Insights Magazine: Number Two, 2019

NUMBER TWO, 2019

In this issue 3

My Grace Awakening: How God Made My Marriage Bloom

6

Intentional Community

8

Facing the Tough Stuff of Inadequacy: When the Truth Comes Out

11

Treasures Hidden in the Darkness: the Katherine and Jay Wolf Story

charles r. swindoll tim schellenberg

insight for living ministries

insight for living ministries

Q&A 13 Why is Christian Fellowship Important?

steve johnson

Beyond the Broadcast 15 Encouraging Others Insights is published by Insight for Living Canada, the Bibleteaching ministry of Charles (Chuck) R. Swindoll. Chuck is the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Texas. His international radio program Insight for Living has aired for more than 35 years. We hope this publication will instruct, inspire, and encourage you in your walk with Christ.

Copyright Š 2019 Insight for Living Canada. All rights reserved.

No portion of this monthly publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture passages are taken from the NLT. Unless otherwise noted, photography and illustration

by Tim Schellenberg. IFLC is an autonomous ministry and certified member of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Printed in Canada.

by charles r. swindoll

Cover and artilce Images: Foto Pettine on Unsplash

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hen I wrote The Grace Awakening I asked God for relief from this destructive almost 30 years ago, I couldn’t habit. I also prayed for the ability to love have imagined the book’s wide- and give myself to this woman without all spread impact. People still write to tell me the choking conditions. how it changed their lives and even their I still had a way to go and grow, but marriages. Little do they know that, in grace was awakening in my life! For part, the book originated from my own the first time ever, it freed me in my “grace awakening.” marriage—first in small ways and This June, Cynthia and I will be married eventually in major areas. Jealousy 64 years...but the oil of grace has not disappeared. Grace literally wiped the always flowed freely in our marriage. slate clean.

Early on, I found it easier to extend As I reflect on those earlier days, I grace to a parishioner or to our church remember another difficult turning staff than to treat point. I used to C y n t h i a w i t h I can testify to this truthfully: tell people that grace. A “grace Cy n t h i a a n d I When grace awakens in a awakening” was were “a team.” husband’s heart, he begins Then one day, she just as needed in our home as it to care for the one God gave sat down with me was in the church him in a new and deeper way. and urged me to where we served. stop saying that He becomes increasingly It started because it simply aware of his wife’s value, many years ago. wasn’t true. Again, Cynthia and I were I realized she was her giftedness, and her engaged to be right.

Hard as it significance. married. Yet I was was to hear her so insecure and fearful that jealousy had words, I had to admit that we lacked consumed me. It wasn’t uncommon for a “team spirit” in our relationship. As I me to drill Cynthia with questions—petty, began to analyze why, it became painfully probing questions that were little more clear that again one main ingredient was than veiled accusations. It’s amazing she missing: grace. endured it for even one day! Finally, after I decided to deal further with my we were married, we had one of those long-standing habits of controlling, famous showdown confrontations every correcting, and criticizing her...and married couple has had. The truth became to start accepting her for who she is painfully clear: I was smothering her. and admiring those qualities that first Cynthia’s words hurt, but she was right attracted me to her. What a difference to confront me. I listened, I took her that made! As I changed my attitude and seriously, and I went to work on this ugly altered my expectations, grace oiled our side of my life. I assured her I would never relationship magnificently. Cynthia’s again treat her with such a lack of respect. creative gifts and organizational skills

began to blossom. That was 40 years ago.

Soon after, we began Insight for Living Ministries. And guess what? Now other people often refer to us as “a team!” Grace made the difference.

I can testify to this truthfully: When grace awakens in a husband’s heart, he begins to care for the one God gave him in a new and deeper way. He becomes increasingly aware of his wife’s value, her giftedness, and her significance. The grace within him frees him to let her be the person God made her to be. The better acquainted I became with the grace of God, the less I concerned myself with authority in our home...the less threatened I felt. The more I relied on God’s grace, the more I chose to model servanthood, to affirm and to release my wife. For sure, the less I desired to dominate and control her.

