In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
"No, on the contrary."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend gong to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
~Source: Unknown
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Part 4: Without God’s Love, Do We Have Jesus?
Chapter 13 of the apostle Paul’s first letter
to the Corinthians, known widely as “The Love Chapter,” has given many
generations an amazing description of what God’s love is really like, in deeply
poetic, yet eminently practical terms.
The prologue to this famous chapter is also a beautifully and dramatically written expression, concerning the infinite value of God’s people, doing all that they do from a white hot core of true agape love.
This highly valued divine attribute is shown in extremely stark contrast, when compared by the apostle Paul, to any spiritual or religious activities, which could be and many times are, practiced without God’s love!
In the bright light of this Scriptural contrast, a deep impression is made on anyone who wants to make sure they are lined up with God’s will and showing the reality of Jesus in all they do!
Reading this section of Scripture reminds us of Paul’s concerns expressed earlier (1Corinthians 3) for the Corinthians, that they not go off track, seeking after things that look spiritual, but in the end become what he had already termed “wood, hay, and stubble” in his epistle.
Here in chapter 13, the great apostle reminds them and us, that things which look “spiritual” to the immature in the faith, are not of the Holy Spirit unless they are truly imbued completely with and saturated in the love of God!
The breadth of variety in the spiritual experiences which the apostle lists in these texts may be nothing more than his reflection on the current practices of the churches in the middle of the first century AD.
If so, they still offer to churches and to individual believers enough of a diversity, to be seen as applicable in many times and places that the Body of Christ is still active and flourishing.
Under the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes with tremendous insight and possibly prophetic foresight, looking through that darkened glass he mentions later in this same chapter, to see the excesses and the lack of love which has so sadly characterized many different denominations, churches, and Christians through the ages:
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers (to directly communicate the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). 3 Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.
Paul touches on several seemingly successful and properly focused avenues which any believer or gathering of disciples could go down, and be absolutely convinced they are most certainly following God’s will.
Unfortunately for any of them, and for any of us who find ourselves caught in traps of this nature, these things can continue on and actually appear to the participants to be filled with power and life, yet still become nearly completely devoid of God’s agape love!
The gifts of the Spirit (or what looks like them) can be manifested, but if not in combination with love, they have no greater value than any other noises.
Prophetic insight and proclamation without love, the supernatural ability to discern even God’s deep mysteries, knowledge (whether spiritually or intellectually based) to give the greatest of teachings, and incredible faith that looks exactly like Jesus described it to be, but when exercised or expressed with increasing lack of love, leaves that minister or church body to be considered as a useless nobody or nothing in God’s sight.
This is especially true if they have a high opinion of themselves as somebody!
Paul has already focused his spiritual laser light onto this pride issue with the Corinthians, and has already made clear to them and to us that there is no substitute for God’s true agape love:
1 CORINTHIANS 8:1 Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature].
2 If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much [of divine things, without love], he does not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary.
3 But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him].
Any church, congregation or leadership, can come to think that their generosity is a sure sign of their own goodness, and is worthy enough to recommend them for eternal rewards. The Bible clearly says in this powerful passage that even this is insufficient without love, and will not gain them heaven.
A martyr’s death was especially considered by the early church as the highest point of obedience and a sure sign of God’ eternal favor, yet the apostle Paul says clearly to all of us that it must also be combined with and motivated by God’s love or that person will also fall short of the glory of God as well.
These Scriptures are not deriding, devaluing, nor denigrating any of these practices. They are of immeasurable value – when intimately bound together with, and then expressed fully in Jesus’ great love.
We are being called to be like Jesus as unique individuals, with our own unique mix of gifts and callings.
We are to grow in these gifts, becoming the special unique minister that fulfills God’s plan for each of us in this earth.
Love must be highest thing we learn and most noticeable quality we possess, as we walk through this life.
We are to become more like Jesus in all ways, yet certainly learning to love more and more as He did, above all else!
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
The prologue to this famous chapter is also a beautifully and dramatically written expression, concerning the infinite value of God’s people, doing all that they do from a white hot core of true agape love.
This highly valued divine attribute is shown in extremely stark contrast, when compared by the apostle Paul, to any spiritual or religious activities, which could be and many times are, practiced without God’s love!
In the bright light of this Scriptural contrast, a deep impression is made on anyone who wants to make sure they are lined up with God’s will and showing the reality of Jesus in all they do!
