Another highly recommended series taught by Pastor Harold Hoffman of First Church (Stirling Heights, MI).
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Tag: relationships
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God In the Midst of You
Zephaniah 3:14, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
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True Cross
Luke 9:23-24
(23) And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
(24) For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Hebrews 12:1-2
(1) Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
(2) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
In Luke 15 we have the account of three men – a father and two brothers.
Prodigal son was met by his father, and the older son was met by his father.
The father met both because he loved them both equally.
However, the prodigal son had a son mentality, but was willing to be a servant – Luke 15:17-20, “(17) And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! (18) I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, (19) And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. (20) And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (KJV).
The elder brother had a slave mentality longing to be a son – “All these years I’ve worked like a slave for you” (ISV).
We need a revelation of the Father’s love.
“Jesus, give me a revelation of Your love for me.”
Without a revelation of the Father’s love we will try to somehow earn our place in His family,
Children don’t earn a place in the family – they are born into the family, and we are born into the family of God.
The new birth puts you in the family of God.
What does it mean to be a bastard and not a son?
What does it mean to be illegitimate in the eyes of God?
The church is a family.
When Jesus says I go to prepare a place for you, He is preparing a place for His Bride, His Church, His family.
Why?
So that where He is there we will be also.
Relationship
Relationship demands proximity, it demands closeness.
It’s that “where I am there you may be also” intimacy found in healthy relationships.
The devil’s tool for destruction is isolation.
To put a gap between you and God.
Sin will surely do that, but so will your inability to see yourself as a son.
You need to be confident in your identity = I AM A CHILD OF GOD.
To be unaware of your true identity and all that comes with it — the benefits of sonship is – detrimental to you.
Know the benefits of carrying His name
Ephesians 3:14-21
(14) For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(15) Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
(16) That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
(17) That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
(18) May be able to comprehend [to understand] with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
(19) And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
(20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
(21) Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Verse 18-19
- You are the temple of the Holy Ghost
- The Church of God is a building: a heavenly house, a habitation for God to dwell in through the Holy Spirit
- The Love of God for His Church is wide and long and deep and tall.
- Length = Love is eternal.
- Breadth = All people have access to His Love in every place, age or nation.
- Depth = His love will find people at their lowest point.
- Height = His love will take people to the highest state of glory in Christ.
I remember laying in the top bunk at the age of 11 or 12 with my Walkman cassette player on listening to the Imperials and crying as I told God
I’d do whatever He wanted me to do,
go wherever He wanted me to go,
and be whomever He called me to be.
I can still feel the wetness of the tears as they pooled in my ears.
I don’t remember the exact song, but I remember the moment of calling, response, and commitment I made on that top bunk with my pillow wet with salty tears.
It was there I took up my cross to follow Jesus.
After that night, the devil worked to destroy my young heart, innocence and pure desire.
You may think that devil ain’t worried about a child’s commitment, future, destiny, or ordination.
You would be wrong
The Antichrist Spirit in Herod tried to kill the Christ, and did indeed kill many children in the process.
Abortion is a satanic tool to destroy the hope and future of our next generation.
All the OT youth: David (lion, bear, giant), young Joseph betrayed, Josiah barely escaping Athaliah’s treachery.
Moses in the bulrush escaping death.
New Converts – young babes in Christ – fighting for their spiritual lives against an enemy who seeks to kill, steal and destroy.
The devil will sift because he wants to destroy, but what he sees as victory is actually God blowing away the chaff that hinders you from fulfilling your purpose.
“The 3D Strategy of Satan: Detour, Distract, Delay.”
-Ken Gurley ?
The devil will try to put a false cross on you if you let him.
This weight might be a legitimate concern that the devil inflates into an illegitimate cross.
The burden he wants to saddle you with doe not lead to victory and resurrection power,
But it leads to hopelessness and despair.
He seeks to get you isolated in order to plague you and burden you down the inner struggles and secret parts of your life,[1]
There – Alone – feelings of depression, desolation and inadequacy overwhelm us.
We then keep the struggle of this False Cross to ourselves and tell ourselves the lie, “This is just my cross to bear.”
That’s a lie.
You have a cross to bare, but this ain’t it.
If you carry this illegitimate cross you’ll be worn away.
Your true cross will lead to full and complete deliverance, power and victory.
