letter of advocacy - the strong on behalf of the weak; how useless things can become useful.Application of all this?  Talk to Jesus. He is interested in everything you do, whenever you do it, wherever you are; and he is for you.  Don't make your faith clever and tricky. Just ask, ‘Am I being faithful, loyal, generous and forgiving?’  Be for people who are for Jesus;  Be for people who don't know Jesus but act like Jesus.  And tell them who they remind you of.That's plenty! Malcolm