The Building One Another Podcast

Twice Peter repeats the phrase, "Love one another earnestly." The first time, he simply tells us to do it (I Peter 1:22). The second time, he shares a consequence, "because love covers a multitude of sins!" (I Peter 4:8) Love covers! God's marvelous love covers the multitude of your own sins and we in turn are invited to cover the multitudinous sins of the people in our lives. Covering does not me...

The apostle Peter offers this direct word, "Love one another earnestly from a pure heart!" I Peter 1:22 The word "earnest" carries the sense of reaching out eagerly and resolutely, like a runner racing to the finish line or a parent chasing a child wandering into danger. So, this kind of earnest love for one another isn't casual or necessarily easy. It's focused, urgent unrelenting, exactly like G...

We live in a time in which conversation is increasingly coarse, and there is a diminishing capacity to disagree agreeably. When you disagree with someone, ask yourself, "Do I only want to state my view and if possible, change your view?" Or, "Do I want to hurt you, demean and damage you with my words? Do you refer to people with whom you disagree as "of that ilk," a disparaging way of associating...

We often think of small groups with anywhere from 6 to 12 people in them, but a MICROgroup has only 3 or 4 people! We see many microgroups in the New Testament: Peter, James and John;' Mary, Johanna and Suzanna; Mary, Martha and Lazarus; Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. The power of microgroups is their capacity to deepen your love for Jesus and your friendships with others. A microgroup is tiny church...

The idea of the empty chair offers a great way to encourages groups to welcome new participants. If the group is open to new people, have an empty chair present every meeting! The concept of the empty chair extends to our personal lives as well! Ask yourself, "Am I open to an empty chair in my personal life? Am I open to new acquaintances, new friends while growing more deeply with the friends I h...

Do you have a plan, even a simple plan, to grow as a disciple of Jesus? It's very easy to attend a class or a study group, attend worship Sundays and assume that's enough. It is true that Christian growth happens as we just live life with the Lord who loves us. However, just as students grow in maturity simply by living life at home with adults, they also grow when they stretch their lives accordi...

Do short-term challenges grab your attention? The World Vision Global 6K is a 3.73 mile walk that raises money to help the peoples of the world have clean water. The 100 Push-Ups a Day Challenge raises money for cancer healing research. Ideally, such challenges go beyond the short-term fitness and fund-raising goals and inspire us to make walking and exercing part of daily life. The Apostle Paul o...

It's easy to mix up the way faith and feelings work in our lives. In fact, we are invited to trust God regardless of how we are feeling. Sometimes, while we are trusting God, our feelings soar with joy. At other times we experience "stomach lag" as our feelings lag behind our faith. Faith isn't a feeling, it's a trusting, a relying, a resting upon another, no matter what we are feeling! The apostl...

Think of the times you found yourself positioned with people through no conscious choice of your own and it became clear your meeting was for reasons of God's own. That is the concept of "positioning." When you are aware that God positions people together, it helps us to see God at work in your life.   When you realize God positions you, then "play the position!" Deliberately look for ways to buil...

Think of a person whose intentional influence on your life helped shaped who you are today? A parent? A teacher? A friend? A fellow worker? That person was a mentor.    A mentor is a person in your life who helps you develop, helps you become the person our Lord wants you to be, by passing the baton of faith and life practices. You also can be a mentor in turn as you deliberately invest yourself i...

Why did the woman with the hemorrhage and others who were ill touch Jesus?  They trusted him! To touch Jesus today is to trust Jesus. Touching Jesus by trusting Jesus in every moment of every day connects us with the love and the life-changing power of the Lord who loves us! Just we know of those who sought to touch Jesus, we also know Jesus touched people. He touched lepers and blind people and l...

The story of your own walk with the Lord who loves you is one of the easiest and most helpful ways to help others become aware of the same Lord! Sharing your story may be a simple as mentioning something that happened in your life with words of affirmation such as, "The Lord encouraged me by…" God comforted me with…"  "The Lord who loves me was with me in this situation…" More profoundly your fait...

