Truth in Love

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

This passage is filled to the brim with many important topics for the body of Christ. Unity, spiritual gifts, edification of the body of Christ, truth, love, growth of the body of Christ, and how we are to beware of the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. All of these things are necessary for followers of Christ to understand and to practice daily. We live in a time when people are saying evil is good and good is evil. We need to interact with fellow believers in love, but also God's truth. We do not get to change His words to suit ourselves and to practice false doctrines that pull people away from God. We are told in verse 14 that we are to put away being children who are blown about by every little thing they hear that sounds good to them. Recently I watched a clip on children in a social experiment. A man got the mom's permission to test their children regarding stranger danger and whether the children would go with him if he approached them with a puppy and was friendly. Every single child went with the man. You could see the horror on the mom's faces watching this because they all had taught their children to beware of strangers and to not go with anyone but them. 

Children live life in a child-like faith that makes them believe everything they hear without any wisdom to go along with the belief. We too, babes in Christ, often fall into the same traps as those little children. It takes hard work, perseverance, and obedience to grow past believing everything we hear and to spiritually discern what the Spirit is saying to us through God's Word. It also takes a willingness to die to self and to listen to God instead of the world. 

I say all of this to say we are called to speak to one another in love and in truth, even when those we are talking to do not want to hear it.  We cannot water down the truth of God in order to make people feel better about themselves. We cannot water down the truth of God to give people false hope that everything they do is fine as long as they are loving to others. Followers of Christ walk the hard path, the narrow one, the painful one where what we believe is often rejected, and we are called many harsh names in order to abide in Christ and be true to His Word. There is much joy in Jesus though. When we love others more than ourselves, then we can speak the truth in that love and do it from an attitude of humility instead of confrontation. 

Knowing the truth of God, who in your life needs you to be faithful to speak that truth in love so that they put off from them the sin that is trapping them? In what ways do you need to grow up so that you are no longer a little child tossed about by any little thing you hear? Which strangers need to be turned away so that you are not caught in the net of deception by enticing words? Who can you help today to walk the hard, narrow, painful path that is full of abundant joy because it is the path of Jesus and toward Him?

Forgiveness

I woke up today to the news of what happened in Charleston, SC at the Emanuel AME church.   How utterly heartbreaking. I found myself wanting to rain down wrath on the young man that did this horrible thing. It makes me thing of a hymn sung by the Church for many years, "Oh soul are you weary and troubled, no light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." This world feels so dark oftentimes, and it does cause me to feel weary. Only when I fix my eyes on my Savior Jesus do I find that sense of balance, and hope that is sometimes lacking.

So, I wasn't feeling very forgiving toward this young man. I then heard about a man who posted on this guys Facebook page. His words were words of grace and forgiveness. They were words of hope and light and salvation. He pleaded with this shooter to turn to Jesus and away from sin. The pleading man is African American. His heart was full of forgiveness, something I was lacking. It got me digging through my Bible Promise Book and looking up verses about forgiveness. Matthew 5:44-45 gives wise words on forgiveness that apply here and that I needed to be reminded of and think about.

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[a] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

This world is filled with woe. This is another example of how wretched of a state we human beings are in, and how wicked our hearts are. Apart from Christ I would have no ability to really forgive this young man that has committed mass murder of God's people in a church and removing from so many any feeling of safety and security we have of being in that kind of place. There are so many levels of this tragedy that we haven't even begun to see yet. Though this young man did not harm me directly, he did harm me personally because my brothers and sisters lost their life due to his hate. My call though is to forgive and to pray and to let God take care of the situation and also to have faith that He will indeed take care of it.

Charity doesn't begin at Home

Continuing with the promises of God that I started last time, the one I am going to focus on is charity. When I think about charity without looking it up anywhere, I think about either giving or being given things that meet basic needs like food and clothing, shelter and safety. The Bible defines charity as giving to those in need what they are completely unable to repay. One of the verses that is well known for this is Luke 6:38. It says, "Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give to you. For with the same measure that you give out, it shall be given back to you." This is a verse that I feel is well known because it talks about something that many worry about. If I give, will I have enough of my own to meet my own need? What if God calls me to give sacrificially, and my family isn't taken care of? There are two issues here. One is that of lack of belief in God's sufficiency to meet our need. The cattle on a thousand hills belongs to Him. He takes care of the birds of the air, how much more will He take care of us that are His and made in His image?  The second issue is willingness to let go of that which in many of our cases is extra. Many of us tend to be accumulators by nature. Our eyes are big and we find more and more things to add to what we have. I am guilty of this at times. I have a closet full of shoes, clothes and purses that I do not wear or use. I buy things and either don't use them, or barely use them because they sounded good at the time, but I ended up not liking it, or something about it didn't work for me. Instead of finding a place to pass it on to, I hold on to it, just in case.

Charity is really about a heart attitude. When I give it must be from a desire to please my God by taking care of those who are in need. It isn't just about giving either, its also about taking care of others, being other minded. Loving people more than self, taking care of them, even at times sacrificially, and stepping into the gap when there is a need. It is a shameful thing that we in the body of Christ often are the least generous of all. Many people who do not know Jesus are more generous than the church is. My prayer is that I will grow in my love for others and be willing to share out of the abundance of what I have so that if there is someone in need I will wholeheartedly give because I love Jesus and want them to see Jesus through me so they will know His love too. How about you? Are you a loving, generous person, or is this something that needs to change in your heart as well?

The Promises of God

Years ago, when I was a brand new Christian I bought this little book called, "The Bible Promise Book." One Thousand Promises from God's Word. Over the I always keep it fairly near at hand to remind me that God's Word has the answers for life, the universe, and everything. This wonderful little paperback book is pretty dog-eared these days, but still hanging together and is filled with nuggets to help encourage, aid, convict and give hope when things feel out of control. This is in no way intended as a plug for the book, but is intended to share some of my favorite promises with anyone who comes along to read this blog.

One of the things God's Word is good about doing for me is convicting me of my sin so that I have the opportunity to be free of it. If you were to make a list of sins you struggle with, what would be on it? One of mine would be anger. One of my favorite anger promises is from Psalm 145:8. This verse tells me, "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy." When I look at this verse I see how I could live if I were to choose to put away the anger and seek to be an imitator of God. I tend to want to beat to my own drum, to put away being a Lemming, and be an individual. In Christ I can be me, but the me that seeks to be more like Him. He is the only One I seek to try and imitate and be like in this life. My heart has far to go to match up to this goal, but it is a life goal to be slow to anger, and to instead be merciful toward others and show them the love of Christ. He gives me grace instead of what I deserve, so I need to learn to be like Him and treat others with this same heart attitude.

Another promise that I treasure is from John 12:46. Jesus tells us here, " I am come a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness." I went through a period in my life where I was terrified of the dark. To me darkness was loss of hope, and despair. I had to be taught by God to not be afraid of the dark because to Him light and dark are the same. Neither is bad because He created them both for a purpose. When I put my faith in Christ I started to not be afraid of the darn anymore, though this took some time because of an ingrained habit, and instead to hold on to Christ in the dark who turns that darkness into the light of hope. I love it!

Over the next little while I think I will share some additional promises that bless me abundantly. Keep checking in if you are interested!