Drippings from the Honeycomb
More to be desired are [the rules of the Lord] than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)
A BBC article caught my eye the other day, it was billed as “the virtual reality church that isn’t shutting its doors.”[1] This church holds virtual services in many different time zones. They’re even church planting in different virtual cities and worlds. That might be hard to get one’s head around but it is a creative expression of the Great Commission. Though I’m supportive of using technology to a degree, I also believe the idea for Christian fellowship is not virtual but live, face to face. Acts 2:42 says:
And they [the early Church] devoted themselves to…the fellowship… One of the things the apostolic Church devoted themselves too was fellowship, an interactive sharing in the bond of the Holy Spirit. Though some professing Christians minimize the importance of it, fellowship is indeed part of the bread and butter of the Christian life, an essential ingredient, and an ingredient that Christians around the world are longing to return to post-Covid-19. In the meantime, in light of the reality of Covid-19, the short term social distancing measures and public health measures to ban religious services, these need not stop the Church from gathering to worship and to enjoy fellowship. I am very thankful our church is in the position to be able to find creative ways to minister at this time:
And this is my great hope, not only that we will find creative ways to minister at this time, but that when Covid-19 is past, we will all join together in person to worship our Lord, and what a day of rejoicing that will be! It is my hope that Covid-19 is teaching us the eternal importance of Christian fellowship and that we’re all longing for the day when we can put social distancing behind us and fellowship in person, together, the way God designed it to be. Until then, we’ll see you online/by phone, in one form or another. [1] In sharing this article I am not endorsing this church. Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, they compassions they fail not: As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. God Never Changes So opens the hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It declares a central truth about God that He is the unchanging One, and as such He is dependable. Hebrews 13:10 says, Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Humans Are Always Changing While humans are created in the image of God and reflect His likeness in many ways, God’s unchanging nature is a characteristic that we do not share. Benjamin Franklin once said, “two things always stay the same, death and taxes!” Aside from these points in jest, we change and our circumstances change. Nothing stays the same. Our bodies change as we grow. Our circumstances change as we journey through life. We are always changing. While the rate and amount of change may be something we can or cannot easily process, or sometimes is necessary for survival, to deny change itself is to deny reality. Change is a Normal Part of a Believer’s Life Not only do we change as humans, if we are a follower of Jesus, change is the name of the game. The Gospel message itself is the power to change. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to sanctify us, to transform us, to make us more like Jesus. Following Jesus then is one big process of change. If we are not changing or are resistant to healthy and appropriate change, and willing to follow our Lord in faith into the future, then something is amiss. A Tale of Two Seas The Jordan River bubbles up at the foot of Mt. Hermon in the north of Israel. Tens of thousands of gallons of water burst to the surface every day. These waters flow south into the Sea of Galilee and then on to the Dead Sea. These two seas are complete opposites. One is filled with fish and life. That is because water is always entering and exiting it, it is changing, it is alive and vibrant. The other only ever receives and never gives and as a result of that and evaporation by the sun, it salinity is so high that nothing can live in it. That is why it is called the Dead Sea. May these two seas be a reminder to us: change is needed if we want to thrive as Christians and an unwillingness to embrace the change of the Gospel can spell only certain death. May the Lord’s grace enable us to change, for our good and His glory. As we yield to and are filled by the Spirit in the Christian life (sanctification), each Christian is to progressively bear all of the fruit of the Spirit as a witness to the saving reality of our faith (are we who we really profess to be). Such fruit is not limited to the description found in Gal 5. Many other fruit can be found listed throughout the New Testament. James 3:17 is one such place. Speaking of the fruit that comes from the wisdom from above it lists:
Pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. I’d like to zero in on one fruit: open to reason, or the fruit of “reasoning”, or being reasonable. There is a reason why the Bible speaks so much about good communication and that is because we are so bad at it. Most church conflicts are not about doctrine, or wrong doing, or even personality differences, they’re communication issues that usually arise from a wrong disposition, a want of sanctification. Immediately after James speaks of taming the tongue he shows what someone being transformed by the Spirit will look like in their communications: be open to reasoning. The word here can mean well-persuaded, already inclined, already willing, easy to come to terms with because already willing, etc. It conveys the notion of someone willing to go to great lengths to come to terms with someone, foster understanding, get to the bottom of the situation, be level headed, committed to working something through, labouring to this great end. This is not being quick tempered, which short circuits the intellect, but restrained, mentally engaged and charitable. It is a clarity of the mind and a calmness of our affections. It is a rare quality today, to be patient, peaceable, and restrained, enough to work through a difficulty. It is a key Spiritual fruit that enables us to truly submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph 5:21). So the next time you are presented with a difficult situation, in or outside of the Church, as a believer, would you pray that the Lord would enable you to be open to reason, for everyone’s good and His glory. |
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