I Embrace You, Lord, But Only For Thirty-Five Minutes.

Ah, love.

We use that word so loosely, and our behavior ultimately indicts us.

What are you doing, Bronx Bethany? Is that you singing about how much you love the Lord, then in the next breath spewing a litany of reasons why you cannot do anything for the sake of the kingdom? What are those echoes of the rejection of the invitation to the banquet (see Luke 14)?

-I have just bought a field...
-I have just bought five yoke of oxen and have to go test them...
-I have just gotten married...

-I have a meeting with my real estate partners, could you finish the service by 1:00?
-I have to finish cooking dinner, if I go to the altar for prayer it might throw off my schedule. How about next week?
-I really can't stand those praise and worship songs, so I'll come to church 45 minutes late. You don't really need my worship, do You?

Or, to put it another way, you have decided that God is worthy not of your love, but merely worthy of your leftovers.

Oh, how we have turned up our nose at the grace of God. As Pastor Benji noted in Sunday's sermon, our Lord Jesus put aside His Glory and descended to us in order to set us free from the penalty of sin (See Ephesians 4:8). What sort of gratitude should we express to the One who has released us from captivity?

It will be interesting to see what you do next Sunday.