Epaphroditus

On Sunday, the lessons of a man buried in the pages of Philippians 2 offered some insight on the way we should live as Christians.

Epaphroditus.

He is described by the Apostle Paul as a brother, a fellow worker, a messenger, a minister, an empathizer, a comforter and an honorable man. Paul wanted to let him (and everyone else who would be reading this letter) know how he felt about Epaphroditus.

This particular message gave me a little Holy Spirit anxiety because I possess a couple of troublesome traits: 1.) I’m intensely task oriented and 2) I play my cards very close to the vest.

You probably already know this about me because 1.) I’ve flown past you in the hall without saying “hi” while carrying a binder or a “to do” list and/or  2) I’ve given you a blank stare or some other cold, stand-offish reaction after you’ve shared a deep thought with me.

To say that I don’t love these particular aspects of my temperament would be a gross understatement. In fact, they have caused me immeasurable amounts of relational trouble over the years. I have often wondered if there was some type of therapy or a procedure – like a personality transplant – that I could undergo to help me in these areas.

On Sunday, to my great delight, I discovered that help is probably much easier than I originally thought. I don’t need to change my personality (which is a huge relief, because I’m fairly certain this is impossible). I just need to adjust some behaviors.

First, I need to tell the Epaphrodituses in my life what they mean to me!

I once wrote a blog post that was kind of Paul and Epaphroditus-y. Here it is if you’d like to read it.

Check that off my to-do list. Last year, I let my Epaphrodituses know what they mean to me. So, I’m good, right?

Nope. This needs to be a regular part of my life. So help me, if I need to write “Tell your Epaphroditus what she means to you” on my to-do list in order to get it done, then I will. Has someone been a fellow laborer in the Lord’s work? I should let her know. Did someone deliver a timely message in my season of need? She needs to be encouraged in that. Have I enjoyed someone’s comfort or empathy? They need to know. I can’t just mentally stockpile these occurrences and then write about them all at once on the internet. More importantly, I can’t assume that each person just knows how I feel. I have to purposefully tell each one.

Second, I need to be an Epaphroditus – a sister, a fellow worker, a messenger, a minister, an empathizer, a comforter, an honorable woman. All of those can be accomplished by doing three things:

1. Love God
2. Love God’s people
3. Love God’s work

As I work each one of those items out in my life, it’s impossible for me to remain physically and emotionally isolated. Biblically, those three things can’t be done in a vacuum because loving God will automatically result in loving people. If I don’t love His people, then I need to seriously evaluate my love for Him. Jesus’ teachings are full of these truths. And because I love Him and I love His people, I will naturally want to serve His people and do His work.

I am greatly looking forward to modeling some Paul and Epaphroditus-like behavior today. I hope you are, too. Let’s do this together.

Written by: Jaime Hlavin

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Samuel- Part 6

If you think of the Bible as a love letter, a tome about God’s passionate heart for you as his creation and his ongoing relationship with us as His people, then maybe 1 Samuel is narrating that stage of a romance when you get to meet the parents.

I say that because this is not only the first really multi-generational narrative of the Bible since Genesis, but one of only a few where we get an introduction to at least one parent or child of every major character. And the results are unsettling.

Pastor Aaron has recounted a few of these meetings in service the last few weeks: Hannah encountering Eli before she becomes Samuel’s mother (1:9-19), the wickedness of Eli’s sons (2:12-24), and later the shortcomings of Samuel’s sons (8:5).  This is one of my favorite books of Scripture, and the teaching on it has been rewarding. However, the writer in me wishes we’d tackled two sticking points:

1) Why do we have two whole books named Samuel when the title character is already dead three-quarters of the way through the first book (and pretty inactive halfway through that book?)

2) Why do so many great men of God seem to be poor fathers?

Literary scholars would call this father-son theme a motif, because it repeats throughout 1 Samuel. Eli is earnest in his priestly duties, but his sons are so lecherous and corrupt that God has Samuel prophesy as a child against them (3:11-17). Likewise, they die in battle (4:11). Yet God redeems Eli’s legacy, in a way, by letting him raise Samuel into one of Israel’s most righteous judges.

But Israel’s elders ostensibly want a king to succeed Samuel because, blameless as he is, his own sons are unfit for his role (8:4-8). Samuel still gets to anoint David, arguably Israel’s greatest and godliest king. Do all of David’s sons prove worthy of his legacy?  In fact, you could make a case that the only man in 1 Samuel who raises a righteous son is Saul, because Jonathan befriends David and his faithfulness helps him to rout a camp of Philistines with his armor-bearer (14:6-14).  Yet Saul is the same king who starts out insecure, grows disobedient, and eventually deteriorates into killing priests and consulting a witch; only to have his and his sons’ deaths foretold (28:15-19). Rough stuff.

