What is Building Up?

[aron]

Originally Posted by countmeworthy

Doesn't everyone desire and need friends? REAL friends? Christians and non-Christians? I do. I am very grateful and thankful for the friends I have! And not all of them are saved either! Jesus Himself had lots of friends. His disciples were His friends and Martha, Mary and Lazurus who didn't even go everywhere like the other 12 were probably among His closest friends. They may not have been 'chosen' to be among the 12 but how He loved them and they HIM. He loved hanging out with them at their house. By visiting and hanging out with them, He "built" them up with His Love and Friendship and they did the same to Him.

The importance of this statement cannot be overlooked. Jesus "wasted Himself" on His friends, and they in turn wasted their lives on Him. At the end, what did any of them have from it? Teachings? Trainings? An organization? Nothing, except friendship. True, enduring, eternal friendship. They loved one another. And that is all that really matters. As Paul said, without love you just have a clanging gong.

Something of the love that Jesus had for His Father, and the Father had for Him, He brought to earth and gave to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and to so many others. It is given without money and without price, and it is available to all. In this world of scarcity, God's love is free and available to all. It is available in the Son. It is the love of His Father. We don't have to "do" anything for God's building, just see and recognize and appreciate how much the Father loves us, each one. When we see this love it changes us forever. How can we be self-centered, when we see that God has carefully counted your hairs on your head, and on your neighbors' as well?

When we begin to touch the love the Father has for His Son, and the Son has for His Father, the Holy Word changes for us, forever. Mary and Martha and Lazarus (and the rest) touched something of this love. How could they turn away? At its core the Bible is a testament to the Father's love for His children. It is so tangibly demonstrated!

When they saw Jesus, they felt the Father's love. They felt the Son's peaceful, harmonious relationship (John 14:27; 20:21) with His Father; they felt the joy (Heb 12:2) of the obedient Holy Spirit. This revelation surely flows to us from our Father (John 3:2). When we come to the Word should we not also feel such peace, should we not sense His love? Should we not desire to overflow our joy toward one another, even to the uttermost parts of the world (John 4:29; 16:21,22)? If it pleases God to "build up" something in our joyful expression, that is not our business (Luke 17:9,10). Our only business is to joyfully and recklessly waste our lives pursuing a relationship with this wonderful person, who is peeking at us through the lattice (Song 2:9) of scripture.