Loving People Who Don't Receive Us

Reading a booklet by Dr Stevens (the Pastor who founded the ministry I am apart of) and thinking about life.

This passage comes to mind.

"Now John answered and said, 'Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.' But Jesus said to him, 'Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.' Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?' But He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 'For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.' And they went to another village." - Luke 9:49-56 NKJV

Jesus is on a mission of redemption but the disciples are conditioned to label people as 'us' and 'them'.

They didn't know what kind of life source they were drawing from (spirit they were of) they had fellowship and conditioning that came from a fallen spiritual source. Anger brought them into a spiritual mob mentality.

Then we look at Jesus who is the picture of a lamb. He loved the Samaritans but if they had other plans that didn't change Jesus' mind about them nor did it change His direction. He would still go to Jerusalem but He just made a grace adjustment and moved on to a different village.

I think we have all gotten hurt because people didn't receive us for one reason or another. We have all been excluded from things but we can move on to the next thing without accusation and still love people.

"Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," - Philippians 2:4-5 NKJV

We can have the mind of Christ and that mind loves in maturity seeking restoration and reconciliation. Let have spiritual life from above. Let's travel with Christ and go where He goes. He went to a cross and we go to His cross and pick it up as our own. That is the place where our past died and a future was made possible. That is the place where the sins of the world were paid for and justice was satisfied. Let's go there and then we will have a capacity to love people.

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