Church History: No Islands in the Body of Christ

My Granddaughter Joy at “Honey School” photo by Wanda Battles Williams at Rehobeth Baptist Church, Rehobeth Alabama.

Paul – persecutor-turned-proclaimer – caused quite a stir. The Jews were perplexed by him – and angry with – him. He “baffled the Jews in Damascus” with his message, “proving that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). They plotted to kill Paul, but his friends helped him escape by way of a basket. The Christians in Jerusalem did not trust him and refused to welcome him into their fellowship. He was an island unto himself. Nobody wanted to associate with him. Until a trusted member of the Jerusalem congregation, Barnabas – whose name meant “Encourager,” came to his side and his defense. The brothers in Jerusalem gladly received him and once again rescued him from the threat of death.
Paul and Barnabas would log many miles together as missionary-sojourners. When they parted ways – not so amicably (Acts 15:36-41) – Paul took Silas as his ministry partner. All along the way, Paul gathered people to join him in his work. Timothy, Lydia, Priscilla and Aquila, and Titus were his closest companions. His ministry team also included Erastus (Acts 19:22), Gaius and Aristarchus from Macedonia (Acts 19:29), Sopater of Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia (Acts 20:1–5). John Mark brought a great deal of anguish – and companionship to Paul’s life. A runaway slave was also a ministry partner with Paul – after he submitted to his master’s authority and approval (Philemon). Paul recognized many others who were an important part of his work in his letters.
What is the application of all of this? Paul started out as an island, but he didn’t stay that way. He needed Christian friends and companions and mentors and mentees and fellow servants of the Lord to grow in his faith and into his ministry. So do you and I. Even Jesus, the very Son of God, didn’t try to go it alone. When Christian leaders try to stand apart from others they almost always implode. Wisdom says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). You and I cannot hone ourselves. We need people who can spot the dull places and help us reach our best selves.
I cannot imagine who I would be without godly friends and mentors, teachers, preachers, encouragers, challengers, and a few busy-bodies who told me what I didn’t want to hear. I also cannot imagine my life without those I have taught and mentored through the years. Beloved, you need godly people. And somebody needs you. Find your place in the chain of fellow believers.

If the Truth Offends . . .

According to Scripture, my job as a Bible teacher is to make you mad. My brothers will tell you I’ve been practicing for this my whole life. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:24). The word “spur” means “to incite, irritate, or provoke” and it comes from a root word that suggests a sharp disagreement. “But wait a minute,” you say, “I thought we were supposed to always get along and be at peace with one another.” We are. But sometimes peace requires confrontation. The church suffers greatly because we are not willing to confront uncomfortable issues like what a Christian should look like. The writer pointed to two specific things: Love and good deeds.
Jesus said that love would be the distinguishing mark of His followers (John 13:35), and His Apostle John went a step further (on someone’s toes) and said if you don’t love fellow believers in Christ, that’s a good indication that you are not in Christ (1 John 2:9-11). Love is non-negotiable for the Christian.
We are also called to do good deeds. Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). But James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Who’s right here? Both. Salvation comes by faith in the grace of God and is evidenced by good works. No, you don’t have to go to Calcutta and join Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to prove that you are a Christian. Simple acts of love, kindness, gentleness, and compassion are good fruit in the believer’s life. Hate, harshness, rudeness, and indifference are evidence that one is not a Christ-follower. If there’s no good fruit there is no root in Christ.
Love and good deeds are the identifying marks of the Christian. If they are absent, then Christ is not present. If that makes you mad then take it up with God – He’s the one who said it first, not me. Also, you might need to re-examine your relationship with Him.
The writer of wisdom said, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17). Sharpening iron involves rubbing it with an abrasive stone to grind the edge. Sometimes we need kind words and other times we need a gritty whetstone. I’m called to give you both, Beloved. I love you too much to not tell you the whole truth – in love – even if it makes you mad.

Acts: The Power of Mentoring

I am a huge proponent of Christian mentoring. Mentoring is when a more mature believer comes alongside someone to impart spiritual wisdom by private teaching, but especially by modeling the Christian life. It was essentially the way that Jesus trained His disciples to build his church.

Paul followed this pattern with his closest co-workers in the faith. I love the way he expressed it in his letter to the church in Thessalonica. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thess 1:8). We live in a different culture and time but mentoring is still the best way to encourage and strengthen one another, especially new believers.

We see a great example of this in Acts 18:18-28 with Paul’s friends and co-workers in the faith, Priscilla and Aquila. While serving in Ephesus, they encountered a young man named Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew and “a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures” (v. 24). He had studied well the text we know as the Old Testament and he had “been instructed in the way of the Lord.” He had a passion for proclaiming Jesus. “He spoke with great fervor,” but he had limited knowledge.

