YOU ARE MY FRIENDS – PART 2

3 – Act Accordingly:
Anthony Roberts, 25, was shot through the eye and skull with an arrow by a friend trying to knock a gas can off his head. The arrow's tip went 8-10 mm into Roberts' brain, but caused no brain damage. He lost an eye but was otherwise unhurt. Roberts explained that the friend was shooting the can off his head as an initiation for a rafting and outdoor group and admitted, [I feel really stupid.] With friends like he has, who needs enemies? Now let us say for a minute that you and I are good friends. You should be able to assume some things about me as your friend. In John Maxwell's book [Be a People Person] he identifies 5 areas of expectancy that we should have in our friendships, a friend should:

A -- Encourage me; B -- Appreciate me; C -- Forgive me; D -- Listen to me; E -- Understand me.

In other words, if I am your friend, you should be able to assume that I am going to care about you and I am going to try to help you and I am going to be the person that you know without a shadow of a doubt that you can rely on. I am writing on a human scale here and we all know that no matter how good of a friend we have, that person is not going to perform perfectly in all of these areas all of the time. But let us consider YHVH's offer of Divine Friendship. Not only is He a perfect Friend, He is always a perfect Friend. YHVH will never let you down [you might think He has, but when you see the big picture you will find out that He never has and that He never will]. We would all agree that you really cannot have a one-way friendship. Too many of us want YHVH to live up to His end of the deal and be our Friend, but we have been unwilling to return the favour. Contrary to popular belief friendship is not a give and take relationship. It is a give and give relationship. If I am a true friend, I am not so concerned about what I am going to get as I am about how I can give more to my friend. YHVH gives us many wonderful things as a result of our Friendship. He gives to us Joy, Encouragement, Purpose, Hope, Perspective, Love, etc... In fact, He has given us everything, because He has even laid down His Life. Yeshua spells out very clearly to us what we are to give in this relationship we have with Him. There are three very basic areas we can demonstrate our Friendship with Him. He asks us to:

A -- Love one another as He has Loved us -- verse 12.

B -- Do what He Commands as He has done what the Father has Commanded of Him -- verse 10.

C -- Bear Fruit. -- verse 17.

Now if we look at these three areas Yeshua is really getting to one particular area we must focus on if we are to give to YHVH. It comes down to Love. Yeshua said Love one another as He has Loved us. Yeshua said to do what He Commands and what does He Command? This is my Commandment: Love each other in the same way I have Loved you. -- John 15:12. Yeshua said to bear fruit, which basically means we are to Love other people into the Kingdom. If we are to act accordingly in our relationship with YHVH, we are going to be people who Love; it is as simple as that. Once I read about a woman who, on the advice of her doctor, had gone to see a minister to talk about joining the church. She had recently had a facelift and when her doctor dismissed her, he gave her this advice: [My dear, I have done an extraordinary job on your face, as you can see in the mirror. I have charged you a great deal of money and you were happy to pay it. But I want to give you some free advice. Find a group of people who love YHVH and who will love you enough to help you deal with all the negative emotions inside of you. If you do not, you will be back in my office in a very short time with your face in far worse shape than before.] He was right you know? Outside of a relationship with YHVH, we can never know, on the deepest level, what it means to have a Friend.