Simple, Genuine, Unpretentious

"Our true identity is flat and plain, 

not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient.

The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already 

been sacrificed for the Passover meal,

and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast.

So let's live our our part in the Feast, 

not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil,

but as flat bread —simple, genuine, unpretentious. 

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 msg

"I am saying that you shouldn't act as if

everything is just fine when one of your Christian

companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God, 

or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory.

You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable 

behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders

do, but don't we have some responsibility for

those within our community of believers?

God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide

when our brothers and sisters are out of line

and, if necessary, clean house."

1 Corinthians 5:11-12 msg

•

It sneaks in so quietly.

Tiny, beige, unnoticed.

Left in our lives,

in our communities,

evil permeates 

so quickly, so profusely.

Once it enters

everything changes.

It touches all, 

leaving its mark.

Puffing, expanding, inflating.

It changes our focus,

makes us think things 

that are not true.

Simple.

Genuine.

Unpretentious.

Pure.

Set apart.

Ready for service.

Jesus is the main course.

We are the accompaniment. 

It is all about Him.

We are salt and light to the world.

Not judge and jury.

In ourselves, we must be swept clean.

Choosing holiness and purity,

removing those who do not.

That is love.