Participants: Ruthie Jacobsen (Host), Derek Morris, Tim Garrison
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000356
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00:30 Hello and welcome again to Issues and Answers. 00:33 This is a program that really focuses on the issues that all 00:37 of us have in our lives. We are far more similar than we are 00:43 different. All of us have issues and needs that only God can 00:48 fill. Today we have a subject that we'd like to share with you 00:53 that we hope will match up closely to an issue or a need in 00:59 your life and that is building. Building bridges. And you're 01:04 going to say, Ruthie, come on. I am not building bridges. 01:10 That's for engineers and heavy equipment. No, it's for all of 01:15 us as Christians. Building bridges, building relationships. 01:21 Advancing God's kingdom through friendships. And he has told us 01:26 in Isaiah 45 I will go with you and prepare the way and I will 01:32 break down gates of brass and crash through iron bars. 01:36 Nothing is impossible. That neighbor, that person who 01:41 seems to be farthest from the Lord may be just waiting for a 01:46 touch from you and the Holy Spirit working through you and 01:51 maybe you'll see something incredible that you've been 01:55 praying and waiting for. God is so good. I'm anxious for you 01:59 to meet my special guests. Tim Garrison from Camarillo, 02:04 California, welcome. Good to be here Ruthie. 02:07 And Derek Morris from Apopka, Florida. Glad to be here. 02:11 So what can you tell us about bridge building? How important 02:16 is it in what you do? 02:18 Well as you know, Ruthie, I'm involved in planting a church 02:22 and when you're going to a new area and you start a church from 02:26 the very beginning and you get together as a little core of 20 02:29 people determined to do this, you have to examine how did 02:34 Christ go about, you know, ministering and touching and 02:37 building bridges to other people's lives and one thing we 02:41 realize is we could not expect people to come to us. We had to 02:46 go to them. And so that's a part of this metaphor building 02:51 bridges as you know from your book of building those ways of 02:55 touching other people's lives just like Christ did. And we 02:59 determined that we would have to develop mechanisms for bridge 03:03 building. You know, he went out where 03:06 people were who needed him. He went where the lepers were. He 03:10 went where people didn't go. He went to the parties where they 03:15 we're drinking wine and getting drunk. And he was criticized. 03:21 It got him into trouble, but he kept on because he had a world 03:27 to save. This is a really important topic 03:30 Ruthie, because we most naturally build walls rather 03:35 that building bridges. Why do we do that. I think we grow up 03:38 trying to protect ourselves and maybe other people are different 03:41 but we see Jesus doing the exact opposite. I think of a 03:45 story in John chapter 4 where Jesus is coming to Samaria and 03:50 instinctively the disciples are building walls because they 03:54 don't get along with the Samaritans and they don't 03:56 associate with them. So they're separating themselves while 04:00 Jesus begins to build a bridge with one person who's come to 04:04 the well. In fact that story I think has great lessons for us. 04:08 But certainly Jesus models being a bridge builder. 04:11 You know, I'd like to back up. Speaking of Christ as a bridge 04:16 builder. Everything he did was bathed in prayer. He spent 04:21 in prayer. He prayed a lot because that's one of the rules 04:25 of the kingdom. When the Father told him I've put all of the 04:30 earth into your hands. That's your inheritance, you're going 04:34 to inherit the earth. But Christ knew that one of the rules of 04:40 the kingdom is you have to ask. So even Christ the Son of God 04:45 had to pray. He had to ask. And so he did that and then he was 04:51 prepared to go out and build bridges. So we have to pray 04:56 earnestly before we can build bridges, otherwise we're just 05:00 doing something nice. You know, random acts of kindness, but if 05:05 we're praying the Holy Spirit and the compassion of God is 05:10 what changes hearts. 05:11 And, of course, he also gives the Lord permission to throw him 05:15 out, that radical prayer, because Mark 1 says that he was 05:19 thrown out by the Spirit. So he also prays and it's interesting 05:24 in John 4 it says he needed to go through Samaria. Well the 05:27 disciples didn't want to go through Samaria. Why did Jesus 05:31 need to go? Answer: He's praying this radical prayer. He has been 05:36 bathing his life in prayer and he has given God permission 05:39 knowing that there's a bridge to be built with this one lady 05:42 whose heart is open. 05:43 Let me give you an example of what we've done in the Moorpark, 05:46 California church plant that I'm involved in and that is in 05:50 California the housing developments often have common 05:54 mail box areas, you know. They call them gang boxes. And the 05:59 problem you see in terms of connecting with your neighbor 06:04 in most modern housing developments is the automatic 06:08 garage door. You know, people open the door, they pull their 06:11 car in and they never see their neighbors. But I've discovered 06:15 there's one place where they do gather and that's to go get the 06:18 mail. So what we've tried to do with our community of believers 06:22 is have radical prayer, as you say, about making that an 06:28 opportunity for building bridges and so going down to that gang 06:31 mailbox right after the letter carrier has delivered the mail 06:36 when you know others are going to be gathering. So I've made 06:40 that a point personally to do that and as they come in I greet 06:43 them and I talk to them and many of them know that I'm a pastor. 