Different Lenses: Empathy by Brotherly Love

"Let brotherly love continue. Don't neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily."
- Hebrews 13:1-3

I am extremely challenged by these verses. Somewhat by verses 1 and 2, but especially by verse 3. As I consider the command of having brotherly love continue I can do nothing but agree! Who wouldn't? -- But how.. well, verses 2 and 3 (and continuing) offer a very practical and in-exhaustive list.

Hospitality -- not all people consider themselves hospitable. They don't have "the gift" of hospitality.. I have considered that before, especially in my younger years! These days I would boast in my hospitality (with an unhealthy hint of pride).. but who do I desire to show hospitality to? My friends, yes. My friends' friends, yes. A homeless man? ... possibly. What about the most repulsive and annoying person you know who needs brotherly love. What about them? This is not a challenge to say that you should start here, but let's aim for it. Luke 12:48 says, "Much will be required of everyone who has been given much, and more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more."
Have you been given a place to live? Does it have room to welcome others from time to time? Well, find someone who has the needs that you can supply! It's part of the Kingdom Economy. Hospitality leaks into many other contexts other than just places of residence, but I'll let you figure those out in your life as I continue to find them in mine!

Verse 3 "Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily."

Wow.. I live in America! How can I know, how can I feel this, how can I possibly empathize to these situations? I wake up every day in a house, I have food all sorts of food at my finger tips, and I can have coffee almost every day if I want. 80% of my furniture is comfortable; if I go outside I have clothes to keep me warm or sunscreen to protect me from the sun. I can shower each day (and night if I want to). Drinking water is readily dispensable from any location within a minute or less. My greatest discomforts are dry skin an occasional headache or sore muscle.
In relation to v3 of Hebrews 13, I consider all these things petty. But I'm not evaluating my position in life, but trying to learn how to empathize with those in seemingly impossible situations. Here is my attempt...

I've often speculated -- to the child in the 3rd world country, how horrible is it? This is the life they know, they haven't experienced my life, or another persons life. They don't have greater expectations. As I try to ask myself, what would it look like to wear the lenses that they see through, to empathize, I also have to ask myself could they empathize with me. They might not even desire the life I have (Which I think is the assumption that I think most American's assume about people from "lesser fortunate" areas.) -- My life is so easily desensitized from spiritual things. My focus is constantly drawn to things that are fleeting that were created for our pleasure and not God's Glory. Realistically, this is a partly a soapbox stemming from the Screwtape letters.

Honestly, to best empathize with a person who is imprisoned and suffering bodily, I find myself only desiring one thing for them. That same thing which we have been given hope for -- eternity in Heaven with Jesus our Savior, and God our Father. I don't desire my life for him -- America is full of snares for Christians, possibly even more so than a person who is imprisoned for their beliefs. My empathy for him is to pray for Him to desire Jesus more and to Trust in God more.

This is the best that I can come up with right now....

Please comment and share with your ideas and thoughts about hospitality and for sympathy in regards to continually showing brotherly love!

Integrity: True Gold in American Culture

"In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us."
- Titus 2:6-8 (HCSB)

As a wee lad, I went through a phase when I was fascinated with minerals, rocks, agate stones, precious metals, etc... why? Who knows, I have a collegiate degree in accounting, not geology. Anyway, in those days, I had a big rock known as "Pyrite" which is also called "fools gold". The reason being is that throughout history, Pyrite has been commonly mistaken for gold to the naked eye. Ironically enough, pyrite veins are typically located adjacent to real gold... however - one is real, and one is not. How do you tell the difference? Well, without chemical testing and scientific analysis, the easiest way is to scratch the mineral with something abrasive. If it is gold, it will mark/scratch, if it is pyrite, it will not. There's a metaphor to be drawn here regarding integrity and hypocrisy.

In today's culture, Gold would be viewed as that which has integrity, it is true to it's form all the way through, whereas Pyrite would be considered the hypocrite, that which is an imposter to another thing, or visually appeasing. When we look at Christianity today in America, a majority of American's identify as Christian, but which are hypocrites...? We see in the Bible, Jesus picked apart hypocrites like crazy (Matthew 23). And Paul did as well (Romans 12:9-21). So, we know they exist.