Wouldn’t it be easy to infer you can either be a godly man, or a good father, but not both? I can even feel a twinge when my daughter tells me, “You’re the best Daddy,” and fear my judgment is coming! (OK, not really, but after reading 1 Samuel I’ve had to wonder if I seek the best gifts as a father).

But this of course isn’t Samuel’s message at all.  Consider how easy it would have been for God to strike down Saul but spare his righteous son. Then Jonathan is king, and no wars or civil unrest are necessary--the easiest transition yet to a godly leadership for Israel. Right?

    

Maybe that’s easier on Jonathan, but not the best way to build character and faith in God’s people. What God has tried to make so simple and clear is the fact that we cannot arrive at His perfect will through human institutions and conventions. This is not a book about godly men being terrible parents, so much as learning to trust that God alone decides where the lessons we learn and teach pass down beyond our own lifetimes. There is always an anointed leader in God’s design to carry out His plan, even if the next voice of leadership does not come where we would expect it.

God can, and often does, pass the mantle from a righteous father to an equally righteous son like David to Solomon or Abraham to Isaac. But maybe He doesn’t make a habit of it, because we’d get dependent on the tradition or a preordained lineage rather than seek His will for the future. We may each get to have spiritual descendants as well as biological ones, in that sense – just as long as we don’t err by assuming we get to build our own legacies without Him.

Written by: Chad Halcom

Edited by: Brigit Edwards

Samuel-Part 4

Sometimes, you just think you know better...

One summer day when I was young, my mom had some critical errands to run.  My sister and I would normally be dragged around with her throughout the day on whatever household business there was to attend to, but this day's business was too important, or adult, or long....or something...for kids to attend.  So mom began to try and make arrangements for us to have a babysitter come over for a few hours.  Now, I'm sure that based on my angelic demeanor most of you would be shocked by this, but I DESPISED babysitters when I was young.  I was actually quite notorious among the teenage church girls for the torturous nights they had endured as my caretakers.  We’re talking Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone” level mischief, here.  So on this day, mom showed a slight hesitance to jump into the process of hiring a babysitter for the afternoon.

My sister, a near-teenager herself, sensed the opportunity at hand and threw herself headlong into the task of convincing my mother that it would be perfectly fine to leave us home alone, and that she and her best friend, Cassie, would take excellent care of me.  My mom was resistant to the idea.  She had not left us home alone before, and she wasn't quite sure if my sister was up to the task.  However, my sister and Cassie were nice, responsible girls.  They were good students, generally followed the rules, and they were even Honor Stars (for all of you life-time A/G faithfuls who know what that means).

Now, I was not in the habit of voluntarily placing myself in submission to my sister’s authority, but alas, when weighing the two evils of my sister or a babysitter I decided that my sister would be the lesser evil of the two.  

“What’s the worst that could happen,” I thought, “Mom says I’d be better off with a babysitter, but surely having my own sister in charge would be better than that, right?”

So, I joined the nagging chorus and began to beg for mom to leave us home alone.  For a while, mom stood her ground-- it was not a good idea for us to be left alone.  However, with the time for important business drawing near, and the babysitter prospects dwindling into undesirable territory, she eventually acquiesced to our demands. 

We watched out the window as my mother nervously backed her car out of the driveway and began to drive down the street.  We had done it.  We were free.

And that’s when the trouble started…

See, I didn’t know it, but my sister had been particularly annoyed with me that day.  Within minutes, she and Cassie exacted their diabolical revenge.

First they held me down and painted my face with every single cosmetic item in the household until I looked like the offspring of an early-90s female televangelist and Bozo the Clown.  Next, they found every hair-clip and barrette they could and began to clip them, daisy-chain them, tangle them, and knot them throughout my hair until a set of clippers would be the only capable tool for their removal.

Finally, for the coup de grace, they decided it would be a fun idea to roll me up in a sleeping bag like a chubby little clown-faced, ratty-haired, burrito and then unroll me as fast as they could.  The only problem was that when they yanked on the end of the sleeping bag, it did not unroll as quickly as they thought it would.  Instead, they hoisted me into the air, and I came crashing back to the ground head first, with no arms to cushion my fall.  Dizzy and concussed, I began stumbling around and projectile vomiting throughout the house.

In retrospect, perhaps I should’ve just submitted to my mother’s authority instead of thinking that I knew better.

Don't we still do this same sort of thing all the time (albeit in less concussion-y forms)?  Israel sure did.  In 1 Samuel 8, we see Israel demanding a king to rule over them so that they can be like everyone else.  In their own minds, it was certainly in their best interest.  God had put a system of authority in place as He saw fit, but the people continuously rejected that authority, and demanded to subject themselves to a lesser authority.  God warned them that this would only bring trouble for them, but they would not listen.

