A Word of Encouragement

It was like running into a 350-pound lineman. Every ounce of momentum was halted in an instant when I heard the words…

“You do not encourage me to love Christ.”
 
At the time, the end of the school year was rapidly approaching. It had been a year that held seemingly fruitful and lifegiving ministry with my college guys, a year where I enjoyed the community of my local church and was committed to serving in a variety of areas. It had been a year where I saw the Lord enliven a passion in me for His Word and His Church in my seminary courses.

But when I was met with this indictment from my friend, it spoiled any sense of celebration.
My mind began spinning as I reviewed each interaction with this friend over the past couple of months. As I tried assessing when I had failed to love him through both word and action, I became mindful of several occurrences. There were several moments where I slandered rather than spurred on and tore down rather than built up, moments when I complained without benevolence or joked at his expense.

It became more and more difficult for me to think about his stinging words in the days that followed. A phrase like that does not fade quickly for someone who devoted time and energy to loving Christ and His people. Even more, his rebuke led me to evaluate how I stewarded other relationships. I was faced with the overwhelming reality: I would rather build myself up rather than those around me. My weapon of choice was my tongue. My target was those closest to me.

But the Lord used this season of my life powerfully.
 
A few weeks after the initial shock, I was able to sit with this friend. I won’t soon forget his display of patience and forgiveness during that breakfast, nor his timely and gracious encouragement to me.

I can still picture him pulling out this thin book and pushing it across his dining room table towards me. Picking it up as he spoke about its impact, I flipped through the first few pages and realized that it was written in archaic English. My immediate reaction, I confess, was to thank him and shelve it. However, it was the way he regarded this book, how it challenged him to cherish Christ as the True Vine.

That book showed him how abiding in Christ is where true joy is found and how it transforms all of life – as an individual, as a church member, and as someone in ministry. It was at that moment and the next few weeks of slowly reading through Andrew Murray’s Abide in Christ that the concept of what it meant to abide in Christ began to take root and affect my walk with the Lord.

This short book provoked me to meditate on the incredible reality of my union with Christ. I experienced a paradigm shift as I began to absorb the fact that I have been grafted into the true Vine (in whom I find everything I need to bear fruit). My words began to reflect that change when I considered that already I am cleansed because of the words Christ has spoken or that apart from Christ, I can do nothing. His invitation to abide became a delight. I began to see that the opportunity to bear fruit for the glory of the Father was a privilege. The immense joy and freedom that followed were unspeakable.

And my mouth became the stage where I saw the most vivid transformation.

Day after day I rehearsed that I am loved by the Father as He loves the Son. I rehearsed the truth that I may ask whatever I wish because Christ’s words abide in me. It changed my perspective about the fruit I was seeing in my ministry. It released me from this pressure to build myself up through discipleship relationships. Slowly the Lord pruned me of my cutting, sharp language; my words were more about kingdom encouragement with fellow saints. All my relationships would be altered for good, especially those within my church.

Years of slow progress produced grounded, truth-filled, encouraging relationships, for which I am incredibly grateful to the Lord. After several years of marked growth, the Lord graciously bolstered what I had learned through another wonderful passage. Hebrews 3 speaks to the beautiful effect this may have amongst Christians in community. As believers, we are given one another, so that we may encourage each other to enter rest.

Brothers and sisters, that privilege is ours because we share in Christ.
 
Hebrews 3:12-14 says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Not only does this text speak to the dynamic of Christian community, but consider also how the author makes much of Christ in this chapter. Too often the Christian life gets so bogged down with goals of avoiding sin, being better, or staying pure that it does not admire the beauty and joy of being in Christ, sharing in Him, and loving His people.

My meditation on Hebrews 3 developed into poetic pondering that helped enliven this passage for me and produce encouragement to all those I am committed to running alongside as we share in Christ. I hope to be known as someone who exhorts you to not grow calloused by sin, but also to enjoy the overwhelming privilege that it is to confidently share in Christ until the end.

For Moses, today was for him.
   Today was also for the one holding the psalter’s pen. 
   How then is our first response not awe and gratitude 
   when we, the hearers of Hebrews, 
   realize that the call of today includes us too? 
To enter rest is good news. 
   We see it is for the few, 
   since there are those who withdrew 
   and heard the wrathful verdict: 
   God's rest is not in view. 
   But we find kind words our author issues: 
   Brothers and sisters, take care to not let that be you! 
   Fight to enter rest, 
   for an unbelieving heart may cause you to drift 
   into barrenness 
   rather than the place where the living God is. 
Being with God should always 
   be our desired resting place. 
   That being the case, 
   encourage each other every today 
   throughout all your days.
We are to be for each other's best interest, 
   which is to help one another avoid growing calloused 
   by sin's deceitfulness. 
Yet to elude is but a small piece. 
   We have the privilege to share in Christ, 
   bringing with it utmost joy and peace. 
   We keep holding fast to the confidence we had originally, 
   so once we hear His voice we will respond faithfully.

Persevere,
Nick Boucher
Pastor of Student Ministries