The latter things, and the former things

Funny how God speaks to me through Scripture that the preacher's not even preaching about during church. Wednesday night he was talking about something completely unrelated but my eyes wandered over to this passage and it hit me like a ton of bricks!!

Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. (Luke 11:42)

And I am so good at the very same thing. I'm really good at going to church and doing my Bible study group every Wednesday and doing my homework in between the Bible studies. But where in my life do I take the time to do, as Micah said, and as Christ commands here, to act justly and love mercy? How do I see to it that the refuse of our society - the homeless, the addicts, the prisoners, immigrants, the elderly, the most marginalized - what am I doing to see that they are loved? I'm good at talking about it. What am I doing to make sure that these folks see Christ in me?

There's nothing wrong with going to Bible studies and church and all that. It's a command, in fact. But what am I doing outside that? Nothing. And that is not cool at all. Because if I can tell everybody else they have to be born again to see Heaven because Christ said so, then you can tell me that I have to actively love people...because Christ said that too.

I am searching for ways to do this. I am looking for ways to love people actively.