Tag: small group

One Another

img_3141When the Lord gives us the new birth from above, he calls us individually to himself. However, he does not save us to be individuals, but to belong to his people, his new family. In this way, our lives are forever intertwined, not only with the Triune God, but with each other!

The idea of “one another” is at the core of the true Christian way of life. We are to express this partnership in many ways. Today, I decided to provide a list of the twenty-seven various kinds of one another relationships everyone who follows Jesus should be developing with others. The actions listed below make up a very significant part of what it means to follow Christ. To neglect these actions is to miss what the Christian life really is!

  • Love one another (Jn 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Rm 13:8; 1 Th 3:12; 4:9; Heb 13:1; 1 Pt 1:22; 4:8; 1 Jn 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11, 12; 2 Jn 1:5)
  • Encourage one another (Rm 1:12; 1 Th 4:18; 5:11; Heb 3:13; 10:25)
  • Be devoted to one another (Rm 12:10)
  • Honor one another (Rm 12:10)
  • Live in harmony with one another (Rm 12:16; 1 Pt 3:8)
  • Instruct (admonish) one another (Rm 15:14; Col 3:16)
  • Greet one another with a holy/loving kiss (Rm 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Pt 5:14)
  • Agree with one another (1 Cor 1:10; Ph 4:2)
  • Serve one another (Gal 5:13)
  • Bear with one another (Eph 4:2; Col 3:13)
  • Be kind to one another (Eph 4:32; 1 Th 5:15)
  • Be compassionate to one another (Eph 4:32)
  • Forgive one another (Eph 4:32; Col 3:13)
  • Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19)
  • Submit to one another (Eph 5:21)
  • Spur on one another (Heb 10:24)
  • Offer hospitality to one another (1 Pt 4:9)
  • Clothe yourself with humility toward one another (1 Pt 5:5)
  • Wait for one another (1 Cor 11:33)
  • Have equal concern for one another (1 Cor 12:25)
  • Build up one another (Rm 14:19; 1 Th 5:11)
  • Confess your sins to one another (Js 5:16)
  • Pray for one another (Js 5:16)
  • Think the same thing with one another (Rm 15:5)
  • Accept one another (Rm 15:7)
  • Bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2)
  • Consider one another better than oneself (Ph 2:3)

Comments on the above list:

  • Some of these “one another” imperatives and exhortations can be done in large public gathering, but only in a very limited sense.
  • Most of these require you to be an active part of a small group or accountability group or one on one situations in order to fulfill the expectations. You cannot do these alone!
  • As you can see, the practice of these one another imperatives and exhortations will transform our church experiences. They will become much more than sitting in a big room with others. We will share a rich and joyful experience of life.

Grace and peace, David

Build Each Other Up

img_31421 Thessalonians 5:11

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing (NIV).

I worked four years for a general contracting company. Our focus was primarily residential, building all types of housing from single family homes to apartments. One of my favorite memories of that time is standing on the second floor of a newly framed house and looking out at the blue summer sky through the newly framed white 2×6 walls. Day by day, the construction would continue till it was time to clean up the house for the owners-to-be. Taking the construction trash to the town landfill was not as fun, especially if it was ninety-five degrees on a summer day, but it also was a necessary part of the task of building a home.

Every follower of Christ is to participate in building up other disciples. This is something we all are do, whether we are young in the Lord, have been a believer for a few years, or have walked with Christ for decades. We all have something to contribute; that is, we will have something to contribute as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). This should stimulate us to action. We are able to make significant contributions to the spiritual health and prosperity of others. Here are some observations.