The true cross will lead to death, yes, but also to true resurrection:
Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings…”
Take up your cross and follow Jesus.
Stop carrying the false cross of weights and sins.
Quit listening to the voice of the serpent whispering in your ear.
The devil is a LIAR, and the father of all lies.
Because of this, whatever he tells you is a lie and an attempt to get you to believe what he knows is untrue.
So, anytime the devil tells you something just ask yourself, “what is the exact opposite?”
When you find out what that opposite is, it’s a good indication of where the Lord is likely taking you.
Also, if the devil tells you he’s going to kill, destroy, ruin, harm, rob, etc.
You can be certain that he will not do that because he doesn’t have the permission to do it.
If he did then he would have already done it and wouldn’t warn you.
When he speaks it is a play to intimidate and a sign that you are safely in the protection of God.
Praise the Lord[2] -The Imperials
When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams
And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes
And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears
Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear
Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord, for the chains that seems to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you
When you praise Him
Now Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think
That we are paupers when he knows himself we’re children of the King
So lift up the mighty shield of faith for the battle must be won
We know that Jesus Christ has risen so the work’s already done
2 Corinthians 2:11
Four Attacks of Satan
“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
John 10:10
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
- Obsession
- Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
- A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.[3]
- Oppression
- The act of oppressing; arbitrary and cruel exercise of power:
- “There can be no really pervasive system of oppression… without the consent of the oppressed.” -Florynce R. Kennedy
- The state of being oppressed.
- Something that oppresses.
- A feeling of being heavily weighed down in mind or body.[4]
- The act of oppressing; arbitrary and cruel exercise of power:
- Depression
- A mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity.
- Sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy.
- A state of depression and anhedonia (the absence of pleasure or the ability to experience it) so severe as to require clinical intervention.[5]
- Possession
- The state of being dominated by or as if by evil spirits or by an obsession.[6]
Seven Weapons Against Satan’s Attack[7]
Isaiah 59:19b
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.”
- The Blood of Jesus Christ.
- Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
- Exodus 12:13, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
- Our Testimony.
- Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
- The Name of Jesus.
- Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
- Colossians 3:17, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
- The Written Word of God.
- Matthew 4:1-10, “1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”
- Prayer and Praise.
- Philippians 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
- I Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
- Angels of the LORD.
- Hebrews 1:13-14, “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
- Psalm 103:20, “Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.”
- The Holy Ghost.
- John 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
- Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
- Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
[1] Kenneth V. Reeves. The Angels, Demons & People (Vol. 1). p. 20
[2] https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/6616995/The+Imperials/Praise+The+Lord
[3] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 4-20-2005.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=obsession
[4] Ibid. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=oppression
[5] Ibid. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=depression
[6] Ibid. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=possession
[7]Kenneth V. Reeves. The Angels, Demons & People (Vol. 1). p. 33-47.
“No person should ever feel that their lack inhibits them from being an influence for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing:
Not a lack of education.
Not a lack of Christian pedigree.
Nor a lack of money.
Not the lack of a polished personality
Or being an introvert in a world drawn to extroverts.
The evidence is clear. Almighty God uses unexpected people to influence the outcome of human history.
You can be one of those He uses.
Moreover, you should be one of those He uses.”
-Carlton Coon, https://a.co/c4igeQs
I’m reminded of the Andre Crouch song “Take Me Back” (1975). So often in my life it’s been the older songs that I grew up hearing and singing, which resonate deep in my spirit. Here are the words that still speak to me:
Take Me Back
-Andre Crouch
Take me back,
Take me back, dear Lord,
To the place,
Where I first received You.
Take me back,
Take me back, dear Lord,
Where I first believed.
I feel that I’m so far from You Lord,
But still I hear You calling me.
Those simple things,
That I once knew,
The memories are drawing me.
I must confess, Lord, I’ve been blessed,
But yet, my soul’s not satisfied.
Renew my faith,
Restore my joy,
Then dry my weeping eyes.
I tried so hard
To make it all alone
I need Your help
Just to make it home.
Kokomo, IN
Today, and every day, we need to renew our relationship with God. He is looking for an authenticity from us based on a continuing renewal of the fervor we first had at our initial conversion. The simplicity of our faith and our humility combined with the simplicity of the Gospel resulted in an authentic conversion.
The words “renew my faith, renew my joy, then dry my weeping eyes” is a call get back to the place where we first gave our will to God.
