day no. 16,730: prevention is worse than disease

"This is the fundamental fallacy in the whole business of preventive medicine. Prevention is not better than cure. Cutting off a man's head is not better than curing his headache; it is not even better than failing to cure it. And it is the same if a man is in revolt, even a morbid revolt. Taking the heart out of him by slavery is not better than leaving the heart in him, even if you leave it a broken heart. Prevention is not only not better than cure; prevention is even worse than disease. Prevention means being an invalid for life, with the extra exasperation of being quite well. I will ask God, but certainly not man, to prevent me in all my doings. But the decisive and discussable form of this is well summed up in that phrase about the health adviser of society. I am sure that those who speak thus have something in their minds larger and more illuminating than the other two propositions we have considered. They do not mean that all citizens should decide, which would mean merely the present vague and dubious balance. They do not mean that all medical men should decide, which would mean a much more unbalanced balance. They mean that a few men might be found who had a consistent scheme and vision of a healthy nation, as Napoleon had a consistent scheme and vision of an army. It is cold anarchy to say that all men are to meddle in all men's marriages. It is cold anarchy to say that any doctor may seize and segregate anyone he likes. But it is not anarchy to say that a few great hygienists might enclose or limit the life of all citizens, as nurses do with a family of children. It is not anarchy, it is tyranny." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Preventive Medicine is not merely the suggestion that most men could be healthy, but that all men ought to be. It presumes to know what healthy is for every man and how to produce it in any man and that some men have the authority to force all men to conform their habits accordingly. But prevention fails to take into account that health is a balance. Too much vitamin C for one person may not be enough for another. Not enough fresh air for one man could be too much for another. This isn't to say that there are no factors worth considering when it comes to health per se, but it is to say that we should not mandate them. First of all, the scientists do not know as much as they imagine that they do; and secondly, even if they did, why are all men required to be as healthy as they can be. Some men might choose to risk their health to explore the seas or to dig deep into the heart of the earth. Some men might rather risk their health on glory then hoard it for getting older. Blood and snot are not hygienic, but they are part of being born and growing up. Skinned knees grow character even if they cause an infection. Birth may be risky, but so is enforced infertility. In the end, a man must have the freedom to lay down his life and lose it if he is ever going to have it taken up in finding it.

Matthew 16:25

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

day no. 16,713: slavery is always marketed as mastery

"Licentiousness is not a soil in which liberty grows" -- Douglas Wilson, Plodcast 267

Societal freedom cannot be purchased by a sexual revolution which is to say that a lack of restraint cannot produce better restraints. A license to sin is not a declaration of independence, but a covenant with co-dependence. 

1 Peter 2:16

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Evil isn't free. It is costly. The freedom of falling without restraint is paid for by an abrupt end of all freedoms. That is to say, the freedom to fall like that is a prohibition against ever falling again. A parachute can save you from falling to your death, but it cannot save you from the discomfort of its straps. If you want to be free from the inconvenience of its bulk on your back or straps on your shoulders, you are free to fall unhindered. But you are not free to stop yourself from falling that way.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Stand fast in freedom. Do not give into false flags. Slavery is always marketed as mastery: be your own boss, have it your way, do what you like, follow your heart, etc... 

Galatians 5:13

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.

In Christ, you are free to consider others. You have the ability to deny yourself. You can say, "No," to yourself sometimes. Because the Christian is forgiven for their selfishness, the temptation to be selfish is sometimes high, but true forgiveness is not fuel for fornication; it is power to persevere against temptations and the courage to overcome them.

day no. 16,362: God does not exist to give our lives meaning

"God is not only the chief character of the Old Testament; God is properly the only character in the Old Testament. Compared with His clearness of purpose, all the other wills are heavy and automatic, like those of animals; compared with His actuality, all the sons of flesh are shadows." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

In one respect, the world and everyone in it is God's chessboard. The pieces cannot be understood to be playing the game, at least, not in the same way that God is. Whatever He is doing is categorically, at minimum, very different from what they are doing when they run along their assigned squares. The rook is free to run back and forth or side to side, but he is not free to run or strike diagonally. Compared to God all things are pawns. This isn't to say that all things are, in fact, merely pawns, but to say that the distance between what God is doing and what we are doing is such that to even call us pawns is to praise us more than we merit. 