Grace loves and serves; it also gives and forgives, releases and affirms. Grace enlarges our capacity to love, so much so that we have no interest in keeping a record of wrongs and dangling them over

another’s head. Grace gives room—room to grow and room to be, to discover, to develop. When there is this kind of graceawakened love, the man loves his wife as he loves himself, and the wife respects her husband...which is exactly as God planned it.

Each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

(Ephesians 5:33) I’ve now said for years that my favourite place on earth is in our home with the one I love. I absolutely love being home! It is there that I find maximum security and acceptance, fulfilment and accountability, responsibility and harmony, genuine honesty, and affectionate love. Why? Because Cynthia and I are finally a team— one that is fully committed to the same essential element that can make your marriage bloom too: Grace!

Charles R. Swindoll serves as the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas.

Getting Back on Target SINGLE CD MESSAGE

REDISCOVER

THE LORD’S ORIGINAL PLAN

FOR MARRIAGE

For ordering information visit insightforliving.ca or view enclosed flyer.

INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY by tim schellenberg

Image: Mink Mingle on Unsplash

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hen we think of weddings, our idea expands beyond couples. At the focus is rightly on the event tak- end of Acts 2, after Peter had finished his ing place—a man and woman proclamation of the Gospel to the crowds, pledging to stand side-by-side for the rest people came to faith by the thousands! of their lives. We, the guests, are there to What happened next? “They worshiped celebrate with the couple. It’s important together at the Temple each day, met in to remember we were uniquely chosen to homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity” share in their love and excitement.

This past August as my fiancée and I pre- (Acts 2:46, emphasis added). They formed pared for our own wedding, I considered a community! These believers intentionwho I would invite. My decisions had to be ally spent time together over meals (a sign of friendship in deliberate since I was askThese days it seems ancient cultures), and ing friends and family to travel. Who did I want to like we don’t invest took time to help those ask to fly across Canada to in each other’s lives among them in need.

With a community-livbe at my wedding? much, either because ing mentality at heart, my Asking my friends to we’re distracted or wife and I continue seekbe part of my wedding not only recognized the don’t make the time. ing ways to live with intention. One way we’re doing impact that they had played in my life up until this point—I was this is by inviting people into our home also asking them to be a part of my future! for food and fellowship at least twice a By attending, they were committing to month. As life gets busier, we know it will get harder to open our doors. Yet our stand by us in our covenant before God. As believers, how often do we live out this goal—and our hope—is to be sacrificial in same intentionally in our communities? our time for people. We want to keep each These days it seems like we don’t invest other accountable and support each other in each other’s lives much, either because in the covenant we made to one another and to the God we serve. we’re distracted or don’t make the time.

For me, marriage is a reminder that Tim Schellenberg is the graphic designer at Insight we are created to be in community. The for Living Canada. early church is an example of how this

by in sigh t f o r l i v ing mini s t rie s

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mposter. Pretender. Fraud.

Call it insecurity, fear of failure, or an identity crisis: most men are driven by an unspoken, and often unacknowledged, sense of inadequacy. What's more, they fear that their inadequacy will be exposed and their true identity will be revealed. They will be found out as the poser they really are. Posing as a confident husband. Posing as a competent father. Posing as a capable worker. Posing as a good Christian.

Shaunti Feldhahn carefully researched the secret inner lives of men in her book, For Women Only. She found that two out of every three men surveyed admitted to struggling with the tough stuff of inadequacy. Despite their "in-control" exterior, men often feel like imposters and are insecure that their inadequacies will be discovered. "This secret male vulnerability involves not just a concern about what others think of them, but also the internal realization that since they don't always know what they are doing, they are just one mess-up away from being found out."1 For many men, feelings of inadequacy lead to despair. No matter how successful or competent, they cannot escape the feeling that they are only as good as their last business deal, record-breaking production run, or best day's work at the factory. The cure cannot be found in self-help seminars

or in late-night "success-can-be-yours" infomercials. Getting through the tough stuff of inadequacy takes more than dogged determination; it requires a fundamental shift in perspective. And that comes when we place our confidence in the Lord rather than ourselves.

