Lk 21:37-38 So, Jesus taught by day in the temple, and at evening He would return to Mount Olivet for the night. And the people! They would be up at dawn each morning to be there in the temple to hear His words.
Thematic Relevance:
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The Teacher avails Himself of every teachable moment. |
Doctrinal Relevance:
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N/A |
Moral Relevance:
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It is one thing to come and listen, to admire the skills of the teacher or the preacher. It is quite another to be a disciple. The call is to both be a disciple and make disciples. That requires more than attending class. It requires living out the lessons. This is true for the teacher as well; if anything, more true. If the disciple is marked out and measured by obedience to the message, how is my standing? |
Doxology: |
As the NET points out, even now, with the authority of the temple establishment arrayed against Him, Jesus remains a teacher that people want to hear. Even in our age, with the authority of the civic establishments arrayed against Him, His message remains the one people want to hear, and most assuredly need to hear. God is relevant! God’s message, so easily grasped by the least of His brethren, is marvelous in its breadth and depth, sufficient to bemuse the sagest of brethren for far more than one lifetime. Great is His Wisdom, and immeasurable His kindness in showing this grace to us, that He should stoop down in His Word and make Himself not only known, but knowable to us. |
Luke presents this as something of a summary transition from his coverage of the Olivet discourse to that of the Last Supper. What is interesting is the way he relates that this was not a one time thing, but the daily routine of life for Jesus in this last week. It could be supposed that what was daily routine for Jesus also defined what the daily routine was like for the disciples. They, too, were accompanying Him as He taught and as He rested on the mountain. It was one such night that was in view as the Evangelists relate the teaching we have in this discourse. Note how all of that arose as answer to one question, a question provoked by having the events of the day in one’s thoughts.
Can you imagine what it must have been like to be one of the disciples in this time? To have accompanied Him, learned from Him, worked with and for Him for those three years of ministry was already enough to have drained most folks. Had these disciples not had the hand of God empowering them day to day, they would have long since drifted back to the easier life of just making a living. But, this last week! If the discussions in this discourse are but a typical example of daily life for the disciples, wow! All day, they were with Him, hearing His teaching. They might be pleased to see the size of the crowds He was attracting, for they still had something of a vested interest in His success. It seems as though the reality of the final act still hadn’t registered with them, no matter how often Jesus had either alluded to it, or spoken of it point blank.
But, on top of this, these disciples had the inestimable boon of being able to come and query Jesus further, in a more intimate setting. We make so much of class sizes when we consider the schools we want our children in. What’s the student to teacher ratio? Well, for the daily sessions at the temple, the ratio was sufficiently high to discourage the likes of us from having our children there. Thousands to one? Who could learn anything in such an environment? But, these nights: Now we’re at least down to a few hundred. And the Twelve could find moments for these more or less private tutoring sessions. The days having been what they were, how could they not seek to avail themselves of such an opportunity?
Yet, such intensive study could not make for restful nights. If Jesus had given a greater explanation for His comments of the day, He had also opened up a lot more room for questions. Yes, some things had been answered, but only by way of giving His disciples that much more to ponder. With thoughts of such weight as a daily and nightly diet, who was going to sleep easy?
This has been rather like the ultimate campfire tale. Of all the topics to be discussing amidst the gnarled olive trees on a dark mountain at night, here they were speaking of final things, of ultimate things. Here were visions of fire that doesn’t burn out, even as they watch the embers of their own small fires. Here were matters of the damned, and the valley that gave its name to Gehenna not so very far away. The dead will rise? And we’re out here on this dark mountainside without so much as a blanket or a tent. Oh, yes. Those are thoughts that make for peaceful sleep, aren’t they? And, those questions of measuring up could not but invade their thinking, either. Conscience would be keeping them thoughtful late into the night, I should think.
Today marks, if I am not mistaken a first in the course of my studies: a passage for which I find no doctrinal relevance. That is most assuredly not to say that it has no value, for there is indeed good application packed into this brief summation of Luke’s. But, it is something to be pulled up this short after so many years. It leaves me wondering if I’m not missing something. But, if so, I am sure my Lord will bring that to light as I proceed, even as He has brought a second moral point to light as I prepared this morning. God has His ways of pointing out to us the things we have missed under our own power.
