The "Each Other" Teachings of Jesus: #6. Build-Up Each Other

[1]

 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.    1 Thessalonians 5:11^(NLT)

Encouragement is sometimes in short supply. 

I once saw a Peanuts[2] comic strip that had Lucy van Pelt reading Charlie Brown the classic riot act after the final loss in a very long season of nothing but losses.  “This is the worst team that has ever existed, Charlie Brown; we never win, and you are the most horrible manager a team could have!” 

With that Lucy turns and storms off.  In the last panel Charlie Brown calls after her, “That’s not very encouraging!”

The late Bishop Paul Martin tells of the time when he "received a new church appointment early in his ministry.  The congregation planned a reception for him on his first Sunday.  During the reception, everyone came around to greet him except for one man who lingered in the rear of the room.  After everyone else had greeted him, this man came forward and simply stood there. 

The future bishop asked him, 'What do you do here?'  The layman said, 'I look for the preacher's weaknesses.'  And he added, 'I'm good at it!  But when I find them, that's where I get beneath him, and then I lift him up."^[3]

This defines for me the command of Apostle Paul to encourage; it is the sense of lifting each other.

Encouraging Strengthens People for Tough Times

People need lifting in tough times – times like we face today.  Our text contains one of the each others of the Bible. 

Paul had said to love each other, help each other, be kind to each other, not to judge each other; here he says to strengthen or build-up each other with encouragement.

Paul’s friends at Thessalonica had tough times.  They had questions about their departed loved ones, and how God was going to bring them back for the gathering of the saints at His second coming.  Paul told them not to worry, they were believers, children of light, and God would remember them. 

He also cautioned them to put on their combat gear – faith, love and hope – and stay awake like responsible soldiers.  He then told them that their faith will be strengthened as they remind each other of the fact that God hadn’t saved them to abandon them; they were his!

Tough times call for that kind of fellowship – bright spots in the long, gray road.

Patsy Clairmont tells of “riding my bike down a street when I turned a corner.  An endless, gray pavement that stretched out to meet the drab curb and dingy sidewalk greeted me.  Running alongside the walk was a dusty patch of earth that piled up against a beige wall.  Then, into this colorless picture an absurd addition intruded itself.  Atop the wall and spilling down its side was a vibrant swath of fuchsia flowers[4].

Suddenly the boring became breathtaking.  The dismal became dynamic.  The mundane became magnificent. 

Like a cup of cool water in a desert, a sudden breeze on a stifling night, a rainbow as the storm clouds part, the unexpected appearance of something grand caused my heart to skip a beat.

Isn’t life often like that?  Think about it.  You’re experiencing one of those days when you’re tired of yourself, and then someone steps into your landscape and plants words of encouragement.  The person values you, and you begin to bloom.  Or your work has become a drag, and you think if you have to file one more useless paper, change one more messy diaper, or listen to one more grumbling client, you’re going to scream.  Then you receive a promotion, the baby asks to go potty, and the client becomes your husband.

God tends to use blah settings to display marvels.  We mustn’t give up when we experience a succession of gray days and beige encounters.  Some stunning surprise awaits us around the next bend.”^[5]

Encouragers Always Get Encouraged

Paul had spent the better part of his life encouraging and building-up others.  The final couple of years he spent in jail…a dark, foul place with no company.  Talk about needing encouragement! 

This points us to the reality that we will eventually find ourselves on both sides of any equation.  If you’re an encourager, there will come a time (like Paul) when you need encouragement; you’ll need it like you need the next breath. 

And if you’re constantly in need of encouragement, don’t lose sight of the fact that you can also bring encouraging words or even just your presence to others.

Mr. Redden was a part of the church of my childhood; he’s now with the Lord.  One time he was a chaperone for our youth group.  He was very much on the edge of a great spiritual defeat.  I was only about 12 or 13, but Mr. Redden found himself sharing his tough time with me.  I don’t remember a thing he said, or what I told him, but I do remember how he looked at me and thanked me for listening. 

Some months later he tapped me on the shoulder at church and gave me a wink.  Without words he told me the victory was his.  That bit of counseling has encouraged me over the years like little else.  A grown-up taking a teenager seriously, respectfully…WOW!  That was like manna to my soul.

