Tag: Community

A Vigilant Community

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. – Nehemiah 4:16-18 (NIV)

Watchfulness can rarely be overrated.  Being prepared for whatever may come is a valued trait in soldiers and police, but it is also incredibly important for community.  Nehemiah knew that sometimes the best defense isn’t offense, it is vigilance.  He put into place the means and the manner for his community to be safe and secure.

In each community there needs to be a sense of vigilance.  There are enemies to every fellowship, family or congregation and they are waiting for apathy or infighting or corruption to set in.  The problem with community is that we can get so internally focused that we forget about the world outside.  We can become ignorant of the world’s allure and cruel intentions, or we can get an inflated view of ourselves in comparison to anyone outside our group.  These do not build healthy communities.

There is a tension in being a safe community that is still welcoming to those who want to enter in; vigilance against ill will and in expressing good will.  We need to look out for one another.  We need each other.  As a father, I need to be vigilant for my family, to watch for those things that may harm the ones I love, but I also need to be open to those who may enter into our community and lead with love.  It is less about looking for a fight and all about being prepared when the fight comes to our doorstep.

Nehemiah wanted to get the wall built.  He wasn’t looking for a fight.  He just wanted his people to be safe and secure.  Sounds like a good attitude for a father and a friend.

Lord, help me be vigilante to defend what I love and extend love to others.  Give me the strength of heart and mind to be watchful over the communities you place me in.  Amen.

How to Build Community

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

The third chapter of Nehemiah has the phrase “next to” twenty-one times.  This chapter describes in detail the families and locations that they were responsible for in rebuilding the wall.  That is a powerful phrase when you are in a difficult situation: next to.  It is a source of courage and solace to know that you have help at your side in the face of adversity and struggle.  It is a blessing to be next to others as they face the struggles of rebuilding what has been broken.

Families should be about that phrase.  They should be next to each other in facing this life.  They should be next to each other in overcoming obstacles and facing challenges.  They should be next to each other when the world is against them.  The strength and solidity of community begins at home.  If we learn to be next to one another in our families, it prepares and equips us to be next to our extended family in the church.

Our children need be the kind of people who stand next to others, who face challenges with others.  They can learn so much from seeing the space next to others as a place of privilege and blessing instead a place of burden duty.  For Nehemiah it wasn’t just about rebuilding the wall, it was about rebuilding his people, God’s people.  He wanted those community ties to be reconnected and tied even tighter.  Every day they worked on the wall, the families of Israel were reminded that they could not do it alone.

We should not be in this alone.  We need to have others come and stand next to us when the walls are crumbling and the enemy is threatening to attack.  Let’s be families that are next to others in the life of God’s people.

Lord, help me to be a man that is next to my wife and children.  Help me lead my children into an understanding of the privilege and blessing of living our lives next to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Amen.

Community Matters

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully.  Hezekiah king ofJudahprovided a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep and goats. A great number of priests consecrated themselves.  The entire assembly ofJudahrejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled fromIsrael, including the aliens who had come fromIsraeland those who lived inJudah.  There was great joy inJerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king ofIsraelthere had been nothing like this inJerusalem.  The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns ofJudah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property. 2 Chronicles 30:23-31:1

The word community gets thrown around a lot, but often it means other things: cooperation, organization, group, clique, etc.  Community is more than all of these combined and yet we think we can achieve it on Facebook or Twitter.  Community is deeper than a profile picture and more work than clicking a “like” button.  Community costs us something.  Community spurs us to action and to change.  Community is where God places the stones together to build Himself a house.  The people ofIsraelhad lost their identity as God’s people and lost their sense of community, but Hezekiah brought it back.

When we gather together with others in community, it requires things of us that organizations and clubs and online groups will never ask of us.  ForIsrael, it required action against the false gods and those who worshipped them.  The community that Hezekiah rebirthed in the celebration of the Passover motivated the Israelites to change the world around them.  When we are part of a community of believers, we should be motivated to change our little corner of the world.  This requires more than showing up on Sundays.  Community calls us to engage with one another, to love one another and to share that love with our neighbors.

The trap that so many of us fall into, as individuals and as congregations, is to isolate ourselves from the world.  We become less of a community and more of club.  We set-up guidelines and rules and boundaries to “protect” ourselves from the influences of the world, but what we really do is slowly eliminate the impact we have on the world.  We have to do better than that if we want to see salvation come in our neighborhoods, towns and cities, and our children need to be involved all along the way.

Real community sends us out.  Real community equips us for mission field.  Real community empowers us with confidence, because we know we are not alone in the work of the Kingdom.  I want my children to experience real community, and we are fortunate to be part of a church that lives and breathes community, but it has to be encouraged at home.  We need to make sure they are engaged in the lives of others at church.  We need to provide opportunities for them to serve.  We need to be engaged in the life and ministry of our community.

Lord, help me to stay rooted in the community of believers and engaged in the ministry you have called them to.  Help me to find ways for my children to be engaged in that community and empowered by that community to serve our neighbors.  Let us not just celebrate our salvation, but go out and share that salvation with the rest of the world.  Amen.