06:47 I remember one time that I went down and an elderly lady came 06:51 and I greeted her and I said how are you doing and she 06:55 paused and I'd seen her before. We had a little bit of a 06:58 relationship. Her husband had just been in an accident and 07:02 they had just retired. And she talked to me about how she had 07:06 hoped differently for her retired life, but now she was 07:10 ministering to her husband. And I said, Ma'am, can we have 07:14 prayer. And so we paused right there by those mail boxes and I 07:18 had prayer with this woman. But again you have to be intentional 07:22 to build those bridges and that's the kind of thing that 07:25 when you pray to God he inspires you to find ways to make those 07:30 connections. That's right, he does open 07:31 doors. When we first moved to the neighborhood where we live 07:35 now we didn't know anybody. We didn't know anybody in the town. 07:39 We didn't know anybody in the church and we discovered that 07:43 there were some people who we had known in Florida later. But 07:46 we thought that we were there at the end of the earth, because 07:50 you don't go to Hiawassee, GA if you're not planning to go 07:54 there. You don't go there going to anywhere. But we live on a 07:59 mountain and we looked up and down our hill and we saw all of 08:04 these houses. There are over a hundred in our homeowner's 08:08 association. And I started praying for Ramie Mountain. 08:13 I said, Lord, who was it that prayed give me Scotland or I 08:18 die. John Knox. Knox. And I said I want Ramie Mountain. Lord give 08:24 me Ramie Mountain. For some reason you've just given me a 08:27 sense of urgency for these dear people I've never even met. Well 08:31 before long we started meeting at the library, at the grocery 08:37 store, everywhere. And people invited me over to their home. 08:42 We were just getting acquainted with everybody. Then they asked 08:46 my husband to be the homeowners association president. Well then 08:50 we had people coming to our home, we were going to their 08:53 homes, we were planning meetings all kinds of events and we were 08:57 given opportunities to pray with them. They started coming to our 09:03 church, just an incredible thing but not long ago I was speaking 09:08 over at a Methodist church not far from where we live and I 09:12 invited all my neighbors. I said I'm speaking over at this church 09:15 Do you want to come over and hear me? Sure. So they went. 09:19 And coming home the neighbor who was riding with me said 09:23 you know we were laughing about you the other day. I said, you 09:27 were? What was so funny? She said well we weren't laughing at 09:32 you. We were envious. And I said why? She said you've only 09:36 lived here two years, Ruthie, and you know the whole town of 09:41 Hiawassee. And I said, you know that's pretty true. We know so 09:46 many people here now. And she said I've lived here 14 years 09:51 and you know lots more people than I do. And under my breath 09:56 I was saying thank you Lord, that's an answer to prayer. 10:00 You know, one of the things that Tim said that's so important and 10:04 we see it in Jesus is you went to that mailbox area. Right. You 10:08 were intentional about saying this is a place where I could 10:12 build bridges. I think of Jesus you referred to earlier after 10:17 a tax collector became one of his disciples, Jesus went to 10:21 that tax collector's party. He was going to connect with people 10:25 that he probably would never see any other place. But he begins 10:29 to build bridges with them and I want to learn how to do that 10:33 more effectively. I think that your book, Bridges 101, helps us 10:37 to think, maybe not just do these things, but Lord show me 10:43 some ways. The mailbox technique or whatever. 10:45 That fit my personality and my situation. 10:48 Where I can build bridges to people rather than building 10:50 walls. I tell you, you have to really 10:52 you know be ready when you pray that prayer, because it's just 10:56 amazing what the Lord does. You know I prayed to the Lord, I 11:00 would like to be in a roomful of strangers and the very next 11:05 day I got jury notice and I ended up at the court house in a 11:09 room full of 200 people that I had never met before. 11:12 And it's just like the Lord is smiling and he's saying OK now 11:15 is this what you had in mind? 11:17 Now once you get there, whether it's at the mailbox or it's in 11:21 the jury waiting room then you have to be prepared to... 11:27 And I discovered that your praying doesn't stop when you 11:32 have been thrown out or when you are reaching out with some 11:37 method of building a bridge. 