From the Home Place

July 10, 2026

Good morning. It’s a cool 53 degrees at daylight, with a projected high of 91; along with a 1% chance of rain. Tomorrow will start a week of nasty heat and wind, not a good combination during a drought, but we continue to trust our Lord, even during the difficult times.

Sorry that I haven’t written for a few days, it is difficult to know what to write about. However, today I would like to share a truth with you that our most recent model has reminded me of. God is in the difficult times as well as the good times.

Stop and think about it, if this life was made up of only the good and easy, what would our character be like? Romans 5 makes it very clear that God uses trials to train us to be totally dependent upon Him, and to be more like Him. As I typed that sentence, I realized that with that dependence upon God, He wants us to do what we can do without compromising our dependence upon Him.

May I illustrate: We are in the process of remodeling the bathroom in our little house. The old surround bathtub has been cut up, taken out and hauled away. Yet as we all know, tearing something, or someone apart is the easy part. Building up is the difficult part. Perhaps that is why in 1 Thessalonians 5:11a we are told to, “Encourage one another and build up one another…”

Oh my, if we as Christians would live just this one portion of Scripture. To “encourage” means to “urge” or to “exhort” others. We could quite likely say that the word encourage means to gently push someone else forward. No, not forward to what we think they should be, but forward to consistently being more like Jesus – a process the Bible calls making “disciples!”

May I ask each of us, especially myself, how well do I “urge” others to be like Jesus. Let’s just be plain honest shall we, our tendency is to tear others down for not being like me, instead of “urging” them to be more like He. Oh my, how often I tend to tear down rather than build up.

One more reading of 1 Thessalonians 5:11a, “Encourage one another and build up one another.” First we are to “encourage” (urge, gently push forward and upward); Then we find the little word “and” followed with the command to “build up one another.” You see, to “encourage” one another is only the first half of the command. The second half is to “build up one another.” To understand the command to “build up” is simple, it is the opposite of doing that which comes natural – tear down!

Tearing out the old bathroom was the easy part, but building up the new part has been extremely difficult. Each day brings a new difficulty with this project of remodeling the bathroom. Oh, and by the way, Jesus clearly stated that “each day has enough trouble of its own,” boy, this remodel is proving that statement to be accurate.

You see friends, the words “build up” in the original language are described as, “a verb, present, active, imperative, second person, plural,” meaning that to “build up” requires action, it is imperative – a command not a suggestion, “second person” tells me that it is something I am to do for someone else not just myself, “present” means that I am to continue the process daily, and the “plural” indicates that I am to fulfill this command with everyone around me, not just myself. Come on, admit it, it’s easy to “build up” self, but it is hard work to “build up one another.”

Fact, it took me one day to tear down the old bathroom; a week later, we are about half done with building up the new one. Sure, building up is difficult, time consuming, and unnatural, but it is required by our Lord, for the betterment of all involved. From a biblical point of view, to “build up” means to “strengthen,” which means to “make more effective.” Once again, that sounds like making “disciples,” the primary thing every Christian is commanded to be doing with their life.

For sure, the new bathroom will be much nicer when it is finished, just like your disciple will be much nicer when you are finished encouraging and building up that person! But my human nature still finds it easier to tear down than to build up; perhaps I need to work on me more than I thought? After all, following Jesus is not natural, it is a super-natural work, empowered by the Holy Spirit!

Building up with you, Neal