BIG & little

     I think we often make too much of the wrong things. I am a Christian. Many of you that read this are Christians as well. That means we trust and follow Jesus Christ. We trust his finished work of the crucifixion and resurrection to atone for our sin and reconcile us to God the Father. But often instead of fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12), we have our eyes fixed on our sin or the sin of others. We get obsessed with a particular sin or sinful lifestyle. For example we might become all engrossed with the sexual immorality of others but ignore our own idolatry. An idol is anything or anyone or any way of life that you love more than God. It's an idol if it gives you your identity, your self-righteousness or turns your heart from complete devotion to God alone. Its easy to feed our idols and ignore God. It's easy to become captured by the sin of others but ignore our own lack of love.
      It isn't that many Christians make too much of some of the BIG sins but that we make to little of the excused little sins. We excuse away a lack of love, a lack of forgiveness, a lack of compassion and mercy. We excuse away our inactivity in evangelism and caring for orphans, widows, the poor and oppressed. If we trust Jesus, we follow Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5  teaches us that old things have passed away and we have become new creations. As new creations, Jesus has given us grace to follow where he leads. And thankfully he keeps giving us more and more grace!
      God captures us with his love. Exodus 20 - And God spoke all these words saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out or the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me."  If you are a Christian, then God has brought you out of slavery to sin and made you a new creation. What he calls us to is a life of love and sacrifice, mercy and giving, living in the world but not of the world, a life of joy even in the midst of pain and unfailing hope in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
      Lord, I pray your love will so capture us that we love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and that we will love others as you have loved us. That's the big thing. Thank you for your big grace.