Of Sounding Gongs and Clanging Cymbals

Teddy Roosevelt said this: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Christian ministry (all Christians have one) is tricky business. To be effective and productive, not only does one have to physically carry out the work of serving others but also to sincerely care about those being served. Jesus instructs us to go the extra mile, to do more than is required. If you are being paid to minister, you balance work and private life too. Tricky, I say.

Paul says if we do “all these things”, and he lists several, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals (I Corinthians 13). We are all noise when we serve without love, and unproductive too.

Peter also said something similar in II Peter 1:3-8 (NIV), “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness… For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Today ask yourself why you serve. Is it to be seen of men? Do you want people to admire you? Are you meeting your own needs? Or do you truly care about the good of others and what is best for them? (People can tell.) Do you do only what is required or give your best effort, going the extra mile if necessary? 

How do people you serve feel after being in your presence? Do they see themselves as a joy or a burden to you? Do they feel encouraged and refreshed after talking with you? Or inferior? Do you preserve their dignity by allowing them to teach you something? Do you listen to their ideas, thoughts, and feelings? 

It is not necessary to fix people’s problems. (What a relief, right?) Nobody likes to feel like a project.

Are you serving in love or sounding a gong? According to Paul, if you are not serving in love, you could offer your very body to be burned, and it would be for nothing. What a waste that would be! Some offer their whole lives in this way, and that is truly sad. I don’t want that to be my life, and I bet you don’t either. Spend a little time meditating on the Love Chapter in I Corinthians 13. It’s a good reminder for all of us.

joyce hague

The Good That We Do

 

My son and daughter-in-law gave me a program called StoryWorth for my birthday. I have loved it! Every week for a year I write a personal story, submit it to the site, they store it, and print all the stories in a book when I am done. (If you want info, let me know.) So here is a story that I want you to hear...

 A few of you will remember that shortly after Brant and I were married in December, 1996 (25 years this December), we filled in for missionaries who had to come home from English speaking churches. We were privileged to help with churches in Italy, Fiji, Grand Cayman, Newfoundland, Germany, and England. Most of our stays were between three and six months. That was before he became European Director, which included visiting our 125 missionaries in Europe and also carrying on the Bible ministry for BIMI.

Brant often would tell these missionaries: “The good that we do...we may never know!” But he encouraged them that “we are on your side” and to stay faithful to what God had called them to do. How true this statement proved to be for Brant!

While we were in England, a pastor in Wales contacted Brant who knew Brant and his family years before when they were planting a church in the UK. He told Brant that a man in his church, Graham Morris, had told him that when Graham was a twelve-year-old boy, an American pastor had spoken at a Good Friday service in Wales. Graham said as he left the church, Brant Holladay (the young American pastor) asked him if he were a Christian and gave him a tract. Graham went home and received Jesus as his Saviour. Brant never knew that until our trip to Wales in 1998.

By then, Graham, a very prosperous farmer there in Wales, had been married and he and his wife had teenaged children... And Pastor Peter told us that Graham was also a faithful Christian, serving as a deacon in his church.

Graham and his family invited us over to Wales for an afternoon service. He had cleaned out a big part of his barn and had tea for us and invited Brant to speak.

 

But before that, Graham told the people the outline Brant had preached that service when Graham was a twelve-year-old lad. Brant’s message so many years ago had been “Behold, the Lamb of God.” What a wonderful encouragement! Children who are saved can grow up to be godly men and women :-). Sometimes we never know the good we do. So, teacher, AWANA worker, mother, dad, grandparents...don’t overlook those little ones. They really will grow up someday and we want to influence them for the Lord as much as possible.  

Matthew 19:14: But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

 --Maylou Holladay

The B Team

 

A bit over 30 years ago, Michael Loftis, then a member of our church, and his two brothers were invited to visit some of the “closed” countries in Eastern Europe to provide music for meetings at churches. There was always a risk, for both the locals and out-of-country visitors, of drawing the notice or wrath of local government officials.  The trio sang and played instruments, which was a great “draw” for the services, and was very well received.

At some point on the trip, they were made aware that another group had initially been engaged for the task but had backed out, resulting in the Loftis brothers’ invitation to come instead. They jokingly began to call themselves “The B Team.” When their host asked the meaning of the term and understood it, he burst into enthusiastic objection. “No, no! YOU are the ones the Lord has brought to us! YOU are supposed to be here. There is no B Team!”