In what ways might we be doing the same thing?  Has God placed you under an authority that you know in your heart you’re rebelling against?  What about that thing that God has told you to lay down but that you just can’t help yourself from picking back up?  Do you ever see your friends, even your Christian friends, participating in talk and activities that in your flesh you would love to join in, but in your heart you know God has directed you otherwise?

There is not one example to be found where people rejected the things of God and His authority and came out better off for it.  So let’s continue to focus on the things of God, and on trusting His will, and not be led into captivity by thinking we know better.

Written by: Travis Buerky

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Samuel-Part 3

If you want to add God to your life, you need to subtract something from it.

–Pastor Aaron

I wish Israel recognized this quicker. I wish putting this into action was easier. In the book of Samuel, Israel is found to be in utter turmoil after the death of Eli’s entire family. The last-standing member, Eli’s newborn grandchild, is named “Ichabod,” meaning “the glory has departed.” This is a direct reflection of the Israel at the time. They were weak. They had just lost in battle to the Philistines, and were currently without a leader. Moreover, the one thing (the ark) they treasured as their protection and strength was captured by their enemy.

The Israelites loved God and wanted to serve Him, so why is it that His glory seemed to have left them? In Samuel 7:3, Samuel gets to the heart of the issue. He declares to the nation, “If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” Reading this with modern eyes, I think, “Wow. How could the Israelites have been so ignorant (for 20 years, might I add) of the fact that in order to whole-heartedly serve the Lord, they needed to get rid of other idols?” However, the half-hearted Christianity of the Israelites is not far off from the behavior of you and I in the 21^st century. We tend to fit God into the areas of life where it’s comfortable and makes sense, but the places many falter are in the parts of life that don’t necessarily fit the mold for Christ.

Israel had to learn that God isn’t just an ingredient to life. He is the source, the recipe, and it’s impossible to truly serve Him without surrendering all of our idols.  In the same sense, we can’t truly serve God if we don’t let go of what takes priority over Him. 

I challenge you to identify the things in your life that may be competing for your attention. It’s not easy to surrender things that we value, but it’s so important that they never outweigh God’s value in our lives. The Israelites found themselves to be slaves to their idols, burdened by an absence of glory. It was not until they made Jesus their One and Only that the glory was restored. Therefore, let go of your idols, and let God bring His glory to your life.

Written by: Tamara Sturdivant

Edited by: Jenelle Kelly

Samuel-Part 2

faith·ful (ˈfāTHfəl): 1.loyal, constant, and steadfast. 2. having a strong belief in a particular religion, especially Islam.

 When I began to think about how I would reflect on this week’s message in the Samuel series regarding faithfulness, one of the statements made caught my attention immediately: “There is a difference between being committed and being faithful.” Being someone who values words and language so much, it was a bit of a shock to my ear to discover that there was a discrepancy between two words I had not yet uncovered. Putting my best detective skills, intellectual ideas, and my Google search engine to work, this is what I have come up with. “Committed” has been defined as feeling dedication or loyalty to a cause; while faithfulness has simply been defined as loyal, constant, and steadfast. If there is one thing in the world that is none of these things, it is my feelings. It is what I want to do from one day to the next. I have since wondered why we (or maybe just me?) are just now discovering this distinction. Are we not asked to RENEW our commitments to God daily? It is through constant and steadfast commitment that we achieve faithfulness.

I know it’s been eating at some of you since you started reading this. It’s been an eyesore. You’re worried I’m not going to talk about it and leave you in the dark. “Why wouldn’t she omit that?” “Isn’t this a Christian blog?” “I’M SUPPOSED TO FEEL MORE ENCOURAGED THAN THIS!”  But you read it right. In my quest to discover the true definition of faithfulness, it also became apparent that faithfulness is defined as having a strong belief in a particular religion-especially Islam. However, in the 1828 edition of Webster’s, the definition just says “religion,” and is full of references to Bible verses.

 My heart cannot help but sink at the statement Pastor Aaron made Sunday about how faithfulness is seen over time. Along the course of history, the world has come to recognize Islam as the religion of the faithful. And reflecting on the things I’ve witnessed – even my own life – who can blame them? We’ve spent decades in the church painting a picture of convenient Christianity, of comfort, not having to be too different. “At least we look like everyone else, we don’t require special wardrobe.” Why, instead of becoming complacent because our defining marks as Christians aren’t based on appearance or tradition, have we not sought to be as faithful in love, in righteousness, and in the Fruits of the Spirit that eradicate darkness unlike any false gospel has seen as the Muslims do in prayer and manner and dress? The truth is, the world is taking notice. It’s time we start to as well, and take back the very language of the nature of our God.