The triangle is not free to acquire a fourth line without surrendering the freedom to be a triangle. The sea horse cannot become a rocking horse without becoming wooden. 

"The Old Testament hero is no more supposed to be of the same nature as God than a saw or a hammer is supposed to be of the same shape as the carpenter. This is the main key and characteristic of Hebrew scriptures as a whole. There are, indeed, in those scriptures innumerable instances of the sort of rugged humor, keen emotion, and powerful individuality which is never wanting in great primitive prose and poetry. Nevertheless the main characteristic remains: the sense not merely that God is stronger than man, not merely that God is more secret than man, but that He means more, that He knows better what He is doing, that compared with Him we have something of the vagueness, the unreason, and the vagrancy of the beasts that perish." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

God is better at using men than they are at comprehending Him. He is a better at using us as a pen than we are at understanding what He is writing with us. God does not fill human life with meaning apart from Himself. He is all meaning and the means to make it. That is to say, God does not exist to give our lives meaning; we exist because He is full of meaning and felt like sharing.

day no. 16,073: you cannot make statues without rejecting stone

"For that there must be a final choice, for a man cannot make statues without rejecting stone." -- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

A statue is what's left of a stone once everything that isn't statue has been removed. If we are to be made saints, everything unsaintly will have to be chipped away. You cannot choose stature without rejecting stone and you cannot reject stone without a standard if you intend to end up with a statue. You need a rule by which to discern which is stone and which is statue so that you do not either lop off a limb or leave a rough spot.

day no. 15,901: a quest and a dragon to kill

When God put man in a garden
He girt him with a sword,
And sent him forth a free knight
That might betray his lord;

He brake Him and betrayed Him,
And fast and far he fell,
Till you and I may stretch our necks
And burn our beards in hell.

But though I lie on the floor of the world,
With the seven sins for rods,
I would rather fall with Adam

Than rise with all your gods.
-- G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

God gave Adam the ability to fall. He made him a knight, gave him a mission, provided a quest, and a dragon to kill. But Adam fell short of the glory of God by reaching up for what was forbidden. Yet God forgave Adam and provided the promise of a Dragon-slayer Son who would reverse the curse and inhabit His people as they warred with the sons of serpents. I would rather fall with Adam than rise on the wings of fallen angels. The second Adam, the Son of Man and Son of God, rose from the dead and ascended to His throne where He rests His feet on the heads of His enemies. It is better to be resurrected from the dust with Adam than to ascend to the penthouse of Babel.

day no. 15,891: the right to be wrong

"'The right divine of kings to govern wrong,' considered as a sneer, really evades all that we mean by 'a right.' To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. What Pope says satirically about a divine right is what we all say quite seriously about a human right. If a man has a right to vote, has he not a right to vote wrong? If a man has a right to choose his wife, has he not a right to choose wrong? I have a right to express the opinion which I am now setting down; but I should hesitate to make the controversial claim that this proves the opinion to be right. Now mediaeval monarchy, though only one aspect of mediaeval rule, was roughly represented in the idea that the ruler had a right to rule as a voter has a right to vote. He might govern wrong, but unless he governed horribly and extravagantly wrong, he retained his position of right; as a private man retains his right to marriage and locomotion unless he goes horribly and extravagantly off his head." -- G.K. Chesterton, A Short History of England

If a man is only allowed to vote for one candidate, it is the same as not being allowed to vote. Having that kind of election is not holding an election at all. The right to vote in that instance is no more a right than the right to life is able to prevent one from death. Asserting that kind of right in that way is the same as not to have it. But the right to vote is the right to vote wrongly as long as you like and the right to life is the right to live as long as you can.