Priscilla and Aquila saw the potential in Apollos to be a great speaker of the gospel, and they saw the lack of full understanding, so “they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” (v. 26). This is spiritual mentoring at it best – a personal connection, a gracious invitation, and passing truth from a seasoned saint to a green believer. The impact of their ministry with Apollos was huge. Apollos traveled to Achaia where he “vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (v. 28). Paul had such confidence in him that he referred to him as a “brother” (1 Cor 16:12) and commended him to Titus as a worthy fellow worker,

Seasoned believer, you should be pouring your hard-won wisdom and knowledge of the truth into the next generation of the church. Young (in the faith) believer, you need to seek out one of the experienced saints and absorb all you can from them about life and faith. Mentoring has the power for a huge impact on the church. Make the connection, Beloved. It will be one of the richest relationships for both of you.

Acts: The Gift of Believing Friends

Next to salvation, one of the sweetest gifts God gives to us is Christian friends. My circle of sisters in Christ has encouraged and prayed me through so many things I am so grateful for these precious ladies. I pray I have returned the favor well. Paul knew the value of believing friends. Please take a few minutes to read Acts chapter 18.

When Paul left Athens (Ch 17) he traveled to Corinth where he met a Jewish couple named Aquila and Priscilla who shared his profession as tentmakers. They took him in and supported him with work while he continued to preach and teach about Jesus. It was a difficult assignment because the Jews in Corinth rejected his message and were abusive to him. He turned to the Gentiles who were more receptive of his message and him.

The Lord knew his servant was in a tough position and he came to encourage Paul. “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). What reassurance that must have been for Paul! And what a blessing to know that there were “many people” ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

When Paul wrote about the shield of faith in Ephesians 6:16, he was picturing the Roman’s soldier’s shield which had an important feature for the protection of the whole troop – a loop-and-locking system on the sides that allowed a group of soldiers to form what is known as “The Turtle Formation.”  By locking their shields together in front of them they formed a sturdy wall and some raised their locked shields above their heads to protect the whole company from attacks launched over the wall of shields.  They essentially built themselves a “safe house” that covered them from all sides.  This is the picture Paul painted of the Body of Christ working together in faith against the enemy of our souls.

Someone needs the strength of your faith to encourage their own.  Someone needs you to lock in with them and help them hold up their shield.  It might even be me.   With your shield and mine together, we’re both protected. That is the Body of Christ at its finest.  Beloved, who needs you to help hold up their faith today?

Dads and Daughters and Forgiveness

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

My Dad and I had a rough time starting in my early teens and for some 20+ years after.   The details are not important, but the pain was very real.  There was a long stretch of time that we did not speak at all and when we did begin to reconnect it was infrequent and strained and awkward.  And honestly, I was okay with a minimal relationship.  I had moved away from my hometown and was busy raising my family, working, and making my own life.

Sure, I knew the importance of forgiveness and had told God “I forgive him.”  But God required something deeper from me—and for me.  My brother wanted us to come for dinner for Dad’s birthday.  I would have just as soon sent him a card but my brother insisted, and so we agreed to go.  A couple of days before God took me to 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 and told me very pointedly this word was for me regarding my Dad.

“Now you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

Wait, God wanted me to forgive, comfort, and reaffirm my love—for my Dad’s sake?  That seemed a bit unfair, after all, I was the injured party here!  I was the one who had lived all these years with “excessive sorrow.” Shouldn’t he be made to comfort and love me? Didn’t he owe me something?  God patiently heard my arguments (read whining), but kept coming back to the same point: “Are you going to obey me?”  “Lord,” I answered, “I will do as You have said, but only because You said it, not because I want to. 

That year had presented a lot of health challenges for my Dad, and when I saw him in a motorized chair with his oxygen, it gave my heart such a shock.  My Dad was so frail. I felt a piece of ice crack around my heart. Still, we sat on the opposite ends of the table but my eyes kept drawing back to him. As we left I walked ahead of him, moving chairs and obstacles out of his way.  We took some pictures in the parking lot and my sister-in-law positioned me directly behind my Dad in his chair.  I put my hands on his shoulders, and he reached up and pulled my hands lower so that I was bent over him in a hug.  Another piece of ice broke away.  On our way home she sent me the picture and suddenly the frozen dam broke and flooded my eyes.  I didn’t see the man that I had been so hurt by or so angry with.  I saw my Dad with such a glad look on his face with my arms wrapped around him.  The thought came to me: “This is not the same man who hurt me,” Forgiveness rushed into my heart, filling all the places where the bitterness had taken root.  The person in that picture was someone I truly loved.  And then God spoke to my heart: “You are not the same girl so full of pain and anger anymore.  I have carried you and I have been your Father all these years and my love for you has washed away your pain and bitterness.  Now you can love your earthly father with the love I have poured into you.”  My heart had been set free.