We can bring out the metaphor of "scratching the surface" to identify integrity as referenced in the Titus verses, by "being self-controlled in everything, making yourself an example of good works, and preaching a message that is sound beyond reproach". To break that down, we must first know the Gospel and be invested in it at a heart level, walking with Jesus. We must know God and be seeking Him first each day. And we must be living lives Spirit-filled and directed by the Holy Spirit. This is where soundness comes from. This will lead us to good works, not that save us, but those which are an overflow of the love of Christ towards us and others: Agape.

Now our surface has been scratched and we have been identified. Our surface is scratched each day, by circumstances, friends, enemies, Satan: What is the outcome? The desired outcome Paul states is "that the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us."

"... Having nothing bad to say about us."

I cannot fathom achieving this no matter how good I think I am personally! This is not achieved by our power... in fact, in cannot be achieved through our power. Jesus Christ set this example for us, empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-34) for good works, and calling on God the Father continuously for intercession (John 17), and dependence on scriptures (John 4:1-11) as he walked on this earth. We are not Jesus, how much more should we seek these these things?

Philemon: Debt, Forgiveness, Redemption, ...Glory

"So if you consider me a partner, accept him as you would me. And if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it -- not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self. Yes, brother, may I have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ."
- Philemon 17-20

In Philemon, we have Paul in a unique situation where he is the spiritual father of both a man, Philemon, and Philemon's slave, Onesimus. Through a series of events, Onesimus escaped slavehood, made contact with Paul and became a Christian as well, and therefore a brother to both Paul and Philemon. Onesimus fears returning to Philemon even though he knew it was the right thing to do. He was afraid of his punishment -- however, we see here that Paul, out of love for his brother, not only made an appeal on Onesimus' behalf, but even credited the punishment due to Onesimus from Philemon to Paul Himself! Then, in the midst of taking the "IOU" of punishment upon himself, he reminded Philemon of the debt to which he had to Paul for leading him to salvation in Christ. There is so much going on here as you think about substitution, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, selflessness, and encouragement in the message of the Gospel. Though we do not know, we can assume that Philemon forgives Onesimus who is permitted to do ministry as a faithful servant of Christ, a brother of both Paul and Philemon, to God's glory!

I don't want to try to explain everything going on simply because of my inability to fully convey everything you might learn from reading the text yourself.

I encourage you to read Philemon today. Pay attention to these themes, and think about your own life -- where these might apply. Where debt is owed that forgiveness might be paid in it's place, and where you can make an appeal on behalf of others whose life has put them in a place that is viewed as less fortunate by the world.

Blessings!

Putting Those Things to Death

"So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand o God. Set your minds on what is above, no on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature.... "
- Colossians 3:1-5

Given today's culture, media, and even religions, it's easy to get our mind's set on the things on this earth, both figuratively and literally. Not just our minds, but our eyes, our hearts, our spirit, pulled straight off Christs heart and brought into selfishness and distractions. We get drawn directly into coveting, lying, anger, greed, jealously, lust, selfishness, sexual immorality, slander, cutting words, etc... We see it on TV, from sports, to sitcoms, to movies. We hear it in music from rock, to country, and hiphop, and we read it in the newspaper and magazines every day.
It's time to "put to death what belongs to the worldly nature..."

How do we do that? Well, it starts with "setting your minds on what is above, not what is on the earth." We do this by reading Scritpure, by praying to our Messiah who has raised us with Him and whom has hidden our life with Him for eternity. If we are setting our minds on things above, we are separating ourselves from sin, and fleeing the desires of the sinful nature. Additionally, we are humbly admitting our sin and asking forgiveness. We're being transparent, and not puffed up and prideful; we are puutting others before ourselves in order to love them as Christ did. We are seeking to walk in the Spirit! (Eph 5:18, Gal 5:20-22)

It starts each day with spending time with the LORD, asking for Him to use you and to intercede before our Father in Heaven for you, to surrender yourself as His each day. It's taking time in scripture and using it to test your mind, heart, and actions. It's spending time in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ and spending time sharing and loving those who don't believe in our God. In Colossians 4:2-6 Paul says, "Devote yourselves to prayer; say alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak. Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person." I couldn't say it better myself... who could!?

