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Letter to a friend

Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth. I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.

Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.

I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to write it with pen and ink. For I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face. Peace be with you. Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.
3 John 1:2‭-‬15 NLT

This letter from John to Gaius is quite loving, quite personal, and quite revealing.

John starts out with a loving compliment and encouragement. He equates following Jesus (“following the truth”) to faithfulness and living according to the truth — an abiding faith that is actively impacting his friend’s daily life.

He then commended his friend for helping strangers who are traveling teachers. He mentions not only that we should support them while they are with us, but to partner with them so they can continue to travel and teach. How many traveling teachers have you or I even encountered? And how many have we helped? We might wonder, how do we know if they are true or false, tricksters or truth bearers?

John contrasts these traveling teachers (unknown missionary evangelists presumably) who are continually trusting God and strangers (humbling themselves), with a man who “lives to be the leader” (a recognizable, charismatic, authoritative kingdom builder presumably) that refuses fellowship (proud and exclusionary).

Don’t the worldly gravitate towards building up one type of leader for themselves, while those truly trusting in God, have a relationship with their unseen but well recognized teacher and don’t need to call anyone teacher (Matthew .

I heard Paul Washer preach on a similar subject some time ago ( link here ), and it still rings true — not just about mega-church celebrities on TV that don’t preach the whole counsel of the Word of God, but those in many grand gatherings within your very own towns!

But even knowing this, John encourages his friend not to let this influence him. He doesn’t tell his friend to be so offended that he makes out his life’s testimony to speak against this false teacher? No, John says,

Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

I’ve also seem many who are so distracted and offended by others that their teaching gets stuck in the mud of only standing with a pointed finger talking about others rather than hearing the warnings for themselves and following and doing only what is good not evil. We do not return evil for evil, we do good. Yes, we must remember that as soon as we find our message turning outward, it may be a distraction attempting to hide what needs to be revealed about ourselves not about another.

And Paul mentions that there are more intimate and personal things that He has to share with his friend that are better said in person. I wonder if there is a conversation that would better be had between you and I, friend, face to face? Not far away from each other, but close like friends? Is there something troubling you? Is there a need that needs meet as you travel proclaiming this gospel? Or maybe I’m the traveling teacher and you want to partner with me? Maybe we can walk together for a season and reach many with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

As Paul said to his friend,

I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face. Peace be with you.

And to the enemies of Christ,

When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.

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Out of Gas

First off, my wife is amazing.

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:10‭-‬12 NLT

My savior Jesus Christ revealed Himself yet again through my loving wife, who got to be my roadside savior this morning!

————

Remember how in my post yesterday (see here), I mentioned that my car was on empty?

Well guess what happens when you don’t do something about it?

What a lesson about life, when you find yourself so busy running from one place to the other that you forget to refill your own tank.

Yesterday, I was quick to pull over when I thought someone needed help, but I wasn’t so quick to take care of the items I needed to tend to. I didn’t stop and get gas, because I was in a hurry and I forgot.

So now, I’m the one sitting on the side of the road myself, in need of help myself. How often had this same thing happened in different ways?

How many times has a pastor who counsels others about their marriages found that he’s not pouring into His own wife and kids like he should?

How many times have we sat and listened to a friend and tried to help them with what we thought we heard in their words, thinking we had advice for them instead of hearing the conviction that was meant for us?

How many times have we been blind guides, acting as if we are able to lead the blind ourselves, instead of relying on and giving all credit to Christ (who lives in us as we stand in awe that He would use even us).

———–

Last night, Mia and I set a goal for this day that wee would be an extra special blessing to someone in a way that isn’t just part of our normal day. We wanted to brighten up someone’s day intentionally just for the purpose of seeing their smile, their joy, their encouragement. But I started out my day having to interrupt my wonderful wife’s morning with the burdensome task of bringing me has on the side of the interstate. And I sit here in a powerless car that must wait for the source of its power to be refilled.

My prayer isn’t that Mia and I strive today and do some good works under our own power so that we might brag to each other tonight about our filthy rags, no. But my prayer is that God would reveal Himself to someone today through the loving kindness He has poured out in us.

Lord, help us to remember that we are just as reading upon your grace and mercy and live and help as the next. And remind us that much business is not necessarily greatly used. And that being a blessing is sometimes giving someone else an opportunity to be a blessing and to receive pour praise and honor for being an unexpected blessing, especially when it costs them something. Remind us to keep our own tank filled. Remind is to be grateful to those willing to pour into us, and help us to carry your blessing and pour it out in love. Amen.

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Bodies and Cars and Love by the Wayside

Ever been driving on a cold, rainy morning — and see a body off the side of the road, face down in the grass, not moving?

I did this morning.

FaceDownGrass

And even as I continued by and watched in my rear view mirror, I knew what I had to do. Even though my fuel gauge was on empty, even though I was going to be late for work, even though my phone was dead and I had no way of calling 911 — so many reasons to let someone else handle it — but I knew that I had to go back.

As I turned the car around and headed back, I wondered to myself, “What am I even going to do if this guy is dead and not just passed out?”

