Love One Another

Has anyone ever told you how much they love you? Has anyone ever said that you’re beautiful? Have you ever been told that you brighten someone’s day just by being you? If so, count yourself as very fortunate: for it is a rare thing to receive such affirmation and encouragement. That’s not cool with me. The church is body of believers know to the world by their love one for another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

–John 13:35

How do we express that love? By complimenting and encouraging each other, by building each other up instead of tearing each other down with gossip and slander. Not by gratifying the vanity of a brother or sister, but by encouraging them in Christ, and affirming their beauty in Christ.

Young women especially are self-conscious about the way they look and devote much effort to their appearance. Trust me, I have three sisters who at one time shared a bathroom with myself and four brothers. Now, I use the word share in the broadest possible sense, the time ratio of how much the girls took versus the guys was rather lopsided despite our advantage of numbers. Why? Because the took more time making themselves, what they thought was beautiful; as far as outward beauty is concerned.

Physical appearance means a great deal to many people, and without encouraging vanity, it is possible to reassure them that they are beautiful. We should encourage each other in physical and spiritual matters. But, love is also exhorting and reproving the brethren when they err from the path of righteousness. This is separate kind of encouragement, one that often hurts and is poorly received. But, if the heart of the person is truly for God and His kingdom, reproof is sober awakening to their situation.

Our job as Christians is to build each other up with our words and actions. To pray for each other and fellowship together in Christ. We are to be a society that the world would covet and desire to join for the sake of the sheer joy that they see in us. Encourage each other. Share the joy of Christ.

As I’m writing this, I am sitting in the cabinets below the kitchen sink… or at least where they will be once we’ve built the counter and such. Just sitting here in an unfinished bus, still raw wood and not much to look at, it makes me realize how poorly I’m practicing my preaching. I fail to encourage the brethren as often as I should. My life is like this bus, it’s not completed yet, much work still need to be accomplished. I’m still raw wood and I can’t see the end result, but if I work at it and diligently follow the plans for building, (the Word of God), I’ll get there some day.

The church was established by God for fellowship of the brethren and for the Body of Christ to unite for the purpose of helping the poor and needy around them and spreading the gospel in their community. We could all do better. We could all encourage each other more. We could all do with a little more loving-kindness.

If someone is insecure in their appearance it means two things:

1. That they look to the world to define and to ratify their desire for beauty.
2. That they place their identity in the words and actions of Man rather than God.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we should complement each other on appearance, especially if it is a big deal to a particular person, then, in love, let them know that inward beauty is greater beauty, and they should strive to be beautiful in the eyes of God instead of the eyes of Man. If a brother is self-conscious about his lack of athletic ability, rather than mock and laugh as the football hits him in the face for the thirtieth time, we should help him up to his feet and encourage him to try harder. However, encouragement without accompaniment is just discouragement in a pretty package. Don’t tell someone to try harder and get better if you do not intend to help them to get better. If you won’t reinforce and back your words with actions and instructions, they are only setting the person up for greater failure and shame.

We are to encourage and uplift one another. Don’t tell someone to find their worth in Christ while telling them they are worthless. Don’t tell someone they aren’t all that good-looking, but it’s okay because inner beauty matters more. Don’t tell someone that they are terrible at sports, but reading God’s Word is a better use of time. Although it all might be true, you are giving them good advice in the most offensive way, therefore they will not listen to you and you have sown discord among the Body of Christ. Speak the truth in love, build each other up with your words and actions. We are the Church, the Body of Christ, and the Body need all its parts in harmony, complementing the functions of each other to perform its tasks in the most effective and efficient way.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

For The Church

Revival is one of the most exciting times in a Christian’s life, because it is a time when saints pray the glory of God down upon themselves.

Revival: the combination of the Latin word “vive“, meaning alive or living, and the prefix “re“, meaning do again as in repeat and recur.

Revival literally means to come alive again. The implication follows that something must have been dead in us before that needed reviving. Over the years we have fallen away. A fire has been quenched that only the power of God through the Holy Spirit can reignite.