Having a right is having the right to be wrong. If you can't be wrong, you don't have a right. Being wrong is not an argument for withholding a right, it is an argument for having rights to begin with. But, as Chesterton points out, there comes a point if one has been regularly and egregiously wrong that the right to be wrong anymore is removed. You can only be wrong for so long or to such a degree before you terminate your right: either by voting away your ability to vote through stupidity or living your ability to live away through profligacy.

As an aside, the right upholds the right to be wrong by upholding the amendments. The left withholds the right to be wrong by withholding the amendments from those they determine to be wrong. For the conservative, a right includes the ability to be wrong; but for the progressive it cannot tolerate any deviation from their definition of right. That is why they take the liberty of removing yours so seriously. They not only see themselves as having the right to do so, but the obligation. They must limit your liberty in order to preserve the liberty of their choosing. But that kind of liberty, as Chesterton points out, is merely slavery. And slavery is not made any more tolerable for being labelled, "freedom." The freedom of the progressive left is the freedom only to choose their position. You have the right to say that they are right, but not the right to say that they are wrong. This is not a right and that is why they are suspicious of God-given liberties and work so hard to repress, redact, subtract or erase them.

day no. 15,400: the plague of Christian passivity

"Passivity is a plague among Christians. It's not just that we don't do anything; it's that we feel spiritual for not doing anything. We imagine that our inactivity is patience and sensitivity to God's leading. At times it may be; but it's also quite possible we are just lazy." 
-- Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something

No one should despise passivity more than Bible-believing, God-fearing Christian men and women and yet few people are more passive than Bible-believing, God-fearing Christian men and women. Christians have a peculiar habit of congratulating themselves for taking so long to do anything or for belaboring every decision by subjecting it to never-ending prayers. These are rarely prayers for faith to act on what they know is right or faith to act even if they don't know exactly what is right, but prayers to feel peace about whatever it is that they end up doing.

Many Christians, in fact, act ironically as though God meant for the primary expression of faith to be doubting and second-guessing. There is, of course, a time to pray and many Christians could benefit from submitting their daily decisions to genuine Christian contemplation; but after contemplation, they should, in faith, act. If they have sought wisdom and asked for help in prayer, conceded the possibility of their plans or motives being sinful and discovered no concerns, the best thing for them to do at that point is... something. To refuse to act at that point, is unbelief. It is faithless, lazy, gutless passivity. And that is not, contrary to popular Christian belief, a virtue.

day no. 15,227: attemptation

2 Peter 2:19
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

Giving in to sin does not set one free from righteousness. It also does not open up freedom to sin. It often leads to more sin, but not as a result of increasing freedom, but of increasing enslavement.

"Yielding to a temptation is like yielding to a blackmailer: you pay to be free, and find yourself the more enslaved." - G.K. Chesterton

You can be freed from temporary temptation by giving in to it or by enduring it to the end. If you choose to free yourself from temptation by giving in to its demands, you find yourself free for a moment only to find yourself more bound to it and mastered by it in the end. In short, temptation resisted to the end is powerless and temptation indulged in the moment ends in powerlessness.

"Exaggerate the weariness by making him think it will soon be over; for men usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the very moment when it is ending, or when they think it is ending. In this, as in the problem of cowardice, the thing to avoid is the total commitment. Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it “for a reasonable period” — and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight." - C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

We often give in to sin moments before the temptation would have died down. We resist the temptation and tension to a particular point and then give in to it. But the climax and resolution of a story is always closest to its final page. When we give in before the climax, we make temptation the main character of our story - the bad guy wins and becomes the dominate note.

"Temptation yielded to is lust deified" - Oswald Chambers

We worship what we gladly give ourselves to. 

If you yield to temptation, you will find yourself bending the knee to lust. The moment you make, "I must have it this moment," a permissible notion, it will become the only notion by which everything else is determined. Lust demands wholehearted devotion and it is a cruel Taskmaster.

day no. 13,293: a matter of will‏

Mark 14:36

“Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

This is the moment.