But imagine my surprise when he was surprised by my approach and my loud shout of, “Is everything okay?” Imagine my surprise when what I thought was either a dead body or a passed out drunk — responded alert and quite as much surprised by my unexpected presence in his morning, as I was about his presence in mine.

I then realized that he had been laying on his face, motionless with his right arm (that I thought was beneath him) actually down some type of hole or pipe and he was doing some type of utility work with his hand deep in the ground.

“Sorry, I just wasn’t sure if everything was okay,” I stammered as I stopped short and made it clear to him that I wasn’t approaching as a threat but as a concerned neighbor.

I don’t know if he laughed or exactly what he said, but we both realized the humor of each other’s side of the situation for a moment — we had both for that split moment looked at the situation from how the other was seeing it — him seeing a guy who thought he was about to deal with a body on the side of the road — and me seeing a guy just trying to start his dirty morning work to have a stranger come up from behind and scare him.

I said, “God bless” and headed back on my way to work.

But it got me thinking — how many times do we see metaphorical “dead or hurt bodies along the ditches of this life through which we are walking” and choose to do nothing about it?

And how many times might we think that we’re about to help someone who is in trouble to realize that they are just fine and don’t actually need our help?

Do we even stop to find out?

I’m not saying that to glorify the fact that I stopped this time, because there are many times that not only did I not stop to help my brother or sister in need, I didn’t really care about them because “I had my own things to worry about.”

Let’s look at it from a different angle too…

I spent time with a friend who drives a wrecker early, early this morning for the second Thursday morning in a row where he was picking up a car from the side of the road. Last week it was a vehicle that had flipped and rolled over multiple times. This week it was a vehicle that had been stolen and recovered by the police. In the first case, the occupants of the car wanted and needed help. The occupant of the car this time needed help but definitely didn’t want the help he found by way of the back seat of a police car.

But even though we might see the parallels and connections up to this point, I want to bring out something that Nickey (that’s my friend who drives the wrecker) mentioned while we were riding in that roll back wrecker early this morning.

He said, “Hop, you know how some folks are quick to hug and tell each other they love each other?”

“Yes,” I replied.

He said, “I don’t do that, because I think that the English language does a disservice to that word love. There is only one word for ‘love’ in English, but in Hebrew and Greek and many other languages they have different words to describe the actual thing they are talking about.”

“I understand what you’re saying. People can say ‘love’ and mean all kinds of things in English — passion, intimacy, deep brotherly love, superficial love, like, lust — all kinds of things,” I replied.

He continued, “If I ask you to help me with something and you tell me that you’re too busy, what are you really saying?”

I understood his line of questioning immediately. I answered, “I’m saying that I care more about what I have planned or want to do.”

“And that speaks to what you truly love, right?” Nickey prompted and then quickly mentioned, “You remember when I asked you a few weeks ago about us getting together with our wives for dinner sometime?”

Boom! Bomb dropped in love. Correction accepted. I love this man, this friend, this brother.

Here I thought we were having a Luke 10:25-37, Parable of the Good Samaritan, conversation. And we were passing through that “town” of love, but the “street address” that Nickey was looking for as we rode along in that flatbed wrecker together was John 13:35.

I spoke with my wife this morning. We’ll be doing dinner with Nickey and his wife next week.

 

John 13:34-35 (NLT)

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

 

Luke 10:25-37 (NLT)

The Most Important Commandment

25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Parable of the Good Samaritan

30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[c] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

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His Plan

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath: “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided.
Isaiah 14:24 NLT
http://bible.com/116/isa.14.24.NLT

Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.
Ecclesiastes 6:10 NLT
http://bible.com/116/ecc.6.10.NLT

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
Isaiah 46:9‭-‬10 NLT
http://bible.com/116/isa.46.9-10.NLT

The Lord does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths.
Psalms 135:6 NLT
http://bible.com/116/psa.135.6.NLT

All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’
Daniel 4:35 NLT
http://bible.com/116/dan.4.35.NLT

The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.
Proverbs 16:4 NLT
http://bible.com/116/pro.16.4.NLT

Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission? Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?
Lamentations 3:37‭-‬38 NLT
http://bible.com/116/lam.3.37-38.NLT

I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the Lord , am the one who does these things.
Isaiah 45:7 NLT
http://bible.com/116/isa.45.7.NLT

Look now; I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!
Deuteronomy 32:39 NLT
http://bible.com/116/deu.32.39.NLT

But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?” No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.
Romans 9:11‭-‬23 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.9.11-23.NLT

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Ephesians 1:4‭-‬5 NLT
http://bible.com/116/eph.1.4-5.NLT

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Romans 8:29‭-‬30 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.8.29-30.NLT

Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
Ephesians 1:11 NLT
http://bible.com/116/eph.1.11.NLT

For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.
John 6:44 NLT
http://bible.com/116/jhn.6.44.NLT

For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:9 NLT
http://bible.com/116/2ti.1.9.NLT

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:8‭-‬10 NLT
http://bible.com/116/eph.2.8-10.NLT

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38‭-‬39 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.8.38-39.NLT