The GroupLink Chain
Here's another picture riddle !
A friend said that my pictures are too easy.
O.K., here's a harder one !
Let's have a deep discussion about why I chose to post this picture !
A friend said that my pictures are too easy.
O.K., here's a harder one !
Let's have a deep discussion about why I chose to post this picture !
posted by GroupLink at
8:32 AM
5 Comments:
Oh, the weakest link analogy...sorry, Charlie is still going to say these are too easy! It's correct though!! Too often we join groups or activities and then just exist in them instead of being active in them. In all groups, especially Christian, it is everyones responsibility to make the group work. While the "leaders" exist as a title, the group belongs to everyone who participates in it, or attends if that is an easier concept to understand.
We have the empty chair rule in our group...always, as a group member, assume that the chair is empty and you are responsible for filling it. Bring someone in need, bring someone who needs to have fun, bring someone who needs to get out, bring someone who needs a friend, bring someone who can be a friend to everyone else...bottom line, BRING SOMEONE!
On top of that, be a force for the group...be active, be involved, be present, and be yourself! You don't have to be a star, baby, to be in our show! (Bonus points to you if you remember the song and artists) You can intermingle and be extroverted, or you can sit and be introverted...someone's going to find you anyway and make you a friend.
But it takes all of us, as a group (or as we call ourselves nowadays, an extended family) to succeed. What measures success? Relationships. What relationship if most important? The one with Jesus Christ! How do we fit in? By showing, through our lives and behavior, that the relationship with Jesus Christ is one worth having and belonging in HIS family has eternal ramifications.
I took more time (and space) in answering just to spark Charlie's mind...here's praying that he out words me today with his wisdom!
Love God, love people. Good words from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus may have taken three sentences to say it but it summarizes down to that! Have I said lately how much I love our church motto? Love God, love people!!
May God bless and enrich you today.
Jon
Lets look at the weakest link analogy.
What happens when a link is broken?
Whatever it was holding together has come apart.
What happens to the broken link?
It falls away from the rest of the chain, and sometimes it remains lost.
What caused the link to break?
Being the weakest link, it couldn’t take the pressure and the strain.
If the weakest link didn’t break, when it did, what would have happened?
The next weakest link might have broken having the same consequences.
As a body in T-group, we can all recognize weaknesses and frailties in other individuals.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that someone is not apart or fitting into what’s going on. Yes, they may even say, that they’re OK, but are they? The Lord doesn’t allow people to come into our lives, even casually, without a purpose.
When opportunities to intervene are past by and lost, and the weakest link breaks right in front of us and the individual falls away and is lost, and we all say how much of a shame it was that it happened. Does that relieve us our responsibilities for no action? Believe me it doesn’t. I regret every missed and lost opportunity, because I live with the final results of my actions.
The individual doesn’t break, no thanks to me or you, who is the next weakest link?
Usually, our inaction is because the weakest link, doesn’t live and act according to our standards, which is call judging one another. Jesus said that by judging one another, that we bring judgment on ourselves. “Judge not and you will not be judged. For with the same measure that you judge, it shall be measured to you again. Frankly I don’t need that kind of trouble. So inaction on our part can put us in a state of weakness. The One we say gives us strength, is the One who may remove it from us.
Remember, the one who knows to do good, and doesn’t, to him it is sin.
If we see our brother and sisters weaknesses and come along side of them and help them and strengthen them, we strengthen ourselves at the same time and the chain / group becomes stronger in Christ, for the world to see whose disciples we truly are.
Remember,
A threefold cord is not soon broken.
Actually Jon, the open link could be the joining link, bring two pieces together for the betterment of the whole. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God.
Why don’t we see how long we can keep this thread going? Tag your it. New comment anyone?
Nah, it's definitely a break. The connection for this link is on the other side if you look at the picture closely. I really liked your comments though as you are right on with all of that. The weakest link need not break if we can come along side of them and help to hold them together. Sort of, assist in being the weld that will keep them strong. Being strong in your faith, being strong in God, will allow you to step out and step in to helping someone.
May God bless you as you reach out to strengthen someone today.
Jon
Ok, I agree the weld is on the other side. You made me look closer. In you’re your occupation, I’m surprised you didn’t notice something about that link. Would you care to look at it again and comment?
What, you mean the fact that it was cut, not broken? Hey, the photographer needed the picture! And the cut link doesn't fit the analogy as well as the broken one...it also implies that someone would intentionally break another. While we know that is true in our culture and world, we pray that it would not be true in the body of Christ. But I guess, choosing not to step forward and uplift someone is a conscious choice to allow them to be "cut" rather than hold them together.
Wow, see what will happen if we look deeply at these pictures of Dale's? Keep up the good work.
Back to you Charlie! Or anyone else that cares to join in!
Love God, love people.
Jon
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