Reading this section of Scripture reminds us of Paul’s concerns expressed earlier (1Corinthians 3) for the Corinthians, that they not go off track, seeking after things that look spiritual, but in the end become what he had already termed “wood, hay, and stubble” in his epistle.
Here in chapter 13, the great apostle reminds them and us, that things which look “spiritual” to the immature in the faith, are not of the Holy Spirit unless they are truly imbued completely with and saturated in the love of God!
The breadth of variety in the spiritual experiences which the apostle lists in these texts may be nothing more than his reflection on the current practices of the churches in the middle of the first century AD.
If so, they still offer to churches and to individual believers enough of a diversity, to be seen as applicable in many times and places that the Body of Christ is still active and flourishing.
Under the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes with tremendous insight and possibly prophetic foresight, looking through that darkened glass he mentions later in this same chapter, to see the excesses and the lack of love which has so sadly characterized many different denominations, churches, and Christians through the ages:
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers (to directly communicate the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). 3 Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.
Paul touches on several seemingly successful and properly focused avenues which any believer or gathering of disciples could go down, and be absolutely convinced they are most certainly following God’s will.
Unfortunately for any of them, and for any of us who find ourselves caught in traps of this nature, these things can continue on and actually appear to the participants to be filled with power and life, yet still become nearly completely devoid of God’s agape love!
The gifts of the Spirit (or what looks like them) can be manifested, but if not in combination with love, they have no greater value than any other noises.
Prophetic insight and proclamation without love, the supernatural ability to discern even God’s deep mysteries, knowledge (whether spiritually or intellectually based) to give the greatest of teachings, and incredible faith that looks exactly like Jesus described it to be, but when exercised or expressed with increasing lack of love, leaves that minister or church body to be considered as a useless nobody or nothing in God’s sight.
This is especially true if they have a high opinion of themselves as somebody!
Paul has already focused his spiritual laser light onto this pride issue with the Corinthians, and has already made clear to them and to us that there is no substitute for God’s true agape love:
1 CORINTHIANS 8:1 Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature].
2 If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much [of divine things, without love], he does not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary.
3 But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him].
Any church, congregation or leadership, can come to think that their generosity is a sure sign of their own goodness, and is worthy enough to recommend them for eternal rewards. The Bible clearly says in this powerful passage that even this is insufficient without love, and will not gain them heaven.
A martyr’s death was especially considered by the early church as the highest point of obedience and a sure sign of God’ eternal favor, yet the apostle Paul says clearly to all of us that it must also be combined with and motivated by God’s love or that person will also fall short of the glory of God as well.
These Scriptures are not deriding, devaluing, nor denigrating any of these practices. They are of immeasurable value – when intimately bound together with, and then expressed fully in Jesus’ great love.
We are being called to be like Jesus as unique individuals, with our own unique mix of gifts and callings.
We are to grow in these gifts, becoming the special unique minister that fulfills God’s plan for each of us in this earth.
Love must be highest thing we learn and most noticeable quality we possess, as we walk through this life.
We are to become more like Jesus in all ways, yet certainly learning to love more and more as He did, above all else!
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
Monday, July 15, 2013
Change
This month I
am sharing a reading on change with you. As a Christian man, husband, father,
and therapist, I have experienced change
in many ways. I have also been an agent of change in people's lives. Change is
not easy; in fact, some people would rather not
change, even though they know it will probably be good for them. It
seems that many times we would rather not change, because what we're
experiencing now, even though it may not be healthy, is still familiar. New
ideas and ways of living are often scary!
This reading
is taken from a devotional book written by Charles Ringma, entitled: Dare to
Journey With Henri Nouwen.
CREATING OPEN SPACES: Making Room for Purposeful Change
Isaiah 30:18 - "The Lord longs
to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God
of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Change
happens to all of us. Much of it happens
slowly and almost imperceptibly. We are molded by our environment and
influenced by our friends. As our society changes its values, we slowly change
with it. Physically, too, we change with age.
But we can
also be proactive. Change can come because we are dreaming new dreams, making
new plans, and actively pursuing new options.
For such
changes to be productive, “the first thing we need is an open receptive place
where something can happen to us,” says Nouwen. Change arising out of reactions
will hardly be helpful, and change to quickly fill the empty places in our
lives will hardly be satisfying. Moreover, change made on the run is seldom
purposeful.