A Freshman English comp professor kept a copy of an essay I turned in; she said it was just in case I became famous for my writings!  I cannot tell you how much that meant to someone who didn’t think his words were worth hearing!

Barnabas was Paul’s friend, and his name actually means son of encouragement.  People were often named in that time according to their most outstanding characteristic.  Barnabas was the encourager, and even his name said so!

Friends, there are always going to be “gray days” in need of fuchsia flowers.  God has provided Barnabas for just such days. 

What would be our name…collectively and individually…if we asked the community to name us? 

Whatever it would be right now, wouldn’t it be wonderful if our community started calling us Barnabas? 

They’d say I know where to find those encouraging, helpful people – they’re down there at that church in Bennett or Seagrove.

The grace we find at this table has the power to change us; He said so!

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jennifer A. Villalovos, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] By Mk2010 (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

[3] Zan W. Holmes, Encountering Jesus (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 54-55.

[4] By Dominicus Johannes Bergsma (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

[5] Patsy Clairmont, The Women of Faith Daily Devotional (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2002), 127.

A Bit of Encouragement

[1]

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Devotion VIDEO here

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11^(NLT)

Encouragement is almost tangible!

A memory:  In 1967 a pair of 19 year old kids, facing the unknown of Vietnam and what the future might hold, decided to tie the knot.  The local minister at the Smithtown Methodist Church agreed to juggle the schedule and marry us right at the end of that Sunday’s service.  It was amazing how people just dropped everything and helped us put together (in only three days) a wedding with a full bridal party and reception in the church fellowship hall.  So encouraging!

For our one-day honeymoon trip we drove to New York City to attend a Broadway play.  It’s amazing how intimidating the whole nightlife scene of that city can be, even for people who grew up just an hour’s drive from the city that never sleeps.  But we managed to locate the theatre, and it was such a relief when the parking garage was right across the street.  An attendant took Elizabeth’s old 1960 Rambler and gave us a ticket stub; the car disappeared as he drove it into the tunnel entry.  Valet parking!  This was going to be first class!

The show ended late, and the people poured-out of the theatre; we were across the street in a jiffy, handing the ticket for our car to the attendant.  While we waited the crowd thickened, until there seemed to be no end to the sea of people.

We were like young does caught in the headlights.  The freezing New York February night air, a crush of thousands of strangers milling around, the noise of traffic, people shouting to be heard over the street sounds,  and our old Rambler stuck in a 10-story parking garage – well, it all made for some anxious moments; would we ever make it back to sleepy, little Smithtown?

Our answer showed up right on cue.  The first vehicle to emerge from that tunnel of an entryway to the parking garage was none other than our 1960 green and white Rambler with “Just Married” written in soap and chalk all over the front and sides.  Balloons and streamers still hung from the rear bumper.  It was a welcome sight! 

Then the attendant yelled out our ticket number, and suddenly the whole world silenced as people stopped talking to check their stub; then ten thousand pairs of eyes fixed on the little green car with JUST MARRIED glaring off every surface as it rolled-up to where we stood. 

As the young man in uniform escorted his bride of 36 hours to the passenger side of the little green Rambler and opened the door for her, the crowd (all 38 million of them) erupted in applause.  I looked around to see if perhaps the stars of the Broadway show had appeared, but it became embarrassingly obvious that the mob was applauding Elizabeth and Russell.

That was nearly 49 years ago.  But the encouragement of so many people who wanted to congratulate us and encourage us is an indelible picture moment that warms my heart as each February approaches.

Encouragement is supposed to be like that.  It comes from unexpected places and always at the right, but most unlikely times.  It might be a simple word, a comforting touch, a bill paid, an invitation extended, or one of a thousand other commonplace or extraordinary kindnesses…but encouragement lasts for a lifetime.

I know.

For You Today

You might have missed the last time you had a chance to encourage someone; don’t miss the next one.

You chew on that out on that Rocky Road today…and have a joy-filled and blessed day!

---

[1] Title image:  By English: CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz, via Wikimedia Commons