Forgiveness is a gift that God gives to every person who will receive it.  Forgiveness is a gift that you and I are also called to give, but the truth is, we are often the most blessed.  Forgiveness sets us free because bitterness is the heaviest burden known to man.

I know that someone is reading this and thinking, “But you don’t know what this person has done to me!”  I chose not to go into detail about our past, but it was deep and painful and affected every aspect of my entire life.  When I forgave my Dad, it was an act of obedience to God, not because of a warm-fuzzy feeling on my part.  But that step of obedience broke the dam of bitterness and God took away that pain and anger.  He changed my heart.   Perhaps God is waiting for you to look up from your tangled emotions and simply say, “I’ll forgive them because you say so.”  That Beloved, is the first step in the direction of true freedom.

Advent 2022: His Name is Love

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’” – which means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

When my son was young, he loved to go to the playground at the local park which was almost always crawling with boys and girls.  He would join in with one or two children and for some reason, he called all the other kids “dude”.  I told him over and over, “Ask them what their names are.”   One day on the way home I gently lectured him on the social grace of using people’s names.  He replied, “I only seen them today and I won’t see them tomorrow so I don’t need to know their name.”   Lecture over as I tried to stifle a laugh.  But he had a point – to know someone and call them by their name indicates a relationship, ranging from playgrounds to the intimacy of lovers.

God spoke volumes in the name He gave His One and Only Son.  “Jesus” – Iesous in Greek, Yeshua in Hebrew (translated Joshua) – carried the meaning “Yahweh saves.”  The Jewish people would hear Jesus’ name and remember that the Lord had saved His people in the past and He had promised to save them again.  They recalled Joshua in the days of the exodus from Egypt, a mighty military leader and warrior who lead the armies of Israel against multiple enemies on the way to the Promised Land.  They clung to the hope of salvation and restoration from Roman rule.  Jesus was a name that spoke of the power and faithfulness of God.

But Matthew records another name that would be bestowed on this Child – Immanuel – God with us. This name speaks of God coming physically near to His people.  In the Garden, God walked with Adam, until sin came between them.  In the desert, God’s presence was in the cloud of fire, and in Jerusalem, His presence dwelt between the cherubim in the Temple – behind a heavy curtain.  But now God Himself once more walked among his people.  He shared the street with His creation, broke bread together with men, and laid the hand of God on their children’s heads.  He lived among men – and died among them.

In a perfect combination of names, He personally brought the salvation of God to all humanity.  He is the victorious power of God and the intimate love of God.  He is Jesus – Immanuel – the God who came near to save us. It is the name of Love.

Let the Name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore – Psalm 113:2.

A Lesson in Love

The man asked a burning question, “What must I do to be saved?” And he knew all the right answers – love God and love your neighbor. He even claimed to practice them regularly. But he wanted to “justify himself,” as the Greek says to “exhibit oneself such as he wishes to be considered.” He wanted to appear supremely righteous – even more righteous than Jesus – so he asked another question: “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus told a story of a wounded, broken man and the “righteous” people who passed him by. But an unlikely person came along – one who was considered most unrighteous.  It was he who stopped and rendered aid – he cared for the man and about the man.

Then Jesus turned the question around. “Which of these was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  See, the man wanted to know, according to the Law, whom he had to love. Jesus said love isn’t done according to the law, but according to the heart. The Lord pointed to the neighbor not as the one in need but as the one who met the need.

People are sad.

Lonely.

Hungry.

Abused.

Hurting.

Broken.

Homeless.

Afraid.

Grieving.

Helpless.

Sick.

Mistreated.

Hopeless.

And yes, angry.

There is no end to the needs in the world.

But I can’t fix everybody. Where do I start?

With the person God sets in front of you.

“Who is the neighbor. . . ?”

“The one who had mercy on him.”

“Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:25-37

Holy Father

When I pray, whether written or spoken, I use my favorite name for God: “Holy Father” (John 17:11).  It comes from Jesus’ prayer just before his arrest. I love that name because it is expressing the two most important aspects of who God is. Taken separately, each word speaks volumes.