What is it about us that having first come to Jesus with empty hands and totally dependent upon him we now, after being “in the Church” for some time, think we can somehow do it all on our own?
I think that there are many people, especially in their 20s and 30s, that received an initial conversion experience at a young age (6-10), but did not really get converted until later, when they were more mature. This may be why we have trouble as young adults. We “got” the Holy Ghost at a young age, but the Holy Ghost did not “get” get us until later.
It is amazing to me to witness the blessing of God on us and yet we are not satisfied in our relationship with Him because of our own self-sufficiency, pride, and vain living. It is a crutch – a trap of the enemy and the flesh to alienate us from intimacy with Jesus Christ, not a “Jesus is my boyfriend” type of intimacy that we are constantly barraged with in this self-absorbed culture we live in, but a closeness that comes from a genuine relationship with our Savior – a relationship that is deepened every day in the good and the bad that life throws at us.
Paul wrote of a desire to know our Lord Jesus Christ in every facet of life in order that he might one day be resurrected from the dead: “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10, NLT).
C. S. Lewis addressed the purpose of suffering in his book The Problem of Pain in this way:
My own experience is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in an ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity to-day, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down.
At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me.
Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.
Our problem is that we become desensitized to those “Take Me Back” moments and even brush them aside when God calls us to some personal time with Him. Jesus wants us to give ourselves to Him and surrender our will to His will. One way we can do that is to take the time to go back to those simpler times when all we had was our faith in Him and all we wanted was His presence in our lives guiding, keeping, and sustaining us.
Originally posted on 7 June 2008 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2008/06/take-me-back.html
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The Road Home
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Relationship
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You’ve Got A Friend
Text:
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 15:12-17, “(12) This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (14) Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (15) Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (16) Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (17) These things I command you, that ye love one another.”
Proverbs 18:24, A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Perhaps the most well-known line in the New Testament stems from John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…”
It is essential that we receive His love if we are to be productive and successful in the purpose He has set before each of us.
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you…”
Jesus is simply saying that considering the friendship He has offered and the sacrifice for us that He has made, we reveal the true depth of our love by “observing His commands from a principle of love”[1]
His love, His mercy, His Grace and His friendship has so influenced us that our return of affection and attachment to Him is displayed by our loving faith and obedience to Him and His Word.
But we have an adversary, who is daily opposing you to destroy you.
This enemy uses every tactic available to get you to lose heart and push away the friendship that Jesus has given to us, by disregarding His Word and losing faith in His purpose for us.
Peter’s epistle is clear, “(12) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (13) But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. (14) If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified” (1 Peter 4:12-14).
We sometimes need to get a new perspective of what’s going on when we battle the adversary.
We are not the first person to suffer trials
We won’t be the last
Rejoice! Your trial – as long as you are living in obedience to God’s Word – is a sign that you are in the perfect will of God.
We are tempted to retreat when the enemy makes his moves on us.
To turn and run in the day of battle
But God is our strength and a very present help in times of trouble.
Jesus doesn’t abandon you. He is with you.
If you have the Holy Ghost, it’s His Spirit in you that gives and grants you power of overcome the most deadly situations.
God is you friend.
He said, “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).
Therefore we can say with boldness, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb. 13:6).
You’ve Got A Friend –Carole King
When you’re down and troubled
And you need some lovin’ care
And nothin’, nothin’ is goin’ right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night
You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend
Now, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend
When people can be so cold?
They’ll hurt you, yes, and desert you
And take your soul if you let them
Oh, but don’t you let them
Don’t let the enemy take your soul, your hopes, your dreams, your faith.
That ‘ol slew foot devil is no stranger to ripping apart friendships, and he has several strategies he employs:
- Deception – he wants to deceive you by any means necessary. A lie, an assumption, a misleading question, a doubtful thought, a misunderstanding are all deceiving tactics.
- Destruction – he thinks that if he can destroy all you hold dear that you’ll take the unwanted advice of Job’s wife, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9).
- Distraction – he wants you to be so overwhelmed by what is going on around you that you’ll lose focus on your purpose and you’ll even give up on your dream.
- misplaced priorities…well-meaning as they may seem…will divert you from your focus.
