Tag: Christian training

Saying Goodbye

Theme Week: Paul in Review: Acts 20

Old Testament: Job 40-42

Poetry: Psalm 48

            Goodbyes are hard.  This week I gathered with a lot of people that I love.  First at General Conference in Oregon, IL.  I was gathered for 3 days with people that I love.  Some are my biological family- My Mother, sisters, brother-in-law, uncle, cousins, sons and daughters, and sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. My wife was also there, while not biologically related she is my family and the one I love most in this world.  Then there were friends, fellow members of the Church, pastors, and other. Colleagues, people I’ve met through years of ministry.  Some I’ve known for over 40 years and they are part of my extended Church family that I love as brothers and sisters.  At the end of our conference, it was time to say goodbye.  I hope to see all of them again, but realistically, some of them I may never see again in this age and that makes me sad.

            Right after the conference we had another gathering, a family gathering to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday.  We had family come from across the US and across the world including my daughter from Germany and niece from New Zealand.  I saw cousins I had not seen in over 40 years and met their grandchildren.  We had a wonderful celebration.  But then we had to say goodbye as we all left to return to our various homes.  It will be months and years and possibly for some we will never see each other again in this age, and that makes me sad.

            What if you knew you would never see a group of people that you love again?  What would you be thinking about and wanting to say as you said goodbye to them?

            In Acts 20 the Apostle Paul is saying goodbye to a group of leaders from a Church he helped build in Ephesus.  He had spent three years of his life teaching, baptizing, training, encouraging, and correcting these people.  He loved them as brothers and sisters.  God had revealed to Paul that he would never see these people again in this age, and that made him sad.  As he said goodbye to them he gives us some insight into what things were important to him and how he had lived when he was with them and encouraged them to continue in the faith.

            Paul reminded them, and us, how he served the Lord.  Paul had been religious all of his life.  He was an observant Jew who faithfully abided by all ceremonial and purification rituals of the Jewish faith.  He was a descendant of Abraham through Jacob and a meticulous observer of the Torah, which is the Old Testament Covenant Practices.  Yet all those things didn’t get him to where he truly wanted and needed to be.  Something was missing.  That something, as it turned out, was a relationship with God as His father that was given as a gift of grace through entering into a covenant with God by faith in Jesus Christ.  Out of that new relationship with God through grace by faith in Jesus Christ came Paul’s understanding of himself and his mission.  Everything he did was in service to the Lord.

            Paul served with humility.  He knew that his call and commissioning did not originate with him and was not based on his merit but on God’s grace.  While he was not shy about claiming and using his authority as one sent by God (an apostle) Paul used that authority humbly.

            Paul did not serve God at a distance.  He was down in the front lines of battle where the true spiritual warfare was taking place.  Paul was often harmed both emotionally and physically.  He reminds his hearers that he served them with tears and trials.

            Paul discipled them by teaching a total way of life in Jesus Christ.  His teaching was not detached and theoretical, but practical.  Paul says that he taught anything profitable (vs. 20 ESV). Paul taught the whole counsel of God (vs.27). He didn’t just talk about a few narrow subjects that were most important to him.  For Paul following Jesus Christ impacts every area of your life.  There is no sacred vs. secular, religious vs. non-religious.  Jesus Christ is just as much a part of your schooling, your job, your friendships,  your marriage, your family, and your sex life as he is part of what you do at 11:00 on Sunday Mornings.

            Paul carried out his service for Christ in both public and personal spaces.  Whether he was in a large, organized group or in someone’s private home with one or two persons, Paul was about his mission.  In those spaces Paul emphasized the importance of repentance (turning away from sin and turning toward Jesus Christ as Lord), Paul emphasized faith as a way to access Jesus Christ.

            Paul placed his whole person into his service.  He was passionate in offering admonishment (correction) with tears. (Vs. 31).  Training others in following Jesus Christ includes a lot of encouragement and positive reinforcement, but it also includes the hard work of correcting both incorrect beliefs and behaviors.  Paul elsewhere talks about “speaking the truth in love.”  There is a loving way to speak even hard and corrective truth, but it is hard work and Paul did not shy away from hard work.  Paul reminded them of the many ways that he worked hard among them.

            Paul concludes his parting words by showing the value of working hard to help the weak.  The Christian’s job is not to shame the weak or guilt the weak, it’s not to judge the weak or berate the weak, but to help the weak.  This requires a great deal of altruistic love and willingness to patiently and sacrificially give.  Paul concludes with a reminder of Jesus’ own words on the value of giving over receiving. (Vs. 35).

            At the end of this passionate reminder of his life and teaching among them, they are all in tears as Paul gets down on his knees with them and prays.

