MenuOur Holy Cross congregation and our leadership here continue to remind me of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Together, let’s go forward in God’s Word. I can’t put it better than Paul:
“To all the saints in Christ Jesus at [Holy Cross], together with the overseers and elders: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus…
Brothers and sisters, that’s the way I feel – joyful and thankful – when I pray for you and Holy Cross in this exciting journey the Lord has embarked upon with us.
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God…
I pray that our love for our Lord and for each other may abound more and more. As we seek to “discern what is best” – to make God-honoring decisions stewarding the resources He has provided – let us remember that in His eyes, our “abounding in love” for Him, each other and the lost, is what matters – way more than coming to the “right” decision from a humanly practical, construction, timing, or financial perspective, especially if how we come to a decision divides us rather than unites us.
“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ…
We’re going forward together in love, and we’re going to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel to reach a decision abounding in love.
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should not look to your own interests but to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant… and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!”
How do we achieve unity – “being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose”? By putting our selves second to each other. In coming to a VAM about a big building project, we all come with our own desires and wants, and our own thinking as to what’s “BEST” in our own minds, and from our own unique perspectives and experiences. There is value in having these different experiences and perspectives! They’re gifts from God.
But let’s keep one thing in perspective: the Lord isn’t asking us to die on a cross here – He already did that for us, out of love. He’s merely asking us to subordinate what we want individually to the interests of others. To subordinate my interest to those of others starts first by my listening to others, to hear their interests, perhaps asking questions in love, and perhaps repeating back in my own words how I understand their interests.
Then, let us each be willing to GROW – to be challenged by the Lord to subordinate our selves. Some of us, seeking to be bold, may wish to push forward with a larger, faster project; let us be willing to subordinate what we want in the interest of those who are not yet so bold, that we may be unified. Conversely, some of us, seeking to be careful, may wish for a slower pace with incremental steps; let us be willing to subordinate our conservatism and be willing to step forward in faith perhaps a little bit beyond our comfort zone, that we may be unified.
And let us all remember that together we’re seeking to sow and grow Christ’s kingdom. If we do that, I’m 100% confident we’re making the right decision, whatever it is. To God be the glory.
-Pastor Nickel
