The Diode

(Story concept courtesy of Dan Schnell)

Bobby excitedly ripped open the brown paper packaging of his long-awaited delivery.  He got goosebumps as he laid out the different components of his do-it-yourself radio kit.  The twelve-year-old young man shut himself in the work shed and meticulously set up his work area.  He entertained the idea of tuning in to the different radio waves with his homemade device as he soldered the circuit board and branded the words "sound box" on the rough cedar casing.  The dials were tight, and the power switch snapped on and off with a sharp *click*.  Bobby licked his lips and anticipated the soft hum of electricity as he plugged in his new radio, but when he plugged it in, nothing happened.  The lights did not come on, and the soft crackle of the airwaves was conspicuously absent.  He flipped the power switch a few times, and even tried different electrical outlets to no avail.  As Bobby regarded the useless radio and considered the hours he'd spent assembling it, he threw it to the ground and stomped on the casing, shouting as it crunched beneath his boot. After shedding a few tears of frustration, he picked up his ruined radio and began laying out the smashed components, trying to understand why his project had failed.  Through checking and rechecking with the instructions, Bobby noticed a tiny diode that he'd soldered hours before.  Wasn't the black side supposed to be soldered to the black wire?  It was backwards!  Bobby disconnected the little part and soldered it in the correct position, then connected the wiring to electricity.  The speaker crackled and the plucking of a banjo permeated the atmosphere in the work shed.  All because the tiniest part of the radio was inverted, the entire appliance had failed to function.  

Ephesians 4:11-16

           11        And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
           12       for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
           13       until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
           14       As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
           15       but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
           16       from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

As we consider the story of the diode, we must ask if we recognize ourselves in the account.  Are we Bobby, who fails to see the backward diode?  This would be the Christian who fails to recognize that someone in the congregation has an issue and needs our attention.  Or are we the diode, a Christian who sees so many problems in the church and wonder why nothing works, while we are actually the source of the problem?

Let us work, both to be mindful of each part of the body, and to make sure that we are a faithful part of the body.

J

To Be Encouraged...

Very nearly every adult in the United States remembers learning how to ride a bicycle.  The usual method involves a parent following behind the learning child, holding the seat of the bicycle as the child pedals.  Eventually, mom or dad lets go of the seat. Notice, however, that they rarely tell the child they are on their own.  It is important to the child to have the encouragement and assurance of safety by their parent's presence.  When learning a new thing, we need assurance.  The need does not stop with learning how to ride a bike.

Christians are forever learning to be transformed into the image of Christ.  As Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14:26, the focus when we assemble is to edify.  We are not to be focused on ourselves or on finding glory for ourselves.  Rather, we should look to edify and build up our fellow brothers and sisters.  Why?  Because as we learn new things and as we strive to make ourselves into the image of Christ, encouragement is needed.  The building up that a Christian receives from others is crucial to his or her success!

When we next assemble, let us seek opportunities to edify.  Let us give encouragement as often as we can.  Let us strive to aid our brothers and sisters in their respective journeys toward becoming more like Christ.  

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching," Hebrews 10:24-25.

-J-

The Cold Within

The Cold Within - James Patrick Kinney

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

Proverbs 14:12 - "there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

When the world goes its own way, disaster is inevitable.  Even more tragic is when the world's thinking invades the church.  Some Christians have allowed a selfish viewpoint to pollute the practice of benevolence, stating that Churches ought only practice benevolence to those who are either of the church or who are interested in becoming Christians.  This blog entry asks the question, "Is that really the way God intended?"  While the worldly way of thinking is accurately described in Patrick Kinney's poem, The Cold Within, God never intended for His people to behave in such a way.  

Matthew 5:13 shows Jesus drawing the metaphor concerning His followers, "You are the salt of the earth."  Salt had the function in that day of both preserving and making things more palatable.  How does that metaphor reflect upon Christian behavior? 

Preservation

It's defined as sparing from corruption, decay, or destruction.  It sounds pretty valuable, does it not?  Christians serve as God's tool for preserving the earth, understood to be referencing those who live on this planet.  Christians spare from corruption, decay, and destruction by sharing God's word with mankind, thus preserving them from the fate of hell.  Christians are to preserve!

Making things more palatable

While the idea of preserving is pretty straightforward and is rarely misunderstood, the function of making the earth more palatable seems to cause problems for Christians, nowadays.  Many congregations of the Lord's church readily practice benevolence to their members, but outright refuse to assist those who are not members, or who at the very least show interest in becoming Christians.  Some members of the church will even argue that being benevolent to the community "doesn't get results," and therefore is not something in which the church should participate.

The question is, what results are we talking about?

Are people supposed to magically know that they are supposed to desire a relationship with God simply because a Christian gives them a cup of cold water?  

Are people supposed to fall on their knees and beg a Christian to teach them God's way when they receive a meal or some clothing from the church?

Consider again the function of salt.  It does not preserve and make things more palatable to serve some other end.  Rather, it preserves things and makes things more palatable as an end in itself!  Charity is completely absent of any qualifiers, if one examines James 1:27.  Doing good is not limited only to those who will sign a contract to hear, believe, repent, confess and be baptized, according to Galatians 6:10!  As Christians work to spread God's word of salvation to the world (preserving) and work to make the world a better place (making things more palatable), we ought not place conditions on God's work.  Jesus taught us to be salt, not salt with conditions.  

So, the result we should be seeking while doing good is that we helped someone.  That's the motivation, and that's the end goal of benevolence.  Christians need to help, simply because people need help.  That's God's design.  Ceasing benevolent activity simply because people don't desire to learn about God would be the same as ceasing to practice God's morality because people don't desire to learn about God.  What other people do does not affect our faithfulness to God.  Let us as God's people be the salt that Christ intended, rather than adopting the worldly qualities of the cold within!

J