Another surprise in this brief passage comes from the footnotes the NET so generously provides. There, I read that there are certain manuscripts, a tiny minority I suspect, that relocate the tale of Jesus and the adulteress from John 7:53-8:11 to here. That’s a rather stunning bit of rewrite, I should think! John’s and Luke’s style are sufficiently different that one would have thought such a move precluded. Yet, if one is only looking at setting, then there is some sense to the error. Yes, John sets the scene in Jerusalem while Jesus is teaching at the temple again. It may be that ‘again’ that caused the connection in the minds of whatever scribes thought to shuffle the text over to Luke. Luke, after all is describing what has passed in the Olivet Discourse as being rather representative of the day to day flow of this final week. He was there at temple daily to teach, and the crowds were coming daily to hear.
Given the several times, particularly in this most recent set of studies, that I have found my own arrangement of things confusing, I cannot find cause to be terribly offended by the idea of some scribe misplacing a passage. Honestly, the multiple coverage of events that we have from the four Evangelists can be quite difficult to correlate. The approach taken towards historical accounts in their day was a much different matter than we might be used to, and these aren’t purely historical accounts anyway. The authors were not, by and large, interested in chronological order, or at least not so interested as we might be. Matthew often appears to arrange his material more thematically than chronologically. In many cases we have what appear to be transcripts of private conversations which are highly unlikely to be based on eyewitness accounts. Yet, this is actually a fairly typical practice for histories of the period. It is a stylistic matter, not one of honesty.
All that being said, though, the scribe’s role is rather different than that of the student seeking to harmonize the texts. His is but to copy exactly, or ought to have been. But, one can understand where devotion might lead one to attempt corrections on what, after all, may have been the error of a previous scribe. Best of intentions, and all that; yet the end result is not acceptable. There is warning in that, when we think to improve on the text of Scripture. It’s something I ought to bear in mind with my propensity for paraphrase. There’s nothing wrong with paraphrasing, and it does serve to embed the point of the text a bit more in the thoughts, but one must be careful. One must take pains to ensure that the paraphrase still reflects the reality of what the original format was relaying.
I mentioned the idea of God bringing things to light that we might have missed, and this passage has already given me a case in hand. In my preparatory efforts yesterday, I found my attention drawn primarily to the response of the people. I found in their example a bit of a moral challenge to myself, and I was happy to let my attention stay on them with perhaps a thought for the disciples as sort of the upper echelon of ‘the people’. But, as I returned to the study this morning, particularly as I shall be taking up my duties in teaching the adult Sunday School class once again today, I found my attention being redirected to what is said of the Teacher, and what I should take from His example as I teach.
In finding a thematic connection for these two verses, keeping them attached to the whole, I was put in mind to note that the Teacher avails Himself of every teachable moment. That is in its own way something of a summary of the Olivet Discourse, as well as the event that led to the disciples’ question. The disciples are admiring the structure and adornment of the temple? Teachable moment! Point out the fleeting nature of that seemingly solid and permanent edifice. The disciples are thinking about the end? It’s a perfect moment to teach them how this should shape their thinking and acting as to the present.
But, there is something more to be said on this. What Luke writes here seems pretty benign. “During the day He was teaching in the temple.” OK. That’s nice. But, it’s not much more than a travelogue. However, lay that alongside Luke 19:47. He was teaching every day, but the priests and scribes were trying to destroy Him. And, of course, if we maintain an eye for context and setting, we know that this has been the case for Him. We have seen the efforts to discredit Him and worse. So, in teaching, Jesus is really putting Himself right in the midst of the home turf of the opposition. Frankly, that is a rather awesome display of power, in that He was able to thus stand in the most vulnerable of places and remain untouched.
More to the point, though, this Teacher, this Jesus, is to be our own example. He is to be my example. Indeed, this is a challenge to me. Why, after all, do I gravitate towards teaching adult believers almost exclusively? I can say that in part this is simply reflective of the nature of the teaching I consider myself prepared to impart. I am not terribly well suited for expressing such large ideas in a fashion fit for younger minds. That is as much an indication of my own limited nature as anything. But, there is also the question of teaching believers versus approaching unbelievers. That latter is a scary thought! One might be rejected by such as they. They might be more inclined to point out my own foibles and failings than to hear any attempt of mine to convey Truth to their ears.
