Run with patience

"Let us run with patience" (Heb. 12:1).

To run with patience is a very difficult thing. Running is apt to suggest the absence of patience, the eagerness to reach the goal. We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet, I do not think the invalid's patience the hardest to achieve.

There is a patience which I believe to be harder--the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: It is the power to work under a stroke; to have a great weight at your heart and still to run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily task. It is a Christlike thing!

Many of us would nurse our grief without crying if we were allowed to nurse it. The hard thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in bed, but in the street. We are called to bury our sorrows, not in lethargic quiescence, but in active service--in the exchange, in the workshop, in the hour of social intercourse, in the contribution to another's joy. There is no burial of sorrow so difficult as that; it is the "running with patience."

This was Thy patience, O Son of man! It was at once a waiting and a running--a waiting for the goal, and a doing of the lesser work meantime. I see Thee at Cana turning the water into wine lest the marriage feast should be clouded. I see Thee in the desert feeding a multitude with bread just to relieve a temporary want. All, all the time, Thou wert bearing a mighty grief, unshared, unspoken. Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but I would ask more from Thee. I would be, in my cloud, myself a rainbow -- a minister to others' joy. My patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard.

--George Matheson
***

"When all our hopes are gone,

'Tis well our hands must keep toiling on

For others' sake:

For strength to bear is found in duty done;

And he is best indeed who learns to make

The joy of others cure his own heartache."

Daybreak: Practicing the Presence of God“... having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:20

How can a cross bring peace if Jesus is the One hanging there?

At the cross, wickedness was not appeased. Wickedness was confronted.

At the cross, sin was not overlooked. Sin was atoned and paid for.

God’s greatest righteousness confronted man’s greatest wickedness, and righteousness won! Peace was attained through the blood of the cross.

Thank God for the cross! Thank God for Jesus!

Take a few moments to praise Jesus for the power and hope you have because of His resurrection.
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Disagree Agreeably

The Book of Acts is the story of perfect God using imperfect men, expressing their spirituality through imperfect personalities. So we shouldn’t be surprised to read that the leaders of the early Church sometimes didn’t see eye to eye. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement that was so strong that they ended their missionary partnership. Both of them were apostles, godly men, and leaders of the Church, but they had an argument.

All people have conflict, even spiritual people. But when we disagree, it’s important for us to look at our motives.

Sometimes conflicts are based on carnal motives. The disciples were being carnal when they wanted to call down fire from heaven, and when they argued as to who’d be the greatest in the Kingdom. And Paul criticized a division within the Corinthian church over who they were following (see 1 Corinthians 1:12). His reaction was, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (3:1).

Remember that we have a common enemy who seeks to fuel any disagreement to the level of carnality, even if it doesn’t start out that way. As John Trapp said, “The devil loves to fish in troubled waters.”

Other times, conflicts are corrective. This happens when the conflict is over issues of doctrine versus false doctrine, where the false doctrine could undermine the very foundation and fabric of the church. Then, the Christian is called to put up a good fight for the faith. Jude 3 says, “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

And sometimes it’s not carnal or corrective, it’s just a clash. The conflict in Acts 15:37-40 was one of those. Paul and Barnabas argued over whether to take John Mark with them on a missionary journey. Paul said no, Barnabas said yes. But they were seeing things from different angles; it was a personality clash. Paul was interested in the work, and Barnabas was interested in the worker.

G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “I am greatly comforted whenever I read this... If I had never read that Paul and Barnabas had a contention, I should have been afraid. These men were not angels, they were men.”

So what am I saying about conflict within our spiritual family? First, God reserves the right to use people who disagree with you. Second, if your expectation is that all Christians are going to get together, join arms and sing love songs, I’ve got to tell you...you’ve just described heaven, not earth. That’s not going to happen until we all go to heaven.

Until then, when there’s conflict, ask yourself: Is this disagreement carnal? Is it corrective, over vital issues of doctrine? Or is it just a clash, over valid points of view? We can disagree, but let’s do it agreeably.
Copyright © 2011 by Connection Communications. All rights reserved
By Skip Heitzig