Comforting Encouragement – Part 2

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

Just as we all express encouragement differently, so also, encouragement is perceived differently from person to person. What may seem amazing to one person, may not even register with another. Therefore, thoughtful grace needs to be operating in all believers to compensate for and enhance the learning process of how to express and receive encouragement appropriately. Personal history, personality, culture, health, and maturity are some of the key players in the business of encouragement. Plus, its grace that elevates encouragement to the level of comfort, but only if it is received. While our hearts are remarkably sensitive at receiving, they are not always so delicate at expressing compassionate sentiments. Both the giver and the receiver share equal responsibility in the ministry of encouragement.

Included in Paul’s relational teaching to the church in Rome, He instructed them to give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Romans 12:17-18). Here, Paul is saying that believers are to consider the different ways we express honour to different people as all people will perceive honour differently. Also, we are to do our best to express and receive other’s attempts to show us honour with a peaceful attitude. This speaks to the matter of not allowing ourselves to take offence when no offence was intended. It thinks the best of the other person. That’s grace.

With the concept of grace in our thinking, Romans 15:5-7 takes on a fresh dimension. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Christ welcomes us with the listening grace of acceptance, of preforgiveness, in full knowledge of all our shortcomings and failings. Just as Christ glorifies God by welcoming us with such grace, so also, we glorify God when we welcome others likewise. God is by nature the God of endurance and encouragement, and endurance is greatly fuelled by the strength that comes through encouragement, whether we are receiving or expressing it.

As we learnt from 1 Thessalonians 5:11, we are to encourage one another and build one another up, which is the graceful purpose that should be intentional. But I suggest, that listening to and receiving those words or actions of encouragement should be received for the purpose of being built up yourself, which is graceful listening. Again, this thinks the best of the other person. Grace!

In Acts 14:22, Paul was strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. What a wonderful and realistic example Paul leaves us. He did not hide from the difficult realities of the Christian life, and he also highlights the resource of strength that comes through encouraging… to continue in the faith. Often, pain follows us as we enter and live in this stage of God’s Kingdom, and the human expression of encouraging one another to remain faithful is critical to our spiritual sanity. We also do this by not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25).

As we perceive the closeness of Christ’s return to snatch up His bride, so we should be motivated to do and receive encouragement in an attitude of grace, for God’s glory.

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Comforting encouragement

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

Both comfort and encouragement are regularly needed by the human heart, and they work best when operating in synchromesh with each other. Plus, both are able to be conveyed and received in multiple ways, but always best when done with authentic love. Consequently, refreshment at some level, and to some degree, is usually the result. Here we see the compassionate nature of God, who has  designed and equipped believers as agents of His grace.

It seems a contradiction by worldly thinking, that the LORD is able to show His mercies while we are engulfed in the pains of life. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction… (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Instead of only offering comfort to those enjoying the sweet and smooth times of life, God offers comfort during struggles for those suffering. Counter to the culture of our times, the greater our suffering, the greater the availability of meaningful comfort to sustain us. The reservoir of divine comfort is as limitless and as free as God’s mercy, simply waiting for the pained child of God to draw from.

Like Job of the Old Testament, it’s in the extremities of life that we realise more fully our fragile and limited personal resources. Once taken outside of our coping mechanisms, we often find ourselves in that vulnerable place of physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

As it was following salvation, times of refreshing… come from the presence of the Lord… (Acts 3:19-20), so it is during the great difficulties of life, God is the source of refreshment which fuels our endurance. But how does He do this? What are some of the most common methods used by the LORD to transfer His comfort and refreshment to His child engulfed by trials? More often than not, God employs other believers to conduct the transfer.

As Yahweh is the God of endurance and encouragement (Romans 15:5), He uses those redeemed by Jesus Christ to communicate the required encouragement. So Paul commands us to encourage one another and build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Encouragement is to be intentional,  purposeful, and applied to one another in the body of Christ without discrimination as it looks to do it’s work. Since encouragement specifically looks to build up it’s recipients, Paul adds, be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all (1 Thessalonians 5:13-14).