Acceptance, I must admit, means a lot to me. But, I’m looking at my Example, my Lord and Master, and I find that He was not concerned about His own acceptance, but only the acceptance of His Word, of Truth. I could look at that point He makes as to blaspheming and forgiveness. Reject Me, He says, and that could yet be forgiven. But, reject the Spirit? That shall never be forgiven (Mt 12:31-32, Lk 12:10). Why is that? Because rejecting Jesus in its fashion was only rejecting the messenger. Rejecting the Spirit was rejecting the Message itself. So, I must ask myself which matters more to me: my reputation or His? Which matters more to me: acceptance or Truth? The correct answers are obvious. The truthful answers, sadly, are also pretty obvious. What remains is to consider how I might submit myself to the transformation necessary to turning that around.
It seems more and more that this really is the issue. How may we submit to Christ. We know we should. We see the commands, and we see the incapacity within ourselves. We understand the stakes. Yet, we continue onward, giving the whole matter far less thought and attention than it deserves. Either we wind up blowing the whole issue of sanctification off completely, or we shift the whole thing off onto the Holy Spirit and absolve ourselves of all responsibility, or we become borderline neurotic in our increased efforts to achieve under our own steam. And, none of these can work out well. Yes, we must trust the Holy Spirit, but we must also work out our salvation in fear and trembling. I return constantly to the fact that God shows very little tolerance for the sluggard.
How, then, do we move from complacent disregard to engaged partnership? It seems to me that the typical answers apply: keeping His Scriptures before our eyes as best we may, not just as decorative items but as matters of contemplation, maintaining contact in prayer, and also taking every opportunity to partake in the fellowship of the saints. Isolationism is perhaps the greatest risk, for as we isolate ourselves from our brethren, it becomes more and more likely that we are attempting to isolate ourselves from God as well. I know there are those who forsake church attendance for one reason or another and still manage fellowship of a sort, but it is not of the healthiest sort. One of the great boons of church family is the variety of viewpoint that we must surely find within its members. This simply cannot or will not be duplicated if we are selecting out the few whom we shall allow as our spiritual compatriots.
There are, to be sure, other circumstances which may conspire to limit our interactions within the Church, and some of these are legitimate deterrents. However, even with that being the case we ought more wisely to seek out alternative opportunities, ways by which we can have the fellowship we need with those whom God has set us amidst.
As to issues of prayer, the biggest problem is that we are so adept at finding other ways to fill our time. I think, too, that we have a sense that prayer must be time consuming to be effective, and yet this is utterly at odds with the guidance our Lord and Teacher lays out. Granted, it can feel like we would necessarily spend every waking hour in prayer were we to attempt to give even a moment’s attention to every need we are aware of. Yet, it is the idea that each of these needs must have its five minutes or more that so dissuades us from given it any at all. I wonder, at times, if even the simple fact of thinking about those issues doesn’t in its way constitute prayer.
Even in the last day, I find the number of those for whom I feel the need to pray, and in many cases have said that I would, has grown significantly. Yet, I also know how rarely I set aside times for the express purpose of praying. However, as I went out to refill my coffee cup just now, these people and their respective needs and concerns marched across my thoughts, alongside some who have noted that they are praying for me and mine. Is this, perhaps, an aspect of what it means to pray without ceasing? Can it be that this command means something beyond attending to prayer times, to dropping all other activity to pray. There are, to be sure, times when this is absolutely appropriate, and it provides for our own needs in a fashion that the things I am discussing do not. Yet, if prayer without ceasing was intended to drive us to a life that was nothing but sitting in our private place praying, the problems that presents for survival are pretty obvious! Where is the place for love to act if love is forever shut away in prayer? Where is teaching and admonition, if the teacher is forever sequestered in his closet seeking God?
Seems to me that for this command to make any sense whatsoever, there must be a fashion in which we are in prayer even while engaged in other aspects of our day. If this is the sum total of our prayer life, yes there would seem to be a problem, but if it is not a large portion of our prayer life, it still seems there’s a problem. I must confess that I do not find my own example to be in balance by a long stretch, although it has had certain improvements of late. There is still much that could stand more persistent, more intentional prayer time.
Let me start, then, with this, Lord, since You have had my attention on these matters this morning. Let me start with repentance, with thanks as well, for what You bring to light is what You seek to deal with in me. Lord, I do repent. I pray even now that there would be in me a strengthened resolve to seek You out not so much on my own issues, although there’s plenty of material there. Rather, I pray that You might so work upon my heart as to keep me more mindful and more in prayer as to these other needs, those others whom You have been setting in my path of late.