The powerful
possibilities of change first require the quiet reality of solitude. Change
first needs stillness, not further activity. And rather than rushing headlong,
we first need to create space for ourselves.
The space for
thankful reflection on what has been or the space of forgiveness for what
should have been needs to be created. And, more particularly, the empty space
harboring the fears of loss of significance, position, and power, needs to be
embraced as the hopeful place, the place of new beginnings. For the empty place
can bring forth new dreams, and out of seeing new possibilities, purposeful
change can come.
Submitted by Tom Horst, Marriage and Family Therapist
New Hope Community Life MinistryMonday, July 8, 2013
The Power of Listening
As a counselor, I think a lot about the power of listening. Listening is such a powerful tool and an important key to good communication. I can think of times when I was going through something and all I wanted is for the other person to listen. So often, we begin to jump in with suggestions and advice when the best thing we could do at that time is to have a powerful presence simply by listening. I am reminded about this is a devotional in my Bible which I will share with you:
Lend Me an Ear
~Susan Lenzkes
Ears are busy these days. A listening, caring, available ear is increasingly difficult to find. Many seem permanently encased in the headphones of their own private interests. Others are busy vying for equal time with other parts of the body--such as an eye on the clock or a nose to the grindstone.
Even a free ear isn't necessarily free just to listen. When people come to us with their troubles, many of us discover we have a birth defect; our earbone is connected to our mouthbone. When patience, understanding and encouragement are most needed, we give advice, platitudes and "My experience can top that" stories.
The burdened who come to us needing to unburden are looking for an earbone connected to a heartbone.
It's good to remember that "listen" and "silent" are made of the same six letters.
Lend every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Shakespeare
Submitted by: Ann L. Gantt, Ph.D., LCSW
New Hope Counselor
Monday, July 1, 2013
Home Sick
Have you ever been away from home and missed it so much you became "home sick" for the familiar? One of my sister's and my oldest niece are on a road trip in the Midwest for two weeks. Looking at the pictures my niece has been posting on her Facebook page has made me "homesick" for the Midwest and where I grew up in Nebraska.
Beautiful Nebraska
By Jim Fras & Guy Gage Miller
Beautiful Nebraska, peaceful prairie land,
Laced with many rivers and the hills of sand:
Dark green valley's cradled in the earth,
Rain and sunshine bring abundant birth.
Beautiful Nebraska, as you look around,
You will find a rainbow reaching to the ground:
All these wonders by the Master's hand:
Beautiful Nebraska land.
Seeing the pictures of the landscape, places where we had visited when I was growing up have made me long to see friends that live there. Isn't that how we should be in our relationship with God in longing for the familiar love and comfort that only He can provide? God has created such a beautiful world for us to live yet the majesty of Heaven is unfathomable and we long to see what beauty awaits us when we are in His presence!
In Revelation 4, John shares a glimpse of what heaven will be like. John's descriptions are ones that we can't even begin to comprehend. So soak in the beauty of our surroundings and long for the beauty that lies ahead of us in Heaven as we travel our journey here on earth.
Elaine Campbell, MA
Monday, June 24, 2013
Growing in Jesus' Love - Together! - Part 3
Growing by God's Grace into Greater Love - Part 3
To truly love as Jesus loves is a lifelong process. We know from the beginning of our walk with God that we should love as Jesus does, yet we also know soon enough that we are not capable of sustaining that level of selflessness for very long.
Although graciously given nuggets and moments where we are used by the Lord, to show His love to others in very special ways, we also find ourselves falling far short many times as well, blowing opportunities left and right.
In the face of this ongoing reality, we can choose to fall away from Jesus in frustration over our failure, blaming Him for making the journey so difficult for us, or blaming others for being so unlovable.
Or we can recognize and receive the ever present love and forgiveness Jesus freely offers us every time we fail, and walk on with Him, learning to love through the valleys of our lives, as well as on the mountaintops with Him!
Once we have settled the issue that Jesus is always for us, and never against us, we can reconnect with Him and allow Him to guide us and enable us to love better another day.
This journey is greatly helped if we incorporate the wisdom of those who have walked it before us, especially the anointed, inspired words of Jesus’ closest friends preserved supernaturally for us in the Bible.
