Act, out of love

Good morning followers!

Wow! What a morning to wake up to. Where I am, the birds are singing, the trees are swaying in the breeze, and the sun is beaming through my windows – uh, can you say beautiful?!

Well, this morning as I started my devotional reading, I knew in my heart that I wanted to read something related to a sermon I am preparing for, just over a month from now. My heart was yearning to read something about my chosen title, “He is Constant”. Of course, ‘He’ is God – and personally, though my life experiences thus far, I can testify that He, indeed is constant.

So, I was led to open the book of Acts, and was reminded about an even deeper consistency message. “…It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witness to me…” (Acts 1: 7, 8). This got me thinking and I read a footnote in my Bible that reads: Mission is to be the passion of Christians.

What does that mean? I thought… Hear me out as I break this statement down, will ya?

Mission – mission is wanting to do something, so essentially act on something with a goal in mind.
Passion – is having a yearning to do something, so again act on something you want to accomplish, usually with a deeper meaning
Christians – those that follow Christ and carry out His mission.

In the last verses of the book of Matthew in chapter 28, The Great Commission is presented, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” All right a little too deep now, what does this “baptizing” thing mean anyway? I dug a little deeper. The New Testament talks about the ritual of baptism being the immersing of one into the water (going ‘down’ into the water’) and then coming out of the water (so in other words, the old has been buried in the water and the new as come forth). It’s a ritual of renewal and dedication of one’s life to Christ. (Acts 8: 38, 39). However, there’s an even deeper meaning to the baptism into Christ: “…as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death(.) We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6: 3, 4).

That’s a lot to take in, I know. So where am I getting at here?

What I got from this time in the Word, also known as “TAG-Time” (Time Alone with God Time): Since we were baptized with Christ when He died, we are marked with a mission to share a passion with people in our lives until Christ returns.

The mission is your passion.

Do what you love for those you love.

I’ll leave you with a couple of questions to ponder: What is your passion? Are you acting upon that passion? And why not make your passion, your mission to share with the world?