This week our guest blog writer is my father-in-law Gary. He is a retired pastor and still very much a minister of God’s word. He is a lover of God and of people. I know that you will be blessed and challenged as I was with the teaching below. Now, let me introduce to you my friend and brother-in-Christ Gary.

I Corinthians 8:1-3

But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. (I Cor 8:2b-3a NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 1 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

Believers often find themselves asking the wrong questions about Christian living, consequently, our answers don’t always reflect the heart of God. God is always trying to speak to people through every word of scripture and other believers. Sadly, we often think this is just part of the special call of God to ministers. But this is the call of every believer. Let us take seriously the fact that God will anoint every believer to speak a word fit for the occasion. The Bible says that:

11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold
      In settings of silver.
       12 Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold (Proverbs 25:11+12 KJV)

Oh yes, you can be the speaker of words that are life changing – even life saving. God can and will bless any person who accepts the responsibility to speak the right words to another even if you do not know what those words should be. That doesn’t mean that every word we speak is a word from God but it does mean that God will use us from time to time.

Lest anyone set me in the world of the wacko, let me clarify that this is assuming that we are attempting to live according to God’s Word. I know there have been times when a person has comforted me or encouraged me that I was aware either right then or shortly thereafter that God spoken to me through that person. I don’t want to say much about this except to say that the writer of Proverbs greatly values this “word fitly spoken.”

Returning to my original Scriptural passage for this blog in I Corinthians 8 where Paul effectively tells us that love is better than knowledge; I don’t think for a moment that Paul is telling us that knowledge is not important but he is telling us that love is of greater value. If I understand him correctly he is saying that we all think we are right about our theological stand on any given issue; but we hold different beliefs on these doctrines or beliefs. I think Paul is saying that when we fight about which of us is right we put a stumbling stone in many peoples way; but if we speak lovingly to people we will draw people to the kingdom of God. And, often, this is just what we are attempting to do. I think we have overlooked this often and by that have, in effect, chased them away from God.

Paul says that whether meat is offered to idols that don’t even exist is a pointless argument that causes division unnecessarily. And this is often the way our arguments our disagreements are to the world around us. What is needed are words that build up and encourage people. I personally believe that the Church should constantly be trying to speak “fit words” that would serve to make us attractive in the eyes of the world around us.

I have a little paradigm that I think we should always remember. The process is head, heart, feet. That is we receive God’s word and wrestle with it in our head. Then we become convinced of it through our heart until we are absolutely sure; then, believing that it is true we will attempt to live it out. But many or us never get to the last step – the feet. If we find that God’s word is true then it must be lived out, for we do not believe what we say we believe; we believe only what we are willing to live out in our lives.

My life is different since I began to act out the “love of God shed abroad in my heart.”

We must remember that God uses the stumbling words we speak to touch people. I even pray before I leave my house in the morning that God will help me to speak uplifting words to the people I will meet through out the day. We all need to realize that we are servants of God in every aspect – speech, actions and all other ways we touch them. So, we pray ‘Lord, help me speak words that are like apples of gold in settings of silver.’ Be aware that you are first of all a servant of God, then a person performing the task at hand.

            Tuesday night, in the class I am taking at Xavier University, the professor had us to break up into small groups and talk about our lives up to this point, specifically thinking about what events in our lives were instrumental in bringing us to the point in which we presently found ourselves. Well, I am one of the older students in class and so I had more “life events” from which to choose than did most of my classmates. This group experience really got me thinking about this. Our group had some fun with this. Some shared about childhood experiences, both good and bad. Some shared about job or volunteer experience which nudged them this way or that way. I shared about various job experiences I have had, getting kicked out of college at the end of my first year, returning a year later to excel academically. I also mentioned growing up in a great family that remains close to this day, marrying into another great family that remains close, and the best of all, marrying Jennifer and having three great kids.

            As I thought of this I realized how fortunate I am. Now, for the sake of balance, my life hasn’t all been a bed of roses. As a teenager I had a significant stuttering problem that almost destroyed any self-esteem I had in my 6’5” 150 pound frame. I developed Crohn’s disease at around age 18. It didn’t get diagnosed until I was 26 when I had to have major abdominal surgery to remove about 12” of my large intestine. As a side effect of Crohn’s disease, I became more and more withdrawn and seclusive.  I have been suicidal once in my life (as a teenager) and have most assuredly have had two short bouts of real depression (as a teenager and in my early 30’s). For the last 7 years, my mom has lived with Parkinson’s disease. I have watched this wonderful lady, for whom I would give my life, slowly deteriorate and have a harder and harder time doing the things she has always been able to do. I watched my wife suffer through a second pregnancy that resulted in the birth of my son, my wonderful son. When my wife and I welcomed our third child into the world, Rachel Catherine, she (Rachel) had to be taken to the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) due to some serious struggles breathing. She spent 7 days in the NICU before coming home the day before Thanksgiving (and we were giving much thanks for her coming home healthy). These are but a few of the highs and valleys I have gone through personally and we have gone through as a family.

