August 11, 2024 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

By Karen Liwan-Teofilo 

Commit to community 

(A testimony shared during the "Being Challenge") 

I had spent most of my life desperately (and failing miserably) to live up to a set of rules associated with religion, and frankly, I was tired of it. I came from a Catholic religion and turning over to Christianity took a toll on me. As I learned to step out of the framework of “religion” and into a real interactive relationship with Jesus, things began to change. I discovered that Jesus really cared about me. I found Him to be interested in my thoughts, my attention and my feelings. And it felt wonderful! Relationship with Jesus seemed to have side effects! The first side effect I noticed was heart change that made the “rules” into things I actually desired. Less and less was I wanting or enjoying those things that the Bible had warned me against. This was a pleasant surprise. Realizing this benefit came WITHOUT striving and was like a breath of fresh air. When Christians do community, there are certain expectations. We want to be welcomed, appreciated, respected, and trusted. In short, we want to be able to give and receive love and feel as if we are among family. With this I found in our care group – sense of contentment. 

I found out that a relationship with Jesus is not one sided. Jesus and our father want to come and made their home with me. With having so, I must first learn to choose to believe that an intimate relationship with Jesus is possible before you can enter into such a relationship, for everything spiritually speaking is a product of one’s faith. 

There are a lot of people in my community who challenge me that they think differently of me and those who encourage my deepening relationship with God. But obviously this relationship is a mutual one. So the question is, am I willing to do the same for the people in my close community? I find that creating these relationships is not always the easiest. Relationships like these require sacrifice and trust, which obviously is hard if you have been hurt by people in the past, and in all truth, there is a chance that people might still let you down and break that trust. But from my personal reflections I have always seen value in these communities (i.e. care/life group) and relationships and the positives far outweigh the negatives. Jesus deliberately chose to surround Himself with people and invited them to join Him in what He was doing. 

As Paul says in Romans 12:4-5 “for just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body and each member belongs to all the others”.