THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD – I TIMOTHY
- – – – -
The house was neat and tidy,
Everything was in its place.
Nothing extra, nothing missing,
Functional, with style and grace.
Chairs of prayer, fellowship couches
Well supported, strong and stable.
Wall-to-wall carpet of scripture,
Long and wide communion table.
Old and new meshed with each other,
Useful both with ordered rule.
None worn out, each piece well cared for,
Serve as beauty and a tool.
Such a house we long to enter,
Respite take from battles long.
In this house, owned by our Father,
This is where His sons belong!
Everything was in its place.
Nothing extra, nothing missing,
Functional, with style and grace.
Chairs of prayer, fellowship couches
Well supported, strong and stable.
Wall-to-wall carpet of scripture,
Long and wide communion table.
Old and new meshed with each other,
Useful both with ordered rule.
None worn out, each piece well cared for,
Serve as beauty and a tool.
Such a house we long to enter,
Respite take from battles long.
In this house, owned by our Father,
This is where His sons belong!
- – – – -
Then at once my eyes were opened.
All around me I could see
The House of Faith illuminated
By sin-filled reality.
Some complained we never sang
Their favorite Christian song.
Some said the service was too short
While others said too long.
Someone cussing out his brothers
As over their feet he tripped.
One of those whose toes were stepped on
Let some nasty response slip.
The givers felt the takers owed
For being carried along.
And those who don’t do any complained
The do-ers did it wrong.
The volunteers were volunteered -
Used, burned out, left as dirt.
While others, waiting to be asked,
Were left with feelings hurt.
All around me I could see
The House of Faith illuminated
By sin-filled reality.
Some complained we never sang
Their favorite Christian song.
Some said the service was too short
While others said too long.
Someone cussing out his brothers
As over their feet he tripped.
One of those whose toes were stepped on
Let some nasty response slip.
The givers felt the takers owed
For being carried along.
And those who don’t do any complained
The do-ers did it wrong.
The volunteers were volunteered -
Used, burned out, left as dirt.
While others, waiting to be asked,
Were left with feelings hurt.
- – – – -
I looked back at Paul’s letter
To his young friend Timothy
And back again to Christchurch
That I love so fervently.
If our church is going to be
A place where Christ would live,
There’re two things that we all must do -
Love much and much forgive!*
To his young friend Timothy
And back again to Christchurch
That I love so fervently.
If our church is going to be
A place where Christ would live,
There’re two things that we all must do -
Love much and much forgive!*
- – – – -
James R. Iversen
Read for our Reflection Service for our 1 Timothy Series “Household”
6-20-2010
* Including my attempts at poetry!
#1 by Autumn Frey on June 28, 2010 - 2:41 pm
Thanks so much for this Jim, and for your heart of love toward God’s people and His church.
#2 by Jim Hersey on June 29, 2010 - 8:35 pm
This is the first that I have seen this section of our website. I am now is subscriber and look forward to future readings.
The Church is the family of God with Christ as the head. That makes us all siblings. O my! Families live, love, fife and make up or reconcile if they are to survive. If they do not they will become dysfunctional and eventually disintegrate, destroying lives along the way.
God is our father. Christ is our Lord and brother. We as a church, are then children and brothers and sisters. Jesus died for us by giving up himself because he loved us.
Self is our problem. We must deny self for the family to survive, grow and prosper bearing fruit. And loving one another is not a request it is a command as Christ loved the church.
#3 by Caleb on July 21, 2010 - 11:09 am
I enjoyed this. Thank you
#4 by Paul Bushay on August 4, 2010 - 8:20 am
THE OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY OF GOD
Jesus told about a landowner who hired day laborers to work in his fields and paid them all a day’s wage, in spite of the fact that he had hired workers all day long – some right up until the last hour. To make it doubly hard on the ones who worked all day, he made them watch everyone else get paid first. Well, you can imagine there was a good deal of grumbling from this group over those who worked only an hour or two getting the same thing they got laboring under the hot sun all day. To which the landowner replied: Wait a minute. Didn’t I pay you what we agreed upon? If I want to be generous to these others, what is that to you? Take your money and go. ( Matt hew 20:1-16)
Here’s what I love about this parable: slipping away from there with a day’s pay in your pocket for an hour’s work. You’re wondering if someone made a mistake and paid you too much, but you’re reluctant to point it out to anyone for fear it was a mistake and you’ll have to give most of it back. But then you hear that the generosity of the employer was the reason your pocket is full, and you can’t believe your good fortune.
This is precisely what it feels like to be a Christian. You didn’t contract for this righteousness. You didn’t labor to get into this family. You didn’t study hard and read your Bible every day and go to church every Sunday and gain extra credit for being on the worship committee in order to ensure your place in Heaven. You are in this for one reason and one reason alone – the overwhelming generosity of God.
Grace is what makes you keep checking your pocket to make sure your life with God is still there. Worship is what happens when you find out it is. In fact, what you receive is so overwhelmingly generous that you will probably need a tote bag to carry it all!
– John Fisher in The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional