set-2-core-esv | Fighter Verses

set-2-core-esv | Fighter Verses

The Christian in Christian Relationships

Jonathan Parnell | Jan 23, 2012

Romans 15:1–2,

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

We live in a connected world. The once hyper-individualistic flavor of Western culture has conceded to the value of social networks. Friends are assets and the more you have, the better chances you have for success (as some explain).

This is not entirely untrue. Everyone can vouch that relationships are full of giving and receiving. And oftentimes this brings us joy — the good and healthy kind. But what if we shifted our perception of relationships a little? What if we abandoned the ebb and flow feel that seems so natural? What if we intentionally looked through a different lens? What if it was the lens of Romans 15:1–2?

Hearing the Imperative

Then relationships become mission. There is a holy intentionality. That’s what Paul says here. “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” The imperative is to please them, to accommodate them, to make their welfare of higher interest than our own.

To please our neighbor is to serve them. Undoubtedly, this will be for our own joy — no one is really served when it’s done in stiff reluctance. But it being for our joy doesn’t mean it’s always comfortable. Pleasing our neighbor will take sacrifice. It’s not always easy — it’s not “to please ourselves.” We’re giving something up for something better and that better is the building up of our brother or sister.

Christian Relationships

This sacrificial building up of one another is what makes Christian friendship, well, Christian. It’s Christian in the adjective: sacrificial. And it’s Christian in the verb: building up.

The relationship goes beyond the latest scores (though it may involve that), or the newest app (though that may be a part, too), or the best book we’ve read (another good one). The mission is to build them up. This is what the verb’s about. It’s about their conformity to Jesus. This is the goal. Our little place in their life is to serve the goal to which God has elected them, Jesus has died, and the Spirit is working.

And for the adjective, sacrificial building up is Christian in its manner. The foundation to our serving, our sacrificial edifying of others, is rooted in the example of Jesus. He didn’t give prevalence to his own comfort when he prayed in the Garden. It wasn’t easy when he bore our sins and suffered the wrath we deserved. Yet even in the midst of the pain there was a joy set before him. It wasn’t easy, but it was glorious. And when we walk in that example, it works the same way. It shocks the world for the glory of God.

Let each of us, then, please our neighbor for their good — count them more significant than ourselves, and their needs more pertinent than our own; to build them up — play the God-ordained role of a means of grace in their lives, investing in their transformation into the likeness of Jesus.

Reflection

1. Think about someone you can sacrificially build up today, for his or her good.

2. Consider those who have sacrificially built you up. Give God thanks!

Post your stories here about building up and living sacrificially! or Email me @tunkfd@optonline.net

The Situation (#3)

Now we have a situation: 

There is beauty. 

And there is a distorter; 

A perverter, and thief. 

Here are the steps to regaining our vision--our recognition of beauty:

First, I ask God to begin clearing my vision.

Notice I used the word "begin". 

This may be the first thing to do, but it is very much a process.

As fog gradually thins in the rising sun, God begins to reveal more and more beauty as this process goes on.

Father, open my eyes to see your beauty. Restore my vision.

Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped


When God speaks of blindness, He is not only referring to the physical condition.


John 9:1  As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.


Our life stories--each and every one of them--have something in common with this man: We are born in blindness, and we are helpless to change that fact. It is only by the work of Jesus that we can have sight.

John 9:39 Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see...

One more reason why we know that Jesus (especially) was not simply speaking on a physical level when He spoke of blindness: The Religious leaders.

Matthew 23:24  You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!


When it came to blindness, the religious leaders were Jesus' main target. These are the people who think they can see, but they cannot. 
Sound familiar?


Ok, maybe you don't want to admit it, but I have been in that place many times before.

The religous leaders (just like each one of us) were not able to see without the work of Jesus in their lives.

We can do nothing apart from God. 
He is the only one who can reconcile these opposing forces. 
He is the only one who can restore our vision.
Without Him, we will never know true beauty...

Rest, God’s Mercy Is Towards Us | Fighter Verses

Rest, God’s Mercy Is Towards Us | Fighter Verses

Matt Crutchmer | Mon, Dec 26, 2011 

Psalm 23:5–6,

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

One of the most striking elements of Frodo and Sam’s long quest in J. R. R. Tolkien’s classicThe Lord of the Rings is the detail and length with which the author reports their mundane activities. Tolkien repeatedly tells the reader about Frodo’s sleeping, his resting, and their eating all along the way from the Shire to Mordor. For such an epic story of the battle between good and evil, these continuous little bits of Frodo and Sam’s life seem at first to tell us more about the author’s love of minutæ than they add anything to “the story.”

