Relationships. Hope in Christ.

"Our relationships are not simply designed to make us interdependent with one another. They are intended to drive us to him [Christ] in humble personnal dependency." (111)

"The reason we get discouraged in relationships is not because we don't understand what is going on. We are discouraged because we don't see Christ." (113)


Relationships a Mess Worth Making

Philippians 1

Written in February 2012

Whenever I had read Paul’s epistles, I skimmed the first portion of the first chapter. I assumed that Paul is just saying “hello”, and that there wasn’t much to that. But when I began memorizing Philippians, I saw more than a casual “hello”. Paul lets the Philippians know that he comes as a slave of Christ. He comes as a servant. From verses 1 to 11 he shows much affection. He gives thanks for them, he prays for them, he is joyful over them, he is hopeful for them, he cares for them, he seeks their best, and he desires God to be praised. “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” (v. 8).

The second greatest commandment God gives is to love our neighbors. We know love is not just a feeling or warm fuzzies. It’s action, it’s all of 1 Corinthians 13, it’s the way God demonstrated His love on the cross. Paul did not just say “I love you guys” but he demonstrated it with what I listed out. He trusted that God would sustain them. I wonder if I can write a letter to my fellow brethren with these words. I am far from such an affectionate love. My “love” is selfish, wanting to be loved back maybe. But Paul doesn’t ask for that from them. He does in the later chapters desire to be encouraged by them, but all due to God’s glory.

How can I have such a love?

Having gone to EBCB for 4.5 years, it can get routine. Occasionally there have been new faces, but the passionate love that we see in Philippians can be a huge fire compared to a little spark that easily fades away in me. Take advantage with the people you’re with now. We shouldn’t wait until they’re gone or we’re gone to express our affection. But when we are away or people are away, as Paul expressed his love, we can do the same and always entrust others to God. God doesn’t want us to be indifferent towards His people, but to love and pray with affection for them.  B.B. Warfield said, “Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows… It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives,—binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours.”

Happiness. Self-esteem. Job satisfaction. Security. Fulfillment.

Words we use these days because we find our identity or worth or meaning in such.

Joy.
Although 1 Corinthians 13 says faith, love, hope we are to abide by and the greatest is love, I find joy a valuable outcome of those three. John 15 says we are to abide in God. "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." John‬ ‭15‬:‭11‬

Comparison. Pride. Selfishness. Sin. Bitterness. Unthankfulness.
These keep us from joy and truth. It's actually quite silly. It's freeing to have joy and die to self from pride, selfish desires, comparison, etc. and to have joy in God and His people even if they prosper over you. Seeking for meaning or worth in other things or people can be tempting because it's visible but it will be binding and not freeing.

Holy Aloneness

Here's another from Elisabeth Elliot's. I sometimes tend to do that where I want to talk to people first. But God is available to listen. Not in a creepy way, you're never alone. heh

When God had completed the prodigious labor of the creation of the heavens and the earth, He saw that something was lacking: there was no one to work the ground. So He formed a man. The method is surprising—this creature, made in the image of God, was made out of dust, and into his nostrils God breathed the breath of life. This living being was placed in a beautiful garden with a river to water it, and gold, aromatic resin, and onyx to enrich it. He put the man there to work the garden and take care of it. I wonder, as Adam went about his task, how conscious he was of the presence of God. Did he walk and talk with Him (in what language?), commune silently or aloud, listen to His voice? Was he aware at all that anything was lacking? God was aware. “It is not good for the man to be alone,” said God, “I will make a helper suitable for him.” Eve was created, God’s gift to allay Adam’s loneliness. But when he capitulated to her ungodly counsel sin was born.
The world is full of noise. It is ”too much with us,” as Wordsworth said. “Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Might we not learn, perhaps during this Easter season, silence, stillness, solitude? It will not be easy to come by. It must be arranged. The Lord Jesus, available to people much of the time, left them, sometimes a great while before day, to go up to the hills where He could commune in solitude with His Father. Job, enduring his friends’ tiresome lectures and accusations, was very much alone on his ash heap, but it was there that he came to know God as never before. When God called Paul to preach the gospel he did not consult anyone. He went into Arabia. The old apostle John when exiled to Patmos must surely have known a holy aloneness through which he received the book of Revelation.
Someone may complain that he has no one to talk to. Then thank God! Talk to Him. When my husband Jim Elliot died in Ecuador I was blessed to have my ten-month-old baby and many dear Quichua friends, but we lived deep in the jungle and I longed at times for in-depth conversation in my own language. The Quichuas were very solicitous—they had loved Jim as their pastor, teacher, and friend. All of us were bereaved, but it was my job to be cheerful and to try to strengthen and encourage the Indians, who had very little Scripture as yet in their language and were accustomed to heathen howling when someone died.
We can always talk to God, remembering that God has called us into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9). Do we consciously arrange time to receive His fellowship? When is the last time we offered Him ours? It is a strong temptation to run to the phone when we need advice or help of any kind, forgetting to seek first the living Word of God, whose ear is always open to our cry. Try the simple reminder of 2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials,” or Psalm 57:1, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”
Be patient. Is God not fast enough? Are His answers too tough? A quick sympathy from a friend may suggest that you simply drop out, be good to yourself, get away from it all. Someone else will be sure to say, “You need counsel.” Are you sure? One hour at the foot of the Cross may obviate the necessity of professional counseling (no such thing existed until the twentieth century—what did folks do before then?). When Christian, in Pilgrim’s Progress, reached the hill of Calvary, “his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble; and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the Sepulchre where it fell in.” The Bible teaches us that there is a Wonderful Counselor. Let your loneliness be transformed into a holy aloneness. Sit still before the Lord. Remember Naomi’s word to Ruth: “Sit still, my daughter, until you see how the matter will fall.”
Miguel de Molinos (1640-97) wrote, “In time of trouble go not out of yourself to seek for aid; for the whole benefit of trial consists in silence, patience, rest, and resignation. In this condition divine strength is found for the hard warfare, because God Himself fights for the soul.” 

post-it reminder

music videos

I usually don't watch music videos until much later after knowing a song. I don't intentionally avoid it but just never thought to watch music videos. Well, I guess I don't listen to the radio much either so I don't know a popular song until I hear it often in a store or people talk about it or youtubers do a cover. Music is appealing probably more for the beat and tune rather than the words. Or I hope so! Some of the lyrics or images in the music videos are quite appalling. I don't know. What are your reasons for listening to music? What makes you dance? Are music and movies really harmless? Of course I don't want to be legalistic about it either... just thinking as I often do. Sometimes a little too much haha.