It was just today that I caught wind of a guy named Alex Eklund on facebook who coined the quote "I'd rather have a Proverbs 31 woman than a victoria's secret model.".. Now, to some men, this might seem like an easy thing to say, but to the majority population of males in this world, that is a very difficult thing to say. That is why I wanted to share this, it is the perfect example of setting your mind on the things above and not what is on the earth. This whole time the earth would point us in the opposite direction of Proverbs 31. Way to be Alex!

One of my favorite hymns is Before the Throne. It is powerfully integrated with scripture! As you reflect on these scriptures mentioned above, please take some time and listen to this song.

Hope: Not Uncertain, but Certain

In an intersection of sermons from church and the book of Romans which I am reading through currently in New Testament Survey, I have come across Romans 5:1-5. This is not something new to me, it's scripture that I consistently confide and depend on as a promise from God.
It reads:

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our LORD Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Romans 5:1-5

This scripture is extremely powerful; particularly, verse 5 which reads "This hope will not disappoint...". I consistently find myself encouraging people, praying for people, hoping for people, expectant that their upcoming and current life circumstances will be recognized as blessing and that God will be given the glory. Often I might say, "I hope your interview goes well." or "Hope you have a great day."... these words become cliche and are received lacking a real heartfelt backing. This is nothing intentional from me, or from others who convey these phrases. The truth very well might be that deep inside I truly hope that specific event will be blessed, great, joyful, but that is not always how it comes across.

That brings me back to this scripture because it is so unique. You see... Paul makes the very powerful statement of "This hope will NOT disappoint...", why? "... because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Paul is talking here about having access to grace through Jesus Christ. He's talking about our hope for glory in Heaven with our LORD. He's talking about hoping that our life is not in vein!

One can adamantly say "I hope my life will not be lived in vein." But, Paul makes the valid point here, that the only hope that holds its own is that founded on faith through Jesus Christ. In order for a life to not be lived in Vein, we need the deposit of the Holy Spirit, that we have been declared righteous by faith. Now, we don't only have hope those aforementioned, but through Christ, we find hope in afflictions. Paul makes it clear as day that affliction happens do produce endurance, and endurance produces proven character. Why? Because our character, lived out in affliction, declares the power of hope in Jesus Christ our LORD. ...or maybe our character isn't declaring what we want it to?

There's a bit of a paradox that takes place here. Often the things that we might hope for are those which are non-afflicting. "I hope your interview goes well", "I hope you have a great day". This is rugged, because we have learned that the hope produced by faith in Christ can actually produces affliction in our life to the Glory of God. So there are two kinds of hope: Hope by faith in Christ, which Biblically defined produces proven character through affliction for the glory of God. And worldly hope, a somewhat cliche phrase that has good intention behind it but lacks the promise that comes from God, sealed by the Holy Spirit.

It's good to hope for people's benefit, but as I reflect on my 'hopings', ultimately I know that I want their benefit to be what God desires for them to produce proven character, even though it may hurt. These can be things that are what people view as happy and joyful, but it might also lead to affliction for the end result of God's glory.

So what are you hoping for and what is your hope in?

An arguement - The Day of the LORD has already come?

A couple weeks ago a friend shared with me in some amount of distress that her cousin was starting to get involved in religion. Unfortunately, this was the wrong kind of religion...
She shared that her cousin was following the "Church of God".. one of the main arguments of this church was that Jesus has already returned and we're living after the second coming right now. It also boasts of an entity known as "God the Mother". My friend shared their website with me to check it out: english.watv.org

As I talked to her, she was looking for ways to defend authentic Christian faith against false versions of Christianity. Given that one of their main arguments was regarding the time of the return of Christ, it was great that I was currently in the middle of reading 2 Thes because of chapter 2:1-12

The most specific section that defends our faith are verses 1-4:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: we ask you, brothers, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God's sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.

