Dr. Suess

"And will you succeed? Yes indeed! Yes indeed! Ninety Eight and Three Quarters guarenteed!"


Sunday, April 16, 2006

Celebrating Sisterhood & Easter

He is Risen in me.


We are all Sister’s in Christ,
adopted into his family.
An adoption to celebrate,
a privilege to cherish,
and a responsibility to honor
.

Titus 2: 3&4
In the same way, teach older women to be holy in their behavior, not speaking against others or enslaved to too much wine, but teaching what is good. 4 Then they can teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,


When we accept Jesus, an amazing thing happens … not only are our sins forgiven, not only have our feet been put on the path of righteousness, not only do we have life eternal … but a whole new family. The Family of God.

God’s word talks frequently talks about the body of Christ being family.
Galatians 6:10
10 When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.

1 Thess 4: 9
We do not need to write you about having love for your Christian family, because God has already taught you to love each other.

1 Timothy 3:15
Then, even if I am delayed, you will know how to live in the family of God. That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth.

When we realize that we are not alone, we are part of a family, a unit … a cooperative that is meant to help each other …the burden becomes less for each of us.
Galatians 6 is a chapter that is frequently referred to when reminding people that they are not alone … Bear ye one another’s burdens is how it is said in the King James. Later in the chapter it tells us that each one should carry his own load.
How many of us, as women, see the latter verse and decide that it cancels out the former verse? The reality is …they are not contradictory, nor exclusive of one another. Carrying your own load is referring to normal, every day things that is expected of those who happen to exist in the human race. What is a normal load for anyone to bear?
I once heard it compared to a backpack and a moving truck. Each one bear his own load …that’s what fits in the back pack …the normal things. The things that are above and beyond, that we’re supposed to ask for help …those are the moving truck things.
Yet …how many of us women, sisters in Christ, carry a moving truck on our backs, loaded, full and over flowing … everywhere we go, every minute of every day because we have not allowed anyone to help us? Because we thought we were supposed to bear our own load.
The problem that comes with carrying your moving truck on your own back ...eventually, it will lead to weakness, and wounds, and even into sin.
Galatians 6: 1-6
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too. 2 By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is important when he really is not, he is only fooling himself. 4 Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he can be proud for what he himself has done. 5 Each person must be responsible for himself. 6 Anyone who is learning the teaching of God should share all the good things he has with his teacher.

We as we grow, are to help each other grow, to be careful that our own load doesn’t get too heavy, so that sin doesn’t overtake us, so that the temptations of the world don’t weigh us down. When we help each other, by teaching, by encouragement, by training, by holding each other’s hand as we get each other through crisis’ … we are truly obeying the laws of Christ! We will soon realize that not only are our own burdens (backpacks) lighter, but the moving trucks get to where they go faster, and the belongings in the moving trucks has been placed there lovingly and orderly and ready to be dealt with …rather than in a chaotic mess that we’re almost afraid to open the door to deal with it when we DO get to the destination we’re about to arrive at.

Then, Paul takes us one step further … we’re not just to bear our own, and help each other with stuff that’s too big to bear … but when we’ve learned what we know …when we’ve gotten through … when God’s healed our hearts, and given us the wisdom of how to handle a situation … we don’t get to sit on the rocking chair and wait for the Son to return.

We get to share that … to help each other more. To bring up the younger sisters in Christ, to help those who are holding the moving trucks on their backs and don’t know they can put them down (or, are too afraid to).

Galatians 6:6
6 Anyone who is learning the teaching of God should share all the good things he has with his teacher.
Titus 2: 3&4
In the same way, teach older women to be holy in their behavior, not speaking against others or enslaved to too much wine, but teaching what is good. 4 Then they can teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

We have the unique opportunity to be Sisters in Christ, a wonderful thing, to be celebrated … and a responsibility to be cherished.

5 comments:

  1. This is so important to read!

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  2. I taught it yesterday, got blasted by my psychiatrist today for not having told him that I'd ever lost a friend in the OKC bombing (anniversary Wednesday).

    Told him this was my lesson yesterday he asked me when I was going to practice what I teach hmmmmmm

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  3. Hmmmmm.

    God is working through you my friend. I have struggled for almost a week with a "situation." I know what is moral. I know what I want to do. They are not the same thing. I am struggling. I still have not made a definite decision about my course of action. However, reading this post has, I think, helped me head the proper direction. Thanks for helping show me the path as I'm off to one side right now, over in the brambles hoping not to get too scratched up before I make it back.

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  4. we live in such a self centred world its hard to imagine brotherhood and sisterhood in the context of the bible in a modern era. But still its there Paul made such an impact because of his friends, his family in god.
    Jesus touched both men and women with the same outreach of compassion and love. Thanks for the gentle reminder of where we also need to be in god and our journey with him/her.
    I got your link from seras, raines and dr debs blogs hope you dont mind.

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  5. Don't mind at all ... I was planning on jumping over and taking a visit to yours tonight!

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