Joel Encapsulated

After prayer each morning, my wife and I will read aloud from the Bible. This morning it was out of The Book of Ecclesiastes. When we got to this famous passage my thoughts went beyond the normal wedding pronouncements that proclaim the eternal value of two becoming one in marriage. To review the complete thought, The Preacher said this:

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. (4:9-12)

So where did my thoughts go? Well, they progressed actually. They first went to an expansion of the celebration of marital companionship and uplifting that was required by the passage. If one is required to, and privileged to, uplift one’s mate throughout the trials of life, isn’t this process also valued in our relationship to our brothers and sisters in Christ? But of course, one might conclude! As the trials of life increase and we come closer to the insanity of our current world-condition, who better to lift up and to resist those who would overpower us, and along with Christ establish a multi-stranded cord of faithful companionship than our family in Christ? Well, I couldn’t leave well-enough alone. My thoughts immediately went to the one chapter in the Bible that best mirrors the entire reason for this site, namely Jeremiah 12:5. For those of you who know me, you know that this is one of my favorite verses. I had not thought of this verse, however, as summing up the entire reason for my blog until this morning - at this reading. After the prophet laments and imprecates, the Lord interrupts and thunders out with these words:

If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

This web site is simply saying this: We Christians in North America are currently running with footmen. The day is soon to come when we will be required to compete with horses. We are ministering (and being family members) currently in a land of peace. The day is soon to come when we will be backed up into the thicket of the Jordon. Now is the time to be family. Now is the time to lift up our companions and to resist those who would overpower our brothers and sisters, and now is the time to establish a tested cord of koinania-like relationship within our local communities - while we are running with footmen; while we are in a land of peace. The day may soon be upon us that… the tree has born its fruit. The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full. (Joel 2:22b) TAFTCom.