God's perspective regarding men's adequacy is radically different than humanity's perspective. To Him, men are valued, important, and unique. Not because they are adequate in and of themselves, but because they are made in His image and their "adequacy is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5 NASB). A positive selfimage takes shape on the anvil of God's perspective, which is not based on a man's abilities, successes, or confidence. When a man is fully submitted to God, feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability lead to the true source of strength. In spite of a man's desire to the contrary, he is incapable of glorifying God and doing His work by his own strength. "Inadequacy forces us to rely fully on God for power and strength."2 In God's economy, the value of a man is not judged by the world's standards but by God's. Put into the right perspective, his feelings of inadequacy can motivate him to seek God's power and strength above his own. Here are two principles to help men turn inadequacy into power.

God longs to meet us at the place where Embrace Your Inadequacy Embracing your inadequacy is the we have reached the end of our abilities. first step toward accepting God's power. When we have exhausted our own Embracing—not just admitting. Simply strength and have nothing left, "That's admitting means we retain a negative atti- where He can do His best work—in your tude toward our inadequacy. It means we weakness.... He doesn't use superstrong, continue to buy into the Original Lie from self-assertive, self-centered people. He the garden: that we were designed to live uses [the] weak, [the] trembling, [the] independently of God. We were not. Our inadequate, and [the] ill-equipped."3 This brings to mind a friend who was blueprint is to live in dependent union with faced with spending an evening with the One who is completely adequate.

The Apostle Paul learned that lesson the someone who had recently caused hard way, through an unpleasant trial, his considerable pain to the family. Feel"thorn in the flesh." As he pleaded with the ing utterly incapable of expressing the Lord to remove the thorn, Jesus said, “My love of Christ to the family's guest, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is per- friend went to God, saying, "Lord, I'm not fected in weakness,” (2 Corinthians 12:9). capable of loving this person, but You love him, and I'm trusting Paul got the message: Embracing your You to do it through me he might not be capable inadequacy is the first tonight." Having chosen of handling his problem, but Jesus was. After this step toward accepting in Christ's power to episode, Paul concluded, God's power. Embracing— perform loving acts, by the end of the evening, "Most gladly, therefore, I not just admitting. even my friend's strong, will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ unloving feelings had melted away.

We are inadequate. We are inadequate may dwell in me" (12:9).

We tend to think of weakness as an abnor- as husbands, fathers, workers, and friends. mality in life, something to be overcome as What God calls us to do, we can't pull off in quickly as possible. From the Christian's per- our own strength. But God's strength is more spective, however, weakness is the norm of than sufficient. Trust Him today to be your life. We don't have to craft an outward image adequacy, and watch Him do His work. of supreme confidence and capability. Only Christ is capable of living His life through Adapted from Cliff Ritter and Greg Smith, "Facing the us. Our job is to embrace our inadequacy Tough Stuff of Inadequacy: When the Truth Comes and depend on Him to overcome obstacles, Out," Insights (January 2005): 5–6. Copyright © 2005

by Insight for Living. All rights reserved worldwide. to rise above mediocrity, to succeed where we cannot. ¹ Shaunti Feldhahn, For Women Only: What You Need to Know about the Inner Lives of Men (Sisters, Embrace the Adequacy of Christ When confronted with feelings of inad- Oreg.: Multnomah, 2004), 55. equacy, we can take hold of the sufficiency ² Charles R. Swindoll, Getting Through the of Christ's promise. Like Paul, we can Tough Stuff: It's Always Something! (Nashville: delight in our weakness, for it is the oppor- W Publishing Group, 2004), 176. tunity for God to prove Himself strong in ³ Swindoll, Getting Through the Tough Stuff, 185. us, if we turn to Him in faith.

Treasures Hidden in the Darkness T H E K AT H ER I N E A N D JAY WOL F STORY

by i n s ig h t f o r l i v i ng m i n i s t r i e s

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e all have ideas about how our lives should go—dreams we plan for. When complications arise, we view them as detours and focus on getting “back on track.”

But what if our worst detours are really paths to our best destinations?

Jay and Katherine Wolf met in 2000 at Samford University in Alabama. November 2004, they married and moved to California, where Jay studied law at Pepperdine while Katherine pursued modelling. They quickly plugged into a local church as ministry leaders. Just before Jay’s final semester, they welcomed a son, James. All their dreams were coming true. Katherine and James even did modelling gigs together!