There is no B Team. That statement has profoundly affected me for all these years. So many times we begin a course of action or make a decision feeling certain God is the One Who has brought it about. Yet at some point we begin to think that someone else could do better or we are not capable and we should not be in this business. We don’t seem to be able to see the whole picture or understand the reasons for things. We feel like second best, or third or fourth. But if God has directed us here, we are not second best. We are the ones the Lord has appointed for this time, this place, this business. Trust Him. There is no B Team.

--Lynda Shenefield

Let's Sing!

 

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. ... Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing (Psalm 100)

I love to sing. When I was a little girl, I roamed the woods behind my house singing “This Land is Your Land” and other songs I’d learned in school. These days in my classroom, I find myself bursting into song when some word or phrase reminds me of a lyric and I just have to sing a line or two. My students have learned to indulge me, and occasionally one sings along with me!

Two of our grandchildren have spent a lot of time with us lately while their house is getting some repairs, and I love to hear them singing and humming while they play. There is maybe nothing as sweet as children’s voices singing.

But my favorite singing is on Sunday morning with our church family. The large group makes enough noise that I don’t worry too much about having every note right, and the musicians that accompany us are a joy to watch as they clearly are moved by the words and message.

I read recently a man speaking derisively of his notion of heaven and “harp music.” He allowed that it would be boring to someone raised on fiddle music. Who knows? Maybe there are fiddles in heaven, or perhaps there are instruments we know nothing of. While I cannot really picture what it will be like to sing in the very presence of God, I can’t imagine that it will be boring! It’s during exalting song services at church, in fact, that I can best believe heaven will be joyful and satisfying.

One of my dear cousins recently moved from this life into God’s presence. He was a singer. One of his brothers made the comment on facebook, “Now Marvin and Mom are singing together again.”  I don’t know if this is true. I fully believe that both these loved ones are in God’s presence, but I don’t really know what that looks like.  If Marvin and Sandy, his mother, are singing together, I will certainly be excited to get there myself—wherever it is.

In the meantime, I am so thankful for music on earth. Let’s go this week with a song—or two—in our hearts!

--Sherry Poff

Words that Give Grace

A few days ago I was reading Psalm 119 when a student I had more than forty years ago popped into my mind.  His name was Norman.  It was an advanced speech class, I think advanced interpretation of poetry.  He did not want to be in my class.  I don't know who put him in my class or why he felt he had no choice about taking it; however it happened, he was not happy.

On a paper he had to turn in to me, he wrote the reference Psalm 119:99 across the top.  I don't know if he thought I would not look it up, but I did.  It read, "I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation."  I graded his paper and gave it back to him with another Scripture reference on it, Proverbs 21:23.  I like the way the Living Bible says this one, "Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble."  I never said another word to him about it, and he never said a word to me about it.

As I thought about that situation I thought about how many times I need to watch my tongue and keep my mouth shut.  Scripture is full of instruction on how to speak or when to speak, the most notable of these being found in James 3.  That passage is very well known, so I'm not going there.  Let's start with Ephesians 4:29, NLT, "Don't use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them."  NASB says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear."  This admonition is needed more now than at any recent point of history.  The dissension and disagreement over politics and Corona and the vaccine have brought more division among families, churches, friends, and even strangers than I have ever seen.  There seems to be no more civil discourse anywhere.  We cannot allow others to simply have a different position; we must berate them in person and on social media for their daring to disagree.

Proverbs 12:18 emphasizes the divide again, "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."   Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."  That's an even higher standard, to do everything in His name.

I found a poem by Susan L. Lenzkes that made me laugh.

        Don't look now, Lord!

        I don't want You

        to see me 

        standing here with

        my big foot 

        crammed in my mouth.

        Don't worry, child.

        If I didn't love you

        just as much with your 

        foot in your mouth

        I'd hardly ever get a

        chance to love you.

I want to add one caveat.  Sometimes it is just as wrong to keep our mouths shut.  Proverbs 15:23, NKJV, says, "A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is!"  I hate confrontation.  I am very careful what I say.  During this time of conflict in our nation, in our churches, in our families, sometimes we need to speak up, sometimes to confirm, sometimes to confront.  Sometimes my silence is cowardice.

So here is my challenge:  Let's make our words good for edification according to the need of the moment.  Let our words offer grace to those who hear us.

