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

The Gospel: For Sinners

I was originally going to title this post, “The Gospel: For Dummies”, but I’m done with insulting people for the cause of Christ. I can’t demean someone to the cross. Though their sins be reprehensible and their faults many and great, as such were ye in evil lost, ’til Christ did darkness break.

I posted to twitter yesterday my opinion on the Captain American boyfriend issue. It is disturbing to me and physically upsetting; I said as much in my twitter post. From that post, a conversation sparked between myself and a lesbian girl about religion, God, and what sin is. To ensure I remained above reproach, I kept the conversation public until it took a turn into matters which required much more in-depth answers. I moved the conversation to a private, group chat including my uncle, who is a pastor, so that we could discuss with her more extensively the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of her soul.

I am currently still in conversation with this young woman and would appreciate your prayers for wisdom to say the word’s God would have me say to reach her heart for Him. I know He doesn’t need my help, but this is a opportunity of an eternity for this young woman to hear the simplicity of the gospel, and I pray she would respond to God’s promptings. This situation has caused me to realize the importance of simple, straightforward gospel teaching and preaching for our hurting and broken world today. I know it takes an enormous amount of courage to share the gospel with someone, and you may even be afraid of messing it up by not knowing the right verses in the right order, or the proper magic formula to save someone. Let me just tell you this: God saves, not Man. He will use your willingness to reach souls, He doesn’t need your practised speech or prepared prayer: He will use you in whatever state you come to Him.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. The Bible says:

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

–2 Timothy 4:2

Start with the basics. First, level the playing field and admit that you suffer from the same curse they do. They are no worse in God’s eyes then you are because everyone is a sinner and we all disobey God.

 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

–Romans 3:23

Then make them aware of the consequence of our actions. Once they see you as being in the same boat as them, so to speak, they will listen to you as an equal. In the same way that a thief gets punished for breaking our laws, sinners get punished for breaking God’s.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Romans 6:23

There is hope even though we are all sinners. God gave us a gift of eternal life in spite of our sin and ourselves. But, why did God give us the gift of eternal life and how?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

–John 3:16

God loves us. That’s the gospel. That God loved us enough to send His only begotten Son to die, to pay the penalty for our sins and to take our wages: death upon his shoulders and die in our place. The gospel is this, that He who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might become His righteousness. Here’s the miracle:

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

–Romans 5:8

While we were yet sinner, unlovable, unlovely: God loved us and sent Jesus Christ to die for us. If we would call upon His name and ask Him to be the Lord of our life, we will be miraculously saved, from death to life, sinner to saint.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

—Romans 10:13

It’s not enough to know that He loves us and died for us. It’s not enough to want Him to be your Savior. “For whosever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.” He must become the Lord of your life. You must die to sin and live for Jesus Christ alone. Paul says:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

–Galatians 2:20

When we surrender to His lordship, we are crucified with Him, and yet still live; though it is no longer our selfishness that lives, but Christ’s mercy and grace that lives and loves through us. This is the gospel for sinner, salvation for the lost. Let’s preach the word until all have heard the mercy of the Lord to a lost and broken world. This gospel, this grace, this Jesus changes everything.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Through the Window

My leg hurts. I suppose that’s a consequence of ramming it into the handle bars of a four-wheeler after an unsuccessful ramping attempt on a grass slope. You see, there was this 100 foot slope, 20 feet at the top and I took it at about 30 MPH. At the base of the slope there was a small ridge coming off a small ditch. I slowed down a little at I came to it but not enough. The four-wheeler went up and the front tires hit first. I flew forward and came close to flying over the handlebars. Luckily, I had my foot under the gear change switch and my hands tight on the handle bars.

As I flew forward, my foot caught on the gear switch and it clicked up as I let off the gas, that combined with the rapid incline change caused the motor to shut down. Still, I flew up and my thigh hit the handle bar painfully hard. So… I’m sitting in a car on the way to GA and my leg hurts. But pain is a useful trigger for memory and stupid should be remembered. Think about this: pain is a way for God to get us to remember. What if we feel pain as a way to remember. Think about it, you could faintly remember diving from a cliff with friends in to the river, but if you hit your leg on the cliff or cut your foot on a sharp rock, immediately that pain registers and pulls that memory to the forefront of your mind.

Pain isn’t always to teach us a lesson. Pain is to remind us of the lesson we’ve been taught. What better way to remember than because of how much it hurt to learn how to trust, how to wait, how to forgive?

Well, this is new and exciting in my life: I started a group on Facebook called “Bible Book Club”. The name is relatively self-explanatory, but basically it will operate like a normal book club. We will take a chapter of the Bible every Thursday, read it, discuss it, and then choose another to read for the next week. I’m hoping to build this and encourage and uplift other siblings in Christ through fellowship and study.

 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

–Proverbs 27:17

That’s the goal: to inspire each other through godly fellowship and an understanding of God’s Word. It’s the greatest book ever written, so this should be the most profitable book club ever begun. But, it wasn’t my idea. Though I may lead it, I don’t accept credit for the idea. I was simply typing out a Facebook post about how we’ve lost sight of the Scriptures and how they were still relevant and important, tagging a picture I took of a Church Bible from the late 1800s. In the middle of my typing, my sentence turned as the spontaneous idea to form this book club sprang into my mind. My idea…? Perhaps. But, I didn’t think it on my own, I did not conceptualize it, I only received and related it into words.

I truly believe this is an idea from God that is directly for my benefit and that of those I care most about. I pray that this is helpful to those involved and inspires and encourages us all as we learn and grow in Christ.

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

–2 Timothy 2:15

This is our purpose. This is our goal. If you would join us, you can click here and become a part of this new and exciting opportunity! If you don’t have Facebook, I’ll be chronicling some of the discussion here on the blog every Friday and holding devotions on the selected passage every Thursday so that you can add your voice and your thoughts to the discussion as well. I love you all and pray God uses you in great and impactful ways to change your world.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist