Friend Part 1
Friend, is a word that we throw around a lot, but the question is do you know what a friend is? My computer program definition goes as follows:
Friend [frend] Noun plural noun: friends, plural noun: Friends
- a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations. “she’s a friend of mine”
synonyms companion, bosom friend, best friend, close friend, intimate, confidante, confidant, familiar, soul mate, alter ego, second self, shadow, playmate, playfellow, classmate, schoolmate, workmate, ally, comrade, associate, sister, brother, pal, bosom pal, buddy, bosom buddy, chum, spar, sidekick, crony, main man… antonyms enemy
- a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
Verb; third person present: friends, present participle: friending, past tense: friended, past participle: friended
- add (someone) to a list of contacts associated with a social networking website.
“I am friended by 29 people who I have not friended back”
- befriend (someone).
origin
Old English frēond, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vriend and German Freund, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’, shared by free.
Jordan Peterson said this on Instagram:
“Here’s how you know that you have a true friend, there’s a simple way to know if you got a true friend in your corner,
Isabella Lundy said it best “True friendship with stance time distance and silence.”
If you got these three things you got to ride or die.
Number 1
A true friend is a friend for life, you both grow, evolve, and hit different stages but you still rock with each other through it all. It’s not about always being on the same wave it’s about respecting each other’s journey.
Number 2
You don’t got to be in the same place, real friends, they support you even from a distance. Maybe you move away, maybe they start chasing different dreams,
that’s all good, you want them to win just as much as you want to win yourself.
Number 3
Probably The most important one, is you don’t need to be talking every day sometimes you will go weeks, or months without chopping it up. But when you do it’s like you never missed a beat, that’s how you know it’s real.
If you got people like that in your life hold onto them. That’s rare.”
I was told: “A friend is someone you call if you are in jail and need bail to get you out.” And a best friend is: Someone you can’t call because he is sitting in jail with you.”
My Story about a friend.
In the late 1990s, I had the pleasure of being our Church sound coordinator, this also meant that I was responsible for running the sound for our choir. Running the sound for the choir also came the responsibility of going with them to singing appointments. I enjoyed and loved mixing the sound for the Church and the choir as long as we were at our Church, or close to home where I could drive. The Church choir had gotten a pretty good reputation at that time for being anointed. God seemed to use us a lot at that time.
The problem was we were invited to do the Smoky Mountain Jubilee in Gatlinburg Tennessee, which wasn’t too bad because I would ride up with the drummer who is a dear friend, and help him set up his kit. Tennessee wasn’t too bad of a ride and the Evangelist that ran the Jubilee also was a Pastor of a Church in Virginia, and he invited us to go to his annual Church Jubilee. So, now, we are going to go to Virginia and minister there.
There is one of many reasons that I do not want to go, the main reason is the same reason I don’t like to fly, the same reason I don’t like to be in an elevator, the same reason that I don’t like being in the back of a large crowd. I am and have always been claustrophobic. I don’t like closed-in places and I don’t like being anywhere that I can’t control when and where I can stop and get out of the room or the vehicle. With that known our pastor, Snyder, came to me and asked me to go with them and that I could have any seat on the bus that they chartered. I asked any and he assured me any. So, I insisted that I drive, knowing that that was not going to happen and knowing that I didn’t trust my little S 10 truck to make the trip at the time, I thought that I would get out of going, but I did not.
Now I am on a bus that I don’t want to be on and going somewhere that I didn’t want to go. As I have stated I love my Church and the choir and mixing the music and singers, I went not to please God but to please man, which is never the reason to minister, but God had me where he wanted me for a reason.