One of these friends was Peter the apostle, who begins his second letter to the churches by stating that he is writing to those who have the same kind of faith as he has.
Just a brief overview of Peter’s experience with God, shows us that he has the unique experience of publicly denying Jesus as He was being falsely tried and convicted, as well as being rebuked by the Father (Luke 9:33-35), Jesus (on multiple occasions: Matthew 16:21-23, Luke 22:31-33, Mark 14:37-38, John 18:10-11), the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:9-16), and the Apostle Paul (Galatians 2:11-15).
These difficulties Peter went through were far greater and more embarrassing then almost anything we could ever experience, yet he did indeed have the kind of faith in, and love for Jesus, to keep himself focused and moving forward no matter what!
Peter’s second letter goes on to give us a detailed map of the faith journey we would do well to heed, because it will lead us to become more and more consistent in loving like Jesus:
2 PETER 1:4 By means of (God’s power and glory, and our full personal knowledge of Him in Jesus), He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. 5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), 6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness, 7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. 8 As these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
This very fallible human and yet, great apostolic writer grounds our spiritual growth completely in the sovereign work of God, even as we can see that the Lord has also given us sunshine, the atmosphere, rain, and mineral filled soil to root our plants into, in the natural realm.
It is God that has shown us His power and His glory, and revealed to our hearts Who Jesus really is, as the true foundation of all His promises to us.
These are corporate promises to all believers, as well as individual promises to each follower of Jesus, revealed in His word and underscored by the Holy Spirit’s promptings within our spirits, which as David wrote to us, were beyond our capacity to calculate or even beyond any attempt to enumerate! (Psalm 139:17-18)
The reverence and awe that Peter shows for God’s promises, come from his own experience of seeing the Law of Moses and the Prophetic writings come to life before his eyes in the divine Person of Jesus, Who walked into His life and totally transformed it!
His exhortations concerning these promises are also because he himself had been plucked out of the slime of our natural human existence, to become someone transported into the highest and most powerful interactions any human has had with the God of the entire universe.
Peter is not focused in these verses, on those historic experiences with God, but instead on his own internal transformation. He has seen himself escape from his own corruption, rottenness, covetousness, lust, and greed, to become a sharer, a partaker in something greater than being a close friend to Jesus and a pre-eminent apostle of the living God.
Peter exults only in one greater fact:
He who was the loud denier of Jesus, with cursing and cowardice in the very moments Jesus was being terribly treated, and a hard-headed lout, worthy in himself only of being rebuked at every turn, was now beginning to understand and communicate to all of us that he, and we are meant to share in the very divine nature with our Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever!!!
This highest goal of the redemption offered to us in Jesus our Lord, is the incredible outcome of focusing our full faith and giving our all, walking closer and closer to Jesus each and every day of the lives that we have been offered here on the earth.
It is the surrender of our selves fully into this faith walk with Jesus that will bring forth the virtues listed here by the apostle. Each step adds new depths to each virtue, as they accumulate and accrue throughout the entirety of our lifelong journey.
Although each virtue is sacred and precious in itself, they are each facets of the total of Christlike godliness that finds its greatest expression in the increasing development of brotherly affection into agape love.
God’s love is the ultimate expression of God’s Presence within us that most powerfully shows Jesus to the world around us.
God’s love is not an individual element that flows out of us by itself, but is the effluence, the effulgence of all the other attributes or qualities which Peter is encouraging each of us to grow into.
It is the composite, interdependent, ever expanding reality of all these qualities that brings us out of our idleness, and into a true and tangible fruitfulness for God in all we think, feel, say, and do.
Living and loving in this greater capacity, leads us into an ever deeper cycle of knowing and growing closer to Jesus in greater measure, both more completely and more intimately, which also leads us into knowing and loving many others more completely and more intimately.
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
To truly love as Jesus loves is a lifelong process. We know from the beginning of our walk with God that we should love as Jesus does, yet we also know soon enough that we are not capable of sustaining that level of selflessness for very long.
Although graciously given nuggets and moments where we are used by the Lord, to show His love to others in very special ways, we also find ourselves falling far short many times as well, blowing opportunities left and right.
In the face of this ongoing reality, we can choose to fall away from Jesus in frustration over our failure, blaming Him for making the journey so difficult for us, or blaming others for being so unlovable.