“Holy” describes the highest moral quality, something or Someone set apart and sacred. I think of the Most Holy place in the Tabernacle where God dwelled among His people. It was a sacred space and entry by man was forbidden – except once a year and then only by the high priest who came to make sacrifices for the sins of the nation. A holy thing would never be used for common purposes by common people. The angels in Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room constantly called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” (Is 6:3). Not just holy, but thrice holy.

“Father” is, of course, a male parent or significant leader to a family, a nation, or an individual. It is a title of honor and reverence. It is also a title of endearment – at least for some. My Dad and I didn’t have the best relationship when I was growing up and we were estranged for much of my adult life. (We did reconcile a few years before his death.) “Father” was not a warm fuzzy thought for me. But coming from the lips of Jesus, the affection was deep and sincere. Most Jews would not dare refer to God in such familiar ways. Remember He is holy – set apart from common, sinful people. But after His resurrection, Jesus told the disciples, “I am returning to my Father and your Father . . . (John 20:17). And He is our Father.

But together “Holy Father” serves as bookends with all the wonder and awe and majesty of God in between.  And together they are the complete picture of this God who is both holy and dear, who both demands perfection and makes us perfect through the blood of His own Son. The words speak to my heart of a Father who will never wrong me, never leave me, never hurt me or shame me but will always love me with the holiest of love. With perfect love (1 John 4:18). Because He is a perfect Father (Matt 5:48). Yes, “Holy Father” says it all.

Bear One Another’s Burdens

A few years ago my family was riding in the car together. My husband and son were in the front seats and I was in the back. I overheard this conversation:

Son: That truck’s tires are really low.

Dad: Well, he’s carrying a load of bricks in the back.

Son: Oh, I saw the tire, but I didn’t notice the load.

How many times do you and I notice when someone is “low” but never notice the load they are carrying?

I thought of the Israelites in their first battle on the way to the Promised Land from Egypt. Moses told Joshua to pull an army together and fight the Amalekites, while he stood atop the mountain and held “the staff of God” high above his head as a sign to the Israelite army that God was on their side. Now if you’ve ever tried to hold anything over your head for very long you understand how tiring that can be, and Moses was no exception. As long as he kept the staff raised high, the Israelite army had the advantage in the battle. When he got tired and dropped his weary arms, the tide of the battle turned and the Amalekites got the upper hand. No one else could hold up the staff – it was Moses’ God-given responsibility. But others could help him bear his burden, and a rock was placed behind him so he could sit down and “Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his arms remained steady till sunset” (Exodus 17:12). The result? “So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword” (v. 13). Joshua fought the battle, Moses held the staff, and Aaron and Hur held Moses’ arms till the enemy was defeated.

That is how the church works when it is at its best – holding one another up till the battle is over and Christ has claimed the victory. Sometimes you’re the one in the battle. Sometimes you’re the voice of encouragement to the weary warrior. Sometimes you’re the practical helper who keeps everyone else going. Everyone is crucial – every task is vital.  Do you know someone who is carrying a heavy load?  Find your place in the battle, Beloved, and “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). What is the Law of Christ? “Love one another” (John 15:17).  

God loves you. Yes, you.

I’m taking a “Counseling and Spiritual Integration” course this semester and we are our clients. This week I worked on the feeling I struggle with the most: accepting love. The issue is rooted in my childhood.  The Holy Spirit drew my mind to the verse I pray over my granddaughter every day: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

I dug into that verse and examined the dimensions that Paul used to try to express this love. I thought about the highest thing I knew – outer space, and the longest thing – eternity, and the deepest thing – the ocean, and the widest thing – the arms of Jesus stretched out on the wooden crossbeam. His love is higher and longer and deeper and wider than that. I thought about how God’s love doesn’t depend on me. It’s all Him – God is love (1 John 4:16). It’s perfect love (v. 18) so I can’t mess it up no matter what I do or don’t do. It’s a love I can rely on (v. 16). God doesn’t love me because I love Him, He loves me because it is His very essence (v. 7,10). I thought about how God is so generous with His love. John said that He has lavished His great love on me and had claimed me as His own child. (1 John 3:1). The truth is, I don’t deserve God’s love, but He gives it to me anyway.

I’ve been in teaching ministry a long time and one of the most consistent issues Christians struggle with is feeling unloved. It affects us in every aspect of our lives, in our friendships, marriages, raising children, working and community relationships, and it’s rooted in our relationship with God. We can’t give what we don’t have. But when we are “rooted and established” in the unfailing, unending, unshakable love God has for us, the fruit will be all the sweeter as we share it with others. Beloved, hear this clearly and receive it deeply: God loves you. Yes, you.