Howdy Gang, Hope you’re all having a great Monday. I had a couple of great responses to last weeks blog. If you don’t go to the actual blog site to read this I encourage you to so you can see the responses that came in to the question. “Do we put too much weight on the New Testament and not enough on the Old?” As for this week I believe it will be another quick post followed with a question. The theme for the week is “Community”
A favorite verse of mine for years has come from the book of John chap 17 Verses 20 – 23
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will[a] believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
I’ve mentioned this verse one or twice before. It’s clear that this was an important theme to Christ and the reason is clear “May they be one so the world will KNOW you sent me” Unity in the body of Christ “THE CHURCH” is necessary for the world to come to salvation through Christ. While Christ was alive he continually told his disciples how to be one. What I heard him say most was “The first shall be last” he also gave a new command to “Love as he has loved” which is to love one another greater than we love ourselves. Then he dies, Pentecost happens and the church of Acts is born. We see Christ prayer in John 17 become fulfilled. Now we begin to see writings telling us how to maintain the “Body” and grow closer to Christ. James 5: 16 tells us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed” Hebrews 3: 13 says that we should “Exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Paul is warning us to Exhort each other daily
Exhort: 1. To urge, advise, or caution earnestly; Admonish Urgently. 2. To give urgent advice, recommendations, or Warnings.
We are to Urge, advise, caution, recommend and warn each other daily. We are to get into each others business. Remember James said we are to Confess too and pray for each other as well. How can we exhort one another if we don’t confess to one another? This is just my assumption but I believe he said to do it “DAILY” so sin doesn’t have a chance to set in our hearts and get comfortable. We are to observe our friends and family as well so we can warn them if we see signs of a stumbling block. The thing that stands out to me is the word “DAILY” in the world we live in today I find daily to be a pretty hard if not seemingly impossible task. Yet if it were impossible Paul wouldn’t have said to do it. So here is my question for The Gang.
How do we get to a point that we can “EXHORT” one another daily? Or is it not an important part of a developing community?
You can either reply to me directly or go to www.liveupsidedown.blogspot.com to reply. I will post your response there if you chose to reply to me directly. But I do encourage you to go to the blog and check the feedback.
Thanks Gang have a great week and as always lets live it “UPSIDE DOWN!”
Hmmm...love this. Without getting into too much gibberish, imho, I think this is an urgent cry to break down the walls we've built in our culture regarding faith and religion. The disciples and early followers of the Way were identified by their faith. They lived it and/or died for it. We don't. They lived their lives through faith and we live our faith through life. I love the idea of exhorting daily, but wouldn't that just make us all a little too uncomfortable? We all do such a good job of keeping our sins to ourselves and hidden from others that I'm pretty sure we don't want the vulnerability of having someone else know that we're imperfect. And I'll challenge it one step further - if we are met with loving rebuke, what about that strong temptation to just run away? I see it happening all around, up close and from a distance. I personally don't think the Church is ready...maybe it's time she was. Thanks for the encouragement to think about it!
ReplyDeleteI love what you have to say Selah. It's those very questions you ask that caused me to ask mine. Is the "Church" ready to Exhort daily, to Confess? If we are talking about the overall body as one giant group. I agree with your statement and will go so far as to say absolutely not. It will never happen without a mighty move of God. However if we break the church down into smaller intimate communities. Then I believe it is very possible and have seen signs of it beginning to happen. (I'm talking about intimate numbers here tight knit groups of 10 - 20 people.) But I haven't seen it happen on a daily basis. I do think that as small communities learn to embrace this the larger community can begin to break down those walls just like Israel broke down the walls of Jericho.
ReplyDeleteYet even in the smaller communities this can't happen until one brave soul takes a step of faith and confesses his/her imperfections and gives her community the opportunity to share Grace. If we hold onto our "Facade" we cheat both ourselves and our community out of experiencing Grace. We can't understand the magnitude of Gods Grace until we experience the power of individual Grace. This is something we must fight for even if it means risking the loss of our self made Facade.
Thanks for the feedback. Please keep it coming.
Ahh! I love your use of "facade." I agree with you! I would argue, though, that even in small groups, the body is only as strong as its weakest participant in the whole "free will" scenario. Even in Jesus's small group of twelve, and with His exhortation (which I believe was Holy and perfect), there were massive failings. Judas Iscariot is obvious, but Peter's denial was huge, too. One gives us the example of running away out of guilt, fear, and shame. The other shows us what can happen if we confess and accept love, grace, and mercy. My heart breaks as I watch communities (big and small) and individuals embrace the Judas mentality. It all boils down to relationship...with Him, between others, and within ourselves. Running away or hiding from any of those relationships will eventually damage. He definitely intended so much more for us! Again, thanks for causing us to think and inspiring us to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Encourager. Exhorting starts with one person. We can always talk in generalities and say that "the church is not ready" and then in the end not take action. Exhort now. Let the rest of the church gain courage to do the same through our good works. Heck, why not exhort others to exhort? Live our lives as exhorters and let God take care of everyone else's hearts.
ReplyDeleteI like what Selah says about being too scared to exhort. If we take the liberty that God provides us as His children to exhort others (thereby "gettin' in their business") then that means that others will feel empowered to exhort their way into OUR business and challenge US in areas that we would really rather prefer to just simply avoildingly, sneakily, confortably have remain concealed, thank you very much.
We all need to realize that there is a genuine beauty in words like "accountability" and "confession" when they are practiced within a community of believers that truly love and care for you. The end result is powerful: Freedom.
Thanks for your comment. You are right we need to each as individuals live the complete life God is calling us to and trust that The Spirit will ignite others to as well. Maybe through the encouragement of our model or maybe something else. Sometimes it is easy to become overwhelmed by viewing the whole picture. We need to remember to just look at the part God is calling us to. "Us living it as individuals" and trusting God to work the community aspect out for us.
ReplyDelete