Author: Paul Nordman

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We Would Do Greater Things

A few times when our son Matthew was a boy, I made it a point to teach him the wonder of others-mindedness. I would draw 10 stick figures (the extent of my artistic skill) and then ask him, “If each one of these people thinks only of himself or herself, how many are thinking of each person?” Pausing briefly to understand the question, he would respond, “One.” Correct! Then I’d change the question: “If each one thinks only of the others, then how many are thinking about each one?” “Ten,” he’d reply. Well, nine actually, but you get the point. “Which is better?” I’d ask. The answer was obvious.

There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. In Kingdom math, one is none. “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.”1 But in Christ, God has built us into something much greater than alone: “Now you [plural] are the body of Christ,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians, “and each one [singular] of you is a part of it.”2 To believers in Rome, he repeated, “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”3 The apostle yearned that believers’ “hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love.”4 In Kingdom math, many equals one.

We do greater things as a body united. We stand not apart from each other in individual weakness, but shoulder to shoulder with each other, united in Christ for the glory of His Kingdom and against our common enemy, “the cosmic powers [of] darkness . . . the spiritual forces of evil.”5 As we assume our individual Kingdom roles—our respective functions, gifts, and callings—under the lordship of Christ, His will is done and His church advances. People are saved and helped; moreover, His entire body is strengthened and encouraged, for it is awesome to see how God works through our brothers, our sisters, and, yes, even ourselves.

Solomon once observed: “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”6 So let us live greater—united as one with each other and looking out for the needs of all. If stick figures can do it, we can too.

Father, Your ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. Open us to Your Spirit, that He would do greater things in and through us, the living, breathing, united body of Christ, in Whose name we pray. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT
2 1 Corinthians 12:27
3 Romans 12:5
4 Colossians 2:2
5 Ephesians 6:12
6 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT

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Other People’s Priorities

“I didn’t accomplish a single thing I set out to do today.” How many times have we bemoaned it? We start the day energized at the thought of conquering our to-do lists, and then like wrong-way traffic careening toward us in our lane, here they come—other people’s priorities. Though we swerve and dodge and start and stop as best we can, inconvenience flares into frustration and irritation simmers in resentment. Sound familiar? This is why some organizational wonks recommend we build a certain number hours into our daily schedule for the unforeseen needs of others. In my career, I found this to be good, practical advice.

Yet God leads us to serve others from a perspective far higher than mere acquiescence—namely, their value to their Creator and as objects of His love. We are equal in this respect, each one as important as the others. Time and again, Paul exhorted early believers to love others as themselves—not in just a “warm, fuzzy feelings” sense, but the proactive kind of love that embraces the good of others as being as important as one’s own. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,”1 he penned to the Galatians. To the believers in Corinth, he wrote, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”2 And lest any misunderstanding linger, the apostle doubled down in his letter to the Philippian church, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”3

Our individual responsibilities remain, of course, and we only have finite time in which to execute them. This does not change. What can change, though, is our perspective—our understanding that other people are as precious to God as we are, and that their needs are as important as ours. When we serve them, we serve Him. When we proactively love them, we proactively love Him who calls them His own. So much so that Jesus will say to us on a day that draws ever nearer, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”4 This is community, this is oneness; this is God’s best for us, and He calls us to it. Then when the needs of others compound our own, may we stop long enough to remember how God loves them, and how He calls us to love them, too. Try it today and see the difference.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”5 —Jesus

Father, our self-centeredness hardens us to the needs of others, yet they are Yours. Lead us by Your Spirit, that we would love them as generously and as You love us. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Galatians 6:2
2 1 Corinthians 10:24
3 Philippians 2:2-4
4 Matthew 25:40 NIV
5 Acts 20:35

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Stay Quenched, My Friends

Dry as a bone. Have you ever felt that way, spiritually empty and distant from God? This is exactly where I was years ago when, fortunately, someone invited me to a weekend retreat. I had declined similar invitations before, but this time it was my time. After two days of compelling testimonies, open discussions and prayer time with God, I came away nurtured, refreshed, and feeling close to Him again. What a welcome relief! Yet I found myself wondering, how did I arrive at “dry” in the first place?

Likely we can all remember times when we let our sin distance us from God in fear of guilt and judgment, rather than turning to Him in faith for forgiveness. The more we disengaged from Him who offers “living water,”1 the more parched we became. Yet I think we face a stealthier weapon of separation, one disturbingly well disguised— the subtle deception of letting Christlike activities replace Christ himself as our focal point. Serving others, for instance, is a wonderful call, but if we let service replace Jesus as our personal foundation— our reason for being and our life itself— we veer off target. We could say the same of mission, seeking the outcast, or Christian values—all of these are good pursuits as led by the Spirit, but none should replace our relational embrace of Jesus’ living presence. He is our life. 2

On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus instructed His disciples, “Abide in me, and I in you.”3 Anything less is merely Jesus-adjacent. He is the vine, and apart from Him we are lifeless, fruitless branches.4 He himself is “the bread of life;”5 why would we hunger apart from Him? Jesus shines in our darkness,6 would we dim His light? Of course not. It is in Christ, and only in Christ, that we can effectively pursue the “good works, which God prepared beforehand”7 for us to do. And it is only in Christ that our efforts bear fruit.8

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”9 Jesus didn’t merely speak these words privately to His disciples, He cried them out publicly to all within earshot—this is how essential they are to who Jesus is and who He has made us to be. In Him there is no parched, there is no dry, only rivers of living water. So abide in Jesus—camp out in His Word, talk openly with Him as a friend, praise Him who alone is worthy of our praise, and trust Him completely in all things. Stay quenched, my friends.

Jesus, You are my sustenance, my life—let nothing come between us. Abide in me through Your Spirit, that my life would bear fruit for Your Kingdom. Amen.

1 John 4:14
2 Colossians 3:4
3 John 15:4
4 John 15:4
5 John 6:35
6 John 1:5
7 Ephesians 2:10
8 John 15:5
9 John 7:37-38