Wish I Had A Video

Monday morning I normally meet with two brothers to grow in Christ. This past Monday I witnessed such a rare event that I wish I had a video. Brother # 1 was expressing a viewpoint on a Biblical topic and supported his perspective by saying that there were a lot of Bible verses that supported this. Brother # 2 asked #1 to provide some, which #1 did from memory. Brother #2 then offered some verses of his own to support his perspective. Let's think about this for a moment. I have witnessed and, unfortunately, participated in a number of differences of opinion about theological matters. Far too many times this led to an unedifying argument in which each brother ( it's always men who do this) maintained his view, typically by saying things like, "The Bible says," or "God says," or "everyone knows," etc. Rarely has there been an even tempered presentation of specific Bible verses to support one's "opinion." I halted the proceedings to congratulate the two brothers on presenting specific Bible verses to support their views. It was a good example of how we should interact with one another, especially over differences in doctrine or theology. This week also had several fruitful times with individual brothers, finished the Mango language learning program and started from the beginning again. On Thursday I met with brother #1 separately and we continued in 1 Thessalonians 5. If we as believers would rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all things both our lives and those around us would be transformed. A final thought concerning discipleship. i believe that a "bottom up" approach- making individual disciples- will yield better fruit than a "top down" approach- trying to move a whole congregation in this direction at the same time.