Brown's Daily Word 9-19-08

GOOD morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for Jesus, who is our eternal contemporary. Detrick Bonhoeffer spoke of "Religionless Christianity". The Christian faith is not a religion. It is about a new and living relationship with Jesus, the Risen One. The Christian faith is not about rituals and customs; it is rather about the dynamic relationship with Jesus, the righteous one. In Christ alone we live, move, and have our being. Because Jesus Chris is alive and well we can live this day under His grace and under His authority. We can experience a deep and abiding love in Him. He refreshes us and He renews us.
David W. Smith writes a fellow by the name of Chuck, who was, perhaps, the most hard-working salesman in his company’s history. He usually spent 65 to 75 hours a week at the office when he wasn’t traveling. And when he was on the road he worked ninety hour weeks. Of course, no one complained about his schedule. If anything, others were jealous of his success. He generated incredible revenues, beating all other sales representatives, hands down, year after year. His lifestyle showed off his success. His suits were top of the line, he bought a new car every two years, and his house was worth a million dollars. He was even married to one of the most beautiful women in town, and he had two children, both of whom were doing well in school. Of course he made sure that his family had every material desire they wanted. What more did he (or they) need? He spent so much time working and winning in the marketplace that he had no time to spend developing friendships with other men. Certainly he knew many people at work, and he came in contact daily with clients who relied on him and his expertise. But no one knew Chuck. Nothing really mattered to Chuck but the next sale. This was all he lived for. Then Chuck retired. He walked out of the office after receiving one of the grandest retirement parties his company had ever thrown. He had worked hard for more than 40 years. Now he looked forward to enjoying all the wealth and prestige he had acquired over the years. However, frustrated and hurt from years of neglect, his lovely wife left him. His children, who had since left home to begin their own lives, rarely visited him. They really didn’t know him, and he didn’t know them well either. He had never taken the time to spend with them while they were growing up. Now they didn’t have the time or inclination to spend with him. The few times they managed to get together, conversation waned after only an hour, so visits were largely conducted on the telephone – about once every two or three months, and those calls lasted only about fifteen minutes. Lonely, Chuck tried to keep up a few relationships he had with some of his former coworkers. They would get together to talk shop, but they had little time for him since they were busy meeting the demands of their jobs, just as he had done during his working years. And then David W. Smith writes, “Within a year after his retirement, Chuck became a stranger – or was he in some sense always a stranger? – at the company for which he had spent his life diligently working. Feeling unwanted and unneeded, he stopped coming around. Calls from his kids also grew more infrequent. Chuck was alone and friendless.”
A recent Gallop survey has found that Americans today are lonelier than ever. We are spending more time alone and yet desiring to be able to connect on a meaningful level with other people. We need one another.
The Word Of God teaches us that we need people with us on the spiritual journey, people we can trust, to encourage us and hold us accountable to our faith. Jesus said, "By this they will know that you are my disciples in that you love one another.” Jesus tells us that we are friends and thus meant to love, care for and nurture one another. Paul said it this way, we are to "bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ". The law of Christ is fulfilled only when we bear one another’s burdens. We also find Paul saying in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” We are to let the word of God dwell in us richly. We can sing by ourselves, but we cannot teach and admonish ourselves in all wisdom. In Martin Buber’s book, "I and Thou", Buber says there are two kinds of relationships in our lives. We have I-Thou relationships, authentic relationships in which two people are co-equals and are mutually invested and sharing in that relationship. There is also the I-It relationship which objectifies the other person in that relationship. It’s not about what you give but what they will do for you.
Donald Miller wrote the book, "Blue Like Jazz", in which he came to look at his life over time as a movie. In this movie he was the star and everyone was just actors who came in and out of the scenes. He writes, "I was in every scene. In fact, I was the only one in every scene. If somebody would walk into my scene it would frustrate me because they were disrupting the general theme of the play or the movie, namely my comfort or glory. The most difficult lie I have ever had to confront was this: life is a story about me. No drug is so powerful as the drug of self. No rut in the mind is so deep which say I am the world. The world belongs to me. All people are simply characters in my play or movie. There is no addiction so powerful as self addiction”. This is the I-It relationship and for many of us, this is where we have in our relationships. What the Bible calls us to is to look at people differently than this. We nned to look at others as being as important as ourselves, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to put the needs of others ahead of our own. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves," Paul says in Phil. 2:3. Hadden Robinson wrote in an article in Christianity Today, “Unfortunately, I haven't made many new friends in recent years and one of my regrets is having neglected old relationships that could now warm my life if I had only given them the attention they deserve.”
While walking home from school, a boy by the name of Mark noticed the boy ahead of him who had stumbled to the ground and dropped everything he was carrying. Mark hurried to the boy’s side and helped him collect his belongings. Surprisingly, the boy was carrying an especially hefty load. There were a baseball glove and bat, a couple of sweaters, a small tape recorder, and an armful of books. Mark helped him carry the things home and his new friend, Bill, was most appreciative of his compassion. During the walk home, Mark discovered Bill was struggling in school and had just broken up with his girlfriend. When they arrived at Bill’s house, he invited Mark in for a Coke and they spent the rest of the afternoon talking, laughing, and watching TV. They became the best of friends. Several weeks before graduation, Bill approached Mark and asked him if he remembered that day they met when Mark helped him with all of his stuff. Mark nodded as he remembered. Bill then asked, “Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things that day?” Without pausing for an answer, Bill explained he had cleaned out his locker and was going home to take his life. He had been storing away sleeping pills and was headed home to end it all when Mark happened along to help him out. Bill told Mark how that simple act of befriending him inspired him to go on living. He said, “Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you saved my life!”
May we be provoked today to come alongside someone in the Name of Jesus our Savior.
Brownhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4oJ0jTHqg