God, I know I have been feeling this sense of correction for some time now, and therefore I know You are surely aware of it, just as surely its Author. Yes, You have set me in this role of teacher, and yet I have been lax in praying for those who come as students. I think of that one woman, Lord, whom You know. She seems so angry, so unwilling to be counted a part of the class, and yet she is there. I could make surmises as to what lies at the bottom of that, but it would be merest speculation. But, You know. God, I pray that You would minister to whatever that hurt is, that you would grant to me both wisdom and opportunity to reach past that hurt in welcome, in healing.
I pray also for my friends who are still debating their course, whether to commit to this local family or seek another. God, You know the plans You have for them, and I know well that those plans are for their good. I pray only that You would grant them to know and to heed Your perfect counsel. If, indeed, it is for them to be part of another family, then I release them to Your care. If, however, it is for them to remain and be healed as this body is being healed, then I pray that you give them ears to hear Your heart on that matter.
Then, I think, too, of my brother who has been so wounded by recent events. His hurts are many, Lord, but You are a healer without compare. If there is counsel that I can give to him on Your behalf, then grant the opportunity and guide whatever words I may have for him. Protect him, Lord, in his hurt. Protect his family, for I know they hurt along with him. As he seeks You out in coming days, I know You shall be found. Be found with abounding joy, Lord! Be found in a new strength, a new song, a new energy to serve in the place You have planted him, and to not only survive in that place but thrive in that place.
And my elder brother, if you please, Lord. As he goes on this journey overseas, bless him. Bless his wife with him, and make of these coming weeks a time of renewing their own bonds even as they celebrate the bonds of marriage for their daughter. I pray joyous renewal upon them by Your hand, a new strength for the many ways in which they are serving Your body. For all that, Lord, I would ask much the same for all those who are serving as elders through this period, and all those who have done so. There are hurts and exhaustions there that escape the eye, but they do not escape Your notice. Heal every hurt, Lord, and give new strength to wearied muscles, that these may stand and stand some more, whether they have remained in this fellowship or moved on. Let there be no disease of disunity that spreads from the wounds on this small flock, but rather, if there must be anything spread, let it be a spreading of commitment; commitment to Your ways and commitment to loving service to one another, both within the singular bodies of faith hereabouts, and between.
God, this is perhaps my most urgent prayer: that we might, we several churches, learn to cooperate and function together, rather than seeking to leech off each other’s constituents. We are not called to competition but to cooperation. Yet, it seems that rather than seeking out the lost and dying, we have become more interested in seeking out the hale and the healthy to bolster our ranks. If ever there was a zero sum game, that has to be it, Lord. Indeed, it is worse than that. It is absolutely a losing game, as we do nothing more than to make ourselves, and thereby make You, that much less valued by those most in need of You. Indeed, the words begin to apply that Your name is slandered amongst the pagans on account of our actions. Lord change us! Let us be, insomuch as it lies in our power, a people of peace, as You have intended. Let us seek to live out the example You have set us as our Lord, our King, our Teacher, our Brother.
As I start another day, my thoughts are directed to my Teacher’s example. I am, after all, once more functioning in the role of teacher, in fact, doing so at a different level than previously. It remains an awesome responsibility, and I should confess that I have not, perhaps, been as painstakingly careful as that responsibility requires. I pray, Lord, that You have made up any deficiency in my efforts, and that You might also keep me mindful of my responsibility to You as I prepare and present Your Word.
What I see of my Teacher in this brief summary is not really anything new, but a reminder of one of the constants of His ministry: He avails Himself of every teachable moment. You know, I would imagine the Man Jesus was pretty tired by the time they had retired to the hillside for the night. Mentally, the sorts of confrontations with which He had been dealing are exhausting. Physically, the shear length of His day and the traveling back and forth between Jerusalem and Olivet would be at the very least tiring. Yet, His disciples have come with a question and He does not put them off. He doesn’t ask them to come another time, nor does He suggest they just think on it a bit harder. He takes time to answer their question and more, so much more. I would also note that the nature of this summation gives at least the suggestion that there were many evenings spent in like fashion, not so much in rest and relaxation as in additional tutoring.
To follow His example in this regard requires first that one has his attention in the moment. We cannot avail ourselves of a teachable moment if we are not sufficiently attuned to events to recognize the moment when it comes. If our teaching is too caught up in schedules and outlines, we may either miss the moment in our distraction, or just refuse to use it because it doesn’t fit the plan. How much we would be missing from our Gospel if Jesus had been of such mindset! Sorry guys, tonight’s not the night for discussing the endtimes. Maybe later. Try Me tomorrow if things aren’t too busy.