Look around at the world today. If revival is awakening the dead to new life in Christ, we need revival more than the air we breath. Nations are dying in the slums of immorality and apathy. When 300,000 babies can be murdered in their beds, sleeping in the safety of their mother’s wombs, when people spend their entire lives trying to kill others, when an entire entity seeks to undermine and obliterate the morality of a people group through song and visual: we need revival.

We are dying, and I mean that as literally as I can. We are but a vapor on this earth. “Make every moment count” sounds so difficult to do, and it should; it is impossible without revival.

May this be our song, may this be our prayer:

O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
–Habakkuk 2:16

A pastor friend of mine said just last night that revival starts when you draw a circle around yourself, and pray to God to change everything within that circle. Are you prepared to pay the price for revival?

Revival starts in the church! Not in the world. We don’t need to wait for sinners to walk the aisle for revival to begin, we need saints to start hitting their knees and praying revival takes place in their lives.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Creepy Christians

Listening to Michael Jr. while driving to Florida yesterday. He’s a hilarious comedian and probably one of my favorites and honestly, I stole most of this post from Him. But, he was talking about creepy Christians; those Christians that creep other Christians out just a little bit. I thought it was such a good point that I wanted to share it with you.

Creepy Christians say strange things. Have you ever heard the line, “I’m dating Jesus”? I’m thinking, litterally? That’s just a creepy Christian line. Sure, it means that you don’t want get into a relationship right now, that you’re trying to focus on getting to know God, but if somebody doesn’t know that… Well, I don’t want to cut in on Jesus.

Later the girl comes back and asks if you still want to go out. Well, I’m sure you’re thinking: did you break up with Jesus? What’s going on? Whatever it was I’m pretty sure it was your fault, because… Just saying I don’t think He did anything.

Another form of creepy Christians are the ones that randomly start praying in the middle of conversations. Have you ever met somebody who will say something and then randomly dive into a spontaneous prayer before you can reapond, often cutting off your sentence. It’s odd, it’s creepy really; and honestly when put into such an awkward situation it’s difficult for us to quickly adopt a spirit of prayer. Basically these end up being prayers that are just for the person who is speaking because no one else knows how to respond. It’s just creepy.

Or the people whose voices change when they talk about God. You know, they suddenly get really excited and their voice becomes breathy and creepily intimate for apperantly no reason. It really turns people off to God, Church, the gospel, and Christianity when Christians act like freaks around them. When it comes to sharing the gospel, inviting people to Church, or just talking about spiritual things, we need to treat it like any other conversation. 

People want to get to know you and what you believe, but in a relaxed and personal way. You don’t need to make spiritual things sound like a sales pitch or go into hallucinogenic ramblings, consequently frightening the other person out of any important conversation.

Lastly, possibly the creepiest kind of creepy Christians are the over-saved Christians. Everything you say they turn into an inspirational quote or comeback. Example:

Me: “I hope the Seahawks win the Super Bowl.”

Over Saved Christian: “Our hope is in Christ alone and His finished work on Calvary’s cross for our sins.”

Me: “Are you hungry?”

OSC: “Hungry for the things of Jesus.”

Me: “Can’t find my keys…”

OSC: “You need to find the keys to the kingdom is what you need.”

Me: “I don’t drive a kingdom… I drive a ford…”

There are some easy ways to identify over-saved Christians. You can tell if someone is an OSC if:

• They don’t mess around with computers because they have a cursor.
• They rebuke the vacuum cleaner because it’s a dirt devil.
• They pray for people on home makeover shows that they would get a new house, then praise God for answering their prayers.

Creepy Christians may sincerely believe in Christ, they may be wholly devoted to Him. But, please people, tone it down a notch or two. If the world sees one of us as creepy, they see us all as creeps. Christians are all the same to those on the outside looking in, just as those of the world are all the same to us. We need to be carefully not to get so passionate about our beliefs that we push people away. 

God changes the hearts of men, but we need to represent well, put our best face foreward as servants of God.

As always, thanks for reading, and don’t be creepy.

—the anonymous novelist