thinking & writing on faith, life, mentoring, and motherhood
Who says Christmas has to come to a close? Who says that just because the boxes and bags get broken down and packed away for use next year that we can’t intentionally and carefully prepare beautiful presents and packages of love and ministry for others?
No good can come from calling fellow believers enemies. These are people we fellowship with at the table of the Lord, meet with in corporate worship, lay our burdens down together before the throne. To determine that they are enemies when God Himself has declared them His friends at the expense of the blood of His Son is to pronounce that relationships operate on your rules and terms, regardless of what God has done. And because it’s possible that those you suspect are behaving badly are not believers, it’s still not grounds for alienation if all they’ve done is give the appearances of enmity. They are without the spiritual tools needed to do conflict well. Witness to them of the greatest work of reconciliation done in all of history and rightly inform them they are enemies to God—as you once were—and that they can be bought and washed and made new—as you are now.
Here is the shared experience of those who travel Christian’s road, whether new or old in the faith: wrestling with “right” decisions, fighting doubts, putting off behavior and thoughts of the old man that do not honor Christ, grappling with understanding theology and God’s commands. These struggles threaten to steal any joy from living this life, and they don’t even come close to the battles that thousands upon thousands of worthy Pilgrims fight every single day for the sake of the gospel.
Imagine how equipped an army hospital would have to be to deal with the tribulations that Christian experienced. Consider how ill-equipped many of us are to minister to the wounds and trauma inflicted in Apollyon’s battle against the church. But according to verse 17 of John 15, we do have one balm and solace to offer our stricken comrades: These things I command you so that you will love one another.
Although my friend was delightfully feminine in all her ways, and loved sharing about how the Lord was ever growing her as a godly woman, she never assumed that all women had to look like her, act like her, do ladies’ devotionals like hers, bake like her, dress like her, adopt orphans like her. That was a good thing, because I was so very different than she, mostly in all of those ways! How she managed to influence me so deeply, despite our differences, was in the manner she placed the whole of her confidence and trust in the God of the Scriptures.
How often have I paid attention to moments in my life when the Lord has made it all so much more worthwhile, so much more satisfying, because of the blessings He has chosen to put right in front of me?
#thereyougothinkingagain 