In Colossians chapter three the apostle Paul shares twelve quality characteristics that are present when Jesus lives in a human heart. It’s quite a list: Compassion (12), Kindness (12), Humility (12), Gentleness (12), Patience (12), Bearing with one another (13), Forgiving each other (13), Love, which is the perfect bond of unity (14), The Peace of Christ (15), Thankfulness (15), The Word of God (16), Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (17).

As I read this list I can’t help but pray, ”Give me Jesus.” If these are the kinds of things He brings to a life, then I give Him my life. I’m in hook, line, and sinker. It’s no turning back for me.

By way of contrast look at some of the ways and characteristics that fill the world: It’s quite a list: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech (5, 8).

When I read this list I can’t help but pray, ‘give me Jesus.” If He wants to lift me out of that kind of stuff, I give Him my life, no turning back.

In a sense this is how the church finds itself in the world. In Christ, we are brought into a new and living community where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord; or, as Paul says in verse 11, “Christ is all, and in all.” This community is one where barriers are broken down and people really do live with each other in peace.

Paul says it doesn’t matter what our background is because in Christ we blend into each other and become brothers and sisters. We become a community defined by twelve quality characteristics that define us as a people and enable us as witnesses of Jesus.

Church. What a great idea! What a great miracle! Welcome home.

Handling Criticism of Your Faith


In Psalm 42:3 there is a poignant moment where the writer is taking heat because of his faith in God. He is going through a very difficult time when his critics and detractors mock him, saying, “Where is your God?”

A part of being a believer in God, particularly those who follow Jesus, is to recognize that many people just don’t get it. Some of these detractors will come even from within the ranks of what we call “the Church.” They will seek to undermine your view and beliefs all in the name of their view and beliefs. Others, who have no room for God, will play the role of judge, jury and executioner. They have their beliefs and won’t rest until they see you writhing in pain on the floor, your beliefs having been ripped out of you by their arguments. These folks might be your work associates, a professor, a neighbor, or from a thousand other sources set on the demise of your faith.

What do you do when your faith is attacked? Some say we must have equally strong intellectual arguments to rebuff the assaults. This is probably true. The apostle Paul told Timothy that he needed to be diligent to present himself approved to God…accurately handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:16). In I Peter 3:15 believers are counseled, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you…”

There is another part of the story, however, that needs to be affirmed. You know what Christ has done for you. You know the difference He has made and is making in your life. The apostle Paul witnessed to Timothy by saying, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Some people in your world will fuss and fume about your faith connection with Jesus. Let them. That’s their issue, not yours. Don’t give them unwarranted access to your mind, your faith or your will. You know what Jesus has done for you. And, as Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, don’t “be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).

The love Jesus has for you and the love you have for him calls you to trust His integrity to keep His word. He said, “I am with you always…Come to Me…Learn from Me…You will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 28:20, 11:28-30). When the heat is on, and it will be at times, trust the One who died for you as opposed to the one who would destroy what has been so profoundly important to you, simply because they have a different view. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). What does that say about your critics and detractors? Not much except that they are on the wrong side of God’s grace and mercy. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Jesus says to us today, as He said it to His first disciples, that in Him we have peace. He said, “in the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Don’t try to win every argument because some people cannot hear the truth. Just take courage, trust in Jesus, tell the truth, and leave the results to God. Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ and remember there is nothing in all creation that is able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

BROKEN CHORDS WILL VIBRATE ONCE MORE
Rick Savage

A man who has greatly influenced my Christian journey was a Roman Catholic Priest from Belgium by the name of Henri Nouwen. He had reached the summit of academic excellence and held teaching positions at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard. (The following quotes by Nouwen are found in, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroads: New York, 1989), Yet, his academic success and his twenty-five years of priesthood left him, he said,

Praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger.

Isn't that an intriguing thought? Putting my own soul in danger. Nouwen began to struggle with these issues. He said,

I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term 'burnout' was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.

In the midst of all these things Nouwen was invited by a man named Jean Vanier, the founder of the L'Arche communities for mentally handicapped people to, as he said, "Go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you." And so it was that Nouwen left the elitist world of Ivy league education and, moved from Harvard to L'Arche, from people he said, "wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society." Nouwen says this about his move to L'Arche.

The first things that struck me when I came to live in a house with mentally handicapped people was that their liking or disliking me had absolutely nothing to do with any of the many useful things I had done until them. Since no body could read my books, they could not impress anyone, and since most of them never went to school, my twenty years at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard did not provide a significant introduction. My considerable ecumenical experience proved even less valuable. When I offered some meat to one of the assistants during dinner, one of the handicapped men said to me, "Don't give him meat, he doesn't eat meat, he's a Presbyterian."

Henri Nouwen passed away a few years ago and I still grieve the loss, but I will always read his books and I will always remember this one paragraph. Speaking again of the move to L'Arche Nouwen says,

This experience was...the most important experience of my new life, because it forced me to rediscover my true identity. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self--the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things--and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.


I believe this is what Jesus wants to do in His Church. He wants His people to lay aside, in their inner most being, the paraphernalia of success and greatness and reclaim the unadorned self in which we are completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.

In the Church of Jesus Christ everybody is somebody and the love of Jesus is the very air we breathe. The love He pours into our lives is the love we pour into each other's lives. The love of God in us is a healing, restoring, reinvigorating love. It's the love people most need. It is the love of which the Good News of the Gospel is made. It is the only love that has a real chance of making a different in the human heart.

Back in 1869 Fanny Crosby wrote a song that is still in our hymnbook today. I hope they never stop including it in the updating process of the hymnal just because of verse three of the song. It says,

Down in the human heart,
Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart,
Wakened by kindness,
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing;
Care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful;
Jesus will save.
(Rescue the Perishing" by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869)

This Jesus is the very air we breathe. May the fellowship we share together in Him be the kind in which "chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

The apostle Paul never asked this question directly but he could have, “What are you doing with your life?” Good question isn’t it? Am I giving my life to things that are destructive or am I giving my life to doing good (see (Gal. 6:8). It seems the choice is mine when it comes to me and yours when it comes to you.

Paul calls us to sow to the Spirit of God knowing that in the end to do so means to reap “eternal life” (vs. 8). The journey of being of the Spirit can be long and hard sometimes, however. We can get tempted to be discouraged, tempted to grow weary. Not everybody who really matters to us will be as excited about God as we are, and sometimes they can apply pressure that bears down on us and tempts us to “lose heart” (vs. 9). It can get very lonely out there when something like this happens.

Still, when we walk with God we walk with a certainty and a confidence that continually affirms us in our relationship with God. We know what God has done for us. We know how much Jesus means to us. Pressure may come but pressure is not lord of our lives. Jesus is Lord. So, Paul’s counsel to us is “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (vs. 9).

Remember, too, that we are people of the cross. What Jesus provides for us because of His atoning sacrifice is greater than any pressure that may come. In Him, we’ve let the old things of our lives go and we have taken upon ourselves a new life, a life bought and paid for on the cross of Calvary. Now we participate in something no less than “a new creation” (vs. 15).

My brothers and sisters in Christ stay encouraged. Don’t grow weary. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Let God be God in your life. Be blessed by Amazing Grace.