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Dear Brothers,
We had another fruitful night last night. Everyone was very engaged in the discussion of "Brotherly Love", led by Elder Jack Lee.
Thanks to James who led singspiration with us and reminding us that Jesus is our friend. Thanks to James and Terry who got us some healthy dinner from Chinatown, yes, with lots of vegetable in the dish, and those healthy dessert from Bernie.
"From Friendship to Partnership", Elder Jack referenced the book of Samuel about the affection and love between David and Jonathan. Some refered to their relationship as homosexual because they talked about love, love that is more than a woman's love, Jonathan giving David his robe and armor, and even kiss between them. How do we as Christian, stand up and object to this type of accusation?
Before we split into smaller group to talk about that, Elder Jack reminded us that having a partner as a brother in Christ takes time investment and committment, common interest, and open up yourself first before you expect other to open up. It takes trust, loyalty, accountability, and Christ centered to build up a Brotherly relationship. We talked about why men so seldom talk to each other even though there are many channels, i.e. phone calls, facebook, email, meeting. We even don't talk that much to our so called Buddy. A brother mentioned that we may never open up like we used to when we were young because we have too many shields and reservation. Another brother mentioned that the good old time with a friend might not really be the same type of friendship we need now. When we were young, we probably have a common interest like chasing girls, or play a common sport, but now our life stage is different and we need to make a friend that will fill our need and give us support, a new "good old time" friend.
We splited up into 3 groups and discussed the following points:
1. Love - We talked about the love in Christ, a spiritual unity which will give us the love to care and support between 2 brothers.
2. More than women's love - Sometimes only a man can understand the feeling of a man because a woman might not have the same perspective/view points, so it's more than a woman's love and can only be filled by another brother.
3. Give a brother the best - we don't give our wives the best? What's best to a brother might not be best to a wife. Something only a man can appreciate, like sport and car, and more in depth the sin and weakness we so commonly have among men and ask for accountability.
4. Kiss - this was the custom at the time and even in other European countries right now except in U.S.
Elder Jack mentioned that there are 247 times in the Bible that talked about love but 80% of those are not about sexual love. We are so society affected these days that any hint of love between men will point to homosexuality. There was an artical about 2 penguins being viewed as homosexual just because they normally go with each other to everywhere!
Thanks to Elder Jack's reminding us that yes, Brotherly Love is possible with us because we have Christ as our center. Of course we need to have a balance in that we don't try to spend more time with a brother and neglect our wives who is the most important partners we have. Having said that, we are reminded that something can only be filled by the support of a brother. Let's continue to raise the bar and pray that God will guide and help us in getting from friendship to partnership.
-brother Billy
P.S. Sorry if I did not capture everything since we covered a lot more. Hope you will join us more often so these discussion can be captured in your heart, learned and affect each other.
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