Paul understood that fragile hearts need building up through peaceful relationships that looks to encourage and help with patience. This takes only a little thought to gain some idea of the needs of the recipient. Our listening should not be flippant, dismissive, shallow, or self-serving, as we look to the interests of the other person as our priority (Philippians 2:4). What a spectacular recipe of grace. The fears of the heart which trigger so many internal malfunctions are kindly explored, and love is applied without pretence or force. There is no personal agenda here, only the desire to love on behalf of Christ.

The church of Jesus Christ is well equipped to apply His soothing love to those under the weight of life. A smile, a listening ear, a few minutes of genuine interest, is all it takes to initiate the process. Proverbs 16:24 reminds us, gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. The power of grace accompanied by a few words can have far reaching consequences for good and create opportunity for encouraging comfort.

To be continued…

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Jesus centered living

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

For believers in Jesus Christ, Christianity is not merely part of life, Christ is our life. Everything other that Christ forms the various components of life, with Jesus being the hub, the axis from which everything grows and orbits. This, in part, is because Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Hebrews 5:9). The believer accepts, trusts in, and arranges their priorities to conform to Jesus’ declaration; I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

Paul had proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord to the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 4:5), which he did everywhere that he declared the gospel. And it is compliance to Jesus’ lordship, within a believer’s unique and sometimes complex circumstances, that develops transformational living for Christ. For the Christian, their heart’s desire is that in everything he (Christ) might be preeminent (Colossians 1:18).

Near the end of His earthly life, Jesus explained in John 15:4-5, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. While this may sound strange to the nonbeliever, the child of God acknowledges the essential nature of belief that is dependent upon Jesus. The longer we live and walk with the Lord, the more we recognise the truth of Jesus’ teaching in this matter.

The horticultural parallel of integration with Christ, and dependence upon Him as the only supplier of spiritual nutrients is unmistakable. Just as the branches of a vine require sap from its own root to survive, to grow, and then to produce fruit, the same is true of the believer. Those who live in Jesus, whose daily existence depends upon His spiritual food, they remain faithful and grow to produce Christlike fruit through their lives. For them, only Christ can satisfy by providing what they need.

While life has many important relationships and activities that require commitment, Christ is life’s essence, life’s motivation, and goal. As Lord, Jesus is permeated through every facet of Christian living, nothing goes untouched by Him. Relying continually upon the spiritual resources of Jesus, our vine, enables us to use the earthly necessities and activities of life for His purposes and our blessing.

It is a sharp focus on Jesus that brings joy, comfort, and security in this everchanging world that we live. Clear focus on the Lord Jesus inspires perseverance during difficult chapters of life while we wait upon Him to resolve the issues that distress us. Listen to Job’s testimony during his greatest suffering, what is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? (Job 6:11). Here, the child of God can experience genuine peace while enduring great difficulties.

Living a Jesus centered life enables us to …run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith… (Hebrews 12:1-2). Similarly, Paul wanted the Colossian believers to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3). May we pursue knowing and living Christ. And as we grow in our understanding of Him, may our hearts place Him more and more in that central place of focus.

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God of Change

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

It was only a few days before Jesus’ crucifixion, and the chief priests and elders of Israel were determined to create a way to kill Him. Although Jesus publicly exposed their hypocrisy, their false teaching, and even pronounced seven woes upon them, He did not bring instant judgement as they deserved. Jesus knew that many of his enemies were receiving grace which would soon change them into faithful believers in Him as Lord and Saviour (Acts 4:4; 6:7).

Sometimes we see change coming, but often, uninvited change just happens abruptly. Change will always be part of our lives by God’s design and administration. Although we often struggle with unpleasant changes, we need to remember that no change happens outside of God’s governance or His purposes.

In Matthew 21:32, Jesus confronted the chief priests and elders over their unwillingness to change saying, for John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. Determined unwillingness to change for Jesus can have devastating consequences if allowed to play out to its ultimate goal. But in God’s grace, He perseveres with us to achieve His will, which always involves great change.

