Author: Elaine

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Rejoicing in the mysterious companionship

A friend just sent me 2 Corinthians 13:14.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (NLT)

Oh my, oh my! The richness of a life filled with these three things! Nothing I write could ever plumb the depths or heights or breadth of such richness. I think the only way we can even begin to know and understand what such a life may be is to walk confidently into it, building our lives on that grace and love and fellowship.

“The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” In my Greek word study (don’t be too impressed with the depth of my knowledge… this is just a dictionary of sorts at the back of my study Bible, but it is very helpful), the word translated here as fellowship is koinonia. (See?  I don’t even know how to put that line above the “o” where it properly belongs…)

Koinonia, this study says, is “an association of close mutual relationship and involvement with another; it is an alliance with another person or group, formal or informal. There is an implication of intimacy, singleness of purpose, trust of one another, sharing of material goods, and harmony rather than hostility.”*

Wow. This is the way I want to live–in koinonia with the Holy Spirit! In intimacy, singleness of purpose, trust, and harmony with Him. Jesus said because He is no longer in this world with us, He would send the Spirit to live in us … teaching, guiding, reminding, comforting. God’s presence within us! The Spirit living in koinonia with us is the evidence that we are His.

Here’s a prayer for all of us this weekend, from A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie. (I like to think of the “eventide” that he uses in the first line as the eventide of my life … in other words, till the end of my days.)

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until eventide. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel and order all my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.

May you rejoice in that mysterious companionship today.

Amen.

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* from The Slimline Center Column Reference Bible, Tyndale House Publishers.

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“Let it fill your lives”

What’s on your schedule this week? Do you have appointments, tasks, and objectives written on your calendar or stored in that little black box you carry? My spiral-bound planner lies open on my countertop, so that, with a glance, I see all my commitments and plans for the month. Last spring, the daily boxes were crammed so full of reminders that I was forced to also make notes in the margins of the page. (If you follow this blog, you probably noticed a gap of weeks without posts … )

No matter what form of calendar you keep, look at it now. You’ll see days and weeks and months filled with … what?

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. (Colossians 3:16)

Isn’t that a lovely picture? This verse evoked an immediate image; I saw my life as a cup or bowl, with great and satisfying richness being poured into it until it overflowed.

But after I savored the lovely picture, I had to ask some questions.

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What fills my life now?

What fills the little white squares on my calendar? What consumes my minutes and hours, days and weeks? What is it that fills the cup of my life?

Just off the top of my head, I listed some of the things that might dominate our days, fill our lives:

Worry
Discontent
Trying to live up to certain standards, maybe your spouse’s, your peers’, God’s, your own
Thankfulness
Praise and expectation
Television (oops. Does that date me?  Would it be Facebook now?)
A search for possessions, security, health, position, the “right person”
Being the best parent, wife, grandmother, friend, employee
Working to pay bills and support a family
Working to building a secure future

This is just a beginning, and I’m not evaluating the rightness or wrongness of any of these things. I’m just trying to take an honest look at our days and ask… What are the things that rule our lives, our thoughts, our hopes and dreams?  

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So what, then, is the richness of the message about Christ?

How would you answer that question? What richness does the message of Christ pour into your life? Again, this list is just meant to prime your (and my) thought process:

No matter what is going on around me, Christ says He overcomes the world.
Christ’s Spirit works in me, empowers me, changes me, gives me a new life.
Christ gave me a clean slate before God.
The message about Christ is that He came because of God’s great love for this world.
God’s love is unfailing; He cares about the details of my life.
Christ makes available to me the power that raised Him from the dead.
The Lord is my Shepherd. I will have everything I need.
By His divine power, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life.
My life is in Christ, belonging to a kingdom beyond this world, going on eternally…

How might my week change if it is focused on these messages rather than on the first list above?

I am not advocating running off to our own little sanctuary and spending our days pondering Scripture rather than fulfilling the roles we’ve chosen in life. As long as we’re on this earth, we’ll need to tend to the business of living.

But I am asking … on what are we building our lives? To what do we give our thoughts, our energy, and our emotions? Are the hours of my day controlled by some of those things in the first list, or is everything in my life—responsibilities, happy times, sad times, troubles and triumphs—met and lived in the light of the messages that Christ brought to the world? Do Christ and His message saturate and sustain our every breath?