Or we can recognize and receive the ever present love and forgiveness Jesus freely offers us every time we fail, and walk on with Him, learning to love through the valleys of our lives, as well as on the mountaintops with Him!
Once we have settled the issue that Jesus is always for us, and never against us, we can reconnect with Him and allow Him to guide us and enable us to love better another day.
This journey is greatly helped if we incorporate the wisdom of those who have walked it before us, especially the anointed, inspired words of Jesus’ closest friends preserved supernaturally for us in the Bible.
One of these friends was Peter the apostle, who begins his second letter to the churches by stating that he is writing to those who have the same kind of faith as he has.
Just a brief overview of Peter’s experience with God, shows us that he has the unique experience of publicly denying Jesus as He was being falsely tried and convicted, as well as being rebuked by the Father (Luke 9:33-35), Jesus (on multiple occasions: Matthew 16:21-23, Luke 22:31-33, Mark 14:37-38, John 18:10-11), the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:9-16), and the Apostle Paul (Galatians 2:11-15).
These difficulties Peter went through were far greater and more embarrassing then almost anything we could ever experience, yet he did indeed have the kind of faith in, and love for Jesus, to keep himself focused and moving forward no matter what!
Peter’s second letter goes on to give us a detailed map of the faith journey we would do well to heed, because it will lead us to become more and more consistent in loving like Jesus:
2 PETER 1:4 By means of (God’s power and glory, and our full personal knowledge of Him in Jesus), He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. 5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), 6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness, 7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. 8 As these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
This very fallible human and yet, great apostolic writer grounds our spiritual growth completely in the sovereign work of God, even as we can see that the Lord has also given us sunshine, the atmosphere, rain, and mineral filled soil to root our plants into, in the natural realm.
It is God that has shown us His power and His glory, and revealed to our hearts Who Jesus really is, as the true foundation of all His promises to us.
These are corporate promises to all believers, as well as individual promises to each follower of Jesus, revealed in His word and underscored by the Holy Spirit’s promptings within our spirits, which as David wrote to us, were beyond our capacity to calculate or even beyond any attempt to enumerate! (Psalm 139:17-18)
The reverence and awe that Peter shows for God’s promises, come from his own experience of seeing the Law of Moses and the Prophetic writings come to life before his eyes in the divine Person of Jesus, Who walked into His life and totally transformed it!
His exhortations concerning these promises are also because he himself had been plucked out of the slime of our natural human existence, to become someone transported into the highest and most powerful interactions any human has had with the God of the entire universe.
Peter is not focused in these verses, on those historic experiences with God, but instead on his own internal transformation. He has seen himself escape from his own corruption, rottenness, covetousness, lust, and greed, to become a sharer, a partaker in something greater than being a close friend to Jesus and a pre-eminent apostle of the living God.
Peter exults only in one greater fact:
He who was the loud denier of Jesus, with cursing and cowardice in the very moments Jesus was being terribly treated, and a hard-headed lout, worthy in himself only of being rebuked at every turn, was now beginning to understand and communicate to all of us that he, and we are meant to share in the very divine nature with our Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever!!!
This highest goal of the redemption offered to us in Jesus our Lord, is the incredible outcome of focusing our full faith and giving our all, walking closer and closer to Jesus each and every day of the lives that we have been offered here on the earth.
It is the surrender of our selves fully into this faith walk with Jesus that will bring forth the virtues listed here by the apostle. Each step adds new depths to each virtue, as they accumulate and accrue throughout the entirety of our lifelong journey.
Although each virtue is sacred and precious in itself, they are each facets of the total of Christlike godliness that finds its greatest expression in the increasing development of brotherly affection into agape love.
God’s love is the ultimate expression of God’s Presence within us that most powerfully shows Jesus to the world around us.
God’s love is not an individual element that flows out of us by itself, but is the effluence, the effulgence of all the other attributes or qualities which Peter is encouraging each of us to grow into.
It is the composite, interdependent, ever expanding reality of all these qualities that brings us out of our idleness, and into a true and tangible fruitfulness for God in all we think, feel, say, and do.
Living and loving in this greater capacity, leads us into an ever deeper cycle of knowing and growing closer to Jesus in greater measure, both more completely and more intimately, which also leads us into knowing and loving many others more completely and more intimately.
