Sharpening Iron by Wendee

17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. ~ Prov. 27:17

1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism ~Eph 4:1-5

Recently, I’ve taken up HEMA sword-fighting lessons: I’m learning the rudiments of the English Basket Hilt sword. In drills, you’re expected to attack lightly, ward lightly, and counter-attack lightly; the point being not to fight, but to learn the right placement and response.

I attended the first two lessons with a female friend. Unfortunately for me, when I attacked lightly, my friend would slam down a defence and refuse to move her sword so that I couldn’t practise the counter-attack. When she attacked and I defended, she would hit as hard as she could in the counter-attack.

She didn’t care that by blocking and caging my sword, she wasn’t just preventing me from learning the steps, but was actively doing something that would result in her dis-arming and death if she was in a real fight. She wanted to fight to win against me, not to learn.

It didn’t help her, and it was absolutely no help to me. I left that second lesson frustrated and more than a little discouraged that I was so bad at something I’d wanted to learn for so long.

I didn’t realise how much of a hinderance her behaviour was until I was alone the next week, and paired with a young man of roughly the same reach as me. Unlike my friend, he attacked lightly, warded lightly, and didn’t try to prove how strong and fast he was. And, to my great surprise, it turned out that I could actually do this. My footwork improved, my recall of the attacks and wards immediately jumped a level, and I had a real chance to focus on the style of my attacks, not just the pattern.

As I thought about it later, it occurred to me that I often treat disagreements with my brothers and sisters in Christ the same way. I could engage gently; trying the back and forth of disagreement in order that we can both learn, both grow, both be encouraged to seek God further on the issue. But too often I’m fighting to win instead of to strengthen myself and the other person. Instead of encouraging someone else to be strong in Christ and becoming strong myself, I’m just trying to hit as hard as I can: to score points.

It doesn’t help me (what happens when I meet someone who can argue better than I can?) and it doesn’t help them (discouragement and frustration aren’t typically emotions that prompt people to seek further knowledge of God—or even further discussion).

We’re encouraged to strengthen one another, to sharpen one another; to submit to one another. We can’t do that when we’re fighting to win instead of building each other up in the search for God and the practise of rightly dividing His word. It’s good to pray for grace to learn to fight together instead of fighting against each other in earnest.

A Paralytic Healed

Matthew 9:1-7 New King James Version (NKJV)

 So He (Jesus) got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said “Why do you think evil in your hearts?  For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 

 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 

 And he arose and departed to his house.

I this passage we can see two reasons why Jesus came to earth.  The first reason was to reveal God the Father to mankind, and the second was to save His people from their sin.

We see both of these purposes displayed in these few passages.

First, noticed the faith of the friends who brought the man to Jesus.  If it wasn’t for them the paralytic would not have met Jesus and would not have been healed.  No doubt, they had heard about Jesus and His miracles in other places, and they hoped for a miracle for their friend.

But Jesus knew that this man’s problem was the sin in his life, and so Jesus publicly forgave him. 

Of course the scribes (experts in the Law of Moses), accused Jesus of blaspheme because only God could forgive sins.  On their admission, Jesus then heals the paralytic from his disease to show that He had the power to forgive sin (He was God), and He proved it by healing the man.

To put it another way, the power to heal was the sign that Jesus could forgive a man’s sin, which showed that He was God!

Who do you put your trust and faith in?  Is it in men and science, yourself or in God our creator?

Reflections for the New Year

Another year has drawn to a close and it seems a good time to reflect on the year that has gone and to look forward to the brand new year ahead.

No doubt there will have been occasions that bring happy memories or there may have been times you would rather not remember; many will have encountered stressful days where the world was filled with gloom and it felt like the sun would never shine again. Some will have had health issues, money worries or relationship problems; often life seems to be a never ending roundabout of crises!

Nothing much has really changed throughout history- when you read the Bible there are countless records of people, both great and small crying out in distress – Job, for example certainly had one huge crisis after another- read the first few chapters of the book of Job and you will know what I mean!

 David too experienced low points in his life and wrote about them in many of his psalms- for example in  Ps  25:16 he cries…’have mercy upon me for I am desolate and afflicted’  and Psalm 69 is another cry of deep distress.

 Many of the Old Testament prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jonah, to name a few, also faced life threatening situations and similarly in the New Testament, particularly the book of Acts  you can read of Stephen’s martyrdom –(Acts 7:54-60) while the apostles and early Christians certainly faced severe persecutions and  trials.

One common theme throughout these accounts is that the person in trouble ‘called to the Lord.’     When life throws a curve ball we can turn to all sorts of solutions for help, and the world does seem to offer easy answers or self help programs that should instantly make everything right.

Let me tell you they don’t work! And the reason is that in ourselves we are unable to help ourselves, as the Bible states- “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10) and again “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

There is only one who can help make your life right and help you get through the trials and challenges of life and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He urges in Matthew 11:29 “Come unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” and in Psalm 55:22- Cast thy burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee”

As we enter 2020 with the inevitable highs and lows, don’t lurch blindly from one hurdle to another- Take God at his promise, commit your life into His hands and you will indeed find rest for your soul. The troubled times may still come, Jesus never promised that his followers would have a life of ease-  but what He did promise was “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5