  • The Holy Spirit is not simply giving us good advice in this exhortation. He wants our way of life to include this spiritual activity. One of the tragedies of contemporary Christianity is the lack of the practice of the “one another” passages in the New Testament Scriptures. Too many people assume that godliness is not doing a short list of prohibitions. (You know, the stuff that the elders of your local church might decide to make you the subject of “church discipline”, if you do them.) Certainly, we ought to avoid the practice of what the Lord tells us to avoid. But we must understand that true godliness involves the ongoing practice of what the Lord wants us to do. A major part of true godliness is acting for the benefit of others, as the Spirit directs us in this text.
  • To build others up, you need to know them. This is one of the glaring weaknesses of what I have called the “edifice church” concept (the idea that “church” equals “building”). People assume that sitting in a building on Sunday morning means that they “have gone to church”, and so have pleased the Lord. However, the church is not a building but a gathering of followers of Jesus Christ. When you gather with people that love the Lord, your primary topic of conversation is not about your families, your jobs, your hobbies, and your sports teams. It is about the new life that you share in Christ. Your joint focus is on him. You care about the spiritual struggles and battles of each other. Going to church is not about seeking an hour of personal, spiritual solitude while the worship team sings and the lead pastor delivers a clever talk. Instead, going to church is about being with the Lord and his people and knowing one another. See 2 Peter 3:18 quoted above. It is impossible to build up another person made in God’s image apart from a real sense of who they are and where they need help. You cannot gain this knowledge simply by sitting in a big room for an hour with others. I have learned this through sixty some years of being in big rooms with others.
  • To build others up you need to know what a mature follower of the Lord Jesus is supposed to be. This requires investment of time in the reading and study of the Bible. My advice, besides general reading of the whole Bible, is to read much and to think deeply on a couple selected books of the Bible. Start with Matthew. Besides telling the story of God’s glory in Jesus, it also presents many ideas about following Christ. If you’ve been a Christian for a couple years, Matthew should be one of your “old, dear friends”. Yet I find many in edifice churches resist the plan of reading the Gospel of Matthew again and again. “It’s too hard to do it.” What? It’s too hard to read daily about your Lord and Savior? Perhaps you can conclude 2016 by reading it three times: once each in October, November, and December. You will reap huge benefits for your own soul and for being able to build others up in the Lord. I also recommend that you read deeply, to start, one of the following books: Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Peter, or 1 John. Perhaps I’ll write another article someday about my reasons for this selection. Plan on reading one of these letters every day for a month. Yes, that means you’d be reading them thirty or thirty-one times. You will learn much about how to build others up, as you listen to what the apostles did.
  • In order to build people up, you need to develop your spiritual friendships. This will require you to be either in a house church or a small group that is part of a larger church. I will not direct you in either direction. But if you are in a larger church, you will have to be a catalyst for change. You must devote yourself to seeing your church develop true friendship and brotherhood. Sadly, many larger churches are not interested in this. But you and I must be! It is very exciting to see the Lord change you and others in your group. Everyone knows the others really care and pray for each other and help one another. The group itself and the members of the group get built up together. It is a taste of heaven on earth.

My dear friends, I plead with you that building others up will become a vital part of your journey of faith. You will experience the joy of helping others, and the joy of others strengthening you! Take that first step this weekend into a deeper experience of your new life in Jesus Christ!

Grace and peace, David

Reading with Fresh Eyes

IMG_0694In our Sunday morning gathering, we aim to read through a passage of Scripture together each week. For example, we have read through Colossians five times in a week and the book of Hebrews once. Last week and this, our goal is to read through the Gospel of Matthew together. Although I don’t have a text of Scripture to back up this method, I think it is wise for groups of Christ learners (disciples) to be reading together. It draws our thinking to the same portions of the Scriptures and provides material for discussion or reference.

So then, as I was reading Matthew earlier this week, I came across a paragraph in my “Notemakers” Bible (it has wide margins that are perfect for making notes) that I had not made many notes on. It was in the middle of a well-marked chapter. The paragraph is Matthew 15:29-31. (By the way, do not feel inadequate or a failure, etc if you don’t make notes in your Bible. We are all different, and I find this a useful method for me. There is nothing spiritual about making notes in your Bible.)

Back to our topic. As I read, I began to think about how I had never meditated on this paragraph. I feel no need to analyze myself about the reasons. We all have heard someone say in a Bible study or small group, “Wow, I never read that before!” The more likely explanation is that we weren’t paying attention in our previous times of reading that passage. As I wrote at the end of last year, we might need to slow down as we read the Word, so that we can absorb what were reading. And we should not view some passages as extra material that happens to be in the way of our desire to read our favorite passages.

On a fresh reading, what do I see? First, this event follows his “secret mission” to Gentile territory, where he healed the daughter of a woman who begged Jesus to heal her. Back in Galilee, the large crowds of people bring many to him that had a variety of physical difficulties. This gathering with many in misery must have touched Jesus’ compassionate heart.  He acted with the power of the Spirit and healed them. I thought about the need to show mercy to people with physical and mental difficulties. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (Matthew 5:7 NIV). Evaluate yourself about how often you show mercy.

Second, Jesus produced a at change in those who were healed. Can you imagine the change in their attitudes when Jesus had restored them to health. Recently, I was at a men’s retreat that my dad had attended almost every year for nearly forty plus years. The retreat center is built on very hilly landscape. You can see it on the above picture. I wondered how he could have walked from the bunkhouse to the dining area. But he did. While there, I saw other older men struggling with the terrain also. Yet they were there. It is easy to talk about one’s pain and weariness in such circumstances. For this reason, imagine the change in attitude after Jesus healed them: from despair to victory.