April 21, 2008—six months and five days after James took his first breath—Jay stared into his wife’s dilated pupils, screaming.

Katherine had been cooking during James’ nap when her hands went numb. Suddenly, the television volume became unbearable.

Katherine managed to turn it off as her arms

Image: Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

and legs lost feeling too. Jay “just happened” to be home between classes. When he found Katherine, he had no idea he was looking into the face of a woman whose brain was rupturing. In an instant, their dreams hung by a thread.

An arteriovenous malformation had burst in Katherine’s brain, causing a massive stroke.

Surgery to remove over half her cerebellum offered a slim chance of survival. Most neurosurgeons wouldn’t have attempted the procedure, but when Dr. Nestor Gonzalez saw Jay’s eyes, he knew he had to try. Sixteen hours later, Katherine had survived but, Dr. Gonzalez warned, she might be in a permanent vegetative state or paralyzed.

Within two hours, Katherine miraculously began responding to commands with her fingers! However, she couldn’t open her eyes for another day. Then for weeks, with a trach in her throat and many severed nerves, she couldn’t speak, swallow, or walk. Sight, hearing, and movement were all limited. After 40 days in the ICU, she transferred to a neuro

with the glowing gold of second chance. rehabilitation centre for over a year.

“Seasons of darkness, sadness, and pain,” Jay remembers his devastation upon seeing his once vibrant wife hooked up to Katherine says, “can be where God is calling machines. Her face and abilities were for- you to steward, to leverage, to even find treaever changed. When she began speaking, sure (Isaiah 45:3)...I lost so much, but I gained he didn’t recognize her voice. But her move- a deep sense of how I want to use my life.”

Do they ever regret their daily decision ments in those early hours were a sign; Jay to choose contentment and stay together— knew she would be OK. Deep within, peace calmed Katherine for better or for worse? The Wolfs quickly too. In those first dark moments, before she point out that while their circumstances are could communicate with anyone, the truth of extreme, they face the same challenges we all Scripture—hidden in her heart since she was do. Katherine’s face may look different, but a little girl—carried her spirit. She knew God don’t we all struggle with feeling normal? was working for good, He was in her, and she Her mobility is limited, but don’t we all feel trapped sometimes? was fearfully and wonLike the Japanese art of Don’t we all change as derfully made—even in Kintsugi, in which a potter we age? At some point, this condition.

Yet, seven months later, creates priceless treasures every spouse thinks, This Katherine questioned by fusing broken pieces isn’t what I signed up for!

“Staying,” Jay says, “has God. Surely, THIS wasn’t of porcelain together been the most gloriously His plan. Instantly, she with gold, the Lord fills difficult experience of felt His response: “I don’t our lives. The gift of livmake mistakes. There is the cracks in our lives purpose in all of this. Just with the glowing gold of ing life with Katherine is transformational...The wait. You’ll see.” second chance. loss of leaving would Eleven months after the stroke, Katherine began eating. Eigh- have been so much more monumental than teen months after, she began walking. But it the losses we have experienced together.”

The Wolfs’ suffering has enabled them took four years altogether for Katherine to accept her new life, not as a detour, but as to live purposely without regret. As Jay says, a destination. She realized that while she “All of this—the opportunity to be parents might never be physically healed on earth, together, to be in ministry together, to work hope could heal her heart...and THAT was together, to be married, to deal with disabilities—all are opportunities for grace, to give all she really needed.

Amidst unthinkable heartbreak, the Wolfs and receive grace, to allow others to enter into have experienced the thrill of living a life our lives and to pour ourselves into theirs.”

