Love + Knowledge = Discernment

In I Corinthians it says that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (I Cor. 8:1). True. No one likes an arrogant, know-it-all boasting about what they KNOW, even if what they know is about God. And no one likes advice offered without sensitivity or compassion. People would rather see that you KNOW how to LOVE through your actions than hear about what you know with your words.

However, Paul makes it clear in Philippians 1:9-11 that love without knowledge is also foolishness. In verse nine, Paul begins a pray for the church at Philippi (a church that was very dear to him) and he says:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

We won't really know how to love people unless we are being continually filled up by the knowledge that comes from God's Word, so that we may discern how to BEST love those around us. Because the feeling of love can be deceiving. We can feel like we love someone, but to refuse to the convict them of sin because we care about their comfort more than their holiness is not love. To fear saying something to a friend, because they might take it negatively or it might affect the friendship is not love - unless I am trying to love myself more than I love my friend. Love is not easy. It's not always comfortable. Sometimes it means drawing a line, forming a boundary, disciplining a child or a student, convicting a friend, or confessing a sin. And sometimes it's hard to figure out HOW to best love someone. Do they need a hug? To hear a passage of scripture? A meal? An invitation to church? Help writing a resume? An exhortation?  A swift kick in the butt? To be confronted by a pastor? Love doesn't look the same in all circumstances and the only way we can truly know how to best love those around us is to continually be built up in the knowledge of God's Word - which results in discernment - and to go forth in prayer.

Encouragement

While Paul suffered greatly for the name of Christ, and often found himself pursued, imprisoned, abandoned, beaten or left for dead, he was also continually supported by faithful friends and fellow ministry workers. Throughout Paul's letters, he at times detours from his writing to mention those friends who have been helping him. He will list all sorts of names like Timothy, Luke, Justus, Clement, Epaphroditus....and all kinds of other names I can't even pronounce. Sometimes I feel kind of like I do with the genealogies of the Old Testemant. The "I'm tired of reading all these names; let's get back to the good stuff" feeling...

But recently I've realized that these names of Paul's friends and co-laborers ARE the good stuff. These are the people who visited him in jail, sometimes even finding themselves imprisoned alongside him. They would bring him food and clothing. They would house him. They would travel with him, experiencing hardship, hunger, and persecution. They would painstakingly pen his letters for him (remember they didn't have computers or even ballpoint pens). They would carry his letters to churches abroad, often taking long and dangerous journeys to bring the word of God to various cities throughout Asia Minor. They would pray with Paul, weep with Paul, enourage Paul, and eagerly soak up his teaching and live by his example.

So when Paul praises "Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served me" (Phil. 2:22) or when he rejoices over Epaphroditus who "nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life" (Phil. 2:30) to help Paul, I am learning to realize how essential this encouragement was. When Paul says that Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus "are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers...and they have been a great comfort to me" (Col.4:11), I can only imagine how nice it must have been to have just a few Jewish friends in the midst of being imprisoned in the foreign culture of Rome.

So I ask myself, how can I encourage those around me who have devoted their life to ministering to God's people? How can I support and encourage my pastor and his family, especially as we go through this time of uncertainty with our chuch location and finances, as they await the birth of their fourth child and wonder how in the world they will get a vehicle big enough to hold their whole family (so excited to see what God provides!)? How can I serve my friends who serve abroad as full-time missionaries in some of the most remote or poorest places in the world? How can I labor alongside them as Paul's fellow workers did, even though I am halfway across the world? Can I suport them financially? Can I send a care package? Go visit them? Send them a letter or e-mail of encouragment? Pray for them often? Pray for the culture in which they live and the people to whom they minister? Instead of finding myself bored with Paul's thank you lists in his letters, I am finding myself inspired to encourage my own pastor and missionary friends in new ways. Praising God for His constant transforming of my mind.

God's Tenacity

In 6th and 7th grade, I had an awesome humanities teacher, Mrs. Mayer. She, sadly, passed away a few years back from an ongoing battle with cancer. However, her impact on me as a student will never be forgotten. I can remember specific assignments from her classes way back in middle school better than I can remember many events from high school or college.

One specific assignment during 6th grade sticks out in my mind. Each student was given a difficult vocab word, as in word-that-we-had-to-look-up-in-the-dictionary-because-we-had-never-heard-it-before difficult. And then we had a to write a poem that used the word correctly. My word was "tenacious"...

te·na·cious adj \tə-ˈnā-shəs\persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired

Recently, as I was reading through Philippians, I was struck by God's tenacity. He is tenacious with His beloved. He is persistent in loving us, shepherding us, correcting us, forgiving us, and sanctifying us because He values His children. What a tenacious God we have!