            Through all of this (and I pray for the grace to say this at the end of my life) I can shout aloud from the my rooftop what the prophet Isaiah said, “I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love. I will praise the Lord for all He has done. I will rejoice in His great goodness to (Steve), which He has granted according to His mercy and love.” (Isaiah 63:7).

            Let me encourage you to take this same journey. I ask you to take some time this day, or this week to review your life with all its peaks and valley’s. With all the moments filled with the highest joy and all the moments filled with the lowest despair and all the points in between, can you say with me “I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love…”

            Let it come to you if necessary, there will surely be one day when we are all in heaven when we will all be able to say, “I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love!”

            Praise the Lord!!!

            Amen!

            The love of God is a great thing! I know that I have just made the greatest understatement in the world but I am so taken aback with the knowledge that the One who holds the entire universe in His loving hand loves little ol’ me.

            I know that we have already talked about God’s love in a previous blog but this is a subject that is so important that we will return to it over and over again. In this blog I want to demonstrate one of the things that God’s love does for us.

            Sometimes life just seems to deal us a bad hand. For no known reason we find ourselves having a difficult time. This may be due to an illness, like mental illness, that just happened to us. You are not to blame for this but as the head coach for my hometown Cincinnati Bengal’s says, it is what it is. You may have been dealt a bad hand and you need God’s help to get through it. Let me give a personal illustration. Please don’t be offended by this, it is what it is.

            Last night I returned home after a long day at around 7pm. I walked into the house and was greeted by my wife who was finishing preparing dinner. My two older kids were down the street playing with friends so I offered to walk down the street and bring them home for dinner. Well, I found my son pretty quickly but had a harder time finding my daughter. After looking for her for a few minutes and feeling a twinge of concern I discovered that she and a friend of hers were in our back yard the entire time. Being the good dad I am I offered to walk her young friend across the street so she could go home while we ate dinner. My daughter’s friend said ok and I walked her out to the street and made sure she got across safely. As I stood under the tree in our front yard feeling good about myself for the deed I had just performed I heard a “splash” and felt warm liquid begin to ooze through my hair. That’s right!…..you guessed it!…..a bird pooped in my hair and didn’t even have the courtesy to stop and apologize for relieving himself on top of my cranium. What nerve!

            I don’t mean to make light of anyone’s problems or even attempt to compare the bird-pooping incident with something like an illness. The point of my illustration is this, sometimes things just happen to us. We live in a fallen world and bad things do happen to good people sometimes. And when this happens, God is right there with us. Let me give you another illustration. This one is from the Bible and it shows what God’s love does for us.

            In the book of 2 Samuel, we read that David becomes king. The previous king, Saul, and his son, Jonathan had both died in battle. At this point David becomes the king. Now, it was common practice for a new king to kill all the descendents of the preceding king so there wouldn’t be any legitimate competition for the throne. Once David becomes secured on the throne, he begins to look for descendents of King Saul presumably to kill them and eliminate his competition. In chapter 4, we learn of Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth who was crippled as a 5 year old. Upon hearing the news of Saul’s and Jonathan’s death, Mephibosheth’s nurse picked him up to escape, tripped and fell, which resulted in Mephibosheth being crippled. In chapter 9, it is written that David gives an order to search for any descendant’s of Saul’s (presumably to kill them). When Mephibosheth is discovered, David does the unexpected….he gives him kindness instead of death. He orders Mephibosheth’s servant to take care of the land David gives him and orders that Mephibosheth will eat at the king’s table! Wow! Mephibosheth must have been relieved! As far as we can tell, Mephibosheth spent the rest of his life at the king’s table. What an act of love.

            When I think about this I remember that we are told in the Bible that David was a man after God’s own heart. He loved like God loved. I also have a picture in my mind of what it would have looked like at the king’s dinner table. There is Mephibosheth at the table. He had an injury that wasn’t his fault and he was lucky to be alive. He had received the grace of the king. If David had killed him nobody would have thought anything about it. After all, that is what always happened in these situations. Mephibosheth had been crippled (another reason that he would have been looked at in judgment), but now he sat at the king’s table enjoying the fellowship of the king and the very thing that would have brought judgment upon himself in that culture (him being crippled) was hidden underneath the table where nobody saw it and nobody cared. After all, he had been invited to the table by the king himself.

            Isn’t that what God has done for us? We rightly deserve judgment because of our sin. As a result of our sin we deserve death. Sin has crippled us yet we have been invited to eat at the King’s table with our sin hidden from sight. We may have received an illness through no fault of our own. We are still invited to sit at the king’s table.

            By the way, after the bird pooped in my hair, I came inside, took a shower and washed it away. That’s what God will do for you! That is what His love will do for you.

            No matter where you find yourself, suffering from mental illness or any other illness struggling with sin or not serving Christ at all, come to His table and let Him make you clean.