XV_Communication

XV

Communication
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to there needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

I don’t know how you feel about emails, with one or two of these popping through your inbox every week but we live in an email culture. If you’re anything like me you come to your office on a Monday morning and there waiting for you are 300+ emails in your junk mail and about another 30 that have found there way into your inbox, let alone the ones you actually have to reply to.

Here is a story about someone who sent an email to the wrong address, so when sending emails remember to put the right address in the “To” section!

A Minnesota couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out from a particularly cold winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they had spend there honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of the hectic schedules the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida a few days earlier, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked in to the hotel, and there was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However he accidentally left one letter off in her email address and, without realising sent the email. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston a widow has just returned home from her husband’s funeral, he was a minister who had a heart attack and died. The widow decided to check her emails, thinking she might have messages from relative and friends. After reading the first email she screamed and fainted. The widow’s son rushed into the room and saw the computer screen on which read…
To My Loving Wife, Subject: I’ve arrived!! Date: January 2008
“I know you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now, and you’re allowed to send emails to your loved ones whenever you like. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. I’ve very much looking forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine.
Love……
P.S It really is hot down here!”

Sometimes we get caught up in the world of electronic communication with emails, facebook, msn, writing people emails and messages when we actually need to talk with them.
All God wants to do is sit and talk, like close friends do, like a husband does with his wife, like a parent does with their child.

May we be intentional in our communication, because at times, when friends are not so close around us, communication becomes distant. May we not take for granted the friends we currently have around us, so therefore stick close to them, watching out for them, as God watches our for you.

XV_Talent?

XV

Talent?

‘I was afraid and so went and hid your talent in the ground’ Matt 25:25

You’re probably familiar with the parable of the talents. In it the Master entrusts his 3 servants with ‘talents’. ‘Talent’ meant large sum of money, but it’s a good word to consider. Upon his return from a trip the master learns from each of his servants what they did with ‘their talent’. Two of them have used what he gave them and returned with more than they started with, they have done well and he is pleased. One has buried his talent, he has done nothing with it and the master is furious.
This story was re-written hundreds of years later by a theologian, and in it his 3rd servant spent all his money on drink and high living. For the theologian, these kinds of sins, rather than mere laziness, seemed more ‘worthy’ of the master’s scolding. However, looking at the original passage tells us something else. The master didn’t scold the servant for attacking his character (‘I knew you were a hard man’ v24) or binging, his rebuke is for wasting his talent, wasting his gift, burying it, letting the potential go unrealised.
The servant says ‘I was afraid’. Isn’t it so often the case that ‘fear’ is the cause for sin? How often do we let fear get in the way? How often does it hold us back? How often does it keep us boxed in and contained? Fear causes me to falter. Fear causes me to keep the deepest things to myself, fear causes me to go so far with God or relationships, but then to withdraw, fear causes me to doubt myself and God, fear causes me to wait for someone else to volunteer before I raise my hand, fear causes me to stay safe rather than take a risk, fear causes me to stay in the boat rather than walk on water.
In Luke 2 v10, the account of the birth of Jesus, the angel says to the shepherds, ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, today...a saviour has been born’.

See, when Joy is there, fear has to leave. The angel say’s ‘Don’t fear, because Joy has come’, Jesus is born, the saviour is here, a reason to celebrate! When Joy turns up at the party, fear has to leave and go home.
In church the other day someone said faith was spelt r.i.s.k. Perhaps we do need to accept that there is always going to be an element of risk when following God and using his ‘talents’. Mary took a risk when accepting the Angels message; the shepherds took a risk when they made their way from the hillsides, leaving what they knew, to follow God’s call. I’d hazard a guess that the two servants in the parable were taking a risk when they invested or handled the money the master had entrusted them. In all these cases, there was fear, but...how great was the reward? What joy did God give them for stepping out? Had not God had Mary in his hands all that time? And the shepherds as they travelled and gave what little they had? This much is true -> we all have a gift. We have all been given talents for God’s glory. We have been made by the Father and therefore have all been given unbelievable potential, a part to play in furthering God’s Kingdom. We are not called to be Billy Graham or Matt Redman but only ourselves. The person God made us to be and who God died to redeem. What do you think?