And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, Hebrews 10.24
We often need to encourage one another to love and serve. It’s so easy not to. We slide back into old habits, bad attitudes and self serving actions. So at this point we need provocation. Provoke someone to love and service? Yes, indeed. We spur. We goad. We challenge.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. We all may miss an area in life that is lacking in love or service. Let others look into your life, expose your heart and actions, and receive encouragement. Being vulnerable like this requires a place of safety. From that place of safe harbor, we can launch out into the depths, challenged to bring love and service to the world, in storm or calm….
Building Up and Encouraging
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5.11
Let us speak to one another in ways that instills courage, hope and fearlessness. Let us support each other in prayer. Let us challenge each other to grow in grace and love. Whatever community of faith you find yourself, share your story, your life with others. In some little way (or maybe a big way), the very life of God might be revealed in the cracks of our brokenness. Be built up together to provide a dwelling place for God. God and creation long for this. Remember, the church is temporary, the Kingdom is eternal. Seek the building up of that which will last. Instill courage to seek the Kingdom, to seek Christ.
Encouragement
Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4.18
There is hope! The hope of the resurrection! Many would look at the context of this passage and go off on rabbit trails. Rabbit trails regarding the rapture, the return of Jesus and how the world will end. All things worthy of discussion but can nevertheless detract and distract from the reality we currently live and the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Death is very much a reality. We will all face it. Some sooner, some later. Some suddenly, some in painful expectation. It is the end of our life as we know it. Yet this is not the final word. The death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross is the place and time where even death died. That is not the last word.
This same Jesus is raised from the dead, resurrected, new life and new creation are, and continue to be, affirmed in that event. We can live in the face of death with an unbound hope. A radical hope that can infuse our life with an eternal newness. A life that gets to participate in the coming of a new creation. Encourage your sisters and brothers! Take courage in the word of the resurrection!
Taught to Love
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 1 Thessalonians 4.9
Can one write this of your community of faith? Some, yes and some, no. For those awash in the love of God, you have been taught of God. Remember your lessons well.
For those whose love is lacking or waning, there is hope if the community is teachable. We look to Christ seeing the reality of divine love. We look to sisters and brothers in Christ and we can see that love fleshed out. We see those brothers and sisters and sometimes we are stubborn and we refuse to learn from the hand of the Spirit.We want to be right, to have our way, to have the upper hand. We miss the kernel of truth that awaits to blossom from the situation. The opportunity for growth in faith and in love waits for us to join in the transformative power of the Spirit. We need to embrace the cross, die to our rights, way and position. We must lose for the sake of the others. We must embrace humility, service and most of all, love. Remain teachable and enflesh the lessons from God that God is love.
Increasing Love
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 1 Thessalonians 3.12
“Love is all you need….” Memorable lyrics from the Beatles that started rattling through my mind when I saw this verse. What kind of love, though? Maybe the sentimental, the erotic, or the bond of strong friendship? Not quite. That 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love? Yes. The love that comes from God that can increase and overflow. Love that sacrifices, serves and loses for the other. Receiving the love of God and participating in that love for others – spouse, friend, neighbor and enemy.
Is this divine love all we need? Yes, as long it is the divine love. Love can be seen in many ways. Not all that claims to be love is rooted in the divine, however. We claim to believe in love but do not put it in practice. We affirm to love our neighbor as our self but it never reaches the neighbor. Human attempts at love will falter and fail unless rooted in the humanity of God in Christ Jesus. God’s love is not some abstract concept removed from the world. That love put on human flesh, lived that love, died and rose again for us and the world. An eternal love that is ever so near….
The love of God revealed in Christ is a necessity. Without that love, the possibilities before us through creation, in freedom and in responsibility would come to nothing. Not an absurd, meaningless and senseless world, but nothing. We all need the love of God, whether we realize it or not. The alternative is frightening and hopeless, death. Yet we can face death (and how can we not?) filled with faith, hope and most of all love. A love that transforms death and ushers in the new creation. God’s love is over all and His love never fails.
Songs from the Spirit
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3.16
I witnessed something for the first time this past Thursday night. My hope is that every follower of Christ could witness such a thing at least once in their journey. I gathered with some brothers and sisters in a simple church meeting. Two new songs came out of this gathering. Will these songs grow in popularity? Who knows? All I know is I was there at the birth.
New songs such as these can teach us and remind us of love and grace given to us. Simple words and simple melodies can touch us in the deepest of places and bring healing and restoration. These little reminders that embody an eternal wisdom and the riches of Christ in frail jars of clay. Songs that seem new to us but are as old (or is it new?) as eternity.
My prayer is that each believer, young or old, could participate in something like this. A small gathering of the saints, united by the Spirit in a tangible way. Awash in the glory and presence of God, singing together in worship. Bringing forth new songs, simple songs, that can grow and mature and unveil the depths and riches of God in Christ. May God be merciful on us all.
A Warning….
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3.16
admonish
Teaching One Another
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3.16
Teaching one another. This might be a great challenge for many of us because we think only one person or maybe a few should be teaching in the church. This reality of shared teaching can run afoul in a few ways.
The teacher (humanly speaking) is always right. If any one person claims all Truth, they are either a liar or setting themselves up in the place of the Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to Truth. The human vessels used to share the depths and riches of God in Christ are frail and capable of mistakes. We should be able to receive correction and move forward. Then again, it’s about being loving and being made true.
Another difficulty is only one person in the church should (or can) teach. This undercuts the acquired wisdom from the sisters and brothers in the church. Likewise, it isn’t only in the power of the brothers to teach. The sisters should share their wisdom and brothers should humbly receive it. If we truly teach one another, we’ll all be involved in the process and conversation. Of course, those introverts might need to be drawn out. It’s not about one teacher but a learning community seeking Christ and His way.
A last issue to touch on is that of being unteachable. If you think you have come to the end of your knowledge of God, you think you have all that is neccessary, not only are you unteachable, but you have succumbed to spiritual pride and blindness. We will have eternity to search the depths of Christ so don’t claim to know it all. Be humble and charitable with the knowledge you have received from Christ. Some may have more wisdom and knowledge than others. When it comes down to it, it’s about life that incorporates that wisdom.
Ultimately, if the teaching does not lead one to Christ and the fellowship in the Trinity, it is majoring on minors. We so easily lose sight of God by focusing on the teaching and not the Teacher. Remember we are all on a journey and teaching one another along the way to love and be loved will resonate through Eternity.
Bearing and Forgiving
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3.13
I’m not sure what it is. When I think of ‘bearing with each other’ I think in terms of ‘tolerating’ or ‘putting up with’ someone else. Sometimes it is the person who most irritates us that we need. They expose those areas in our life that we think have been changed or transformed. Not always but sometimes. Sometimes the other person needs change as much as we do. Luckily, we can embrace the grace of God in this process and walk it out together.
The ‘one anothers’ of the New Testament provide a way for us to engage in this spiritual journey together. Not only do we get to ‘walk it out’ together we can also ‘walk into it’ together. Figuring out our spiritual path is not one of isolation, although times of solitude play a part in spiritual formation. We need each other in all this. We can work it out together. We can bear others burdens. We can forgive. We can be forgiven. We can be reconciled. We can walk out love and forgiveness by the grace of God. We can walk into the grace of God and share divine love and forgiveness with others. May grace and love abound to us all….
St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer
A prayer for St. Patrick’s Day for all of you who have Irish heritage or are honorary Irish for the day.
Image via Wikipedia
I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ’s Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the Cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour;
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the Prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.
I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.
Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.
Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.