Praying to God to mercifully provide another way than the difficult one ahead of you, yet being fully committed to go through the difficult, narrow way if another way is not provided.

day no. 13,178: fettered and free‏

Galatians 4:8-9

⁸ But in the past, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

You will be a slave to something.  

You are either a slave of Jesus or a slave to something else.  

Would you say you are a slave of Jesus’?  
Would anyone else say that you are a slave of Jesus’?  
Would your calendar speak to you being a slave of Jesus’? 
What about your bank account?  
Would your words spoken on any given day repeated back to you testify that Jesus is your boss?

Galatians 4:16

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

I realize that asking questions like that may miff some people, but what would you have me do?  

Would you prefer flattery?  

You didn’t come to Jesus by flattery and you certainly won’t maintain pressing on in the race by flattery.  

The truth will set you free.  
Free to do what?  

Free to become a slave of Jesus rather than a slave to your silly, sorry self.

day no. 12,989: what would you do if you knew?‏

John 13:3-4

³ Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God.⁴ So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself.

 

So He got up and served His friends.

 

Knowing that He had everything in His hands, that He could do anything He wanted to do, that anything He commanded would be done, He choose to serve.

 

Knowing that He was divine, from God, holy, blameless, righteous and Lord, He choose to serve.

 

Knowing that He was going back to God to be back where He belonged, to where He had been for eternity past, to His home, He spent His last moments of freedom here with us serving His friends.

 

He chose the Cross.

good God man!

Deuteronomy 29:29

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

God is sovereign over each and every thing. Nothing happens without His permission. There is nothing that happens that He could not have altered. There is nothing that takes place in which He is powerless to intercede and interfere.

God is holy and in His grace has communicated to us that which is in keeping with His holiness. "Love of God and neighbor" being the summary of it all.

When someone asks, "Was it God's will that ______ happened?" the answer is always "Yes," in one sense.

Nothing has ever happened outside of His control. Ever.

Is it God's will that children are aborted?

In one sense, "Yes" because He allows it to occur.
Does this make His goodness suspect?
Does this make Him the author of evil?
No.

In another sense it is not God's will that any should be murdered.
He specifically commands people not to murder.

How can God be good and in perfect control?

If He is in perfect control, then why doesn't He stop evil?
If He is good, then why does He allow bad?

Some conclude that God must not be in full control.

They do so on the basis of believing He is good, but find themselves stumped as to why so much bad takes place. They conclude that must mean that He wishes good things, but cannot make them happen for whatever reason.

Others conclude that God must not be good.

They do so on the basis of believing He is fully in control, but find themselves stumped as to why so much bad takes place. They conclude that must mean that He is in fully in control, but does not care about goodness or justice for whatever reason.

If you bend on either of these points, you create a scenario the eliminates Jesus.

If you defend His goodness and surrender His power, you end up with a God who is likeable, but weak. He is not someone to Whom we should turn or offer prayer because He can't do anything about it anyways.

If you defend His power and surrender His goodness, you end up with a God who is powerful, but mean. He is not someone to Whom we should turn or offer prayer because He doesn't care about anything anyways.

Rest assured, Jesus is good and He is in charge.

The secret things belong to Him: I do not know why people are allowed to abort their children.

The revealed things belong to us: I do know that sacrificing children to idols (no matter how modern and suave) is forbidden and not from God.

The secret things belong to Him: I do not know why God designed a world for the purpose of sending His Son to die for us to show His love.

The revealed things belong to us: We should worship the Son and surrender our lives to Him because on the Cross He proves that He is good and in control.

Jesus is worthy of both titles: Good and God.

Still hungry?
Here more about this from Tullian Tchidjian HERE.

fanatic or faithful?

Chambers pointed out a problem I often have this morning in My Utmost for His Highest
when he noted,

“Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God.  If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you…The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life….It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.”