11:40 It's like it's almost like a constant conversation. 11:42 I was just thinking of something that happened in our family. Our 11:46 neighbor was sick and he called, an interesting phone call. He 11:50 said please pray for me. I've got a problem with my health. 11:54 So we went to the hospital. My wife stopped and picked up a 11:58 beautiful arrangement of flowers I'm a little more thrifty, but 12:01 she understood what that would do for him and his wife who was 12:06 there. Giving them the flowers, that was a bridge, and he said 12:10 wow the flowers are so beautiful thank you so much. And I just 12:14 said do you know we have prayer quilts at our church? Maybe 12:17 you'd like a prayer quilt. And his eyes lit up and his wife was 12:21 excited and so it's like one more step. You don't just bring 12:26 flowers day after day. The quilt came, we cleaned up some sticks 12:30 in the drive way and before long we're inviting them to have 12:33 lunch with us. I shared a DVD series on healthy Christians 12:37 that I'd done. If I'd just walked out of the blue and said 12:41 you need to listen to this, he probably would have been polite 12:45 and taken it but... (or a book they had) or worse I would say 12:48 you know I'm going to build a wall because I know that my 12:51 neighbors are not interested. But when you begin to build 12:55 bridges and I think the key is that you're asking the Lord to 12:58 show you when and how to do that It's really quite exciting. 13:02 It really is exciting and yet you know as Jesus clearly showed 13:06 there's risk involved. I mean, when he interfaced with the 13:11 Samaritan woman there was a risk how would she respond, would she 13:15 be open. And so when we face that risk and we allow the Lord 13:19 to take the fear away then some amazing things begin to happen. 13:23 That's right. But I believe that when we're willing to take 13:29 those first steps, he shows his grace and he meets not only our 13:34 needs but the needs of the people. I like what you did with 13:39 the flowers and with the prayer quilts because those are 13:44 tangible things. After you're gone the Holy Spirit can use, 13:48 that's right, they're still there and the Holy Spirit can 13:53 speak through things and remind people, this is the love of God. 13:58 Because people ask what makes somebody do something like this? 14:04 What would cause somebody to have a totally free car wash, no 14:09 strings attached, wash my windshield, give me a bar of 14:16 granola or something or have a little prayer with me while I'm 14:20 waiting in line. What would make people do that? And they ask 14:23 questions. You know, I think there's a 14:24 principle here of bridge building and that is also 14:27 Jesus recognized. He met people where they had a need. And so if 14:32 I'd walked into the hospital room and given him the DVD, 14:36 first of all he has nowhere to play it. Secondly he's not well 14:39 and he doesn't particularly feel like watching a DVD, but some 14:43 beauty to his room or maybe a tangible quilt to remind him 14:46 that people are praying. Jesus did that when he'd been teaching 14:50 all day and the people were hungry and he gave them food. 14:53 He tried to talk about being the bread of life, but first he 14:56 built a bridge. I think that there's a very 14:59 important principle here. Sometimes we're happy to share 15:04 the love of the Lord or to meet people or to build a bridge but 15:10 we're tempted to do that on our ground of comfort. We want to do 15:15 what makes us feel good. Never mind what that person may need. 15:20 This is what I think you need so you better take this and 15:24 jolly well get this and read it or whatever it is and we can go 15:28 away saying well you know I've done my good deed and this is 15:32 my whatever for the day, my good thing that I've done for the 15:37 Lord, for the kingdom of God and the Lord may be shaking his head 15:43 saying you missed it. Don't do it for you, do it for me and for 15:49 him and there's a totally different way that we live and 15:54 minister when we have that mind set. 15:55 We also find, at least I've found that when I break out of 15:59 my comfort zone, interact with my neighbors, try to befriend 16:03 them, that there is a mutual benefit. There's something about 16:07 establishing those relationships learning from those people as 16:11 well and being enriched by that relationship that is wonderful 16:16 for me as well as what I might be able to offer to them. 16:20 It's like a two-way street isn't it. (It is, yeah.) 16:23 The Lord doesn't just send us out and say do this for me and 16:28 whether you like it or not. No, he says this is going to enrich 16:32 your life. This is going to make you a better person. 