All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
What Does it Mean to Build One Another Up and How is it Accomplished?
The Bible teaches a lot regarding building one another up and encouraging one another.
What are some examples and practical ways that we can do this?
When have you ever been encouraged or built up by another child of God?
What can we do on TheNET as the family of God to better build each other up?
Lord Bless,
LT
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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Amanda, I have always known I put self first before God. Its just that Graces post is a great reminder that I need to stop doing these things.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I now see, Janie, and there are things I can take from her post as well because although I understand that I have the holiness and righteousness of Jesus, I am called to walk in it, and that means dying to self and surrendering to Jesus, allowing Him to live His life in and through me. I sure have a long ways to go. I do apologize.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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It is interesting that people often think of being built up as only words of encouragement that would be the equivalent of patting someone on the back and saying good job. Sometimes that is what ought to happen and yet there are other times that a different approach must be taken.
I remember a number of years ago my eldest son broke his arm. The bone had separated in the forearm and needed to be reset. This resetting was imperative if he was going to heal properly. While at the hospital they let my wife and I go into the room with him as they prepared to reset the bone. I was stunned by the Neanderthal type gadget they were about to use on him. It employed Chinese like handcuffs for the fingers to be inserted into that suspended from an elevated post. Then they attached a strap around his bicep area while his arm suspended from the elevated post and bent at a 90 degree angle at the elbow. Then one by one they added weights to the strap on the bicep that applied pressure to the arm by pulling it down with a steady pressure. They continued to add weights until the forearm bones were easily placed back into position. It took a steady increasing pressure that caused discomfort to bring about the opportunity for healing to come.
This illustration is often true in our spiritual lives. Some times it takes a steady pressure being applied to help us to be built up, for we are not seeking to build the broken, but rather to see the broken healed. Healing does not come by ignoring the problem. We also know that there are times that a more direct and quick approach is necessary, but here is where we really need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and follow His leading accordingly.
One of my favorite Scriptures, which I have not used on AAG in ages, is "iron sharpens iron." What we recognize is that for the sharpening to take place the two pieces must come into contact and that there will be friction, yet this friction is beneficial, not counterproductive.
Food for thought.
Lord Bless,
LT
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LT,
What I am seeing is that there is confusion regarding which form of encouragement is appropriate -- is the circumstances calling for a rebuke (admonition) to those who are erring or a word of comfort to the hurting or a word of encouragement to the weary?
I know we are to speak truth in love according to the Spirit's leading. As you know, I have trouble discerning what is from God and what is from something or someone else. I am always testing to see if I am hearing from God.
I know one way of testing is by what the bible says -- is it in alignment with Scripture?
What are other ways?
Not every circumstance calls for a rebuke, does it?
I know from my personal experience I have failed at times and have given a word of admonition and made a mistake.
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There are two things I can share on this.
1) 2 Timothy 3:16-17 gives us a great foundation and inspiration for how we are to engage others and use the Word of God.
2Ti 3:16-17 NIV84 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (17) so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2) We also have in Scripture the one another principles. of which I identify 22 ( it could be broken down further). They are as follows:
Too often people have a lot to say about what is wrong with Christianity and the church. Today we will look at a part of what is right with the church.
The one another principles, 22 in all, teach us how interconnected we are as the body of Christ.
They reveal guiding principles that should affect our daily lives and how we are to relate to one another.
- Be devoted to one another.
- Romans 12:10
- Live in harmony with one another.
- Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8
- Accept one another.
- Romans 15:7
- Instruct one another.
- Romans 15:14
- Use your gifts for one another.
- 1 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Peter 4:10
- Share with one another.
- 2 Corinthians 8:7, 13-15
- Greet one another.
- 2 Corinthians 13:12
- Serve one another in love.
- Galatians 5;13
- Carry one another's burdens.
- Galatians 6:2
- Be kind to one another.
- Ephesians 4:32' 1 Thessalonians 5:15
- Forgive one another.
- Ephesians 4:32
- Look to the interests of others.
- Philippians 2:3-4
- Bear with one another.
- Colossians 3:13
- Love one another.
- 1 John 4:11-12
- Admonish one another.
- Colossians 3:16
- Encourage one another.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 10:25
- Build one another up.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11
- Live in peace with one another.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:13
- Spur one another to good works.