We are free to have preferences. We are free to have different preferences. Even within the body of Christ, there can be freedom to follow one’s convictions. The danger is not in being too free, it is in being too demanding. This takes place within two realms

1. With others – We can quickly become too demanding of others in attempting to enforce our preferences over their personality. We make into law something that is perhaps helpful to us, but not necessary for another. We make the mistake of assuming that everyone is like us. We make maxims from methods. If this is how we best get here or keep from going there, then anyone who tries another way is wrong. That is not to say that sometimes people really are right and others really are wrong. The point is that we often turn secondary matters into principled reasons for causing distraction and brokenness. We become fanatical about things we previously were not passionate. We fan into flame our passions and make them the barometer by which we judge others. We find one thing and make it everything. We make idols out of the one good thing we know when that one thing is not the One who made us.

2. With God – We develop an understanding of what we think God wants from us and devote ourselves entirely to it. We run with the nugget and abandon the mine. Abraham is a perfect example of abandoning a principle in order to embrace God. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. As difficult as this must have been, Abraham, by faith began early the next morning the steps to do what he heard the Word say. Abraham got all the way to the point of binding Isaac and placing him on a stone. Knife raised and conviction guiding his movements, he gathered himself and set his mind and body to following through with the outcome of his devotion to God’s command. "STOP!" Just then, when adrenaline and conviction were at their highest, God stopped Abraham and told him to unbind Isaac. God provided a ram which Abraham saw caught in a thicket. It required faith in God to abandon his course of action. Abraham demonstrates for us faith not only in the offering up of Isaac, but in the abandonment of his conviction. Imagine how strong that conviction had to be. Strong enough to offer up your only son. How committed must he have been? And to release even that to God. To listen. To stop. Abraham was not wrong to offer up Isaac. He could not have been more right. However, Abraham would have been wrong to kill Isaac after God said, “STOP!”

To be a fanatic, you need only to listen once.
To be faithful, you must listen daily.

thoughts from church: Romans 4:1-25‏

http://cornerstonelife.com/mediaplayer

Leap of Faith? An Example to Follow by Pastor Troy Nesbitt

Romans 4:8

⁸ How joyful is the man
the Lord will never charge with sin!

Pastor Troy walked us through Romans 4 today and the examples of sinful men, Abraham and David, who by faith were made righteous before God.

Pastor Troy used an illustration that struck home with me and provoked my mind immediately to ponder the content of this post.

He mentioned that he is learning to do mechanical repairs to automobiles with the help and supervision of some close friends. On a particular occassion, he was turned loose to address a particularly difficult repair which he had not completed on his own before. He struggled and sweat and in exasperation surrendered to his supervisor. He asked them for help. They were quickly able to resolve the issue he had just previously spent so much time and energy failing to resolve.

This made Troy both angry and joyful.

Angry because Troy had tried so hard and after so much effort had wanted to be able to have some fruit to show for it. The more time he invested, the more he desired to see it through on his own. The more frustration he felt, the more zealous he became to cross the finish line under his own power. To have spent so much and fallen so far short and then to have someone sweep in and so easily do what he was unable to do made him mad. He was mad at the person for being so much better than him. What a frustration! Who wants it that way? Especially after so much investment? To experience so fully your own inadequacy. Argh!

Joyful because he had a friend who was so capable and sufficient.
A friend who could oversee his failure.

A friend.
A capable friend.
A capable friend close by.

Troy was free to attempt things bigger than his abilities because he felt the security of having one so capable by his side. What a joy to know you are safe! What security! You are free to try. Free to invest energy. Free to work hard because in the end there is One who can finish where you fall short.

One who is not only capable, but close by.
If He were only capable, but distant, it would be another cause for anxiety.
One that capable without compassion is a cruel reminder of the judgment to come.
But this capable One is close by.
He cares.

In Him we are completely free. We are free to try, because we are free to fail. But not because we desire less than we did before. It is not now that we no longer desire to win. We do. Even more so. And winning is worth wanting. It is knowing that the winning is His that distinguishes us now. It is wanting the Winner and the winning. We are under His glorious supervision.