All of Scripture records that mankind is required to change their beliefs and behaviour for God, this is normal repentant faith-life, and it’s good. Personal change should be expected, it should be preached, it should be included in our gospel explanations and in all discipleship. Faith in Jesus Christ brings great changes, which we call sanctification. The Lord employs a variety of circumstances and events; medical, financial, employment, location, and relationship changes, to grow our faith and maturity in Christ.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 tells of Yahweh’s instruction to those under His discipline of exile in Babylon. Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace. Israel, like many of us, resented and resisted the changes God had forced upon them. Although they should have understood why, they had such a long and determined history of rejecting God’s instructions and warnings, that they were both blind and deaf to the preventative Word of God.

Again, grace prevailed, with God telling them to accept it and get on with living in a God honouring way. They were to proactively seek the blessing of their captors, the Babylonians, and in so doing God would benefit them, even returning them to Israel in the future. As if the trauma of being dragged off to a foreign land with every aspect of life forcefully changed was not bad enough. Now Yahweh says, seek the blessing of your enemy. This must have been like rubbing salt in the wound, the ultimate insult that would have gone against everything they felt.

But this is so typical of the Lord, and Jesus repeats the same lesson in Luke 6:27-28. May we accept change that is outside of our control as being used by God for His glory and our blessing. May we seek the benefit of others that can often only come through change (1 Peter 3:9).

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Hezekiah – Shepherd Amongst Kings

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

Among the many Old Testament kings of Israel and Judah, few ever fulfilled their God given assignment of leading the nation in faithful worship and testimony of Yahweh to the world. Towering above many, Hezekiah, King of Judah, ranked impressively, as recorded in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32, and Isaiah 37-39. Hezekiah, son of wicked king Ahaz, was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem (2Ki 18:1-2). The thing that made Hezekiah admirable was that he did what was good, right, and true before Yahweh his God. And every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment — to seek his God — he did with all his heart and succeeded (2Ch 31:20-21).

Hezekiah inherited his father’s throne accompanied by a nation enslaved to idolatry with every form of wickedness imaginable, including child sacrifice (2Ch 28:3). Leading the spiritual restoration of this belligerent nation would be no easy task, as sinners usually prefer to hold onto their sin. However, ignoring his father’s wicked example, Hezekiah went against his nation’s preferred idolatrous culture and religion. So, how would Hezekiah turn the nation around? What was his strategy? He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (2 Kings 18:4). Hezekiah got the people (2Ch 31:1) to remove both the source and the objects of false worship and he reestablish the temple worship of Yahweh, which successfully redirected the nation. Which is a great strategy for both nations and individuals.

Now it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them (Isaiah 36:1). The Assyrian spokesman, Rabshakeh, took great pleasure in mocking Hezekiah, Judah, and Yahweh, even sending his insults by letter. 2 Kings 19:14 records that Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread the letter before the LORD and prayed about it. In response, God destroyed the Assyrian army of 185,000 soldiers using a single angel (Isa 37:36). The king of Assyria returned home to Nineveh (Isa 37:37-38), where he was killed by two of his sons while worshipping an idol.

During this time Hezekiah became sick with a boil (Isa 38:21) and was about to die. Although  he prayed to the Lord (2Ch 32:24), he didn’t actually ask for healing in the way we would expect (Isa 38:2-3). God responded, I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life (Isaiah 38:5). The Lord healed Hezekiah by telling Isaiah the prophet to have a poultice of figs applied to the boil (Isa 38:21), which they did, and the Lord enabled Hezekiah’s healing.

Hezekiah was a man of godly integrity, of prayer, courage, and uncompromising faith in Yahweh. When under pressure he didn’t fold, he didn’t neglect his relationship with the LORD, and he didn’t listen to the negative mutterings of those working against him. He was a king, a true shepherd of his nation, and a man in love with his God.

Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his (ancestor) father had done (2 Kings 18:3). In fact, this righteous king trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him  (2 Kings 18:5).

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