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
Monday, June 17, 2013
Seven Years
Next month it will be seven years since I started working at
New Hope. I’m going to reminisce a
little bit about how this job came to me during a difficult and sad time in my
life. At the time, I did not think the
timing was right, but as I look back now I realize God’s timing was perfect.
After many years of poor health as a result of a debilitating stroke, my mother died on July 1, 2006. I had left the workforce several years earlier and had focused a lot of my energy on supporting my parents through their struggles with Mom’s medical issues. Mom spent the last 15 months of her life in a nursing home and I would make the 45 minute trip to visit her two or three times a week. When we knew that Mom only had a few weeks to live, my siblings and I made sure that one of us was with her 24 hours a day. At the time of her death, we were all tired and emotionally drained and I remember thinking that I needed a few months to recharge my batteries. I was looking forward to spending the rest of the summer with my family and catching up on things around the house that had been neglected way too long. I thought that when September rolled around, I would begin the search for a part-time job.
After many years of poor health as a result of a debilitating stroke, my mother died on July 1, 2006. I had left the workforce several years earlier and had focused a lot of my energy on supporting my parents through their struggles with Mom’s medical issues. Mom spent the last 15 months of her life in a nursing home and I would make the 45 minute trip to visit her two or three times a week. When we knew that Mom only had a few weeks to live, my siblings and I made sure that one of us was with her 24 hours a day. At the time of her death, we were all tired and emotionally drained and I remember thinking that I needed a few months to recharge my batteries. I was looking forward to spending the rest of the summer with my family and catching up on things around the house that had been neglected way too long. I thought that when September rolled around, I would begin the search for a part-time job.
Due to scheduling conflicts we had a week between my
mother’s death and her funeral. It was a time of restlessness and I had a hard
time concentrating on anything. I usually
barely glance at our local Advertiser but for some reason that Monday I picked
the paper up and browsed through it page by page. I came upon an ad that said a
part-time secretary was needed for New Hope Community Life Ministry in
Quarryville, PA. I had never heard of it and thought it was probably a church
in need of a secretary. It sounded like the type of job I would enjoy, but did
I really want to pursue a job right then before my mother was even buried? I didn’t think so and tried to put it out of
my mind. The next day was July 4th and since we really weren’t doing
anything I had plenty of time to think. The ad kept surfacing in my mind.
Finally, I sat down at the computer and typed up a resume and faxed it to the
number listed on the paper. I felt a sense of relief and figured that I would
probably never hear anything, but at least I had gotten it off my mind.
To my astonishment, the next day I received a phone call
from a Ginger Holler. She said she was the executive director of New Hope and
had received my resume and would like to set up an interview with me. Would I
be able to come in tomorrow? It’s good she couldn’t see me through the phone
because I am pretty sure my mouth was hanging open in surprise. After
explaining to her that my mother’s funeral was later that week, we pushed the
interview off until the following Tuesday.
A few days after the interview, Ginger offered me the job
and I accepted it. By that time, I was aware that it was not a church but a
counseling ministry that I would be working for. I definitely had some reservations and still
thought that the timing could have been a lot better. However, within a few months I was realizing
what a blessing this job was and I am thankful that God nudged me to send my
resume in and that I did not ignore His gentle persistence.
I have met many people here in this little town of
Quarryville during the past seven years. Some have been clients, some have been
co-workers , some have been counselors, some have been board members, some have
been volunteers at the thrift store, and some have been people that I have met
in various places of business here in Quarryville, such as Burger King, Subway,
Rite Aid and the bank. Some people are
here for a few months or years and then move on to another job or opportunity
or in the case of clients who have received the benefits of counseling, they
leave with new hope and determination for their future life. To many of these people I am just a familiar
face or an acquaintance. To some, I am a friend. In either case, I hope that I have been a
presence that people appreciate and feel comfortable with. I hope that through me, some have seen God’s
love.
I have learned through the years that people and
opportunities come and go, but it is how we make the most of the opportunities
and relationships that we are given that leave a lasting impression. I am so thankful for all the people that I
have learned to know through my job here at New Hope and even though I have
been sad to see some move on to other opportunities and places, I treasure the
time spent with them and I truly hope that they remember me as someone who they
were glad to cross paths with. I pray that I will continue to be a friend and
encourager to those that I interact with here in this little town of
Quarryville.
Whatever you do in
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him
to God the Father. ~ Colossians 3:17
~ Mary Lehman, Secretary
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