This week I challenge you: Recommit yourself to God every morning. Make a NEW promise for a NEW day. Let’s relearn together what it is to die to ourselves, and to be constant in worship as we go through our days. 

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Jaime Hlavin

Samuel-Part 1

In my childhood, I lost two grandparents to heartbreaking illnesses within the matter of a few years. At age 11, I had to move to another state and adjust to a new school, make new friends, and leave behind the family and town I grew up in. Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and it can be extremely difficult to uphold the burden on our own. As we began the series on Samuel this week, I believe the story of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, struck a chord with many of us. The exposition of her story illustrates the utter anguish she was in as a result of her inability to have children. Furthermore, the taunting of her husband’s other wife plunged her into deeper sorrow.

The thing that’s so remarkable about this story, however, is not the battle Hannah had to face. Rather, it is how she chooses to respond. As it states in Samuel 1:10-11, In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.” This is so different from what may be considered a “natural response” to struggle. Instead of asking God, “Why?” and begging Him to fix everything, she surrenders. She offers to give her time, her heart, and even the precious gift of a son to the Lord. She was reverent, and she was faithful.

God heard Hannah’s genuine cry and responded by blessing her with a son, whom she named Samuel. Because of her faithfulness, God lifted Hannah’s burden. He provided her with peace and comfort, even before she conceived. In the same way, God is willing to carry our burdens. Although He may not always take away the struggle, He will walk us through every step if we are faithful.

I can’t help but wonder where I would be if God was not at the center of my struggles, guiding me through every “curveball.” Like Samuel, I am also blessed to have parents that led the way by their faithfulness to God in the hard times. If you are at a point in life where things aren’t going so great, I challenge you to reach towards the Lord. Instead of questioning, trust Him. Serve Him. God wants to take away your burdens, but you have to let Him into the struggle in order for Him to calm the storm.

Written by: Tamara Sturdivant
Edited by: De Ann Sturdivant

The Next Thing Now-Moving into Outer Space

Several years ago, while we were on a family vacation, I was a first time guest at church for the first time in a very long time. (As a pastor’s wife, I don’t have this opportunity very often. And when I do, it’s usually at a fellow pastor-friend’s church or my husband is guest speaking so the whole “first time guest” experience isn’t quite the same.)

On this particular Sunday, after we awkwardly found our way into the building, I parted ways with Aaron and fumbled around for the children’s wing. After traversing check-in procedures and getting my kids settled in, I attempted to find the correct Worship Center (yes…there was more than one.)

En route, I found the ladies room and locked myself in a stall where I promptly burst into tears. And that immediately made me feel angry and foolish, because I am a pastor’s wife for heaven’s sake! I’m just visiting a church! Why am I acting like this?!

It occurred to me that attending a church for the very first time is hard. And awkward. And uncomfortable. And people are rarely ever just visiting a church. They are making a life decision for themselves and their families.

I know you’re thinking, “Duh. Like I don’t know that. I’ve done that a dozen times!” And for what it’s worth, now, so many days, weeks, months or years after the fact, I hope your first time experience at Freedom was free of difficulty, awkwardness and discomfort…once you finally found a parking space.

And there it is. A parking lot. The last thing on earth anyone truly wants to be excited about raising funds for.

But that parking lot is the first thing a guest experiences at Freedom. THE. VERY. FIRST. THING.

And it’s not just for the first time guest.

It’s for that lady who’s been coming to Freedom for quite some time now, and has been through the most difficult year of her life. This past week, life has completely beat her up. And this Sunday, she just needs to be in church. With her friends. With her children. With her Jesus.

But she’s running late this morning and she pulls into the parking lot ten minutes after service has started.  There are no parking spots left. She could park over at the elementary school…and traipse her young children on this blistering, cold, messy January day across the sidewalk, down the driveway and into church.

Instead, in defeat, she decides to turn around and go home…as her kindergartener cries in the backseat because he was so excited to turn in his Buddy Barrel today to help meet one of the big BGMC Goals that Glo has set this year.

So, it’s not just expanding a parking lot. It’s not just big giving goals. It’s creating a place and an opportunity. For people. For you. For me. For your family. For that guy sitting across the worship center who is broken and lonely. For that person who just pulled into the lot who is on the verge of salvation.

Faith and sacrifice are often two sides of the same coin. If I have faith that God is going to do something big, often my first action step is to make a sacrifice. Our family is taking steps, cutting back, taking on special projects and finding creative ways to make money so that we can give sacrificially, too. We are standing together with you as we move forward into the next thing…now.

Written by: Jaime Hlavin

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant