You and Me Together in Christ

You and I are not the same. You come from a different background, different social class, different continent, different economic situation, and a host of other differences. You and I would likely not know or engage with one another out in the world. But isn’t that how it is for just about everyone, differences separate us.

I remember moving to Boerne, Texas and enrolling our boys in school wondering how things would go. Bryson was in the 7^th grade and was just starting athletic competition in school. Not knowing anyone, he showed up, not from here and not knowing anyone, and yet he found friends almost immediately when it was found that he was like them in the athletic arena.

“¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” – Ephesians 2:13-16 (ESV)

We may be different you and me. But we are alike in Christ. Jesus made it possible for us to find commonality. He is out commonality. Jesus is our likeness. Our difference is on the surface, yet in the heart, we are the together. We have the same common goal and the same common home to get to.

No matter how different we are, we are able to find the commonality in Christ. Jesus came and died for my sins and yours alike. We are not better than one another. We are sinners in need of a savior and that savior, thankfully for us both is Jesus. We have Him in common and that brings us together. We are together in Christ.

What is your commonality to others? Are you looking at others as different because the do not look like you? What if you were to look inward and find the commonality with others in Jesus sacrificial love for you both?

Be at Home

Ever wonder where we are to set up shop. Where are we to be all that God would have us be. The answer is where we are. We are to be home working for the LORD.

“⁴and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” – Titus 2:4-5 (ESV)

This morning I read this passage and wonder what I am I to learn today. The passage is titled in my ESV Bible, “Teach Sound Doctrine” and Paul is writing to Titus to encourage him in his ministry. Paul is indicating here the role of men and women and how they raise Godly men and women. Where there is a lot to the passage, I was led to the “working at home” statement. We are to work at home where we are.

Yes, Paul is speaking to women and their role here, but I was struck by an extension of it to all of us as followers of Christ. Men are to leave their mother and father to become one with their wife. Wives are to follow their husbands and run the home. Husbands and wives are to be together at home working.

In Lori and my life together, we have not always been working at “home” together. I used to travel 2-3 weeks a month and even at one point lived away from the family for about 4 months until they could finish the school year and we could again be together. Those times were hard. We were not always on the same page in our family. It was only when we came back together at “home” that things seemed to settle in and become more consistent. Lori even worked as a teacher for a few years in the town about 20 minutes from us and it was not until she got a job where we lived that things settled in.

I say all of the above to show that in our family, we are best when we are together at “home” where we are. We are to be a family where we are and not separated. The wife should be close to “home” to care for things there. The husband should be “home” more than not. Together the husband and wife should use “home” as their base of operations and teach their children to do the same.

When it comes to our Christian life, we should be at “home” where we are. I have written to the idea of having a church home where you are and I do believe that. We should also do the work of Christ right here where we are first of all. Our church vision is, to see “A gospel movement that reaches every person of the Hill Country and is carried to the ends of the earth.” We start right here at home. In my home I am to be at “home” with my wife and family doing the work of the LORD right here at “home”.

In our world today, it is common and socially encouraged to look for opportunity in far exotic places. To make a splash somewhere out there in the world. But the Bible teaches us to start right here at home. We are to first get our own home in order and expand out from there. We are to “Teach Sound Doctrine” at “home” where we are now and then allow that to be carried from there. We start by teaching our children that doctrine in our home and allowing them to carry it out to their home. That is the expansion we are to be looking for. We are to be and work right here at “home” where we are.

Where are you looking to God’s work? Are you seeking to make a big splash somewhere in the world? What if you were to do the work of the LORD, at “home” right where you are as your starting point?

Built Together

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are built together.

“¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” – Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)

We are not in this alone. We have brothers and sisters to travel with. Paul makes it clear in the above that we “are fellow citizens” and that we are “of the household of God”. WE are a “dwelling place for God” and the collective that we are is growing “into a holy temple in the Lord”.

I know that in the above paragraph I have restated a lot of what Paul writes. I did that on purpose as it is how it lands on me related to my study this morning. WE are in this together and it is important to remember that. I have mentioned before that I am an introverted person and being in solitude is just fine for me (I may not leave the house except on Sundays). But even saying that and being that way, I still go to church with my brothers and sisters in Christ to worship together, to be in the presence of “fellow citizens”, to be in the presence of God.

“²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” – Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

WE are meant to be together to commune with the LORD. He builds us up together to be bigger than life itself. I or you alone are good in our pursuit of Christ, but together we are a mighty force in the name of God. God gave us each gifts to use for His glory and those gifts, where they are good on their own, working in concert with another is even more powerful. Together God builds us up to be the unstoppable workers. We is certainly greater than me.

How are you traversing in this world? Are you working to build yourself up alone? What if you embraced that God builds US up together for our good and to accomplish all that He has planned?