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Brian Sharpe

The Bible at times is very hard to understand. You have to understand the culture and the context in which the book of the Bible was written. This makes it very difficult to always understand what the Bible is saying. You also have some confusion because the Bible was written in three languages on three continents and spans fifteen hundred years. All this makes it hard to understand all that is going on. So when I was reading a couple nights ago, I thought what can I learn from this passage and I believe God opened my eyes to something.

The bible reveals God to us. He gave us the bible so that we can know how he desires us to live. Recently I was reading 2 Corinthians 7. In this chapter Paul is exuding pride for the Corinthian people because of the way they responded to Paul's first letter to them. He writes in verses 8-11

"8 I am no longer sorry that I sent that letter to you, though I was sorry for a time, for I know that it was painful to you for a little while. 9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to have remorse and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death. 11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish the wrongdoer. You showed that you have done everything you could to make things right."

Paul feels bad for letting the Corinthian's have it. He tells them the truth and does it bluntly and the people responded with repentance. When we are faced with hard truth how do we respond? Are we willing to hear hard truth? Do we have people that speak the truth to us, or do we surround ourselves with people that tell us what we want to hear.

This passage convicted me in two ways. The first is: as a leader do I speak the truth, even when it is hard. Do I point out sin where it is appropriate? Am I willing to speak the truth in love because of the position God has given me? Am I willing to do this as a follower of God?

This is huge for leaders. We are told that we are held to a higher standard. Am I willing to live life with people and be honest about what I see?

On the flip side, am I willing to allow others to be honest with me? Have I given people the right to speak the truth in love to me? I hope I have. I hope we have. Elim has to be a place where we do not allow sin to creep in and take a foothold. We need to be a people that are focused on glorifying God and loving each other. This is how we will make disciples that finish the race.

I am reading a book on discipleship and one of the concepts it talks about is dying to self. When we die to ourselves we give up our rights and we allow God to work in us. This means that we will stop trying to be right and we will be willing to listen and be humble. That is what this is about.

It is about being humble and following God, because a humble servant is someone who is willing to speak God's truth and willing to listen when God is trying to teach them something through another person. Are we humble servants of Almighty God? Are we willing to listen? Are we willing to speak the truth in love? We need to be in order to be disciples of Christ.