Closer Than A Sister, Week 4

By STEFANIE BENNETT | CONTRIBUTOR

Part 3: Challenges in Sisterhood, Chapters 10-12 (pp. 145-185)

Oh Friends,

I was bracing myself for some hard conversations today. Weren’t you?

In considering this section of Fox’s book, “Challenges in Sisterhood” (Chapters 10-12), I expected our conversations to be riddled with stories of ways in which community had failed us, and to feel such shame over the ways I had failed at community.

But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united to Christ! (c.f. Ephesians 1:3, emphasis mine).

Instead of complaints and critique, I listened to godly, faithful women of the church rejoice at the ways in which God had supplied their needs and healed them, even in the midst of deep disappointment and loneliness inflicted by believers they loved and trusted. They did not dwell on their hurts—nor dismiss them as petty–, but rather, chose to dwell on the healing of God through the work of God and the love of others.

They rejoiced that, even though change and even conflict were woven into their lives, they could find the purposefulness of these discomforts by looking to the “God of all comfort” who has authored and is perfecting our faith. And then, they considered how their experiences were useful for deepening their ministries to others who might also feel lonely, rejected, or neglected.  

And doesn’t the example of these godly ladies point us right back to the very reason why we need community– to help us take our eyes off of ourselves, draw us out from our isolation, and show us the beauty and selflessness of our Savior—which then compels us, similarly, to build up the body in love and service?

In spite of the glorious promise of community, however, Fox’s chapters also forced me to remember that community must be cultivated (Chapter 10), and with that, there will arise barriers and challenges (Chapters 11-12). (Translation: Work and Problems!)

In truth, it doesn’t take much to discourage us from the things we don’t want to do. If I even think the gym is going to be crowded, I’m out. My landscaping suffers because watering it means standing outside in the heat. And it may be the same way with community. Faced with any of the challenges Fox mentions in Chapter 11—loss or rejection of a friend, disconnectedness, shallow friendships, and circular loneliness– we can be tempted to run away in self-preservation at the smallest sign of rejection or discomfort.

This is where the grounding we received from the previous chapters of the book (and Jana’s exhortation during the study) help us remain committed to community, even in more serious disappointments. We remember that we were made for community. We recognize that community was hopelessly broken until Christ intervened to restore it. And now, Christ’s blood unites believers for all eternity with a bond stronger than human blood. And from this knowledge, we can help, rejoice with, exhort, learn from each other, and grow together, even when community is imperfect.

We recognize that conflict and barriers to community are part of the fallen world. They are one more reminder that, for now, we live in tents, but we are looking toward a heavenly city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (c.f. Hebrews 11:9b). But we take heart to know that, in Christ, our eternal community has already begun, and although we only see in part, when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away and we will enjoy perfect communion with God and his Bride forevermore (c.f. 1 Corinthians 13:9). Amen! 

For this reason, we are compelled to hold fast to our community of faith, in spite of personal pain or disappointment, because of Jesus Christ, who loved his Bride to the point of death, even though he also was gossiped about, rejected, abandoned, and made to feel unwelcome by the very people he came to serve.

And He, being rooted and established in love, shows us the way forward into community, beyond our failings and the failings of others:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (Colossians 3:12-14, emphasis mine).

And with this love, we are left, not with hostility, but with hospitality. We can risk our comfort for the comfort of others because of the comfort we have been given by God himself (c.f. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5). We can reach out to others—strangers, the hurting, visitors—because the risk is greatly diminished when we, ourselves, are basking in the welcoming hospitality of the Son, our Perfect Example.

Closer Than A Sister, Week 2

By STEFANIE BENNETT | CONTRIBUTOR

Week 2: Closer Than a Sister

Part 2a: Living With Sisters in Community, Chapters 4-6 (pp. 65-102)

Recalling the beautiful and communal nature of our Triune God and our design as bearers of this image, as Fox illustrated in last week’s readings, we are now compelled to act—to help our sisters, mourn with them, and rejoice together. It is a beautiful image, and one we have felt the benefits of many times. Women abounding in the love and unity of the Father have brought us a kind word, a warm meal, a meaningful exhortation– and we are better for it.

Drawing from Timothy P. Lane and Paul David Tripp’s Relationships: A Mess Worth Making, Fox connects our insights from last week to compel us toward action in these next three chapters: “When you and I serve, we are living out what God has made us to be: servants. It is when we are serving that were are most like the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit redeemed a fallen world through service and sacrifice. There is nothing more God-like than serving others” (qtd. in Fox, 71).

