Encouragement!

Day Three

The really cool thing about having the gift of encouragements (or exhortation) is that while encouraging others in the full spiritual exercise of the gift (in other words, not in my own ability), I am also encouraged.  Often, in fact most of the time, I only hear the words for the first time as they are coming out of my mouth.  Sometimes, if it is a word only for that person, I won’t remember what I said.  And even that is encouraging.  Sometimes that person will tell me: “Remember when you told me . . . ?  It was just what I needed to hear.”  It’s encouraging because I know that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul writes: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”  Then he goes on to show what encouragement looks like:

5:11 – Build each other up: tell others the qualities that you genuinely appreciate about them.

5:12 – Respect those who are over you: cooperate with your co-workers in Christ, especially those in leadership.

5:13 – Hold leaders in highest regard: don’t participate in gossip about them, and don’t criticize them.  In fact, take a moment to tell your leaders how much you appreciate them.

5:13 – Live in peace: deliberately seek to live in harmony with others.  Be willing to agree to disagree whenever necessary.

5:14 – Warn the idle: invite them to join you in a project.  Sometimes people don’t offer to help because they think that others are more capable or don’t need their help.

5:14 – Encourage the timid: Remind them of who they are in Christ.  Remind them of God’s great promises to them.

5:14 – Help the weak: Show love to them and pray for and with them.  Take a walk in their shoes and consider what they are going through.

5:14 – Be patient with everyone: Remember that everyone is on their own spiritual walk, and these people (the idle, the timid, and the weak) need encouragement and patient discipling in order to grow.

5:15 – Don’t pay back wrong for wrong: You may be as right and as righteous as you think you are, and the person who wronged you might be as evil and wrong as can be.  But only your reaction to this person will establish your righteousness.  As Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44).

5:16 – Be joyful: Put aside all negative thinking.  No matter what happens, no matter what seems to go wrong, remember that God is in control.  With God on your side, everything will come out for the best, no matter what it looks like right now.  God is on your side!

5:17 – Pray continually:  Prayer doesn’t just occur in your room and on your knees, though that should be a part of your lifestyle.  Practice the presence of God throughout the day.  If your thoughts stray from Him to something you shouldn’t be thinking about, bring those thoughts into captivity.  Practice breath prayers throughout the day—breath out negativity and impure thoughts; breath in the Holy Spirit’s presence.  Memorize a Bible verse and whisper it to yourself throughout the day.

5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances: God is in control and He is on your side, so thank Him.  If something has happened that you can’t thank God for, then thank Him for being in control and for being on your side.  Find something in your situation to thank Him for.

5:19 – Do not put out the Spirit’s fire: When the Holy Spirit prompts you to do or say something, cooperate and do it.  By cooperating with the Holy Spirit, He will work more and more in your life.

5:20 – Do not treat prophecies with contempt: You may not understand all prophecy, in fact, it is unlikely that you will understand all prophecy.  And . . .

5:21 – Test everything and hold onto the good: Whether you understand the prophecy or not, test it.  The test is God’s Word.  Prophecy that contradicts God’s Word is false prophecy.  God will never contradict the Bible.  Even if you don’t understand a prophecy, if it stands the test of God’s Word, then hold onto it and watch to see it fulfilled.

5:22 – Avoid every kind of evil: Don’t go into a situation that you know will tempt you.  When you are tempted, resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

5:23 – Depend on God to sanctify you through and through, and keep you blameless: You can’t do any of these things in your own strength, especially this last one, so depend on God, and He will help you.  When you can’t do something (anything), God will do it for you and through you.  He doesn’t call the equipped, but equips the called.  Or as my friend, Pastor Chris, says: “If your ministry doesn’t scare you, then it’s not from God.”

So, encourage and be encouraged!  God is good!

Returning to the Unknown

Last year I took a Faith Trip, as many of you know.  A Faith Trip is one in which only God knows the itinerary.  My Faith Trip began in Budapest, Hungary and took me to many unexpected places.  The first place after Budapest was Romania, in Transylvania.  Today I will return to Romania to help out at a Christian camp in the Carpathian Mountains.

What I will be doing is a mystery, and exactly where I will be is also a mystery.  Will I have internet?  I don’t know.   Actually, now that I think of it, this trip to Hungary and Romania is sort of a second Faith Trip, but this time I know a bit of the itinerary, but no details.  Unlike last year, this time I step out without even the slightest trace of fear.  Instead there is just excitement to see where I end up and what I will be doing.

I’ve learned that the more I trust God (without worrying about anything at all), the more I learn just how very good He is.  God’s Word tells us many times that we can trust Him:

Psalm 37:4-6 – Take delight in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.

Psalm 56:3-5 – When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.
In God, whose Word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

Psalm 55:22 – Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.

Psalm 62:7-9 – My salvation and my honor depend on God;
He is my mighty Rock, my Refuge.
Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our Refuge.

Psalm 91:1-2 – Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my Refuge and my Fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 118:7-9 – The Lord is with me; He is my Helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.

Psalm 125:1 – Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him,
and He will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.

Jeremiah 17:7-9 – But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 39:17-18 – But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear.  I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in Me, declares the Lord.

Nahum 1:7 – The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in Him.

1 Peter 5:7 – Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

Matthew 6:25 – Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”  For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Luke 12:25-26 – Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

God is good!  He is trustworthy, He loves you, and He is good!  So I’ll go into the unknown, knowing only this:  I trust in Him.

Contrarian Kingdom

When I was growing up in the 1960’s the popular wisdom was to life a lifestyle of non-conformity.  The youth of those days could see that the so-called wisdom of previous generations had landed us into an unwinnable war in Vietnam, and many of us saw our fathers slaving away their hours at jobs that took them from the family at least eight hours a day, and left them too exhausted to do anything but veg-out in front of the TV at night watching the banalities of the day.

So in the 60’s youth culture non-conformity meant never trusting “The Establishment” or “The Man.”  Non-conformity meant a carefree lifestyle, living fully in the moment, day-by-day.

Come to think of it, not much has changed, except that things have gotten even worse.  Now we are in an unwinnable war against terrorism (how do you fight a concept?), and mothers have joined fathers in working themselves to exhaustion.  Television has also gotten worse.  Now (with a few exceptions) banality is the best one can hope for.  Some popular shows are offensive and actually harmful (IMHO).  Reality TV shows mostly bring out the very worst in people, who are willing to do just about anything to have their 15 minutes of fame.

And the worst part of all this?  The Establishment is now composed of the very same people who embraced non-conformity back in the 1960’s.  The long-haired, peace-loving kid of the 60’s is now The Man.

How did this happen?  In a word:  money.  The truth is that without money, life is very difficult, if not impossible.  Many of the youth of the 60’s came to the conclusion that a carefree lifestyle is impossible without money.  Little by little those carefree kids became slaves to money.

But the original concept of a carefree life of non-conformity was and is right.  And it is only achievable by living a life that is fully surrendered to Jesus.  Check it out:

Fear [reverently respect] the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.  Psalm 34:9

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

Some people think that God is stingy.  God isn’t stingy at all, we’re the stingy ones.  God is generous.  Read yesterday’s post, if you don’t believe me:  https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/god-meets-radical-faith-with-radical-provision/.  I took Him at His Word, and He proved it to me.

If you want to live that carefree, non-conformist lifestyle, put God and His Kingdom first.