Even the most noble of human aspirations and efforts fall short; there are always disappointments, failings, and, eventually, everything in that first list will be gone. Even our thankfulness and praise is limited in our humanity. The second list is eternal. Is our focus—the light that leads us along the path and directs our choices and dictates what and how we think—is it the first list or the second?

We all know the story Jesus told about the wise man and the foolish man, one building upon a rock, the other on sand. Anyone who does not live according to His words, Jesus said, was like someone building a house on sand; and when storms come, the house will quickly be washed away.

Storms can quickly wash away all those things that fill up our calendar, even the best of the list. But building our houses firmly on the message of Christ is like building on bedrock; the house will never collapse, no matter what beats against it. (Matthew 7:24-27)

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And how do I fill my life with the richness of His message?

I want the richness poured into my life. I want to live on solid rock. I want security that will not disappear or be taken away. HOW does that happen?

Did you notice that Paul says, “Let the message about Christ …”?  We have to open the door, open ourselves to Christ’s message, invite the Spirit to start filling…

There are more Scriptures that point the way, but I find it interesting that Paul immediately gives us two concrete things we can do: Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. (v.16)

I’d like to focus on his first statement.

Isn’t it interesting that the very first thing Paul advises is to teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom God gives? I repeat my plea from a previous post: Whatever gift God has given you for encouraging brothers and sisters – use it! The Spirit works through all of us in different ways, at different times, and in relationship to different people.

We all have some part in filling each other’s lives with the richness of Christ and His message!

The gift, the counsel, and the wisdom God has given you will help complete that lovely picture of Christ’s richness pouring into my life as I seek to build my house on the Rock.

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Dressed for the mission

Have you experienced a time when a line of Scripture speaks so directly to your heart and soul that you know it’s God saying to you, “This is what I want to say to you today… hear this well, my beloved child” ?

Such a verse came today.   

Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Chosen to be one of God’s holy people! Chosen by God, who loves me! My soul needed to hear this. The words thrilled my heart, flooded me with thankfulness, and fired my desire to be His and His alone.

The Scripture goes on to say we’re to make allowances for each other’s faults and forgive each other just as Christ forgives us…and, boy, do I have many faults, and He forgives daily. Above all, we’re to clothe ourselves with love, and whatever we say or do, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.(v. 17)

Christ came to this world to reconcile the lost to the God who created them. When He left the earth, He commanded His followers to carry on His mission. We are to represent Christ to the world who does not know Him. What a calling!

And since we are God’s chosen, holy people, we’re to dress the part.

Do you dress in a certain way for your job? Doesn’t a person’s dress tell you something about who they are? We might protest that we should never judge by outward appearances; but in reality, we do take visual cues from a person’s attire.  

The way we dress also affects the way we act. When I entered college as a freshman, women wore only skirts to class and the library. When the dress code relaxed to allow jeans, behavior relaxed as well. If your workplace observes Casual Fridays, don’t you notice a difference in attitude and behavior? What we wear often determines boundaries and promotes standards of conduct.

The way we dress tells others who we are and also affects our own actions and attitudes. That’s true of how we clothe our spirits, too. Our choices tell the world about who we are, and when we’re determined to dress the part of a representative of Jesus Christ, we’ll choose carefully and our actions and spoken words will be affected.

I have a business meeting tomorrow morning, and so I’ll try to make appropriate choices when I go to my closet. As I start my day, will I also make careful choices in how I dress my spirit? Will I choose those things appropriate for a representative of Jesus Christ?

We’re even given a checklist, guidelines on how to clothe ourselves.  

Wear:
a tender heart of mercy
kindness
humility
gentleness
patience
forgiveness

Then, wrap your entire heart, soul, and mind with love and thankfulness.

Have you forgotten to put on any of the above today?

We have been chosen by God to be His holy people, whom He loves, and we’re on this earth to be His representatives and carry on His work.

I want to dress properly for my calling.

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Putting on the armor and finding the right stone

In his early years of Little League baseball, my grandson sometimes played the position of catcher. Catchers must be strapped into equipment that protects head, body, and legs; but the miniature baseball players had not yet learned to put on all that gear in the few seconds between innings. So after that third out, two of the coaches worked quickly and efficiently to position, strap, hook, and tie the catcher’s protective armor before he moved out onto the field to take up his position.

Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
(Ephesians 6:11)

For a few weeks, I had been turning to Ephesians 6. In an ongoing battle, I knew I needed the armor of God; I labored over the passage, time and again, struggling to find fresh energy, insight, and strength from those verses. I wanted to put on the armor–but the battle was not going well, and discouragement nibbled away at my faith. 

