Welcome to midweek encouragement for the soul!
Welcome to midweek encouragement for the soul!
This coming Wednesday night - July 3, 2024 - we look at the topic of Fireworks - an appropriate topic since it is the eve of the 4th of July - but it may not be what you think. We're talking about the fireworks of life and how they impact our relationships. Join us for Bible study at 6:30 p.m., but please note that we will be online only this week. See you on Facebook!
Please note - the message will happen at the beginning of our service, and then we will close with a time of praise and worship. Don't you need some mid-week encouragement for the soul?
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Our Bible study Wednesday night, June 26, 2024, we talked about harmony. In music, it is bringing together different sounds to create an orderly whole. In art, it is the pleasing arrangement of visual elements in an artwork, where each element contributes to a unified whole. Harmony is all around us in art and music, but not so much in the rest of the world.
We need harmony in our lives - where different people come together and have balance and peace. King David recognized how beautiful harmony is when it happens, likely because those moments stood out from the usual discord. Take a look at Psalm 133 – one of the shortest (if not the shortest) Psalm in the Bible. “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting.” Psalm 133:1-3. Yes, indeed, harmony is precious, and blessed by God.
The examples David gives are also reminders of God's blessings. David discusses the oil of Aaron’s anointing from Exodus 29:7. When Aaron was anointed to be a priest, the oil was poured on his head, and then it ran down the hair to his beard and to his priestly robe. It was abundant, and it reminds us that anointing comes from above, it comes from God. And know this - each of us have also been chosen and anointed. God knew us before we were born and designed us with unique and special gifts. He blesses us. And God's blessings from above saturate our whole life.
We are blessed by God, and we are blessed again when we come together for worship and come together in harmony in life. Blessings upon blessings.
David also wrote about harmony being precious like dew from Mount Hermon. In that day, the morning dew was seen as making the land richly fruitful. In Genesis 27:28– Isaac blesses Jacob by saying: “May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.” Dew sustains life, and because God sends the dew just like He sent manna from Heaven, we can say that God sustains us, too. God takes care of us. And that is another reason to come together to praise God. It’s beautiful! And worship is one place to find harmony - we come together in what unites us - God. In worship, we find the differences between us are small, and don’t matter. There will be worship in heaven one day - where we will all come together to say "Worthy is the Lamb." The Bible says that this heavenly worship will join together all people from every place and tribe to worship and praise Jesus, the Lamb of God: “You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Rev. 5:9
Something else that we must keep in mind is that coming together in harmony and unity is what Jesus prayed for in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus says when we can do so, it is then our witness will be powerful and fruitful:
John 17:20-23: - “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”
Notice this truth - perfect unity happens because Jesus is in God and we’re in Jesus. It's a complete circle, a trinity of life, and perfect harmony. “I in them and You in Me" makes us perfectly united, a perfect harmony. But here is the point - harmony in life won’t happen simply because we will it or desire it. God must be part of it. Without God in our relationships, there will always be a missing piece, and that means there will not be lasting harmony or unity. It may exist for a fleeting moment, but it cannot last. That is because differences will happen, and discord will follow. Without the love of God in the hearts of people, knowledge of forgiveness, mercy, and grace which guides our words and actions, harmony will be little moments instead of lasting peace.
Romans 15:5 says: “Now may the God who gives endurance & encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus” It is God who gives us the ability to live in harmony. And what we need are both endurance and encouragement to make it happen, and last. We need endurance because it won't be easy. It will be hard, and we will get discouraged; that is why we also need encouragement. All of that comes from God, whose will is for us to live in harmony so that the message of Jesus can be shared and take root in others.
How do we live in harmony together?
There are 3 keys to making harmony possible.
1 – Recognize the underlying truth - harmony comes from God. We can't make it happen if we don't make God and our faith the foundation of our lives. God must be in all of our relationships and our faith must guide our actions, reactions, and words.
2 – Appreciate other people and accept their differences. We are not here to change people; that is the work of the Holy Spirit. We must allow other people to be who God created them to be. We must allow other people to use their gifts and talents and energy as God placed those things inside them before they were born. Harmony happens when we allow every person to be themselves, and accept them as part of the body of believers . . . the family of God. The Apostle Paul said it this way in Romans 12:4-6 – “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.” Different parts of the body come together for the body to be whole. The reality is that different people must come together for the Body of Christ to be whole! It's going to happen in heaven, so we might as well start practicing and preparing for it now. Accept others, differences and all, just as you want to be accepted.
3 – Live with humility. This is the difficult part, but the truth we must face is that pride and haughtiness get in the way. Too often, we think we are right. We think we have it figured out and someone else is wrong. We think we know the answer, and reject those who disagree. But notice what Paul has to say in Romans 12:16 – NLT - “Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!” He gets to the heart of the matter – it is usually pride that keeps us apart, and pride certainly makes this world divisive. But Paul not only tells what not to do - don't be proud and think we know it all - but he gives us a plan of action . . . a mindset:
Phil. 2:5-7 – “Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality. Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance.” Jesus was willing to put aside His royalty to live among the common people. He put aside the riches of heaven to blend in with the poor. He was Lord and Master, but was willing to live as a servant. He deserved glory and honor, but instead, He lifted us up.
And in the end, He prayed for us to do the same - to come together and put aside our small differences for the bigger glory of God. Let's not be discouraged by the discord around us, but work with endurance to share the love of Jesus so that this world can come together in harmony.