Things were always too busy, just as we tend to view them today. There may be some difference to be found in the nature or quality of that business, but fundamentally it is the same situation. Life will gladly occupy every niche and corner of our time unless we intentionally seek out those times to let ourselves be fully given over to God. It is true of our personal situation, how we measure up for prayer life, studiousness pursuit of Scripture, practical application with those around us. It is also true, except we are particularly careful, of our interactions within the body. If we are not intentionally making time, sacrificing time, to minister to the needs of others, why is it? It is because we are still inclined to rank our own wants and needs as more important than those of others. It is because we are distracted by our schedules to the point of becoming not only ineffective workers in the field, but potentially counterproductive ones.
Honestly, whether teacher or not, whatever role you have in the house of God today, this applies. It is not just up to the teachers or the preachers to live out the disciple’s life. It’s for all of us. We all of us need to start being more intentional about it, to be seeking and practicing to be more attentive to what God is doing around us, what purposes and works He is forever scattering at our feet. God, we are instructed, prepared these works opportunities in advance, set us up the bomb, as the saying goes. And, He directs our footsteps, ensuring that we encounter those opportunities He has prepared. Yet, we are far more likely to walk blithely by, wholly unaware of events until retrospect takes notice. Why? Because we’re still so distracted by self and the needs of self. We are too busy being entertained or seeking to be entertained to be serious about our existence as citizens of heaven.
Listen! We are all of us teachers in some capacity. Some of us serve more clearly than others, more visibly. But, just like prayer is not the exclusive action of the intercessor, teaching is not the exclusive province of the acknowledged teacher. We are all of us to be prepared to give reason for our faith, in season and out. We are all of us to admonition and exhort one another. What is that but to teach!
Change of tack: Not only do we find Jesus willing to give up His recharge time to provide more information to His disciples, we also find that He was eager to be up and about it the next day. In this passage, Luke satisfies himself with saying that during the day Jesus taught in the temple. Elsewhere, he adds some further information on that. “He was at the temple teaching every day” (Lk 19:47). Add to that what we are told of the people here, that they would be up early in the morning to come listen to His teaching, and we get the sense that He wasn’t being lackadaisical about this. He was up with the dawn just like those coming to listen. He was making His way to the temple first thing, and it would appear that He stayed there until last thing. All day, every day, spent proclaiming the Truth of God! There is nothing of the administrative distraction in Him, and I would note that as the early church took form, care was taken to ensure the Apostles had that same opportunity. They who fed the Church were not called to be businessmen and administrators but to be pastors and teachers. Others could take care of the business end of things, and leave them clear to seek God, pursue God, explain God and generally be used by God.
Now, go back to Luke 19:47 and consider the other half of Luke’s point: “But the priests, the scribes and the leading men of the city were trying to destroy Him.” Here is the hardest part of our Role model’s example to accept. Jesus was hardly unaware of what was happening. Indeed, He had come to Jerusalem with full knowledge of the depth of animosity He would face. Arguably, He had been cultivating that animosity, stoking it to, in some ways, ensure the outcome was not only according to God’s purpose, but also on His timetable. We needn’t read more than we ought into that. God is forever managing the affairs of this poor planet, and indeed the whole universe, to keep His purpose and His schedule. It is not, then, the case of a man seeking to manufacture prophetic fulfillments, but rather the case of the Fulfillment in action.
As to the example for us, there is this to be mindful of: No fear! That is actually a clear overstating of the example. Jesus, I think it is clear, knew fear. Heroism isn’t found in the absence of fear but rather in the surmounting of it. He knew what was ahead and He knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant. He would gladly have taken an alternate course were such a course feasible in God’s planning. But, there came that final decision point: Nevertheless, Thy will be done. These days of teaching in the heart of enemy turf are but a precursor, a foreshadowing of that determination.
There’s a rather sarcastic bit from one of Steve Taylor’s songs that comes to mind. “You’ll march when all the streets are full, a two bit closet radical.” There’s too much of that in me. It’s easy enough to teach in the general conformity of an adult Sunday school class. It’s easy enough to present even mildly divergent viewpoints in a roomful of friendly and generally like-minded people. What, though, when the message grates? What, when there is need for a radical realignment of doctrine? What, when the call is to take the message of the Gospel to the streets, to preach in the midst of unbelief? What do we say if God requires us to go forth into the maw of militant atheism and insist that the Truth be heard? That’s a whole different level of teaching! That’s a whole different level of obedience to the command of God. And yet, that is the commission we are all left with, isn’t it?