-Jeff Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. If you were preparing to say goodbye to your brothers and sisters in Christ, what would you want to make sure they heard from you?
  2. What are you most impressed with what Paul shares with the Ephesians?
  3. What do you think Paul might say to your church if he was saying goodbye to you instead of the Ephesians?
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Beat into Submission

1 Corinthians 9

Just like many of you, the familiar John Williams Olympic anthem, “Daaa…Daaa…Da. Da. Da. Da.” has already rang through my ears a handful of times as I watched the opening of the summer Olympic games. It has always marked anticipation, but more so this year, an end to a long sigh created by the indefinite postponement of the Tokyo 2020 a year ago.  While there are no crowds in attendance, the athletes are masked, and there is some political drama that often surrounds countries in participation, the beating of those timpani drums and the blaring french horns help us to remember a place we’ve been before.  All of this solely from a spectator’s point-of-view.  How much more have the athletes participating in the games marked this moment?  A year of extra training and sacrifice to compete at the highest level on a global stage, doing so maneuvering through a world experiencing a global crisis.  These medals given this year are seemingly worth more because of the delay and extra challenges these athletes faced in their training. 

It is fortuitous that our reading befits this moment where we are consumed with this competition for medals and crowing of our victors:

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air” – 1 Corinthians 9:26

So, if you’re reading this blog, chances are you are not one of the 15,000+ athletes competing in the summer Olympic or Paralympic games (although, we would welcome any Olympian to read).  You may be accomplished at a single sport, but you’re undoubtedly not at the next level.  You may be dedicated to a fitness program, but you are not sacrificing all of your playtime or rearranging your schedule for your athletic pursuits.  You haven’t hired a trainer.  You haven’t shaved your legs to remove a hundredths of a second from your personal best.  You may not even be inspired to any athletic pursuit simply by watching (although many future Olympians are).  Yet, by being a follower of Christ (not the games), you are being called, challenged, and elicited into a training that is more demanding, more exasperating, and more punishing than any Olympian has ever faced in the context of competition at the games.

While there are several paths of metaphors we could draw from, the one that is most striking are the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians. It is the most intense description, hyperbole that could very well be made literal in some contexts. Ultimately, we must slave away at becoming the most disciplined evangelist, with the purpose of preaching and living out the gospel of Jesus Christ or plainly face disqualification from the prize.

“No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” – 1 Corinthians 9:27

This is a scary thought.  That my faith must be trained and disciplined in such a way that it would be on that next-level, to compete for a prize that is longer lasting than precious metals.  My evangelism could be record-setting. My ministry could be to a worldwide audience. But what stands in the way is my greatest opponent. Who is it?  Me.  Because I must be willing to give up the life that I could have in order to live for the glory that I am supposed to attain. I must be willing to strike a self-blow, to cut off my hand, to gouge out my eye, and to die daily. Or more realistically, get off my phone, read and pray consistently, have uncomfortable conversations, be filled with the Spirit of God, and let my coach and my God call all the shots. This is what I must do in order to make gains, receiving the strength and knowledge that comes through Christ Jesus. While it must be an incredible experience for the world to see you lower your head to receive your medal as a victor, representing your people and country, how much greater will it be to receive the crown of life which represents a kingdom and people that are far more perfect than the ideals that guide the games we currently watch?  Whether you have started your training already, are coming out of retirement, or beginning your training today, take a good look at your opponent in the mirror.  Size him/her up. You ultimately will have to be disciplined enough to take him/her on, become enslaved to Christ, and with the grace of God, beat yourself into submission, so God can see you through to the victory.

-Aaron Winner

Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Nehemiah 5-6 and 1 Corinthians 9

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Go! Fight! Win!

1 Corinthians 9

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize_ Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9: 24)

Being competitive is sometimes presented in a negative light.  Probably because competition can bring out the ‘jerk’ in people.  That’s too bad, because in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is telling them (and us) to lean into that competitive spirit.

Paul is using this as an analogy, by the way, he’s not telling us that we are in competition with other believers.  He uses two phrases that I hope will inspire you as you run your race.

“strict training”

Athletes preparing for a big competition don’t eat whatever they want and binge Netflix all day.  What do they do instead?  They do things that will help them succeed in their goal.  (Winning!)  Paul’s goal, and ours, is “a crown that will last forever.”

How do we train for eternal life?

The word obey comes to mind.  In order to obey we need to really know Scripture.  If we want to hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant,” we need to know what the Master expects of us.  And we need to do it, even when it’s hard.  Just like the athlete in training gets off the couch and goes to practice, even when he’s tired, we need to obey even when it doesn’t make sense to our human sensibilities.

“do not run aimlessly”

If you’ve ever been to a kid’s sporting event, you know that there are players that do not have their head in the game.  They are wandering around the field, chatting with friends, maybe even picking flowers in the grass.  Adorable.

Not so adorable when it’s adults in an Olympic competition and not cute when we’re talking about forever.

So many of us say that we are sharing our faith by they way that we live our lives.  But how much of that is a cop-out because we’re not comfortable evangelizing?  If we are actively sharing our faith through our life, we will be intentional in planning ways to do it.  We won’t just be going about our life, wandering aimlessly along.

I encourage you today to make a training plan.  How are you getting ready for Christ’s return?  I also encourage you to make a game plan.  How are you looking for ways to share your faith with those around you?

-Susan Landry