It’s the treasure they’ve found on the that, by all logic, they should’ve lost. They’ve discovered that the message of the gospel is darkest of “detours,” the purest riches hidwritten into their story...and really, into all our den in the secret places—the dream they stories. Like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, in never could have planned for. which a potter creates priceless treasures by fusing broken pieces of porcelain together See full-length article at insightforliving.ca/ with gold, the Lord fills the cracks in our lives katherine-wolf

Y RESPUESTAS CEISTEANNA AGUS FREAGRAÍ 问题和解答 DOMANDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ TANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TANONG AT MGA SAGOT вопросы и ответы PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS C SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR FRÅGOR OCH SVAR KÉRDÉSEK ÉS VÁLASZOK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS QUESTIONS ET RÉPONSES VRAGEN EN ANTWOORDEN PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS CEISTEANN 解答 DOMANDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ питання та відповіді PYTANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TAN осы и ответы PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS CWESTIYNAU AC ATEBION SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR FRÅG VÁLASZOK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FRAGEN UND ANTWORTEN QUESTIONS ET RÉPONSE N PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS CEISTEANNA AGUS FREAGRAÍ 问题和解答 DOMANDE E RISPOS ідповіді PYTANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TANONG AT MGA SAGOT вопросы и ответы PERGUNTAS AC ATEBION SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR FRÅGOR OCH SVAR KÉRDÉSEK ÉS VÁLASZOK QUESTIONS A ANTWORTEN QUESTIONS ET RÉPONSES VRAGEN EN ANTWOORDEN PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS RAÍ 问题和解答 DOMANDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ питання та відповіді PYTANIA I ODP MGA SAGOT вопросы и ответы PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS CWESTIYNAU AC ATEBION SPØR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FRAGEN UND ANTWORTEN SVAR KÉRDÉSEK ÉS VÁLASZOK RAGEN EN ANTWOORDEN PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS by steve johnson CEISTEANNA AGUS FREA NDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ питання та відповіді PYTANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TANONG веты PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS CWESTIYNAU AC ATEBION SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR FRÅGOR OCH SVA QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FRAGEN UND ANTWORTEN QUESTIONS ET RÉPONSES VRAGEN EN A Y RESPUESTAS CEISTEANNA AGUS FREAGRAÍ 问题和解答 DOMANDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ TANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TANONG AT MGA SAGOT вопросы и ответы PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS C SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR FRÅGOR OCH SVAR KÉRDÉSEK ÉS VÁLASZOK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS QUESTIONS ET RÉPONSES VRAGEN EN ANTWOORDEN PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS CEISTEANN 解答 DOMANDE E RISPOSTE ਸਵਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਜਵਾਬ питання та відповіді PYTANIA I ODPOWIEDZI MGA TAN осы и ответы E RESPOSTAS CWESTIYNAU AC ATEBION SPØRSMÅL OG SVAR other words, the purpose of the church is FRÅG reatPERGUNTAS question! Before I explain why VÁLASZOK

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Christian fellowship is important I want to talk about the term itself.

Sometimes over time and with overuse, words get diluted and lose their original meaning. This is the case with “fellowship.”

Someone once joked that fellowship is two people in the same boat rowing in the same direction. While there is some truth to that, a more biblical definition is an inner unity among believers because of their union with Christ, expressing itself outwardly with one another to accomplish God’s will. In short, Christian fellowship is an inner unity expressed outwardly to do God’s will.

To help us better understand what fellowship is, and why it is important, I will use the analogy of an orchestra playing a symphony.

God has composed a symphony called His eternal plan (Ephesians 1:9-11). To play this great symphony He has formed an orchestra called the church. And to each one in the orchestra, God has given a part and an instrument to play called their spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12). “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). In

to hold God up to the world and display every aspect of His glorious being for all the world to see.

Just as no individual can play a symphony, no one believer can fulfil God’s eternal plan alone. God’s plan requires many working together to show His perfection to the world, and to truly glorify Him. We are individual members. It takes a unified orchestra to play the symphony. When we co-operate together to play the symphony, that is called fellowship. Fellowship is co-participation in accomplishing God’s purpose.

There is an internal unity around who we are—members together of the orchestra, the church. We have a sense of camaraderie with other believers. There is also an external unity—a sense of shared experience as we play our parts and individual instruments, our spiritual gifts, and collectively play the symphony: God’s eternal plan.

Fellowship is important from the perspective of God’s purposes. Many believers think the church can make it without them.

But just imagine listening to a symphony where half the orchestra members didn’t show up to play! Likewise, 1 Corinthians 12 makes it very clear that every single

member of the body is necessary for proper (Hebrews 10:24-25). When we quit playing in functioning and for the fulfilling of God’s the orchestra we lose an opportunity to use eternal plan and purposes. Because of the our gift, and we will soon find our passion importance of fellowship, no one has the and ability to play diminished. The same is right to remove themselves and not play true of using our gifts in our local church.