                                                                                ~~Faith Himes Lamb

A Prayer for Trust

 

I wrote this poem the night before my first cataract surgery, in October of 2015. Though most people who have cataract surgery are senior citizens, I was only thirty-five. My mom had to have cataract surgery when she was thirty-nine, so I came by it honestly.J 

I remembered her trust in the Lord when we had to make a middle-of-the-night drive to the doctor’s office following one of her surgeries. Now, as a mom of four myself, I very much wanted everything to go well so that I could see my children grow up, and, hopefully, one day my grandchildren. Yet, no matter what the “new normal” would be, I knew that God could be trusted. Thus, the poem was written. 

The Lord brought me through both cataract surgeries, the adjustment period afterward of getting bifocals for the first time, and having follow-up YAG procedures.

In life, it often seems as though we have to “roll with the punches,” and adjust to a “new normal.” Last year and this have certainly been indicative of that fact. My prayer is that this poem will encourage you in whatever your tomorrows may hold. 

–MaryBeth Hall

                                        

A Prayer for Trust

 

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future." Proverbs 31:25

 

"She smiles at the future."

Her heart is unafraid,

for she is trusting in the LORD;

On Him her mind is stayed.

 

At what may be she does not stare;

On Jesus is her gaze.

And so tomorrow does not scare

She who knows Ancient of Days.

 

Dear Father, give this peace to me,

For worries now loom large.

Yet grace is my reality:

You're Lord; I'm in Your charge.

 

I trust You with the great unknown

Of all that lies ahead.

I lay my cares before Your throne,

For by Your hand I'm led.

In the Shadow of the Almighty

 

In the Shadow of the Almighty 

Sometimes it seems that Jesus scares us to death to teach us a lesson! So it was, when He walked on water to reach his disciples who were straining against a rough sea. They thought He was a ghost! Like, what else could it be? I imagine them doing a doubletake as Jesus was passing by the boat. Another time, Jesus slept while they bailed water during a storm. They were terrified! When they agreed to follow Jesus, they were in for an adventure! (I have heard it said that that Adventure is a trial with a fancy name.) 

Lately, I have wondered what kind of an adventure (aka: trial) we followers of Jesus may experience in the coming days. We say we want to see the Hand of God, but do we really? Likely, it will scare the pants off us! 

Unfortunately, I naturally lean towards worrisome thoughts anyway which lead to anxious feelings. Recently, after hearing about the happenings in Afghanistan and about the USA’s enemies gearing up for war and knowing our southern border is wide open, I began to worry about another 9/11-type attack. I can vividly imagine all sorts of horrible things. But I have learned to go straight to the Lord when I feel anxious and confess these thoughts and feelings to Him. He ALWAYS brings me back to a bit of Scripture for encouragement.

This time He gave me Psalm 91 (HCSB):

 

The one who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

He Himself will deliver you from the hunter’s net,
from the destructive plague.
He will cover you with His feathers;
you will take refuge under His wings.
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,
the plague that stalks in darkness,
or the pestilence that ravages at noon.
Though a thousand fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand,
the pestilence will not reach you.
You will only see it with your eyes
and witness the punishment of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord—my refuge,
the Most High—your dwelling place,
no harm will come to you;
no plague will come near your tent.
For He will give His angels orders concerning you,
to protect you in all your ways.
They will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

Because he is lovingly devoted to Me,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he knows My name.
When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor.
I will satisfy him with a long life
and show him My salvation.

 

Did you know this psalm was written in a time of God’s judgement on the wicked? The commentary in my Bible reads, “The terror and arrow, together with a thousand may fall, envision God’s people under attack. If the psalm were describing every situation of danger, it would clearly be untrue: faithful people have fallen prey to these and other perils. It is better to allow Psalm 91:8 to guide the interpretation, pointing to cases in which these events (plague, battle) are sent as God’s recompense on the wicked…, in such cases, the faithful can be sure of God’s protection.” 

For a while now, I have felt that God cannot, in His holiness, withhold His judgement on the USA. There is so much blatant wickedness in our land.  My prayer partners and I are praying for mercy and revival. I hope you are too. But if judgement comes, I am leaning into these verses and finding rest in the shadow of the Almighty. To rest in His shadow requires that we draw close to Him. Are you resting there too, tucked under His mighty, protective wings? 

joyce hague