Go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you (Mt 28:19-20). The instructions are not to go establish enclaves where we can pursue our beliefs in safety and seclusion. It’s to go out and confront the unbelieving world with belief. It’s to go out and counter the foolish wisdom of the age with the timeless Truth of God. It’s to stand fast, boldly proclaim, to accept even death in the service of the King, if that be His determination for us. For to die is gain, if it is done according to the plan and purpose of God. In this regard, we ought to abide under that banner of ‘no fear’. If God is for us, who can be against us? If I come before Him rather earlier than expected because it has been the cost of obedience in me, what is that to me? I’m with Him! It is no call to foolishly throw away this life, but it is certainly a call not to cling too tightly to it.
Now, we discover the teacher’s life and the disciple’s merging. This is only sensible. The disciple by definition shapes his life on the teacher’s example. If this was the daily habit of Jesus, this routine of teaching publicly by day, privately by night, then it was also the habit of the disciples. They may not as yet have been teaching, but they were present for both sessions, where the more general crowds of people were only present for the public portion. We might, in fact, wish to think briefly on what distinguishes the crowds from the disciple.
Start with what Luke has told us about the crowd. All the people were getting up bright and early to be there at the temple to listen to Him. Yes, they came to listen. They came to be impressed, entertained. Many probably came in hopes of watching another round of debates with the temple leadership. This was not all that different, I suspect, from what Paul encountered in Athens. People were keen to come and hear the latest theories, the latest thing. But, it was by and large just a curiosity. It had maybe as much weight on their thinking as our presidential debates might have. Think about that. What are most people doing who watch those debates? Are they seeking to reason out who to back? Not generally. They may be seeking out that slip up by which to discount or discredit one they don’t favor, or they may simply be seeking to have their existing opinions bolstered by a good performance. Truth is, most folks who are watching are not going to be impacted that greatly by what transpires. Opinions are not going to change much. By and large, these debates are little more than another entertainment.
One thing you can be sure of is that nobody out in that audience is looking to any one of those on the podium as a role model, a teacher to be emulated in every respect. Nobody is thinking to become a disciple of Mitt Romney or of Newt or any of the others. We may want them to have such strength and depth of character as would justify entrusting them with the reins of power. But, we don’t have any interest whatsoever in becoming like them. In this current climate, that’s probably the farthest thing from anybody’s mind. If anything, they are viewed as primary examples of what not to be like. Think about it. Our views of those who govern over us are almost universally unfavorable at this point. It’s the rare pol who can inspire much of any enthusiasm, let alone loyalty. And, most of those turn out to be all to flawed and human after all, leading to disappointments far deeper than initial enthusiasms ran.
My point in this is that the crowds listen, be it to the politician or the teacher. But, disciples put it into practice. It’s a necessary feature of being a disciple. We cannot, as disciples, satisfy ourselves with having studied the Word, having learned about God, having a thorough understanding of sound doctrine. If that’s all we’ve got, we’re still part of the crowd. No, disciples must put their lessons into practice. If, in the course of these private studies, the things I contemplate are nothing more than contemplations, if there is nothing brought forward into the rest of life, then I am wasting time and worse yet, deluding myself. I am allowing myself to be deceived by my own efforts.
Disciples must put the lessons into practice. As I have been recalled to prayer in this lesson, I need to not just nod my head about the need, but become intentional about spending more time in prayer. As I have been made mindful of the need to sacrificially give of my time when the opportunity to serve, teach, admonish, exhort or encourage presents itself, I need to intentionally make this part and parcel of who I am. I need to once again take to heart the message of Romans 12:10, becoming more devoted yet to my brethren, and to give preference not only to their honor above my own, but to their need above my own. How I need to be mindful of this in my own home!
Oh, Lord! Grant me the strength. Find me a willing co-laborer as You go about working in me to bring this about. For, I know it is in You that I shall find the reconstruction. It is in You or it is futile to bother. But, as You bring it to mind, I am clear that You are leading me, pointing me towards the next area on which I must needs focus. I set myself at Your disposal as best I may. I welcome the work that needs doing, and I anticipate the results with joy. Yes, I understand that the process may have its unpleasantness, as it has throughout recent weeks. But, I see where we are going, You and I, and I long to see that journey through. Work away, my King, and find these hands willing to work with You.