- Delight – We are living in a day of delight, of amusement, of entertainment. It is a time where are just caught up with the pleasure we receive watching, hearing ad partaking of the newest thing out there. It can be clothes, cars, music, movies, political intrigue, conspiracy theories, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok – It’s all delightful to the flesh and it is drawing you away from friendship from God as you wholeheartedly take part in it.
- James 4:1-8, “(1) From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? (2) Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (3) Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (4) Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (5) Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? (6) But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (8) Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
- Delay – Delay is not denial, but the enemy will make you think it is. Don’t Quit! Keep on living for the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
- Diffident – “modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence.”[2] The devil wants you to be timid, shy, fearful…intimidated. Intimidation is the devil’s tool, but refuse his attack and remember this, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
All that this enemy wants to do it destroy your friendship with God, but he is already a defeated foe.
Our friend has already defeated all the works of the devil.
You’ve Got a Friend!
No, Not One –Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856-1926)
There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!
None else could heal all our souls’ diseases:
No, not one! no, not one!
Jesus knows all about our struggles;
He will guide ’til the day is done:
There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!
A Word about Dreams:
Small dreams are accompanied by small struggles and little results.
The great dreamers all suffered heartbreak and were tempted to despair and give up on their dream.
To be tempted to toss aside their faith and lose hope because the opposition to the dream is so great is a normal temptation, but the dreamer who keeps moving forward is placing his trust in something bigger than himself.
Joseph held onto the dream God gave him throughout all his struggles, all his disappointments, all his opposition. If he’d given up on his dream…his purpose…his family would have possibly died in the famine, Egypt would have become a dust bowl, and God’s dream for Joseph…His purpose…would have been thwarted.
Opposition is a compliment. It is a sure sign that you are heading in the right direction.
So, don’t allow the carnal voices of the unsaved, the ungodly, or the unspiritual distract you from your purpose, or get you to lose heart and give up your faith in the dream God placed in you.
He called you to it, He will take you through it.
[1] John Gill
[2] Diffident. OxfordDictionaries. Oxford University Press.
Took a drive today through the countryside and ended up at Remo’s Hotdogs in Gallipolis, OH (my new favorite hotdog joint).
During my meandering course through the hills of southeastern Ohio, I noticed the abundance of old barns on the farms along the way. I’ve always related, for some reason, to the weathered, and sometimes dilapidated, look of an old barn standing alone in a meadow, or beside an old country road, or on a hill near an old farmhouse.
Oftentimes, they look abandoned, and I’ve thought about what use they serve now sitting there empty or full of castaway items long forgotten and rejected by time.
There is a beauty in the way those old barns stand in stately ancestral pride, and, yet, in the same location we view a sad story of neglect.
The reality is, at some point their usefulness was no longer needed and for whatever reason they were left to stand as a testimony to the greatness that once was the American breadbasket.
Now, I don’t think those old faded barns were all intentionally left to fall into ruin, but over time each owner let down on some important area of maintenance.
Perhaps, one too many Summers went by without a fresh coat of paint.
Maybe, they intended to fix those hinges and broken window panes “soon.”
Or, the metal roof blown away in the storm exposing the rough hewn beams, rafters and trusses underneath were just too expensive and hopefully we’ll have the money next season, or after the harvest to fix it right.
I don’t know, I’m just speculating that those old beautiful haunted barns need not be neglected to the point of rejection, or abandonment.
I think relationships are often a lot like those once majestic barns. Their utility and usefulness are necessary and we really couldn’t do life properly without a well built and oft maintained relationship (with Jesus or friends or family or spouse).
Sometimes wistful thoughts of old friends, or even newer ones, come to mind and we realize that we’ve let up on maintaining healthy relationships. I’ve said it and I’ve heard it said, “Remember when…?”
I don’t think many relationships end overnight (it’s the rare occasion when a storm or fire destroys or burns down a barn). Instead, it’s the little areas of maintenance left undone that accumulate over time.
Things like, ignoring that inner voice that draws us to prayer; or to call someone; we engage in less and less one-on-one activity; miss events that we use to make time for and share with another; avoid real and meaningful conversations; diminish, or, God help us, eliminate prayer time; and so on.
So, today, not tomorrow or when you find the time, but right now, call that special loved one, or run by their house and sit on the porch with them. Turn off the cellphone and talk and listen and laugh and cry and dream and share and hope and pray and brush on that paint and tighten that hinge and glaze that pane and cover that roof.
-Stephen Kuntzman (6/6/2020)
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 