16:35 You know, something happened in my ministry. When I began 16:39 ministry I gave myself kind of like an island. If you said you 16:43 built walls around yourself I probably would have denied it 16:48 but really I wasn't building bridges at least. I've noticed 16:52 in recent years that God is giving me courage to build 16:57 bridges; going to the local ministerial alliance, I ended up 17:01 being the president of the ministerial alliance and it's 17:04 totally new and yet I've had the opportunity to pray blessing 17:08 for pastors in the community that I otherwise wouldn't meet. 17:12 So I think it's that recognition that if we are light to the 17:16 world and salt of the earth, it's not going to happen by 17:20 hiding under a bushel, to use the same image as the light of 17:24 the world. I need to be getting out there, letting my light 17:27 shine and building bridges with people. 17:29 And it's amazing how the Lord will prompt you and push you. 17:34 My husband and I were having lunch in a place near Highlands, 17:39 North Carolina. We were sitting out on a patio under an 17:42 umbrella and there was a big kind of an outdoor dining area. 17:47 And we were having a wonderful time and the weather was perfect 17:51 I noticed over in the corner there were two couples and they 17:55 were so loud. They were talking to their waitress and just 17:59 having so much fun and I said to Don, I'm going to go over 18:02 there and tell them to quiet this down. They are just you 18:06 know, disturbing the peace. And he laughed and he said no don't 18:10 do that. Well Don is much more what's the word, levelheaded, 18:16 cautious. But I really felt a prompting in my spirit. I felt 18:20 like the Lord was saying here's some people you could get 18:24 acquainted with. So when Don went to the car for something, I 18:28 walked over there to their table and the waitress was still there 18:32 and they were talking. I just kind of had a sparkle in my eye 18:35 and a big smile on my face but I said to them you know you're 18:39 going to have to calm this down because this is altogether too 18:43 noisy. They said pull up a chair and we were instant friends. 18:49 They could tell that I was just being funny or you know enjoying 18:54 them. And we got acquainted. Come to find out they had 18:58 relatives that lived not far from us in Hiawassee. They said 19:02 we're going to be in you town tomorrow. We want to see you 19:07 tomorrow. Well they did call us the next day and we happened to 19:10 be gone so we missed them. But they gave us the name of the 19:14 name of the sister and her husband. A couple weeks later 19:18 we were driving out in that neighborhood and I said, Honey 19:22 this is where Virginia and Howard live. Let's go see them. 19:26 So we pulled up into their driveway. They came out and they 19:30 said Oh we know about you. We heard about you. We've been 19:35 wanting to meet you. That's God. And I get e-mails from her 19:39 nearly every day. She's been to our church. We've been to their 19:43 church. We have just become very good friends. She's been to our 19:48 home several times, we've been to theirs. But see that was God 19:52 saying here are some people that I want to use you for. 19:57 You see he was throwing you out into his harvest using your 20:01 personality. I can imagine someone watching the program 20:05 today going, I could never do that and it's possible that God 20:09 would never ask them to do that. But God is going to use the 20:12 personality and the gifts that each of has to build their 20:16 bridges. What we have in common is that we don't want to 20:20 separate ourselves from those people but we want to connect 20:23 with them. That's right and use whatever 20:25 means will work. Whatever God brings to our mind. 20:29 That's right. And we all have different tools. We all have 20:33 different personalities. But I really believe that the key of 20:38 the universe, the God who made us, knows how he made us, he 20:43 knows what gifts and talents and interests we have and he says, 20:48 you know if you work with me I'm going to make it a joy. I want 20:53 you to experience the joy of actually being a partner with me 20:58 So I suppose, Ruthie, as a part of the prayer that our viewers 21:02 could think about as well as ourselves is use me as I am. 21:07 Use me as my personality and my unique gifts measure, you know. 21:12 And so a simple smile to a neighbor. Just the little things 21:17 that show that you're trying to make connections in whatever way 21:20 you can. I tell people smile because 21:24 people will think you're smarter than you are. But really 21:27 I'm glad you said what you did because a smile can be 21:31 powerful if you have put yourself in God's hands for the 21:36 day and you just said Lord whatever. If somebody needs a 21:40 little hug, or somebody needs a sandwich. If you are in a 21:44 restaurant and you see somebody that is counting out their money 21:49 and worried, may be they don't have the money to meet the 21:55 ticket, the price of the meal, you could just quietly say to 22:01 the cashier I want to cover that and you'll be blessed for it. 22:06 The Lord just does that and you know people will say well I 22:11 can't do big things. God doesn't ask you to build a hospital. 22:15 Just a bridge. You know I've been reading your book and my 22:18 wife and I have been reading it actually at worship and it's 22:22 been such a blessing, that's Bridges 101, and something 22:25 happened at the airport and I know it happened because of 22:29 reading the book. Not that there was a story there that I was 22:32 trying to duplicate but just thinking about building bridges. 