Jesus calls us to faithfulness and to an honest seeking first of His kingdom and righteousness. He has not called us to be good listeners only. He has called us to hear His Word and to do it. He hasn’t called us to just say right things. He has called us to right action, action endorsed by the truthfulness and integrity of our words.

Words are a dime a dozen these days; the internet has seen to that. Yet, it ought not to be this with followers of Christ. For us, our words matter. Words reflect the heart, and words hastily spoken can sometimes do irrevocable damage.

More than words, Jesus calls us to obedience. Words should reflect the fact that our hearts are being shaped and formed into the image of Christ. Our actions then follow our words and reveal what we are really like. Keeping our words tells those around us that truth matters to us, that righteousness matters, that Christ-formed integrity matters. Our words and our actions meet in Jesus, and both of them reflect what we really believe about Him

The greatest action is the action of self-forgetful love. Jesus didn’t say that people would know we are his disciples if we say wonderful things. He said they would know we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Words are wonderful and we ought to be very careful as to the words we say. Love is greater still.

Isn’t it the Bible that says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy going or a clanging cymbal” (I Cor. 13:1)? Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21).

Ten years ago today men, principled in a culture of anger, hostility, suffering and death, hijacked their religion, stole airplanes, flew them into buildings, and took the lives of hundreds and hundreds of innocent people. These men died for their cause. It was an act of faith for them, a sign to the world that all who did not think as they thought were worthy only of death and destruction.

Contrary to the thoughts of many the world didn’t change on September 11, 2001. It just revealed again the depth of perversity that can lead to despicable acts of man’s inhumanity to man. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us the reason humankind can act so inhumane. The prophet writes, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Jesus came to change the human heart, to draw human beings into the very life of God. In HIM people learn to love, accept, and forgive. The people of Jesus are the salt and light of God in the world. We must not be about life the way those who do not believe in Jesus are about life.

We cannot judge anyone, either. This is not our job. Our job is to live and move and have our very lives in the life of Jesus. He defines who we are, how we live, and how we go about life.

On this day of remembrance do not judge. Remember, reflect, mourn, grieve, vent, pray. Dignify the lives and memories of the 2977 people who died that day. Determine, in your heart of hearts that, by the grace and mercy of God in your life, you will not be as those who do not know God. Turn the situation over to God again, and bring the redemptive heart of God into the human situation. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).

Prayer for 9/11: God, help this planet. We do desperately need you. We do desperately need your love and mercy and grace. We don’t seem to catch on to the fact that we are loved by the God of the universe and that You are present to mend our broken lives and to set us on the road to true peace. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Amen

I have lived in the church long enough now to have reached one incontrovertible conclusion – the church is not perfect. Sorry if I caught somebody off guard with that eye opener, although I doubt I did so. One doesn’t have to be around the church long to know that it is filled with imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. If you are looking for a place of perfection, look elsewhere. The church won’t ever rise up to meet your high standard.

This is all very good news, however, because it means that there is room even for you in this imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. There is even room for me? Can you believe that? After all these years I am still stunned that there is a place for me within the family of God.

Jesus tells the members of His church to be patient with each other, to be intentional and relational with each other when someone fails. I’m not sure the church historically has been as faithful to this teaching as it could have been, but it is right there, front and center, in the Gospel (See Matthew 18:15-20). It’s hard to miss it.

There is a place for discipline in the church, and a strategy to which the church must give itself if it is to be faithful to Jesus. There is a place for prayer, too. In fact, prayer is at the foundation of all we do in Jesus’ church.

There is a place, too, for intentional, Christ-centered fellowship, fellowship that gathers, lives and moves in Jesus. It’s more than getting together and sipping on coffee and eating pie. The fellowship to which Jesus calls His church is a fellowship of followers, longing for Jesus to have His way in all things. This is not an addendum to Christianity. This is life lived in such a way that Jesus becomes a part of every thing going on, even in a group of two or three gathered in His name.

The fellowship we share must be shaped and formed around Jesus or we have missed the whole point.