- Hebrews 10:24
- Confess your sins to one another.
- James 5:16
- Pray for one another.
- James 5:16
- Be hospitable to one another.
- 1 Peter 4:9
I preached on this a couple of years ago and will post the audio messages below in another reply.
I also used these recently for pre-marriage teaching. I think that we should seek to apply these principles within the marriage relationship.
Lord Bless,
LT
- Be devoted to one another.
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I will listen to the messages, and I like your rendition of the one another principles. They certainly fit into any relationship and especially the marital one.
Jesus said we will be hated, reviled, spurned, and excluded, and sadly, this happens even inside the family of God -- or so it seems to me.
For instance, I fully understand the sufferings that others are experiencing, and I know I can't compare my sufferings with theirs, but knowing that others suffer, too, doesn't make the pain I feel less painful. Is that a failure on my part? Should knowing that others are suffering far more than I am suffering make my pain go away?
I'm confused.
What ever they are experiencing I can only pray that God will give them the grace and strength to endure, and now I feel guilty for having shared any of my own burdens. They are so trivial in comparison.
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Amanda,
Knowing others are experiencing suffering too is not meant to minimize the pain. The pain is real. What it does is let us know that this is a part of life and is expected. If we were not told that life in Christ involves suffering for His name sake then every one who ever experienced suffering would be judged by others as being in this mess because of sin, just as Job's friends attempted to apply it to him. With that said, we do need to start with the question of "Am I in this storm because of my sin?" Some storms are self made and have little value, others are part of life and God uses them to teach us, or teach others through our experience. And, yes, there are times we cannot see any reason for the storm, but will we trust Him through that storm anyway even when it makes no sense.
Lord Bless,
LT
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What I really don't understand is how to smile and say I'm fine and say I have no fear in order to please others by making them think I'm a strong Christian when it would all be just a pretense. Yet, how can we bear one another's burdens when we tell others we have none to bear? I'm very confused this morning. Everything I have believed seems to have been just a big lie.
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Amanda,
You are not supposed to pretend and seek to please people by putting on a smile. You are simply supposed to be Amanda.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Grace,
Indeed. Paul pours himself out for them and to them revealing a deep love and desire for those in Philippi.
Good word.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amanda here are the links tot he two part message. They are in order from top to bottom.
http://www.newlifecommunitychapel.org/view/uploads/One%20Another%20...
http://www.newlifecommunitychapel.org/view/uploads/One%20Another%20...
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I have decided to stick to my conviction that building up one another doesn’t mean always rebuking and correcting one another and also involves speaking spiritual truth in the form of comfort. I base my belief on Job, whose friends only offered him rebukes and no comfort. Even God said Job’s friends didn’t say what was right.
God says of Job, After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7). Job was not guilty of any sin, not even of being self righteous. His friends were guilty. They said things to Job about God that weren't true and near the end of the book, God asks Job to make a sacrifice for his friends and Job does and God accepts the sacrifice. This obviously means Job's friends had sinned in what they were saying about God.
They tell him things like, “Whoever perished being innocent?” and “Where were the righteous cut off?” Job will not accept what they imply because his biggest struggle is with not being able to understand why God has allowed all of these calamities in his life that have come upon him knowing that Job is righteous. Job has a good understanding of God but not a complete understanding of the attributes of God (as many of us do not).
Job’s friends perceive his misfortune as proof that Job has sinned and they believe all he has to do is admit guilt and repent and God will surely forgive him. Job maintains the fact that he has not sinned. We know, as the reader, that Job is right because we read in the prologue the conversation between God and Satan. We know the reason Job is suffering is because he is righteous. God Himself says that Job is righteous.
Job is grappling with God’s justice. IMO this is what the story of Job is all about -- that God is a just God even when the righteous suffer.
Many read the Book of Job and accuse Job of being proud and self righteous. Even his friends stop answering him after he gives them a very detailed account of his righteous ways. His friends try to persuade him of his own guilt.
When people are hurting we can offer them comfort instead of rebukes, according to the leading of the Spirit.
Saint Paul didn’t always rebuke believers. Listen to what he says here for he‘s giving them emotional encouragement as well as spiritual comfort as they face adversity. Wow!
II Thessalonians 1 says:
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
4 Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5 All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.
12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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