A Vigilant Community

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. – Nehemiah 4:16-18 (NIV)

Watchfulness can rarely be overrated.  Being prepared for whatever may come is a valued trait in soldiers and police, but it is also incredibly important for community.  Nehemiah knew that sometimes the best defense isn’t offense, it is vigilance.  He put into place the means and the manner for his community to be safe and secure.

In each community there needs to be a sense of vigilance.  There are enemies to every fellowship, family or congregation and they are waiting for apathy or infighting or corruption to set in.  The problem with community is that we can get so internally focused that we forget about the world outside.  We can become ignorant of the world’s allure and cruel intentions, or we can get an inflated view of ourselves in comparison to anyone outside our group.  These do not build healthy communities.

There is a tension in being a safe community that is still welcoming to those who want to enter in; vigilance against ill will and in expressing good will.  We need to look out for one another.  We need each other.  As a father, I need to be vigilant for my family, to watch for those things that may harm the ones I love, but I also need to be open to those who may enter into our community and lead with love.  It is less about looking for a fight and all about being prepared when the fight comes to our doorstep.

Nehemiah wanted to get the wall built.  He wasn’t looking for a fight.  He just wanted his people to be safe and secure.  Sounds like a good attitude for a father and a friend.

Lord, help me be vigilante to defend what I love and extend love to others.  Give me the strength of heart and mind to be watchful over the communities you place me in.  Amen.

How to Build Community

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

The third chapter of Nehemiah has the phrase “next to” twenty-one times.  This chapter describes in detail the families and locations that they were responsible for in rebuilding the wall.  That is a powerful phrase when you are in a difficult situation: next to.  It is a source of courage and solace to know that you have help at your side in the face of adversity and struggle.  It is a blessing to be next to others as they face the struggles of rebuilding what has been broken.

Families should be about that phrase.  They should be next to each other in facing this life.  They should be next to each other in overcoming obstacles and facing challenges.  They should be next to each other when the world is against them.  The strength and solidity of community begins at home.  If we learn to be next to one another in our families, it prepares and equips us to be next to our extended family in the church.

Our children need be the kind of people who stand next to others, who face challenges with others.  They can learn so much from seeing the space next to others as a place of privilege and blessing instead a place of burden duty.  For Nehemiah it wasn’t just about rebuilding the wall, it was about rebuilding his people, God’s people.  He wanted those community ties to be reconnected and tied even tighter.  Every day they worked on the wall, the families of Israel were reminded that they could not do it alone.

We should not be in this alone.  We need to have others come and stand next to us when the walls are crumbling and the enemy is threatening to attack.  Let’s be families that are next to others in the life of God’s people.

Lord, help me to be a man that is next to my wife and children.  Help me lead my children into an understanding of the privilege and blessing of living our lives next to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Amen.

Community Matters

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully.  Hezekiah king ofJudahprovided a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep and goats. A great number of priests consecrated themselves.  The entire assembly ofJudahrejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled fromIsrael, including the aliens who had come fromIsraeland those who lived inJudah.  There was great joy inJerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king ofIsraelthere had been nothing like this inJerusalem.  The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns ofJudah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property. 2 Chronicles 30:23-31:1

The word community gets thrown around a lot, but often it means other things: cooperation, organization, group, clique, etc.  Community is more than all of these combined and yet we think we can achieve it on Facebook or Twitter.  Community is deeper than a profile picture and more work than clicking a “like” button.  Community costs us something.  Community spurs us to action and to change.  Community is where God places the stones together to build Himself a house.  The people ofIsraelhad lost their identity as God’s people and lost their sense of community, but Hezekiah brought it back.

When we gather together with others in community, it requires things of us that organizations and clubs and online groups will never ask of us.  ForIsrael, it required action against the false gods and those who worshipped them.  The community that Hezekiah rebirthed in the celebration of the Passover motivated the Israelites to change the world around them.  When we are part of a community of believers, we should be motivated to change our little corner of the world.  This requires more than showing up on Sundays.  Community calls us to engage with one another, to love one another and to share that love with our neighbors.

The trap that so many of us fall into, as individuals and as congregations, is to isolate ourselves from the world.  We become less of a community and more of club.  We set-up guidelines and rules and boundaries to “protect” ourselves from the influences of the world, but what we really do is slowly eliminate the impact we have on the world.  We have to do better than that if we want to see salvation come in our neighborhoods, towns and cities, and our children need to be involved all along the way.

Real community sends us out.  Real community equips us for mission field.  Real community empowers us with confidence, because we know we are not alone in the work of the Kingdom.  I want my children to experience real community, and we are fortunate to be part of a church that lives and breathes community, but it has to be encouraged at home.  We need to make sure they are engaged in the lives of others at church.  We need to provide opportunities for them to serve.  We need to be engaged in the life and ministry of our community.

Lord, help me to stay rooted in the community of believers and engaged in the ministry you have called them to.  Help me to find ways for my children to be engaged in that community and empowered by that community to serve our neighbors.  Let us not just celebrate our salvation, but go out and share that salvation with the rest of the world.  Amen.