It's Only The End of the Beginning

Today's post bring us to the end of our Be the Gift reading and blog for December. There will be one more post on Saturday, 1/1/11 which will include pictures from the last "official" Be The Gift activity: delivering Hope Gifts on New Year's Day. Check back tomorrow for the pics!

The reading for today is from Matthew 7:24-25: "When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying--quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard."

No doubt it was the best teaching they ever heard! But what a great observation that Jesus "was living everything he was saying." As we seek to become more like Christ, the challenge for us is to make sure that we are living what we are saying as well. We can't talk about being the gift without actually doing it. We can't talk about Jesus without actually looking for those who don't know Him and making an introduction!

So as we draw this blog to a close, I guess you could really call this the end of the beginning. All the buzz and activity during December was wonderful. But it can't stop there. We have all been encouraged to continue being the gift throughout 2011 by looking for ways that we can enter relationships with those who don't know Christ, help those around us find community within our church family, and continue to serve those that need us to introduce them to Jesus. December has been an exciting start and we hope you will all keep up the good work!

- Holly Barrett