Jeremiah 17:7-8 says:
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
A tree’s confidence is its roots. A tree’s roots support it, nourish it, and provide for its sustenance.
We are to function in much the same way.
Our confidence comes from having our roots firmly grounded in the Lord.
Look what the verse says . . . The tree that has roots in the river does not fear the scorching heat of drought.
If our roots are sent out into the character of God, when the heat of trials come (and it will . . . it always does), we will be able to persevere. Heat is still hot. It’s still uncomfortable. But the leaves of the tree by the river stays green through the heat. If we are rooted in God, the leaves of our lives will remain even through the toughest trials.
Not only will we persevere, but we will come through the drought better off. Rooted in the Lord, we will never “fail to bear fruit.”
A lot of different folks stop by this blog, and I am thankful for each of you.
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If you are a parent, what are you doing TODAY to help your child send down roots grounded in the Lord? How are you equipping them to weather lives dry periods?
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If you are a youth worker, what example do you set for teenagers? How do you stay strong in the midst of life’s parched moments? What are you doing in your ministries to take your students deeper into a knowledge of God?
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If you are a spouse, how are you helping turn your partner’s attention to the Lord? What are you doing to create a relationship, a home, where God is truly foundational?
May each of you find your roots solidly planted in God.
Have a great weekend.
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Filed under: Bible Study/Teaching, Spiritual Development, family, ministry, teenagers, youth ministry | Tagged: bible, bible study, glory of god, God, grounded, grounded in God, hard times, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Scripture, struggle, struggle everyday, struggle through, struggles, the bible, the trials of life, trials of life | Leave a Comment »
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The Disease of Criticism in (and of) the Church
This isn’t the post I was going to write. But, I’ll save it for another day . . .
I am at a conference in New Orleans. After a late night last night, the conference deosn’t start back up until tonight. So, today has been a productive day of catching up in a nice hotel room without the distractions of meetings and fires needing immediate “putting out.”
I just finished lunch, and was perusing my Google Reader when I came across a very thought provoking article by David Swanson on Christianity Today’s leadership blog, Out of Ur. The article was a good one, generally asking an question I often deal with about the nature of the Gospel and pure representation of it through public testimony. It was a thought provoking piece on how our methodology is affected by our theology (and vice versa).
I get to the end of the piece and was going to make a comment. That’s when I made the mistake of reading some of the other comments. They weren’t bad. Not nearly as offensive as you might see elsewhere. And they weren’t personally affrontive.
Some of them were just really critical. And not really critical of the real issue David was raising.
Two of the comments took specif issue with some of David’s characterizations of the people in the article, taking to time to sort of lecture about this or that . . .
The specifics really aren’t important. What kind of stopped me in my tracks is the realization of how critical we have become as a Church.
We have this wonderful medium, the Internet, that has been harnessed to create virtual environments where incredible knowledge is being communicated. Meaning is being created on the spot! Wonderful articles and sermons about culture, theology, praxis, and so much more occur on blogs and sites across the Internet.
But inevitably, each article ends and the comment section begins.
And here is where so often things get ugly.
In every single comment section on any meaningful post or site, there are “trolls,” people who use that little blank text box to attack and ridicule. They do not really offer any meaningful new information about the issue at hand. Many times, they will pick a tangential point made and use it to hammer home their personal soap-box speech about this or that. Instead of informing a discussion, whether it be with a dissenting viewpoint or a supporting one, they divide with their words.
One of my favorite writers, William Barclay, once wrote, “There is room in God’s Kingdom for different opinions.” I believe in the civil exchange of different ideas.
I welcome it.
What I have grown so weary of (and I mean truly weary, I cannot overstate this) is the culture of criticism that absolutely pervades Christendom. It has become a cottage industry.
I hate it. I really do. And it is almost enough to make someone despair.
Have we lost the spirit of Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:29 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11?
There is room for healthy critique . . . but in the name and spirit of Christ.
There is room for discipline and rebuke . . . but only in accordance with the model set by Christ in Matthew 18:15-17 and Paul in Galatians 6:1.
There is absolutely no place for self-righteous criticism (aimed at another person or an entity made-up of people) that does not build up the individual or the Body.
I hate to be so blunt, but the old cliche comes to mind: If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Certainly it is rarely this cut and dry, but the sentiment seems appropriate for this issue.
How would your interactions with the Church, with other specific believers, change if you measured everything you say by whether or not you were building the Church up, or tearing her down? Whether or not you were encouraging someone to think abotu a different view, or attacking what you perceive to be their shortcomings.
We have been tasked by Scripture to build each other up through our words.
I wish this were a truth we, the Church, felt compelled to embrace . . .
Filed under: Bible Study/Teaching, Reflections, Spiritual Development, church culture, ministry | Tagged: building up, church criticism, critical comments, criticism, critique, disagreement, division, encouragement, judging, judgmental, Unity | 7 Comments »