So How Blessed am I?

I have pursued and nurtured deep friendships that share this love and passion for Knowing God  and for Walking with Jesus. 

Powerful and deferential and consistent conversations and explorations and learnings about this Living Word. 

Prayer Warriors with all and any temptations or upside down perspectives -  we respond with compassion, the Bible, the Living Word, and group prayer, often out loud - over a call, chat thread and video screen.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Proverbs 27:5

Open rebuke is better
Than love carefully concealed.

I read this from an Enduring Word Bible Commentary: so relevant. REAL friendships only want us to stay that narrow gate to salvation.

a. Open rebuke is better: Many are hesitant to rebuke others, especially others in God’s family. But there is a time and place where rebuke is not only good it is better than the alternative.

i. “Rebuke—kindly, considerately, and prayerfully administered—cements friendship rather than weakens it.” (Bridges)

ii. “We do not really like rebuke. We are inherently inclined to resent it. The fact that we really deserve it, or need it, does not make it pleasant…moreover, our dislike of rebuke leads us to think that those who love us serve us well when they are silent in the presence of our shortcomings.” (Morgan)

iii. “Yet it is a rough medicine, and none can desire it. But the genuine open-hearted friend may be intended, who tells you your faults freely but conceals them from all others.” (Clarke)

b. Than love carefully concealed: Love does little good when it is concealed. The honest love of an open rebuke can be much better than the carefully concealed love.

i. “Love that is hidden is not perfect love in either sense. The highest love must and does express itself. It does so in praise of the loved one…. Love that hides itself, professes not to see, perhaps does not see, and so remains silent, is love on a very low level.” (Morgan)

Proverbs 27:6

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

a. Faithful are the wounds of a friend: A mark of a true friend is that they will be willing to wound us with loving correction. The correction may not feel good – as genuine wounds – but it will be an expression of the love and faithfulness of a friend.

i. “The ‘wounds’ are a metaphor for the painful and plain words that must be spoken in a true friendship in order to heal the beloved and/or to restore a broken relationship.” (Waltke)

b. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful: This cautions us that not all kisses are the greetings of friends. They may come from an enemy and be deceitful.

i. “Such as were the kisses of Joab, Judas, Absalom, and Ahithophel are not to be fancied, but deprecated and detested.” (Trapp)

ii. “Who would not choose this faithful wound, however painful at the moment of infliction, rather than the multiple kisses of an enemy? The kiss of the apostate was a bitter ingredient in the Savior’s cup of suffering.” (Bridges)

My cherished friends, my Remnant Warriors (c) look into each other, correct and support, share to the Truth - never allowing.... "We Just Agree to Disagree" to be the end of a conversation.

No - there is Truth offered to us through The Word. We help each other walk steady, walk as Holy as we can in every instance.

Be sure you have a real tribe. It is work to Walk with Jesus. As we know, it will not cost us much, it will cost us all.

Satan is a punk, a liar, persuasive and never ever stops.