Being living letters

We started a bible study on Acts 2 yesterday in house group, looking at the way the early church behaved and grew. One of the key things seemed to be living a life that spoke of the love of God that people might meet Jesus through our attitude and not just through compelling words. I had the post below in my news reader this morning which is a quote from a Jake Colsen book and thought it fitted perfectly but here the context was in family relationships.

“How old are your children, Marsha?”
“Ten, seven and three.”
“If you have something you want to share with them, do it. But don’t think that is the best way they learn.”
At that he grabbed a fork and held it up.
“Do you remember teaching your children to use a fork?”
“Not exactly….”
“But they all use one, I assume. Did you send them to fork school, or have a Powerpoint presentation on the make-up and use of a fork?”
People laughed.
“It sounds silly, doesn’t it? But as long as we think of this life in Christ as knowledge to acquire instead of living in him, we’ll do all kinds of foolish things. Your children know how to use a fork, but that’s because they learned it in life. As they got old enough you probably put the fork in their hands, but held on so they wouldn’t poke their eye out. You helped them guide it to their mouth and when you grew confident they wouldn’t hurt themselves, you let them do it on their own. Embracing the life of Jesus is a lot more like learning to use that fork than it is sitting in meetings. Children will learn the truth as you help them learn to live it.”

simplechurch.co.uk

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