22:35 I was getting ready to get on a flight and I saw someone and she 22:39 said hello to me and my name. I didn't know who she was. That 22:43 happens sometimes. I found out that she was a media person from 22:46 the area but she was in transition. I had a copy of my 22:51 book The Radical Prayer with me and I said you know sometimes 22:55 when we're at change times we can give God permission to throw 22:58 us out into wherever he wants us to be and join him in his 23:01 work. She's a Christian. So I gave her the book and she said 23:05 thank you. That was the last I heard. Several weeks went by. 23:08 Just recently she called. She's now back working for a news 23:12 paper in our area. Then she called and said you know I would 23:15 love to do an article on what God's doing in your church. 23:20 And I was shocked and yet I realized that that probably was 23:25 a response to building that bridge. You said it's two-way, 23:29 right? Once the bridge is there it's not only reaching out to 23:34 that person, it allows that person to reach back to you. 23:38 Sometimes the things that we may do may seem so infinitesimal, 23:43 so inconsequential. And the Lord says you know I'm not expecting 23:48 you to do something big but if you give it to me I can make 23:51 something big out of it. You don't have to. But that's what 23:55 Christ said; a cup of cold water simple things, just simple 23:59 things. You notice there seems to be a 24:01 lot of suspicion in our world and in our culture. And so when 24:05 you pass somebody on the sidewalk or you know they tend 24:10 to not always look, but just a simple smile just breaks the 24:14 whole barrier there and they know that there's a friendship 24:18 connection and that's really all it takes. 24:20 It's disarming. In our little town, we live in north Georgia, 24:24 we live in the Bible belt and we can see North Carolina from 24:29 where we live. But the people there are for the most part down 24:33 home. There are a lot of people that have moved there from 24:37 Florida. Somebody said to me, a Florida transplant, she said 24:41 to me, you now have you noticed how friendly everybody is in 24:44 this town. And I said yes. And she said well we're all from 24:47 Florida. How come we weren't that way down there? But people 24:50 you see them at the post office and they'll say g'mornin', how 24:55 are y'all. And it's just a happy environment and that in itself 25:01 will invite you to make a comment or to say something that 25:07 will build a bridge. 25:08 Back to Jesus because I know we're speaking as followers of 25:11 Jesus. We're not making something up that's new. 25:14 This is a novel idea. We're following the example of Jesus. 25:19 He was constantly building bridges. He did that because he 25:23 loved people. And he did simple things. He 25:28 gave food, he held children on his lap, he blessed the children 25:34 You know, he just gave a word of comfort and encouragement. 25:39 He started by meeting a need. Then he moved to developing a 25:44 relationship before he ever really talked about people 25:49 following him. That's right. And if we follow 25:52 his method we're going to have success. I love the text in, is 25:57 it Psalms or Proverbs that says Commit your plans to the Lord 26:03 and they will succeed. Proverbs 16 and verse 3. 26:07 Is there a song that your wife wrote about that. 26:11 Actually there is. It's one way to memorize the Bible. 26:15 Are you going to sing it for us? 26:16 No I'm not but I think it's true that as we commit our ways to 26:21 God and allow him to guide us that our plans will be 26:26 established. I believe that too. Now do 26:29 either one of you have a quick last word of encouragement. 26:32 Well I would just tell people, our viewers, that if they will 26:35 just pray that prayer at the beginning of every day, Lord let 26:38 me be sensitive, let me be open to the opportunities you present 26:41 he will present them. 26:44 Like you said, Ruthie, don't wait for some huge thing to do 26:48 for God. Just look for each opportunity he puts in front of 26:52 you and build that bridge and see what he'll do. 26:55 And if the Holy Spirit is in it there can be eternal 26:58 consequences. Well we have enjoyed sharing with you today 27:02 I would like to know what kind of bridges have you been 27:06 building. You probably are sitting there thinking I've done 27:11 something like that. And I'll bet you have. Pray about the 27:15 opportunities that you have because the Lord has bigger 27:19 plans in mind for us than we can possibly imagine. If you ever 27:23 doubt that, read Ephesians 3:20. He can do more than you can 27:29 imagine. And he wants to use your hands, your eyes, your lips 27:34 your words, your kind heart and you will be amazed. I believe 27:38 that in heaven he will show you the faces of people who are 27:43 there because you were faithful, because you built a bridge, 27:48 in honor of your king. God bless you. Thanks for joining us. |
Revised 2015-04-10