Unity in Harmony (3)

“How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony” (Psalm 133:1 NLT).

Nowhere on earth should be more apt to have unity in harmony than the local church.  We are called together as the body of Christ, and as such shouldn’t it be wonderful and pleasant to live together.  We all serve the same Savior and Lord, and in the local church we all have the same pastor.   Once more I will make an analogy between music and the church.  

   The local church is shaped by God for His purposes, so we could say that He writes the music and chooses the pastor to be the conductor.  The pastor is chosen to lead the congregation in the performance of God’s will in the local church, the will that has been written and communicated to the pastor by our Lord.

  The conductor is certainly concerned with the harmony of all facets of the church and for the unity shown in that harmony.  As I said last time, the church is a God-ordained, many-part harmony that does His will.  The church performs its assigned task when all the parts work together in unity and without strife.  Strife is a ruiner of churches, and strife makes for raucous music that brings no peace.

   It is the pastor’s responsibility to set the objective for the year, and it is the responsibility of the congregants, the worship leader, the youth department, the business department, the prayer team, the teachers, the custodial staff, and the security staff to do their parts to work together toward that objective.   When a pastor has to spend his time adjudicating arguments, coaxing departments to work together, and begging the people to give to the work of the Lord, He is unable to bring forth the Word given to him by God.  

   To paraphrase today’s Scripture—It’s great when everyone is on the same page, working toward the same end.  So Let’s make beautiful harmony together under the leadership of our “conductor” as we spiritually sing the music set forth by the master “Composer,” our Lord. 

Helps--A Blessing to Receiver and Giver

“When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword”  (Exodus 17:12,13 NIV).

   Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of a hill to observe and oversee a battle that Israel had with the Amalekites.  When Moses held his hands up, the Israelites were winning and when his hands dropped, the Amalekites were winning.  Without the help of Aaron and Hur, Moses would not have been able to hold his hands up long enough for Israel to defeat the Amalekites.  Moses had his assignment, and Aaron and Hur helped.   Was Moses more important or were Aaron and Hur more important?  We will never know because they did help, and the Israelite army defeated the Amalekites.

   Help is not always as important in the great order of things as it was in this instance, but it can be vitally important to the one who needs the help.  I recently had a problem with my computer, and I could not access my website, so I couldn’t post my blog.  That was not greatly important in the grand order of things, but it certainly was important to me.  I reached out and asked for help, and the one I asked agreed to help.  It took a long-distance phone call across the nation and an interrupted evening for the one who helped me.  The fix was not a simple one of a one or two step correction.  It took several tries and a certain amount of time to fix the problem, but my helper stuck with it and solved the problem, something I couldn’t do myself.

   Two important things happened to solve this problem.  First, I had to ask for help, and second, the helper had to agree to take on the responsibility of solving my problem.  It took trust on my part, and it took a spirit of helping from the helper.   My daughter-in-law operated in the spirit of Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ,” as she helped me.  She also fulfilled Matthew 5:16: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Her good deeds are being seen by others as they continue to read my blogs.  

   You need to realize that you are doing that every time you help someone as you are obedient to God. As we are told in 1 Peter 4:10: “Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”  It’s that easy to be in the grace of the Lord and show His love and concern for our fellow man.  It may not seem vitally important in the grand order of things, but it may well be extremely important to the one you help.  So, keep up the good work and help one another.

Father's Day

“The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him”  (Proverbs 24:23 NIV).

   I am a father!  Wow!   What a joy!  What happiness!  What a responsibility!  What a blessing!  In my over fifty years of fatherhood I have experienced joy, happiness, responsibility, and blessing, and I have experienced many other feelings.   Fatherhood is a great responsibility, but for me at least, the joy has far outweighed the responsibility.   Besides, I have had a lot of help--my father, my wife, friends, and most of all the Father of us all, God the Father.

   I have to admit moments of pride the first time I saw each of my three sons in the hospital nursery.  Each one was the best looking one there.  From that moment on in my sons’ lives, I have felt that God blessed me with the greatest three sons any father could want.  Watching them grow, and helping them grow has been quite an experience, frequently involving concern that I was doing the best for each son, for each child takes a little different method of parenting.  

   My father taught me that hard work was rewarded, and that whatever love took, it was worth it.  He taught me to be strong, fair, responsible and loving.  It turns out that love helps make up for any mistakes we make in raising our children.  Even though the means of expressing love changed as my sons grew into adults, husbands, and fathers, I knew they loved me, and they know that their father loves them.

   In our family, my wife and I have taught our sons that our Father God loves them even more than we do, and that He gave His Son as a sacrifice for all of our sins.   So they are all assured of spending eternity with their parents.  Our sons have brought us three beautiful daughters (in-laws), and with their wives they have presented us with seven fantastic grandchildren.  I am pleased and blessed to say that all of them (sons, daughters-in-laws, and grandchildren) have accepted Jesus as Savior, so we will never be separated.

   My partner for life, my soul-mate, the love of my life, my beautiful wife, Norma, has been with me every step of the way, supporting me and helping me raise three strong, able men into fathers themselves.  We are both blessed beyond measure to count Tim, Brian, and Jason as our sons.

   Our Heavenly Father, Jehovah, gave all of us life and created this universe as a place for us to live, so that we could fellowship with Him.  He has provided everything we need, including eternal life with Him, and I thank Him for it daily. 

PRAISE THE LORD, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER!

 

I could go on for pages describing the excellent qualities of our sons, and how they bless our lives and fill our hearts, but if you have children, you can probably do the same.  So just think about your kids and how much they bless you.

      

Unity in Harmony (2)

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony”  (Colossians 3:14  NLT). 

   Last time I spoke of my enjoyment of four-part harmony in music, and I related it to the unity of the Church while working and living in harmony with each other.  Today, I would like to narrow that to the local church, the one where you worship and the one where I worship.

   It seems to be pretty obvious that a church in which the members live and work in harmony with each other is a church where love for each other flows.  God has given many different gifts to His people, and He combines them in a church to give it a particular flavor and thrust.  Each of us has a special gift to add to our local church, and something is missing if even one of us isn’t contributing according to his gifting.  His part adds something special to the mix.  It is not a four-part harmony; it is a God-ordained, many-part harmony.  We might say that the Master Composer, God, has written a special song for each church to sing, and it is our privilege and honor to sing that song, bring that message, and cast abroad the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.   A church that consistently does that draws people who see the care each member has for each other member to enter into fellowship and add one more part to the harmony. 

   Imagine the singing in heaven when all of God’s people sing praises to Him—each one adding his special part to the song so that the song is sung in one voice, the voice of God’s people loving Him back.  We love you, Lord, and we lift our voices to honor, worship, praise, and glorify Your Name!