The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“Mutual”
“For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established, that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me” (Romans 1:11-12).
All communicators of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ understand the Apostle Paul’s hope for a “mutual faith” to be shared with the Roman believers. To preach, teach, or bear witness to Christ never involves a unilateral experience of exposure to truth. The Holy Spirit engages all parties in His communication of Christ when the Bible is opened together in a shared pursuit of God’s light and life.
“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3).
I thought of this earlier when considering our schedule for the day, which involves two services, along with several opportunities to communicate with believers individually. In each setting, it will seem as if I am imparting the Lord and His truth, which will be true if I fulfill my calling faithfully and effectually. However, the fact of the matter is that regardless of who speaks and who listens, the possibility of mutual blessing will be offered by our Heavenly Father. Indeed, the teacher who stands in a pulpit is no less a student than his congregants. How could it be otherwise, considering he seeks to represent an infinite God whose “greatness is unsearchable?” (Psalm 145:3). Thus, even as the preacher preaches to others, he does well to keep his heart attuned to the very real possibility of learning even as he teaches. And perhaps, learning more than anyone else present (because he may well be the most needy one present).
There are no experts in the body of Christ, but rather only fellow supplicants ever seeking to grow together in the grace and knowledge of the infinitely glorious Lord Jesus. Of course, God calls some to communicate, based on consistent exposure to Himself and His truth found in the Scriptures, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and hopefully assimilated in a manner that makes possible effectual conveyance of the spirit and truth of the Lord Jesus. Such ones know that standing in a pulpit implies no superiority of relationship and fellowship with God, but rather the humbling responsibility to join Paul in the sincere confession of his need for ongoing illuminations of grace and truth…
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament” (II Corinthians 3:5-6).
We all need each other to serve as lamps of the Light, whereby “the mutual faith of you and me” illuminates our hearts together. The pulpit and the pew are both occupied by those who have only begun to discover “the wonders without number” available forevermore to the sons and daughters of God in Christ (Job 9:10). Regardless of who speaks or who listens, God gathers all His people together to grant opportunity to be taught by the finest Teacher who exists, the Holy Spirit, as He bears witness to the Lord Jesus in the pages of a Bible we have all only begun to ponder and understand. Mutual.
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
(Ephesians 3:14-19)
Weekly Memory Verse
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house that I have builded?
(I Kings 8:27)
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Weekly Memory Verse
The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many.
(Matthew 20:28)
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