You walk into a room of people – perhaps a party in a home or a church sanctuary or a school program. Someone standing at the door greets you and immediately looks past you at other people who are coming. You feel  both welcomed and ignored! Further into the room you pass someone else who also greets you and then looks past you? Again, you feel immediately welcomed and ignored! Imagine bumping int...

In the midst of the people flow that swirled around him, Jesus remained awake to the individual persons who were near him. Whether it was Zacchaeus in a crowd, Bartimaeus in a crowd or an ill woman in a crowd, Jesus saw and paid attention to each one with his "people eyes." Sometimes the people flow is a people flood and at other times a trickle, yet always every single person you encounter has a...

A moment came in which Jesus remarked to the twelve apostles,"I have called you friends." In that moment he did not call them students or disciples or followers, and they were all of that. Nor did he use the language of today, calling them parishioners or clients or patients or subjects. He called them friends! Jesus held them in his heart and they held Jesus in theirs! It's what real relationship...

Of all the marvelous words the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, among the most meaningful to them must have been "I hold you in my heart!" To hold you in my heart, have you in my heart is not passive, it's highly active! There are countless people you have met, known and know, who reside somewhere in your mind. You think of them when something sparks a memory, but I would suggest that to hol...

Who is with you when you walk through the valley of the shadow? It is Jesus the Good Shepherd! He is your ultimate valley-walker! Who else are the valley-walkers in your life? They are the people who walk with you through whatever valley of the shadow lies before you. You can also be a valley-walker for someone else. Who are the folks who need you to be their valley-walker? May you experience refr...

Jesus helps us cope and gives us hope as he lifts the brokenhearted and those who seek him. If the people in your life were to be interviewed about you, would they say you are a people-lifter? I've been thinking about Dick Feiertag, a life-long friend of mine who recently slipped away to be with Jesus. Dick was a people-lifter who, like Jesus, helped people cope and gave them hope! Dick showed how...

The verb "to lift" occurs some 200 times in the Bible indicating various ways we lift our eyes, lift our heads, lift our voices, lift our hands and lift our faces. Above all we learn that the Lord who loves us loves to lift his people!      The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. Psalm 146:8            The Lord lifts up the humble. Psalm 147:6                     Jesus came and took Simon's mo...

When we observe the methods of Jesus, we see him regularly popping into peoples' lives, unannounced and uninvited. He popped in to offer words and presence that brought the kingdom of God into their lives. As his disciples, we are to live as Jesus lives, so observing him practicing this Pop-in Principle, we also look for ways to pop-in to the lives of people. Rude? Impolite? Well, perhaps at times...

Reading through the words of consolation and desolation  the prophet Isaiah speaks to Israel, there are many marvelous sentences that seem to jump off the page! For example, "The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary," Isaiah 50:4 Wow! How wonderful to know there is a word – words – that sustain the weary. It reminds me of the wonderful Job 4...

Consider this remarkable word, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God." John 12:3* Jesus could have thought of his power as a means of serving himself.  We easily think of our strengths as given for our own blessing.   So, what did Jesus do, knowing all things were in his hand?  He took a towel! He practiced humi...

Many people think the lyrics, "It's off to work we go," are sung in "Heigh-Ho, Heigh-ho" in the 1937 Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The words actually are, "It's off to home we go," but it really doesn't make any difference. You can't miss the uplifting joy of fruitful work that runs through the song. Sometimes people say that "work" was given as a punishment with the Fall of Adam...

What comes to your mind when you read the famous words of the prophet Micah that begin with, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…?" Micah 6:8 When we consider the ways God "sends" us to do the work of Christ in the world, we know we are sent to show up with compassion and speak up with words of faith. The calls for justice in scripture also teach us that we are sent do stand up fo...

A "Jesus Moment" is any moment in which we, aware of the person of Jesus, entrust our life to him. A Jesus Moment is any moment we confess our love of Jesus and intent to follow him. Such Jesus moments morph into Jesus movements as such moments likes sparks in a fire spread the flame of faith in growing circles. This suggests the flame of faith in you is a spark you received from someone else in a...