Do all that you can to live at peace with everyone.  

We have settled into our new home.  Having terrific neighbors at our last home, I think that we are a little spoiled.  

Now we have a new house, new neighborhood and a new neighbors.  That means making new friends and experiencing life differently.

But, I have a confession.  

This post is written selfishly. 

 We need your prayers.  

I don't know what to do about our neighbors on one side.  

They have an automatic sprinkler system.  The sprinkler keeps our side yard wet, making it hard to catch a dry time to mow.  Also, one sprinkler hits one of our windows, causing it to be water spotted and needing to be cleaned often.  

Karyn asked them (very nicely)  to contact their sprinkler guy and have the one sprinkler adjusted.  The next day, the neighbor returned our house key (we had previously asked them to hold a key for us in an emergency).  I could be reading that behavior all wrong but it appeared that they didn't appreciate us asking them to adjust the sprinkler and expressed that by returning our house key.    We want to be good ambassadors for Christ and don't want to come across as nit picky but we just got tired of looking thru a water  spotted window.

What do we do?

I am reminded of a story in the book, Sit Walk Stand by Watchman Nee:

 "A brother in South China had a rice field in the middle of the hill.  In time of drought he used a water-wheel, worked by a tread-mill, to lift water from the irrigation stream into his field.  His neighbor had two fields before his, and, one night, make a breach in the dividing bank and drained all his water.  When the brother repaired the breach and pumped in more water his neighbor did the same thing again, and this was repeated three or four more times.  So he consulted his brethren. 'I have tried to be patient and not retaliate,' he said, 'but is it right?'  After they had prayed together about it, one of them replied, 'If we only try to do the right thing, surely we are very poor Christians.  We have to do something more than what is right.'  The brother was much impressed.  Next morning he pumped water for the two fields below, and in the afternoon pumped water for his own field.  After that the water stayed in his own field.  His neighbor was so amazed as the action that he began to inquire the reason and in course of time he too became a Christian."  

I think about that story because it involves water and there is a principle there that applies to our situation.  

Is it right to ask for a wrong to be righted?  

What behavior honors Christ and our neighbors?  

Our current plan is to continue to be nice to them and continue to strike up conversations when we are outside.  Also, we will continue to pray how to resolve this situation.

I know that there are plenty of world issues that are much bigger than this small little issue but we want to represent Christ well.  

So, when you read this today, would you take a few moments to pray for us?  

Ask that God would work so that our neighbors see Jesus in this situation.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Each Christian must be prepared for conflict.  Paul calls this wrestling with wicked spirits (Eph 6:10-20).   No Christian can hope to enter the warfare of the ages without first learning to sit with Christ and rest in what He has done, and then, thru the power of the Holy Spirit within, to follow Him in a practical , holy life here on earth.  If the Christian is deficient in either of these, he will find that all the talk about spiritual warfare remains only talk; he will never know its reality. We sat and rested with Christ and are learning how to walk with Him before the world but how are we to conduct ourselves in the presence of God's adversary (and ours)?  

God's word is STAND.  Put on the whole armor of God that may be able to STAND against the schemes of the devil.  The Greek verb STAND with its following preposition AGAINST really means HOLD YOUR GROUND.

This is a truth found in God's Word.  It is not a command to invade a foreign territory.  Warfare would imply a command to march.  Armies march into other countries to occupy and to subdue.  However, God has not told us to do this.  

We are not to march but STAND.  

The word STAND implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is really God's and therefore ours.  We need not struggle to gain a foothold of it.  Jesus' victory on the cross was offensive.  He won us back from satan.  That mean's our warfare is, in essence, defensive.  We war against satan only to maintain and consolidate the victory which Jesus has already gained. 

In Christ, we are more than conquerors.  

In Jesus, we STAND.  Thus, we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory.

We must not ask the LORD to enable us to overcome the enemy, nor even look to Him to overcome, but praise Him because He has already done so.  


He is Victor.  