I love good preaching and I truly love anointed preachers, such as Tony Evans, Ike Reighard, Dr. Charles Stanley, Andy Stanley, and on and on. A few weeks before we headed out on this outing, I had the chance to go to the Bailey Smith Real Evangelism Conference, in Marietta, Georgia at Roswell Street Baptist Church, Pastored by Nelson Price. After attending there for a week, I had an opportunity to purchase many cassette tapes. (I said that this was in the 90s didn’t I) There were some great sermons and testimonies on these tapes and some would just break your heart. So, I decided that I would bring all my tapes and my little tape player, some headphones, and enough batteries to make the trip and back, with batteries to spare. Now I was hoping that I could just submerge myself in preaching and never contemplate being on a bus full of people and having little to no control over the situation.
Now I am set, hoping, and praying that no one would bother me and remind me of my surroundings. I was sitting alone and I liked it that way, everyone else was talking and getting ready for a great time together, and as the bus was loading up to go. I made sure that I got a seat next to a window and not too far from the front so that if I had a meltdown, I could be drugged off the bus rather easily. People already knew who they wanted to be with and where they wanted to sit. So, all was going just the way I wanted it to go, Until, (I have said in the past “until” is hardly ever a good word to hear in a story). She said may I sit with you? And everything inside me was screaming NO! But I tried to conjure up a smile and said sure.
I spent most of my time in that Church at that time either in the sound room or in the pulpit. I am sorry to say that I am not much of a social person, don’t get me wrong, I love people and I care deeply for their souls. But, because of certain circumstances, I got to a point in my life where I was really careful who I let get close to me. Way too many people have come into my life and I have gotten close to them and now they are gone. I was not on that bus but for one reason and one reason only and that was to get to our destination and do my responsibility. Not to socialize and definitely, not to make any new friends. But I believe that God had other plans.
As I recall I told her she could sit with me if she left me alone, her name is Dianne, and she seemed to be okay with that because she had a book she wanted to read and acted as if she didn’t want to be bothered either. Boy, was I wrong about not wanting to talk with me? Her son is our drummer and a great friend of mine, so I thought she would be okay to be around because I always enjoy being around Mark.
As the trip progressed, she started asking me questions, and I thought why not talk maybe it would get my mind off the fact that I was still on a bus. It didn’t work, so to get her quiet I offered for her to listen to some of my tapes, and she took me up on the offer. As she sat there listening, I saw her starting to tear up and then I remembered that I had just given her the tape of Ike Reighard testimony. It is a great sermon and testimony, and it broke her heart. After listening to it, she got yet another tape, and then after completing it, she said you sure listen to some tear-jerkers. We then started talking about what she had been listening to. If you want a preacher to be your friend, just ask him a spiritual question about the Word of God and sit back and enjoy the ride.
That happened well almost thirty years ago, and to this day I consider her one of the few friends I call close. She later came to work as my company office manager and was by far my best employee. She was encouraging when I needed encouragement and never worried about my feelings when it came to setting me straight when I started to drift. We all need people like that in our life. She and her husband were in the Journey Group that I have the honor of teaching and is someone I love dearly. You just never know who God is going to put in your life and for what reason.
Oswald Chambers said, “Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in Thought and Heart and Spirit.”
C. S. Lewis said friendships are discovered when you say, “What, you too?! I thought I was the only one” (Four Loves, 248).
Hanya Yanagihara @deadpoetswilde says; “Friendship is the most underrated relationship in our lives. It remains the one relation not bound by law, blood, or money – but an unspoken agreement of love.”
Very few people have met those criteria in my life and I bet the same can be said for most of us. We claim hundreds or even thousands of friends on Facebook and other social media outlets, and have never met many of them, how can they be friends?
In the Book of John, it says:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” … and then Jesus continues “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” NKJV
As of the writing of this we as a nation just remembered the 75th anniversary of “D Day” and how these men of the greatest generation of Americans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is a Christian hymn originally written by preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada. Scriven originally published the poem anonymously and only received full credit for it in the 1880s. The tune to the hymn was composed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868. William Bolcom composed a setting of the hymn.
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
By, Alan Jackson
What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged— Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden? Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there.
Blessed Savior. Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded. There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship Will be our sweet portion there.