Third, the people praised the true and living God, the God of Israel. They had great reasons to praise. They could talk and walk and see! Those with arthritis and other crippling diseases were cured! Certainly, it was time to magnify the greatness of God. There are are couple of lessons here:

  • Contrast the concerns and reaction of the healed people and those who brought them with those of the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law (Matthew 15:1-14). One group was intent on religious traditions and looking good before people; the other worshiped God and cared about other people.
  • If we understand what Jesus did, we ought to be amazed, even two thousand years later. Something is wrong with us if we read these words carefully and fail to be amazed. This is true history about real people. To nod your head and move on points out a troubled area in your soul.
  • Who are we trying to bring to Jesus? How are we involved with other people? Our goal in living must be for far more than personal comfort.

Grace and peace, David

Communication: Talking Like Jesus (Part One)

IMG_0304 (1)Ephesians 4:20-32

A few years ago, it was rather popular for Christian youth to be wearing clothes and trinkets with the initials “WWJD”, meaning “What would Jesus do?” Like most modern fads, it was short-lived. Hopefully, it at least was used by God to get some people to think seriously about how authentic their relationship to Jesus actually was. “How can you call yourself a follower of Christ, if you fail to follow him?” is always a legitimate question.

When we focus on communicating like Jesus, it would be very easy to construct whatever model of “talking like Jesus” one desired by a selective citation of a few texts from the Gospels. Join that defective method with a couple emotionally charged illustrations, and you have a ready made heresy. For example, we could turn to Matthew 15 and paint an anti-religious establishment Jesus. That would sound very appealing to “they like Jesus but not the church so we worship in nature” crowd. Or we could read the last part of Luke 8 to emphasize the compassionate speech of Jesus. That approach would endear us to those who want a therapeutic Jesus. Or John 6 would be an excellent introduction to Jesus the theologian, valiantly standing for truth as the crowds walk away. The folks in the institutional, confessional church model like that one. Or perhaps we should open our Bibles to Mark 13 to hear the prophetic Jesus, since in troubled times people want to hear of escape from the turmoil of life. Many escapist Christians love to hear about prophecy above all other things. But then what would we do with Matthew 23? Oh, have you never read it? Should we model our speech after the way he speaks there: “woe to you”? The “angry Jesus clearing out the temple” model appeals to people angry about how their preferred view of culture is being ruined.

My point is that we must always be cautious when we approach the subject of talking or acting like Jesus. Are we hearing only part of what the Spirit has revealed about Christ that is being presented as the whole of what Jesus is and what we should be? The text before us presents a model of communication for talking like Jesus. However, let us remember that it is not all of what an authentic Christ-focused model is. In order to communicate like Jesus, we must draw from his full story, and not merely our preferred passages. Obviously, this could be material for a book. With the preceding caution in mind, let’s consider this idea. To speak like Jesus means to speak in a constructive manner.

When we speak like Jesus, we will rid our conversation of words that are destructive. As a general principle, we will seek to eliminate “unwholesome” talk (Ephesians 4:29). The Lord Jesus never engaged in unwholesome words. The apostle chose a colorful word. Consider a couple literal usages in the New Testament Scriptures. It is used of “spoiled fish” (Matthew 13:48) and of “decayed trees” or “rotten fruit” (Matthew 12:33). From the immediate context in Ephesians, we can find specific examples of unwholesome talk: falsehood (4:25), bitterness (4:31), shouting (4:31), slander (4:31), foolish talk (5:4), and impure or coarse jokes (5:4). A helpful exercise might be to journal the type of words that you use during a week. Write examples of unwholesome words on a sheet of paper, and then put check marks next to them when you know that you have used such words. The goal is a simple reality check for you. Or in your small group (you are in a small group, right?) discuss the subject of unwholesome words together. In what area does most of the group struggle? How can you help each other?

According to this text, we must take charge of eliminating unwholesome talk from the way we talk. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” is about as blunt and directive a command as any in the Bible. We must accept the Holy Spirit’s authority to order us to speak like Jesus. This is not a suggestion, if you want to be “nice”. It is of the essence of new covenant life. We should not minimize these sins of the tongue. “I say that when there is any loose and filthy talk, or talk tending to give liberty to evil, it is just as if speech was being used to poison men’s souls” (Calvin).

There is a better way. Maximize what Christ can do in you by the Holy Spirit. How does this happen? Use wholesome words to strengthen others. Since all followers of Christ are members of his spiritual body, we have an opportunity with the help of the Holy Spirit to be part of significant changes in the lives of others. Effective communication can be very powerful. The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction. Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16:23-24 NIV).

Grace and peace, David