The Building One Another Podcast

Look back over your own life asking yourself the question:

Who are the teachers, coaches, and mentors who have taught, encouraged, chided and thus shaped me with their own knowledge and experiences?

The Apostle Paul wonderfully wrote the Thessalonians, "So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.."

We see right away as a mentor, Paul and his team offered the content of the gospel, the good news about Jesus, their own lives in friendship and their love.

Who are the people who mentored you – imparted their knowledge of Jesus or of some other field such as playing tennis or playing piano or playing cards or whatever and did it while sharing life and love with you?

Mind your mentors! Seek them out – offer appreciation and affection!

Do it with a phone call if you can or by whatever means works for you and for them. If they are on the older side of their lives, don't wait.

It's back to I Thessalonians 5:11 in which we encouraged to encourage one another. So do it. They will find joy and so will you!

For more on mentoring, see Episode 157 "Be a Mentor" https://www.buildingoneanother.com/episodes/be-a-mentor-pass-the-baton

Columnist Jess McKinley writes that America is atomizing, that we are not scattering into two different tribes but rather into countless little groups and further into simple aloneness.

It's common today for a single person to spend most of their free time with one or two other singes, a married couple with just one or two others. Our circles are smaller than they've been in a long time? The places we used to congregate for conversations are diminishing.

Why? Many reasons of course – social media makes us "alone with others," the moves toward less socialization the pandemic inspired, the many voices today pressing for more division among us, wanting, as one pastor put it, to be right more than they want to be reconciled.

So, what do we do? As followers of Jesus we observe Jesus constantly pulled people in and sent people outto engage and connect more people. Yes, being alone has its place, and Jesus often withdrew for prayer and renewal, but engagement, connecting people showers God's love on them.

Do you want to be an encourager of those you encounter?

To encourage someone – you have to notice them - pay attention to them - to connect with them.

In our interview with Andy Ross in this episode of Building One Another, Andy speaks of, "looking for links."

When you notice someone and pay attention to them, you are "looking for links" - anything about them links you to conversation and a word of encouragement.

Suppose you bump into someone on the sidewalk or someone helping you find something at the grocery, or checking you in to see a doctor, or sharing an elevator with you, or passing in a hallway at church - then:

LOOK FOR A LINK! Something they are wearing, carrying, saying or doing.

Looking for links keeps you aware of them and helps you add value to them!

A year ago, I was sitting on a chair in the front of a trout fishing boat casting my line about, fruitlessly. I realized my good friend Dale in the back of the boat, was just relaxing in his chair, looking around.

I said, "Dale, why aren't you fishing?" He replied, "The scenery is incredible, beautiful, with the surrounding hills, trees of the forest, the blooming flowers along the rippling river. I'm just resting in God's glory!"

You know, Dale's quiet words of worship and enjoyment really encouraged my own heart! One of the benefits of good friendship is the joy of encouraging one another.

In this podcast, Lee and I talk with another such friend, Steve Ebling, as we talk about encouragement and the marvelous ministry he is a part of, Altar Fly Fishing. https://altarflyfishing.org

Imagine spending a few days sharing the wonders of God's creation and the soul food of scripture with a few other people! It's utterly renewing! No matter the nature of the stream of life you are floating in now, your best friend, the Lord who loves you, will encourage your heart as you lean on him!

Jesus remarked that a house divided against itself will not stand.

In Ezekiel 22, God says he searched for a person to "stand in the gap" on behalf of the land, and at that time, he found no one.

Yet, with Jesus, we find one who did stand in the gap for us, "For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14

In our divisive day, do you support the dividing walls between us or are you standing in the gap, as Jesus did, on behalf of the land?

Be the retaining walls that shores us up!

The apostle Paul asks us to think clearly about ourselves, and not to think over-highly of ourselves. We all know it's also possible to think too poorly of ourselves..

Thinking clearly about others may shape how we build up one another. Look for ways to encourage others that neither falsely puffs them up if they are down on themselves, nor haughtily pulls them down if they are full of themselves.

The key is to adapt the common saying, "see something – say something" to your work of encouraging others. When you see something worthy of praise, appreciation, and gratitude, say something!

A wonderful way to affirm someone is the simple thank you – because thank you means you noticed! You saw something and now by saying thank you, you appreciate them for what they did.

A great deal has been said about the connections between our hearts and homes.

Some of the homes in our lives have been difficult for all sorts of reasons, yet it is what a home may be that gives warmth to the very idea of "home" – places of welcome, warmth, encouragement, of forgiveness, laughter and love.

Joseph and Mary left their place in Nazareth for a temporary place in Bethlehem, yet since they were together, they were always home. In a deep and marvelous sense, home is where your heart is.

Whenever and wherever we are with the people we love deeply, we are home.

Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because that was home for those "of the house and lineage of David." Home is where your heart is and home is where your history is!

This Christmas, whether you are with others or alone, spend some time reflecting on your own history, the people and the homes that have encourages your heart – and especially how the person of Jesus is your truest home.

A friend of Job said something quite remarkable to him, "Your words put people on their feet." Job 4:4

That marvelous word leads us to the Job 4 Test: Do your words knock people off their feet or put people on their feet? Do your words belittle or build up?

To belittle, a word coined by Thomas Jefferson, means to "make little" in the eyes of others, to put down, to scorn.

To build up is to encourage, impart courage and affirm the dignity of others.

We live in a day in which people of good will find themselves drawn onto sides that belittle each other and make no attempt to find common ground, much less to build up one another, yet we know what happens to a house divided.

The word of God is clear about this: use your words to put people on their feet. Don't belittle but be an encourager!

There is something unique about every voice, your voice and the voices of every single person on planet earth.

When someone you know and appreciate speaks to you, just the sound of their voice can encourage your heart! The voice of Jesus speaks to you in countless ways encouraging your heart to sing!

So, use your voice to encourage people. We defer so easily to texting, emailing messaging, posting on social media. Yet, God gave you your voice and the sound of your voice encourages the people in your life! Just call the people God has given you.

Are you aware of God's specific works in your own life and in the world around you?

Paul and those traveling with him did. "When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. " Acts 15:4*

They had eyes to see what God was doing – in great detail – often in the midst of very stressful circumstances; and they had the grace to report what they saw God had done in order to encourage the people of God.

The same God is doing remarkable things in your life and all around you, all of the time.

Begin your day with this simple prayer, "Lord, open my eyes that I may see and expect you at work (a modification of Psalm 119:18).

End your day by remembering and rejoicing in what God has done!