Then came a series of meditations on a blog I follow — lessons from Ephesians 6! The writer who shared through the internet his understanding of that chapter had no idea I needed help in donning God’s armor. The Spirit did, though, and He gave me the help I needed. On those pages I found the new inspiration I sought, and the Spirit used another disciple of Christ to refresh me in the battle.

Right here, I want to stop and say thank you to every one who encourages others in the family of faith, whether by writing, music, prayer, leadership, teaching, counsel, quiet words of encouragement, hospitality, or simply sharing words of positive faith. You may never know who you have helped or what your actions or words have meant to someone else at just a certain time.

Paul writes to the church, So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. (1 Thess. 5:11)

Like those little Little Leaguers, we can help each other suit up for battle. Many times, we need our brothers and sisters to help us into protective armor. Some days, we cannot quite fit the belt of truth around us; or in a long battle, we give in to weariness and lower our shield of faith; or perhaps we need the help of others in sharpening our sword of the Spirit, the word of God. 

To Philemon, Paul wrote:

Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people. (Philemon 1:7)

How wonderful that we can refresh the hearts of others on this journey as we use the gifts God has given us! We might think it is a simple thing, just a word here or a song there or an act of service that takes only a few minutes. Or we might think what we offer is ineffective or insufficient. But when we live by the Spirit, our encouragement of each other can produce great harvests.

Recently I spotted a sign in front of a church that said

             For every Goliath, there is a stone.

True. But sometimes we need a brother or sister to hand us the exact stone at just the right time.

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Eastwood and Aroostook on Ownership

Neither Hollywood nor Washington gets much time here in this blog, but last night I watched the video of Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republicans’ recent convention. “We own this country,” he said. A roar of assent from the audience. “And when someone isn’t doing the job, we’ve got to let him go.” Another roar of approval.

That statement will probably be the catalyst for all kinds of debates, and I do understand the context and the point Mr. Eastwood was making; but his talk of ownership reminded me of something we too often forget: 

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him. (Psalm 24:1)

I’ve just caught a glimpse of one of the Lord’s jewels, Aroostook County. The northernmost county of Maine, Aroostook covers almost 7,000 square miles and is the largest county east of the Mississippi.

In just two days’ drive, one can only sample the flavor of such a large place; but I saw blue and purple mountains, glittering lakes, green river valleys, and deep forests broken occasionally by sunny meadows filled with thick drifts of Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod. We drove by hunting lodges, huge grain and potato fields, serene rivers, and tiny towns of no more than eight or ten houses. Aroostook may call itself The Crown of Maine, but it is surely one of the Lord’s dazzling jewels.

He owns this earth and everything in it.

For He laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. (v. 2)

He is the One who made it. He owns it. The people of a democracy might like to think they own their country, but the long drive through Aroostook reminded me there’s a much bigger and even more important perspective: This earth is the Lord’s; His hand made all this, including the people of this world. It is all His.

Who may climb the mountain of the LORD ? Who may stand in His holy place? (v. 3)

Who may even come into the presence of such a high and holy God, the one who made and owns it all?

Only those whose hearts and hands are pure,
who do not worship idols
and never tell lies. (v. 4)

Do not despair, thinking of how impure your hearts and hands may be … Christ has taken care of the stains blotched across our lives. His blood washes away those stains; He dresses us in spotless robes and presents us faultless to the Father. Hallelujah!

But two things hinder us from entering fully into His presence today: worshipping idols and telling lies.

In Biblical days, people worshipped man-made idols thought to have power over every aspect of life. In our day, all kinds of things usurp God’s rightful place in our lives–careers, possessions, passions, political parties, even a church or our loved ones. Any of those things can own us, claim to provide for us what God alone provides, and demand worship and devotion that belong only to God. If there are idols in our lives, they keep us from entering fully into His holy place.

And we cannot enter if we tell lies. Scriptures are very clear that God hates lying; Jesus said He Himself was truth. But I’m wondering if this particular verse might be referring to the lies we tell when we say we follow Him, but we are following other gods; when we say we trust Him, but we do not live with assurance of His care; when we say He is Lord, but we do not yield the throne to Him. Those kinds of lies keep us from climbing the mountain of the Lord and standing in His holy place.

Those whose hearts and hands are pure, who have burned their idols and do not lie, those people

…will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior.(v. 5)

You own this earth and its people, Father.
We seek your holy place,
to live in Your presence all the days of our lives.

Amen.