Sisters Help Each Other (Chapter 4)

And yet… we are often hesitant to help others. Why is that? Fox proposes an answer: because it takes sacrifice (71). Helping others is a sacrifice of time and resources. But Fox also invokes Bonhoeffer to give us some perspective:

We must allow ourselves to be interrupted by God [ . . .] It is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God” (qtd in Fox, 72).

And certainly humility is needed when we find ourselves in a position of need as well. Because dogged determination and independence are prized in our culture, we can sometimes feel ashamed when it comes to asking for help. But in reality, the entirety of our faith runs counter-cultural. “We weren’t made to be autonomous. We were created to be dependent upon God and mutually dependent upon others in the Body of Christ” (Fox, 74).

Sisters Mourn Together (Chapter 5)

And the reality of our need for God and other believers is never more glaring than in our grief.

But, oh, the comfort of knowing our sweet Savior who is not only acquainted with all our grief, but who grieves with us even as he binds up our wounds.

Indeed, Fox reminds us:

  • Christ knew loss as he mourned at the graveside of his dear friend Lazarus.
  • He knew rejection because those from his own hometown attempted to kill him (Luke 4:29).
  • He knew hunger and loneliness.
  • He knew abandonment when his closest friends fled just when He needed them the most.
  • He knew deep sorrow as He thought about the horror that awaited Him at the cross [ . . .] (Fox, 78, emphasis mine).

But this we also know:

“[T]he God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [ . . .] comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

How is it that we are able to sit in the dust with our sisters and mourn with them, even when it feels unnatural and uncomfortable to do so? Christ.

How is it that we can listen intently and empathetically to our sister’s hurts without the need to “fix” or rescue her? Christ.

How is it we can speak encouragement and Gospel truth to a sister who cannot see her sweet Savior in her season of sadness? Christ.

Fox assures us that as we renew our minds in the water of the Word, we gain wisdom and surety about what we should do when our sister in Christ is suffering.

Sisters Rejoice Together (Chapter 6)

In some ways, however, it may be easier to genuinely grieve with a sister than rejoice with her. Fox explains that rejoicing with our sisters “means we ought to have joy for what God is doing in [her life]. Yet sometimes, such joy is hard, especially when the blessing in our sister’s life reminds us of the blessing we think is missing in our own life” (94-95).

Is it any wonder, then, that Fox spends the majority of the chapter addressing our disordered desire to envy others and begrudge them the good they have received? She points us to James to address the issue:

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:1-3).

If we are to have any hope of countering this propensity toward envy, it will be by embracing the selfless love that the Father has modeled for us– one that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13: 7). And further, “as we seek to find our contentment in Christ, our sister’s joy becomes our joy [ . . .] for we know that she is united to us as we are united to Christ. The good that happens in her life is also our good and vice versa” (Fox, 101-102, emphasis mine).

And if, like me, by the end of these chapters, you are still feeling woefully weak and inadequate for the roles set before us to help, mourn, and rejoice well with our sisters, perhaps you will also join me in looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who encourages us with His word:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1: 5).

May we be encouraged by our good God, who both calls and equips his daughters for good works that He prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them! (Ephesians 2:10)

 

Standing in the True Grace of God, Lesson 24

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By BARBARANNE KELLY|CONTRIBUTOR

This week’s passage from 1 Peter needs to be kept in the context of that which we studied last week. Peter was then addressing the doubts voiced by the scoffers, and he now turns to the believers who may be asking the same things, though from faith and not unbelief. “It is not only the scoffers who are concerned about these questions… The New Testament epistles were written in order to strengthen the faith of God’s people and comfort them.”[1] He once again addresses with tenderness these believers who, as many of us might, are wondering when our Lord will return. Continue reading “Standing in the True Grace of God, Lesson 24”

Standing in the True Grace of God, Lesson 21

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By BARBARANNE KELLY|CONTRIBUTOR

In this week’s lesson we are digging deeper into Peter’s argument for sound doctrine as the best weapon against the false teachers who will attempt to lure believers away from the security and assurance found only in the truth of God’s revealed Word. Last week we looked at his warning about the motives and methods of the false teachers; this week we will see three examples of God’s power and sovereign grace to rescue his people while punishing the ungodly with his holy and righteous judgement.  In this passage, Peter is making the point that God judges those who oppose him (the false teachers) and protects those who love him. Continue reading “Standing in the True Grace of God, Lesson 21”