Storylines- Amanda Parrish

How do you thank someone for changing your life? Saving it even?

It’s hard to explain what happened in Scotland over the past three years. Dave and I landed in Glasgow on September 2, 2010, expecting an adventure and excited to see more of the world. We got our adventure. We got our world travel. It was terrific and eye-opening.

More importantly, we got plugged into a church where we came to love Jesus more. Now that’s something worth writing about.

We started attending Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow three weeks after we arrived in Scotland and it remained our church home for the duration of our time there. We experienced two things at Harvest that we had never experienced before:

1) A unified church body that was made up of members who would drop everything to help a brother or sister out. It didn’t matter if it was help with an all day move or a lift to the hospital to have a baby (thanks, Ally). There was never a question that someone would be there.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

Love should be the distinguishing mark of Jesus’ disciples. I need to take a quick detour here to talk about what that love looks like. Our culture would have us believe that loving someone necessarily requires celebrating any decision they make, as long as it makes them “happy”. Jesus says love is encouraging each other to choose His way and challenging each other to love according to his standards, which doesn’t always produce the often fleeting “happiness” people crave, but does lead something better - joy that endures.

"The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.”

Psalm 19: 7-11

That brings me to the second thing we experienced at Harvest Glasgow.

2) Accountability. We were expected to hold fellow believers accountable to the word of God and in exchange they did the same for us. As fellow heirs with Christ we wanted God’s best for one another. I’ve never felt Christ’s love more than when he has mercifully placed us in relationships with humble and gentle people that would continually point us to him. Over and over again. Because we need it. Over and over again.

This was not a body of people confronting one another every time we fell short of God’s standards. It also wasn’t about using our own willpower to follow certain rules, or “the law”, if you like. It was about helping each other develop a clearer understanding of our own sinfulness and complete inability to be “good enough” to save ourselves. The deeper that sinks in, the more mind-blowing it is that God’s perfect son took on every bit of what we deserved.

Many argue that Christianity is for weak people. Amen and hallelujah!

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:6-8

This was about helping each other love Jesus Christ more through the study of his word, prayer, and encouragement from others striving toward the same goal of using our lives to bring glory to his name.

If you want to know God more and glorify him with your life, get yourself into relationships with brothers and sisters that will love you in this way. People that will rejoice with you, weep with you, and tell you what’s up when you need to be reminded of what you are purposed for.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All these words later, I’m still trying to articulate “what happened in Scotland”.

I think the simplest way I can put it is that we became disciples. Other believers encouraged us, taught us, challenged us, prayed for us and with us, cared for us practically, and held us accountable to God’s standards. We left the most churched country in the world and grew closer to Jesus in Scotland. We were made fishers of men.

"While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him."

Matthew 4:18-20

Like salvation, this was God’s doing. Jesus sought out Simon and Andrew and called them, not the other way around.

So, to answer my opening question - How do you thank someone for saving your life?

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Matthew 28:18-20