At second glance, however, Tolkien is doing something profoundly biblical with his characters. Frodo and Sam exhibit distinctly Christian virtues in their travels and are contrasted against the sleepless, restless, self-manufacturing activities of the Enemy. The hobbits are often shown as sleeping or resting despite the danger that surrounds them, much like David in v. 2: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. . .”

When they eat a meal — which especially matters to hobbits! — they do so while encompassed by hunting orcs, while on a precipice above Minas Morgul, while in the barren wasteland of Gorgoroth avoiding the searching eye of Sauron. Frodo and Sam don’t do what we all naturally would do in the presence of our enemies: either flee or fight. No, they are assured enough of their quest and the superintending power that they eat meals when on the edge of destruction. Like David, like Frodo and Sam, and like our Lord Christ who ate the Passover meal in the midst of his enemies in Jerusalem, we too are to eat and drink and sleep everyday despite being surrounded by our great enemies: sin, Satan, and Death.

It is easy to feel unsettled by this “ought.” We ask: how can I feel that same confidence, that same lack of despair that these heroes felt? I have no reason not to despair of the enemies in my life when they are so many and so strong. More like Frodo than the mighty King David, our weakness is similar to the hobbit’s small stature. Thankfully, God through David gives us a solid ground to stand on in v. 6: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

“Mercy” here is no mere emotion or self-generated attitude. “Mercy” is translated from the Hebrew original hesed, the term used principally for God’s covenant faithfulness to keep his promises to his people. It is this “mercy” that rightly describes God’s unshakable promise to Abraham and this “mercy” is even an essential part of the being of God himself (Exodus 34:6).

What shape does God’s goodness and mercy take toward us?

It comes to us in the shape of promise-keeping covenant faithfulness: the person and work of God’s own Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who walks along with his sheep and provides for them, who guards them, and who lays down his life for them (John 10:11; Jeremiah 23:3–6). All God’s promises to us are Yes! and Amen! in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20), and his covenant of peace will not be shaken (Isaiah 54:10). In Christ alone by faith alone we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever, because Christ is the house of the LORD (Revelation 21:22; John 4).

So rest, Christian, and relish the small, mundane parts of life despite the presence of your enemies because in Christ God Almighty’s covenant promise to save you from those enemies can never depart from you.

The Thief (#2)

Unfortunately, there is a beauty stealer. 

He is called the father of lies. 

Fortunately, this theif and his cohorts have never been powerful enough to actually rob beauty from anything.

Instead they must resort to perverting beauty: 

love turned to lust, passion to bigotry and hatred, a beloved child into a lonely soul, cascading waterfalls into sewer drains and mountains into smokestacks. 

All this is done through the eye of the beholder, 

by distorting our vision.


I feel compelled to add what God spoke to me one day while reading Genesis Chapter 3:

God showed me that one of the first things Satan will do is question God's word and/or his promises. The only way to know that this is taking place is to know God's word, and His voice.
Father, teach me your word. Immerse me in it.


A second method of the Thief is to make exagerations. In the garden he exaggerates the issue to include all of the fruit. Today, he says that Christianity takes all of the fun out of life, takes away all of the freedom. Can't we see where this is going? This is again a case where I need to know God's word, but it means even more here to know His voice; His personal words to me (and you).
Father, teach me to hear your voice, to record your words and never let them depart from me.


The final method given in Genesis 3 is that Satan distorts the character of God. Satan portrays God as a liar, and selfish (things that He may be currently thought of as well). For this, I do need His written word and His personal word, but most important here are my personal experiences with Him.
Experiences are a large part of any relationship and that applies to God too.
Father, I lean on you knowing that you have never failed me, or left me, and that you love me and have shown your love for me.

Beauty and Life (#1)

This is what I was made for

  

The slightly rolling hills nudging up against the tree line, the picturesque pond framing the muscular bodies of horses, and the pristine blue sky dropping down to the mountain tops in the distance.

This is life: 

Beauty

Not all of life, but realizing and appreciating beauty is necessary to truly live. 

How can we even begin to enjoy life without recognizing beauty? 

How can we love another person dearly without beauty? 

And how can we love anyone at all without recognizing the beauty of Christ in them, the beauty that God has sculpted into their very essence?

We Can't

Beauty is at the very core of life and therefore life cannot be truly lived without this recognition.

  God open my eyes to Your beauty; and the beauty You have created. Christ, show me the beauty that You have placed in every human heart.