Iron Sharpens Iron

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Thanksgiving rocks! Food and time with family and friends  being thankful for the air we breathe!

I am taking a day away from Chasing Daylight to share this exert from  a book called Waking the Dead. I feel it may be in season for many of us!


It Must Be Small
(Waking The Dead , 190, 191 )
When he left Rivendell, Frodo didn’t head out with a thousand Elves. He had eight companions. Jesus didn’t march around backed by legions of angels, either. He had twelve men – knuckleheads, every last one of them, but they were a band of brothers. This is the way of the kingdom of God. Though we are part of a great company, we are meant to live in little platoons. The little companies we form must be small enough for each of the members to know one another as friends and allies.

Who will fight for your heart?

How can we offer the stream of counseling to one another, unless we actually know one another, know each other’s stories? The reason counseling became a hired relationship between two people was largely because we couldn’t find it anywhere else; we haven’t formed the sort of small fellowships that would allow the stream to flow quite naturally. Is it possible to offer rich and penetrating words to someone you barely know, in the lobby of your church, as you dash to pick up the kids?

Where will you find the Four Streams?

The Four Streams are something we learn, and grow into, and offer one another, within a small fellowship. We hear each other’s stories. We discover each other’s glories. We learn to walk with God together. We pray for each other’s healing. We cover each other’s back. This small core fellowship is the essential ingredient for the Christian life. Jesus modeled it for us for a reason. Sure, he spoke to the masses. But he lived in a little platoon, a small fellowship of friends and allies. His followers took his example and lived this way, too. “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (2:46). “Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house” (1 Cor 16:19). “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house” (Col 4:15).

REFLECTION:
Guys one thing the Lord has speaking to me a lot about over the last year is our Need to Need. For some reason as men, our goal is not to be needy, not to have to depend on anyone else. To need makes us feel weak and vulnerable to pain yet for some reason we have been designed to need others. I found myself so calloused to needing other and my prayer has been for the Lord to reveal my Need to Need so I can walk in the fullness that comes from having true community in my life. I believe without walking in an acknowledgement of your God given need for others, you will never be as effective as God has purposed.


PRAYER:
God help us realize our need for true community. Give us people who truly need us too. Father we long for iron to sharpen iron, we long to be challenged to be more for you in this world. Humble our hearts, open our eyes and lead us God. Amen.

Rob