It is all a matter of faith in Him.  If we believe the LORD, we shall not pray so much but rather we shall praise Him more.  The simpler and clearer our faith in Him, the less we shall pray in such situations and the more we shall praise.  In Christ, we are already conquerors.

Do you see what it means to STAND?  We do not try to gain ground; we merely stand on the ground which the Lord Jesus has gained for us, and resolutely refuse to be moved from it.  

The Christian life then, consists of sitting with Christ, walking by Him and standing in Him.  We begin our spiritual life by resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.  That rest is the source of our strength for a consistent and unfaltering walk in this world.  And at the end of a grueling warfare with the hosts of darkness we are found standing with Him at last in triumphant possession of the field.

This post is adapted from the book, SIT, WALK, STAND by Watchman Nee.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Yesterday, we talked about the word SIT.  But the Christian life does not end there.  After sitting, we must next WALK.  

Once we have found our strength in sitting down, then we have to begin to walk.  Walking is the practical outworking of our Christianity as we deal with others.  The Body of Christ is not something remote and unreal.  It is very practical and present, finding the real test of our conduct in our relations with others.  

Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony that our trying to be right and demanding right of others.  We have become preoccupied with what is and what is not right.  The principle of the Cross is not of right or wrong but of God's grace.  We are to forgive each other just as in Christ, God forgave us.  

If we only try to do the right thing, surely we are very poor Christians.  We have to do something more than what is right.  The question is, "is it better to be right or be Christian?"  These options are not always mutually exclusive but when they are, do we place our rights ahead of grace?  Jesus did not die on the cross to defend our rights.  It was GRACE that took Him to the cross.

So we sit with Christ so that we can walk continuously before humanity.  Our conduct depends fundamentally upon our inward rest, our ability to sit with Christ.  Ultimately, our walking is not based upon our efforts but upon God's mighty inward working.  

Nothing is so hurtful to the life of a Christian as acting.  Nothing is so blessed as when our outward efforts cease and our attitudes become natural -- when our words, our prayers, our very life, all become a spontaneous and unforced expression of the life within.  

The whole principle of the Christian life is this:  we need to go beyond what is right  and focus on what is well-pleasing to God, understanding His will.  

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."


Click here for part three of this post.

This post is adapted from the book, SIT, WALK, STAND by Watchman Nee.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

To SIT reveals a secret of the Christian life.  The Christian life does not begin with walking, it begins with sitting.  Christianity began when Jesus provided purification of sins and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  The individual Christian's life begins when we SIT with Christ.

Many Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to sit.  But that is a reversal of what is found in Ephesians.  Our reasoning tells us if we do not walk, how will we ever reach our goal?  What can we attain without effort?  How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move?  Christianity does not begin with a big DO, but with a big DONE.  We are invited to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.  

The Christian life from start to finish is based upon the principle of utter dependence on Jesus.  He will give us everything we need but we can receive none of it except as we sit with Him.  The work has been finished.  We take on an attitude of rest.  We only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.  

This was God's principle from the beginning.  In the creation, God worked from the first to the sixth day and rested on the seventh.  The seventh day became the sabbath of God; it was God's rest.  Adam was created at the end of the sixth day. So, that means Adam began his life with the sabbath; for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God's rest, and then he can work.    

And here is the gospel:  that God has gone one stage further and has completed also the work of redemption, and that we need do nothing whatever to merit it, but can enter by faith directly into His finished work.

And here is the secret, the point of today's post:  deliverance from sin is NOT to do something, but to sit, to rest in what God has done.  Once you have ceased your struggle with sin, once you have reached despair, sitting helps you to realize that Jesus has already done everything.

Jesus longs that we will just let Him do and do and do.  He wants to be the Giver eternally, and He wants to be the Doer eternally.  If only we saw how rich and how great He is, we would leave all the giving and all the doing to Him.  

"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love for us... made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus."   

This post is adapted from the book, SIT, WALK, STAND by Watchman Nee.

Click here for part two of this post.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.