AUGUST 23, 2019

“I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.” 
― Jon Katz

PSALM 119:105-176

145I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord,

and I will obey your decrees.

146I call out to you; save me

and I will keep your statutes.

147I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I have put my hope in your word.

148My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,

that I may meditate on your promises.

149Hear my voice in accordance with your love;

preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.

150Those who devise wicked schemes are near,

but they are far from your law.

151Yet you are near, Lord,

and all your commands are true.

152Long ago I learned from your statutes

that you established them to last forever.

1 CORINTHIANS 5

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

JOURNAL 

One of the toughest things as a parent is to lovingly discipline. It is hard, and requires a disciplined dedicated response to really do it the right way. The worst thing I can do as a parent is to ignore my child...ignore destructive behavior, pretend it doesn't exist, live in denial and hope it goes away by itself.

I think this is what Paul is warning the church about. It has been said that the opposite of love is not hate...it is apathy.  To discipline is loving to ignore is the worst form of insult. It's all about communication. Paul is communicating to the church and he really gets into some tough subjects. His warning is about letting someone who is a believer continue in obvious outright sin. 

Paul could just as easily be speaking about true friendship. For this is what it really comes down to. Between friends and even in a marriage. It is hard to fight for someone, to deal with their issues while also grappling with your own. Friendship, marriage, family...to really do it right is hard. It is messy and when I think about it...it is also the same in my own life. 

These are the tough deep struggles of the Christian Life, yet they are also where we meet Christ, who loves us through all of the mud and mire and is willing to step in, wipe our eyes, and restore us to relationship with the God of the Universe. This is our story, this is our hope, this is our joy...and to wade into it all with others committed to the same God, honest in their same struggles and dedicated to the best in each other...this is the Kingdom come. 

17A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

- PROVERBS 17:17