We can see here that Paul is assuring the Thessalonians not to get uptight about missing the second coming of Christ. There will be sure signs of it. We see that here, you can also find much about it in the end of Mark, as well as in parts of the book of Daniel. Specifically here, we can refute the Second Coming of Christ because we know that "the apostasy" comes first, and the man of lawlessness (the Anti-Christ) is revealed. This is described as a man who calls himself God though by scripture we will be able to disprove this. Unfortunately the Bible also says that many will be deceived, and because of this we should continue to know Christ better and to hide Scripture in our hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived. There's much to be said about this, and how frightening it really is, but the purpose of this passage for this entry is to show a practical use of scripture to refute false religions here on earth that describe themselves good and even classify themselves as Christian.

Do you use scripture to analyze claims by religious groups and people?

Today I was reading an essay that was being written by a communications friend of mine and they were doing a study on Organizations and how far down the hierarchy their values and mission travels. All the way down to the farthest down end-users. As I read this paper my mind immediately moved to put it in the context of churches and religions (and like-wise, cults) -- how often do we as "believers" simpl tyake for fact those things which the higher organizational end of our systems teach us. I am not going to bash any specific religious sect or denomination here, but the matter of fact is that each of them carry traditions that are taught and accepted without proper testing of scripture. This "Church of God" mentioned above is exploiting this to the max. They use provocative media and compelling statements to lead people to false personal religion. This happens in the Bible on several occasions, but there is one group of people in the Bible that are exhorted for the fact that they took everything they heard and tested it to scripture. They are a group called the Bereans -- when Paul, Silas, and Timothy were proclaiming the Gospel in Acts 17:10-15 the Bereans "welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." This is a great model for us as we grow in our walk with Christ and continue to learn. Every religion, church, organization, while valuable, has the ability to lead us astray. An organization is only as strong and perfect as it's head. As Christians, the only organization leader which we should follow because HE IS PERFECT is Christ.
.... Read your Bible. End of Story.

What would it be like...?

"Then Paul and Barnabas boldly said: "It was necessary that God's message be spoken to you [the Jews] first. But since you reject it and consider yourself unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles! For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

I have made you
a light for the Gentiles
to bring salvation
to the ends of the earth."

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the LORD, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed. So the message of the LORD spread through the whole region."
- Acts 13:46-49

At this point in time Paul had been chosen by God to take the Gospel to the Gentiles (of non-Jewish descent). Throughout his travels he was accompanied by different select individuals who would minister with Him. At this particular point, Barnabas was with him and they were being antagonized by the Jewish people because they were preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Salvation of the Gentiles to a mixed group of people.

So now I put myself in the shoes of those Gentiles on that day that Paul was preaching:

"Today Paul and Barnabas shared with me and my friends regarding the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of the Son of God who died so that my sins could too be forgiven as they have never been before. He shared that salvation has come to my people, and other people groups like mine, whom have never known the taste of eternal life. Today, the longing of my heart, the answer to that ever-lingering question has come to fruition. Jesus Christ is KING! He has overcome death. The Scriptures of old and the teaching of God's prophets were fulfilled in Him. I am thankful that God has given Paul a commissioning to preach to those without Jewish decent. In envy I have longed for what I believed they had as a Jew, a place with God forever. But now Paul has gone even as far to say that Jesus Christ is even causing the Jews to stumble in their beliefs, that they are arguing whether salvation still comes through the law. I think the law is good, but Paul has explained that the purpose of the law was to illustrate our need for salvation, being cleansed of sins. When he shared about his vision, he said "What God has made clean, you must not call common.". He was talking about US! God has made us clean! Today I am overwhelmed by the mercy and grace of God. I cannot wait to tell others about what Paul has shared; my friends and family have to know, people I don't know have to know, they must find out...!"

Verse 48: When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the LORD, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

What God planned came to fruition. The words of scripture are still continually coming to pass today, in my life and in yours.

Whose shoes are you wearing in this story?

• Do you find yourself to be like the Gentile, who has heard the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ?
• Are you the family or friend of this Gentile, who has yet to hear exactly what Paul was sharing with these groups of people?
• Are you like Paul, who has gained salvation through Christ and have now been sent to proclaim it to others?
• Are you like the Jewish people who were antagonizing Paul and Barnabas and who are stumbling over their beliefs because there is something they have yet to understand?

Finally, which part would you like to play in this story down the road?