Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
John 17:22,23
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Romans 15:5,6
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hello everyone,
Before I start, two things:
1) Sorry about not writing last week's email. Through the busy-ness of going into the last week of new staff training, I wasn't able to send out my email. While the rest of this summer will likely be very busy for me, I have all intention to continue writing the Weekly.
2) Hello NST friends! I mentioned briefly to most - if not all - of you that there's this weekly encouragement email I do... well, this is it! Basically, this is my attempt to encourage (and sometimes challenge) brothers and sisters in Christ on a weekly basis. And, if the Lord sees fitting, He'll use something I say to encourage someone out there. That's it. It can also be found online at
http://weeklything.blogspot.com/. If you don't want to get an email every week, just let me know and I'll take you off the list.
Okay, now with that aside... as somewhat mentioned above, I missed last week's email because I was going into my final week of training for college ministry. Last night, I came home. It's kind of funny and strange being at home now, for a number of reasons. First of all, there aren't the thirty people buzzing around, the folks I've bonded with over the past five weeks. Second of all, I had to sleep on the floor of my dad's office because there is a hole in the ceiling of my bedroom - all of my things are in every place but my room. That's a little disorienting... among other things. Yet despite these things, I know I'll settle and things will get back to normal once more. But I digress.
There are a lot of things that I learned at my training, too many things to even think about summarizing in such a way that satisfies full explanation. That'd be crazy. So, instead I will focus on what is on the forefront of my mind: community. Most of you have heard me go on about the importance of community and unity, but I don't think these kinds of things can be said enough.
While the situation I just came out of is a rather unusual one, the sense of community we've reached is not necessarily outside the bounds of average life. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to be united. You and I cannot do this Christian thing alone. We were never meant to. Think back to the Garden of Eden: God had said after observing little lonely Adam, "It is not good for Man to be alone." There is a part of us (or at least me) that stubbornly fights against this, saying, "No, I can do it by myself. I don't need the help of others." In case you haven't noticed, there's just a wee bit hint of pride in that. Being the Animal Planet geek I am, to think that we can get along fine as Christians by ourselves kind of makes me think of a baby water buffalo wandering off by itself. Not only is it easier to take down by predators because it doesn't have the protection of the herd, it's probably also clueless about its own vulnerability. Likewise, once we stubbornly try to go it our own, we're open to be attack and clueless about our vulnerability.
Physically, we need fellow Christians nearby for a number of reasons. They can look out for us when we're struggling and call us out when we're sinning. They see and know our behaviors. No one really likes to be called out on something, but we all desperately need it. Spiritually, to be connected with a body of believers (most likely a church) means that we have the opportunity to be taught the Word of God and what it means to walk with Christ. We can be blessed- but we can also be a blessing to others! This also emphasizes on the importance of not just giving all the time, and not just taking all the time. We need an even balance of taking in what we learn and pouring it out onto others: to have community. People help one another, look out for one another, and take care of one another. For us it doesn't mean flowers and sunshine all the time, and there will be some disagreements from time to time. But the spirit of unity will say that although those differences are present, it is a choice to love and care for the other person even when there is a disagreement/difference.
I suppose you could say that being a Community Christian (as opposed to a Lone Ranger Christian) gives us the opportunity to reflect the relationship of the God-head. While the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three personages and have basically different "jobs" as it were, we can still confidently say that God is God, "three in one." God is unified as one. We can never fully attain this kind of unity, but we can do all that we can to strive for it. It also gives us the opportunity to pour out our love and our gifts onto others, and in turn have them pour their love and their gifts onto us. Why would I think this is important? Well, I would wager to say that it gives glory to the Lord... and that's good enough reason in and of itself.
I pray that each of us would strive to be unified with the brothers and sisters around us, knowing well that any encouragement and rebuke is meant for our betterment. I also pray for those of us that have the tendency to try to be a community unto ourselves, that we would see the importance of being a part of the Body. I also ask that if we have the tendency to stick only to our Christian communities, that we would learn to break free and step out onto the water so that others may see our faith. I ask that the Spirit would help us all to be unified, and that slander or gossip would be fought against because it has no place in our lives... that we would actively seek reconciliation where needed. I pray that we each can be changed more and more into the likeness of Christ, always seeking to be refined to bring the Father glory.
In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne