Our Father's Loud Singing

Dear friends,

This morning I’d like to ask you to please take a moment to meditate on a verse of Holy Scripture with which you are possibly very familiar.  Through His prophet Zephaniah, our Lord assures us of His great delight in us, which is difficult for us to fathom at times, and of His unwavering devotion to us, although we know that our devotion to Him wanes more often than we’d like to admit.  Let’s listen to these words together as deeply as we can.   

          The Lord your God is in your midst,

               a Mighty One who will save;

          He will rejoice over you with gladness;

               He will quiet you by His love;

          He will exult over you with loud singing.  (Zephaniah 3:17)

As I sit here at my desk writing this letter, I am listening to happy Celtic music, which I greatly enjoy.  But the happiness in the sounds of these dear Irish musicians in no way compares to the gladness in the grand Voice of our Father Who is rejoicing over you and me right now with “loud singing”! 

Please stop, and listen.  You may have to be still for a little while in order to block out all of the interfering sounds.  But do please listen.

I have just now reached and turned off the happy sounds of the flutes, whistles, strings, bodhrans, bones, and Irish voices.  Now I only hear the heavy rainfall outside my window.  It’s like the sound of a thousand maracas.  The usual Louisiana rolling, booming tympanies and sharply crashing cymbals are not there.  Only the shakers.  Only the steady sheets of shishing and shushing.  Normal neighborhood noises are completely and pleasantly obscured.  The morning rain seems to provide the perfect percussion backdrop for the singularly beautiful Voice of the Soloist – the One Who is singing about me and to me.  

Yet I find myself in great need of God’s help as I try to harness my listening powers to hear that lovely Voice.  Is it because I’m not adequately convinced of the magnitude of my Father’s delight in me, even me with all of my faults?  Or is it possibly because I just don’t listen often enough and well enough to have developed a stronger attunedness to His Voice?  Or is it because much of the time I have listened only for thoughts – just thoughts – from Him (the reception of which is of course a great blessing) and have not allowed my soul to regularly hear Him joyfully singing fortissimo of His fatherly affection for me.

As I have been trying to express my thoughts and feelings to you, I have been reminded that, by the grace granted through our Savior, you and I are now among those who can live as “seeing Him Who is unseen” (Hebrews. 11:27).  So also we can live as hearing the “loud singing” of Him Who is inaudible to us. God has called you and me to hear and see Him Who is soundless and invisible.  We see Him with the eyes of our hearts.  We hear Him with the ears of our souls.              

So, brothers and sisters, let’s pray for one another!  Let’s ask God to help us to hear His “loud singing” over you and me! 

Sitting under His songs with you,

Rod and Bec

The "One Another" Fellowship - The Spurs of Louisiana

July 1, 2014

Lobbyist and Long-Time Friend Scott Kirkpatrick (at left)
House of Representatives Gallery

Senator Robert Adley and Senate President John Alario

Rep. Frank Hoffman and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley

Dear friends,

I must begin with that which ranks among our happiest family news items in many years.  Jim and Amelia and their children, Josiah, Rebecca Blythe, and Luke, and John and Kelly and their children, Lucy Bea and John Isaac, have moved to Louisiana and are getting settled into their homes here in Baton Rouge!   Jake and Ashley and their children, Elizabeth, Mary Page, Jacob Myles, Jr. (Myles), and Norah Catherine, live in Ruston, as many of you know.  At last, at last, they’re all back home! 

On June 2^nd, the Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature was adjourned.  If you’re a basketball enthusiast, then you’ll understand what I mean when I say that it seemed to me that our legislature worked together much like the San Antonio Spurs.  If you didn’t see the Spurs in the NBA Finals, you missed something of beauty.  Bec and I enjoyed every minute of the last game together. 

The post-game was as good as the game.  In fact, it was the post-game that revealed the foundation of the beauty that was displayed during the game.   I was riveted to the screen as Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker were clinging to one another’s necks for long periods of time, speaking words into one another’s ears that were meant for no one else to hear.  I was watching with no small wonderment as the other team members were enjoying not just the moment but one another.  It was then that I said, “Bec, look!  Look at Coach Popovich!  Look where he is!”  When the interviewing of the team began, he was in the far back and a little to the left.  He was almost out of view.  He never came to the front.  He never spoke.  There he stood in a quiet happiness for the men, most of them very young, whom he had enjoyed guiding into the pleasure of working in true togetherness!  As I sat there, I thought of Coach Vince Lombardi who said this:

Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about.  They didn’t do it for individual glory.  They did it because they loved one another.

At our final meeting of the Louisiana Legislators’ Bible Study / Prayer Breakfast, on Tuesday morning, May 27^th, my message was entitled “The ‘One Another’ Fellowship”.   Near the beginning of that Scriptural meditation with our legislators, I said this to our brothers and sisters who serve us: 

It is as all of you live in “The ‘One Another’ Fellowship” that you will be most effective in coming to right understandings of what is truly good for our people as well as the accomplishment of that good.  Furthermore, it is it as you live together in that “oneanotherness” that your own lives will be immeasurably enriched. 

Watching Senate President John Alario and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley and their combined teams of 144 members throughout this session was a delight.  Regardless of whether you, the readers of this letter, agree with the various decisions that our legislature made, and regardless of whether you are aware of certain tensions in some relationships, I want you to know that I am giving thanks to God, even now as I write this letter, for the beauty of togetherness that I saw among these men and women. 

Now what about you? What about your family?  What about your Church?  I am including with this letter my notes (below) from that Tuesday morning with the legislators.  Please carefully and prayerfully ponder each of the “one another” commandments and consider your own manner of relating to your family and your fellow church members.  Let’s all take a moment to pray that our Lord will help us to live in the beauty of “The One Another Fellowship”.   Hebrews 10 says, “And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.”

Thank you again for your prayers.  Also, thank you for your financial support.  

In the love of the Savior,

  

Rod and Bec

Louisiana Legislators’ Bible Study / Prayer Breakfast

“The ‘One Another’ Fellowship”

Dr. Rodney Wood

One of the cities in which Paul served the Church was Ephesus.  He did pastoral ministry there for three years.  During those years, Paul led the elders in doing much good for the people, and when his days of service in that city were completed, he called the elders together and gave them his farewell address.  And the Scripture says that when he had said his last words, “he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him.”  (Acts 20:17-38; See verse 36-37) 

Paul had lived with these servants of the Church in the “one another” fellowship, and although he had to leave them, the fellowship was unending. 

It is as all of you live in “The ‘One Another’ Fellowship” that you will be most effective in coming to right understandings of what is truly good for our people as well as the accomplishment of that good.  Furthermore, it is it as you live together in that “oneanotherness” that your own lives will be immeasurably enriched. 

“The ‘One Another’ Fellowship” lives according to the “one another” commandments given to us by the Apostles:

“For this is the message you heard from the beginning:  We should love one another.”  (1 John 3:11)

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph. 4:32)

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10)

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24)

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (2 Corinthians 13:12)

“Bear with one another.”  (Colossians 3:13)

“Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thess. 5:11)

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13)

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.”  (1 Peter 4:10)

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  (James 5:16)

• Love one another.  Every other “one another” command is a manifestation of this one. 
• Be kind to one another.   Literally, be “usefully good” to one another.  Be pleasant, gentle.
• Be tenderhearted toward one another.   Have deep inner feelings of mercy, of compassion.  These are feelings that are experienced deeply within us.  Literally, in our belly. 
• Forgive one another.  Literally, exercise grace, freely show favor.
• Be devoted to one another.   Give yourselves fully to one another.  Be completely and unconditionally committed to one another.    
• Have brotherly (sisterly) affection for one another.  God has called you to have family feelings toward one another. 
• Openly express your affection with godly gestures as you greet one another. 
• Honor one another.  Esteem one another.
• Stir one another up (Provoke one another!) to love and the good works that show that love. 
• Bear  with one another.  Be patient with one another.  Be enduring in love. 
• Encourage one another.  Pour courage and expectation into one another.
• Build one another up.  Say and do things that cause your colleague to grow in godly character.   
• Serve one another.  “Wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)
• Confess your sins to one another.  Admit your failings to one another.   
• PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER.  “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.” (1 Samuel 12:23)  “God instituted prayer in order to lend His creatures the dignity of causality.” (Blaise Pascal, 17^th century French physicist)  God allows us to come to Him with our requests for one another, and He responds according to His wisdom and goodness!

One day you will leave this place in which you now serve.  You will give your final address to your colleagues and then say your goodbyes to all of the staff as you walk out of this building.  When that day comes, who will you embrace?  With whom will you shed a tear?  Will you be one who has lived and therefore will always live in the incomparable effectiveness and happiness of “The ‘One Another’ Fellowship”?