Are You Being Church?

Five-Minute Friday: STRIVE

I recently started following a Saturday weekly email written by Kit Pharo during our trip to Louisiana to visit Don and Melinda. He calls his missive: “Sabbath Day Devotion.” It is generally very short but excellent. Today’s email “Companionship,” was a reminder of the value and potential downside of friendships. But that isn’t the connection to today’s FMF word. There is something in each of his email messages related to the word “strive.”

Before I get to that, here is a quote that is a helpful reminder about companionship: “Some things in life are totally out of our control.   We are forced to deal with the resulting situations as they come along.   However, we CAN choose the people and the type of people we associate with.   Choose your friends and associates with great care.” – Kit Pharo, Pharo Cattle Company

It is true that we should strive to be good friends, and also strive to choose friends wisely. Friendships matter. In fact, being a friend of the “world” makes you an enemy of God. James says this: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4

There is another reason I like his business. He is involved with herds of cattle, and that ties to the theme of my blog. Flocks and herds, including friendship flocks, matter in life. One of the flocks I am part of is the sheep that make up the Good Shepherd’s body called the church.

There is something Kit says at the end of each email that strikes me as something to strive towards as a member of the church flock. He ends his message with, “Don’t just GO to church; BE the church.”

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

Those of us who claim that Jesus is our Shepherd, should certainly strive to gather with other sheep on a regular basis. It is also important, I believe, to strive to make a difference in the neighborhood where we live, and in the world we currently inhabit. If you are a part of Jesus’s herd, what are you doing to strive to “be” the church? Jesus would sum it up in simple language: “Believe in me.” “Love one another.” “Go, make disciples.” “Follow me.”

I conclude with something I hope will make you smile (from the Facebook page of Pharo Cattle Company).

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.