Philippians 1:6 says: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

God is at work in us. He has done, is doing, and will do amazing things in our hearts and lives because of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. If I think about my own life, I can think of the way God called me to Himself, how he protected me in my youth by allowing me to be raised in a Christian home. He convicted me during my early 20s that I was not living a life that was truly humble and glorifying to Him. He has molded me and changed my heart and so many of my habits and characteristics over the past three years. Now He continues to teach me through His word, sharpen me through Godly friendships both old and new, and refine me through my marriage. And in the future, no matter what happens - good or bad - on this earth, He has promised to save me and glorify me for all eternity.

I can't recall exactly what I wrote about for my "tenacity" poem in 6th grade, but if I were to write a poem with this same vocabulary word now, surely I would write about my tenacious God.

Pleasing to God

How crazy is it that we can please God? That the God of the universe, who created us, and whom we have failed time and time again, can still take pleasure in us? That we can actually behave in ways that bring him joy?

I think that's what so much of this journey through the Bible this year has been about for me. How can I everyday acknowlege my own sin, my shortcomings, be transparent about my failures before God and before man, and still strive to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord? It seems like a strange juxtaposition, yet the Bible makes it clear that those who are in Christ CAN live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Because Christ's righteousness has been given to us, and through the power of the Holy Spirit to fight the sinful tendancies of our flesh, we can bring God pleasure with the way we live our lives in this fallen world.

As he encourages believers, Paul's epistles nearly always touch on this idea of living to please the Lord. II Corinthians 5:9 says: "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." Paul also commends the Philippians on their thoughtful gift to him (they sent him money during his imprisonment in Rome), calling it "a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18). And Paul tells the church at Colasse to "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God" (Col. 1:10).

So whether in life or death, with the gifts I give, with the works I do, in my devotion to learning God's word, my aim is to please the Lord. And because of Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God advocating on my behalf, my life, though imperfect in so many ways, is genuinely pleasing to the absolutely holy and perfect God who made me and loves me.

Follow Me?

Paul says in I Corinthians 11:1 "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Whoa, Paul. Really? What a huge claim, right? But Paul is not arrogant. He is confident in who He is in Christ, who Christ has called him to be, and reassurred by the Holy Spirit that He is living a life obedient to God. He doesn't claim to be perfect. He admits that he used to "violently" persecute the church of God (Galatians 1:13). He says he still struggles against sin often ("I do the very thing I hate" - Romans 7:15), yet he knows and loves the Lord so much much that he can confidently tell others to follow the example of his life.

And this is not the only time he commands the church to follow him. Paul also tells the Phillipians to "join in imitating me" (3:17), he reminds that Timothy has "followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith" (I Timothy 3:10), and he tells the Thessalonian church it "ought to imitate us" (us being Paul and his fellow missionaries - II Thess. 3:7-9). And Paul is not the only one to promote this idea of mimicry. The unknown author of Hebrews says "Remember your leaders...and imitate their faith" (13:7) and Peter tells church leaders to "shepherd the flock of God...being examples to the flock" (5:2-3).

Clearly, these claims to "follow me" are a specific circumstance. These are apostles telling other church leaders to follow their example. Secondly, they are telling church leaders to set an example for their own congregations. I am not going to stand up on Sunday and tell my church to follow me. I am not a church leader. I am a woman who should not be leading men in the church. But does this still apply to me in a sense? I mean I UTTERLY fail all the time. I hope this blog has been transparent about that. I am impatient, selfish, prideful. I even try to paint myself in a good light, instead of just being open about how sinful and weak I am. But I also love God, and I know the Holy Spirit is at work in my life, and I know that by God's grace alone (and my NO effort of my own) I have become a much more disciplined and obedient person in recent years. Again praise be to God, this has nothing to with me. But should I take seriously that people will and even should follow me? Should other women, especially those slightly younger than me, high school and college students, former students (now friends) from Young Life and church ministry follow me? That seems weird, because I feel so unworthy to be followed most of the time. But one of the ways that we are the body of Christ on this earth is by setting an example of Him for other believers, especially younger believers who have few or no good examples in their life. If I am being obedient to Christ, then my life should be worthy of being followed. We are privileged to get to be an example of Christ on this earth, not only in the way we love and serve those who do not know Him, but in the way we show other believers how to be more LIKE him.

Not everyone should follow me. I think men should find a Godly male example to follow. Most women should NOT follow me. There are so many older, wiser, meeker, stronger women that I imitate because they show me Christ. But for those girls that are slightly younger, for those girls or young women whom I have mentored or discipled in the past... follow me. I love Jesus more and more each day, and I want you to love him and be changed by him and live for him. I don't ever want you to follow me for me. That would be dismal. I want you to follow me only because I follow Christ and He is so worth following.