On the one hand, we resent that our difficulties are so easily remedied by His sufficiency.
On the other hand, we take full rest and assurance in knowing that in His Sovereignty, nothing is insurmountable: not our sin, not ourselves, not our situations.
One is only made possible by the other.

If we can do it, we do not look for One who can.
If we can't do it, we must trust in the One who can.
If we have witnessed His provision, we cannot turn to any other.
if we know He is there, we are free to live under His guidance in joyful discipleship.

Abraham and David both confessed that only God could save them.
He was their hope.
He was their salvation, their reward.

For those who desire God as their gift, the gift of God and eternal life are given freely.
This is in, because, and on account of Christ Jesus, our Lord, alone.

the right, your rights, and His righteousness‏

Today I read the book of Philemon. If you are not a regular Bible reader, don't be too impressed that I read an entire book of the Bible today. It is a letter from Paul to Philemon and it consists of only 25 verses.

Paul is making a request of Philemon. He is asking him to be demonstrate fruit in keeping with the Gospel of God that Philemon professes. Paul does not hesitate to qualify what the correct and proper response is to his request. Paul does not "leave up" to Philemon the interpretation of right or wrong, but he does submit his request to Philemon's right to disobey.

"14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will."

Paul has leverage as an Apostle hand-picked by God to preach the Gospel to the gentiles. Paul has pull as Philemon's friend. Paul has authority in that he likely led Philemon to Christ and is his spiritual father of sorts. Paul does not let this fact go undocumented.

"18 And if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self."

Paul eagerly desires to see his friend, son, and brother Philemon respond in step with the Gospel by extending grace where it has been already extended to him in and by Jesus. Notice that Paul intentionally uses Gospel imagery in making his petition to Philemon.

Onesimus has wronged Philemon and owes him money, honor, respect, and service which he forsook in fleeing. Onesimus in indebted to Philemon for things he left undone and things he did which were wrong. Onesimus needs Philemon's forgiveness.

Paul's plea is that Philemon would see in this depiction a vision of himself before God.

Philemon was a sinner saved by grace. He owed God service he had passively left undone. He also actively broke God's rules. Philemon was indebted to God for everything and had not acknowledged His authority over him. BUT, God rescued him in Christ. God sent Paul to preach the Good News of reconciliation and redemption in Christ. By grace God granted faith to Philemon to repent, receive and believe in Jesus. How can he who had been forgiven so much and been reconciled so great a debt now turn around and hold a grudge against another? Particularly when the debt is not as great as that which he himself had been forgiven. Specifically now that this one, Onesimus, had also repented, received and believed on Jesus for his forgiveness. Jesus had forgiven Onesimus for his sin against Philemon. Paul is urging and encouraging Philemon now to forgive Onesimus' debts as he also was forgiven his own.

"21 Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say."

Paul here is very clear about what he desires (the right thing) and the expectation he has of Philemon (righteousness). He also confirms that he cannot by force make Philemon ultimately to do that which he desires most. Paul wants Philemon to want to do the right thing for the right reasons. He wants Philemon to believe and trust in God enough to extend grace to others.  Not by bullying, but by regeneration.  In order to do so, Philemon must be instructed as to what is (right), but also given the opportunity to respond (his right) according to his own heart's conviction (righteousness if in concert with the right).

May we study and delight in that which God has called us to do and despise that which He has called us to abandon. May we respond to His authority with deference and His kindness with devotion. May we, like Paul, urge and spur our brothers and sisters to do the right thing, the neighborly thing, the loving thing, the tough and godly thing. May we like Philemon, be expected and anticipated to do right.

As a church we should affirm both of these:   

1. We will speak truth and encourage faithfulness in our brothers and sisters according to God's Word.
2. We will listen to the truth and welcome rebuke and/or encouragement from our brothers and sisters if they see in us thoughts, attitudes, or actions in conflict or contradiction to God's Word. 

Can we as a church make this covenant?

Can we determine to be accountable BOTH to calling each other out AND to receiving rebuke if we are in error?

May it be so to the glory of God and Christ being formed more and more daily within us.