Finally, fellowship is important because their instrument in the orchestra.

Fellowship is also important from the it gives us the opportunity to obey the perspective of the individual believer, Lord in demonstrating our love to our felbecause just as showing up to practice and low believers, “Let everything you say be perform in an orchestra helps maintain and good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to hone our skill as a musiIn short, Christian those who hear them,” cian, working with other (Ephesians 4:29). believers to fulfil God’s fellowship is an inner Since fellowship is so plan will strengthen unity expressed outwardly important what should we our faith in God and His to do God’s will. do? I suggest two things.

Word. “Well, my brothWe can practice fellowship by seeing and ers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another getting in touch with the big picture and will teach, another will tell some special goal of showing God’s glory to the world. revelation God has given, one will speak in We do this in all the many ways He has tongues, and another will interpret what instructed us in the Bible.

Then, we can take an active part where is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you” (1 Corinthians 14:26). we can best help by recognizing our spiriWorking together to fulfil God’s plan also tual gifts and natural abilities to make the provides a place for encouragement and church fruitful by looking for opportunities opportunities to use our gifts. “Let us think to serve and play our part in the symphony of ways to motivate one another to acts of God wrote. love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for but encourage one another, especially now Living Canada. that the day of his return is drawing near”

Insight for Living Canada began over 30 years ago when a Bible-study group in Vancouver decided to look into bringing Chuck Swindoll’s messages into Canada.

For more visit insightforliving.ca/our-history

Encouraging Others

“Remember this: No matter how high you may climb in life, no matter how great the promotion or important the title, it is always appropriate that you take time to encourage.”

- CHUCK SWINDOLL It’s impossible to measure the worth of mutual encouragement. Whether spoken or written, a few encouraging words can make an enormous difference in the outcome of a single event or, in fact, someone’s entire life.

Let’s focus our attention on a man named Joseph, whose life was known for such thoughtfulness. Amazingly, his nickname, Barnabas, became far better known than his given name, as it announced his commitment to encouraging others.

Everyday life provides plenty of opportunities to apply the principles found in Acts 4:32-37 regarding Barnabas’ encouragement.

In fact, Chuck Swindoll mentions several opportunities in his sermon: in teaching, coaching, parenting, marriage, work, pastoring...there are an abundance of opportunities to practice encouragement, and you’re never too young, old, rich, or poor to start.

Becoming an encouragement to others doesn’t require a lot of time, money, possessions, training, or even great intelligence.

You don’t need to be a certain age before you have earned the right to reach out, come alongside others, and elevate their spirits

to greater heights. What you do need is the willingness to place yourself in someone else’s shoes, imagine how they must feel, and then step up.

Here are the ways to encourage that Chuck observed from the life of Joseph/Barnabas.

• Financial encouragement. Think of opportunities to give financially to a need. When you become aware of a genuine need, help out!

• Endorsement encouragement. Is there someone you could vouch for? Could your words help correct wrong thinking or prejudice? Speak up!

• Servant-hearted unselfish encouragement. Give others the chance to share in the privilege of ministering to others.

Unselfishly ask another to take your place • Second-chance encouragement. Do you know someone who has failed or fallen in the past, who is now repentant? Your reassurance could help this person get back on his or her feet Make a game plan to commit random acts of encouragement. This is an application you can add to your life right away!

“Encouraging Others” is from Chuck Swindoll’s series Wise Counsel for Troubled Times. You can stream this message online anytime at insightforliving.ca/audiolibrary.

online RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT

Love Like Jesus Jesus told His disciples to love one another “as I have loved you” (John 13:34). That wouldn’t be so hard if the love Jesus displayed was primarily the write-a-cheque or call-once-amonth kind of love. But Jesus set the bar immeasurably high.

Is that an impossible example to follow? You bet it is! That’s why God sent the Holy Spirit to live inside us and empower us with His supernatural love.

Want to learn more? Visit our topical page and let the resources set you on the path of loving with the Saviour’s love. insightforliving.ca/love