I was thinking today about levels of welcome and hospitality in gatherings. Here is a little list a made as the day progressed:
- There are places that we are not allowed to be and if we show up we will be thrown out.
- Some places we are not welcome but will be tolerated with some hostility if we are there
- Some places are open to us but no one notices if we are not there.
- Then there are public gathering where everyone is welcome but it is impersonal
- Some place are public and you are noticed and recognized by a few people
- Higher on the scale are places where people are invited but if we are not there we are not missed if absent
- Even higher is the personal invitation
- Higher still is the event where we have been invited and if we don't show up we are missed
- Farther up is the gathering where the host will make special arrangements to get us there if needed and wants to lock down a commitment
- Maybe a notch higher is the group that is willing to come to us if need be because they desire our company.
- Then there is the gathering that won't be the same if we are not there
There are many grades in-between aren't there. Grades of hostility, indifference, welcome, true hospitality and friendship.
Here are a couple of examples of God's hospitality.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." - Revelation 3:20 ESV
"In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going... I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." - John 14:2-4, 18-20 ESV
We are wanted in Heaven... truly deeply wanted.
God is willing to come and get us so that we will be there. Evil is not welcome but those who are washed in the blood of Christ and wear the ever white new robe of righteousness that God gives to every believer in Christ are not only welcome... they are wanted and known.
God doesn't just tolerate people. He desires and misses people. He loves the group and each individual in the group.
Jesus hated the shame of the cross but it was needed to open the door so that anyone who believed would be able to come home. Anyone... Yes... but not just anyone.... you... He did it for you personally.
Oh God help me to show people that they are wanted. Fill me with Your love so that people will see Your open door. Let me have Your sense of hospitality. No one loves like You love.
--
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Teraphim
"Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums and the spiritists and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him." - 2 Kings 23:24-25 NASB
Josiah was a unique king. He went against the current of the time.
I picked this version because it left a word untranslated that interested me. Teraphiym (Strong's H8655) is used 15 times in the old testament and is often translated image, idol or household god. It is plural for the Hebrew root Rapha (H7495) with means healer or physician.
In other words he took away the things that people used to self medicate. He removed public idol worship and private idol worship. Oh, how people would be up in arms if that was attempted in most societies today. I am not recommending this course of action. Josiah was unique and Israel was unique.
I do think that there is much value in separating our own household from idols and teraphim. Self medication cuts us off from receiving true comfort. Josiah knew this. The people could not worship the true God but have all these idols around. It was one or the other.
Perhaps I don't speak about my own hobbies here very much but I have some things I enjoy and derive great pleasure from. I am in my forties and I'm learning my first musical instrument and discovering the joys of reading sheet music. Most days these halls echo with the sound of a clarinet for a short time. As the weeks go by I'm getting more proficient. The dog doesn't howl like she used to. I still get her going from time to time and I have a long way to go. It is new territory and a different avenue for me to worship God and I just love it. I listen to more jazz, big band and klezmer music and find the different instruments as I listen. I am developing the ears of a student.
I'd love to go listen to live venues but where is most jazz played? In bars. So guess what... I don't go to those places to listen. Not gonna happen. I won't cross the line. I don't want to take home what is being served there.
I see a lot of posts on social media about wine. Wine is a classy way for women to self medicate but do people know that there is a Comforter in Heaven and here on Earth inside each one who believes? When we find comfort in other places we are committing adultery the same way a married man or woman runs to the arms of a strange lover.
I don't say this to condemn anyone or bash your lifestyle. Do what you do. We will both stand before God some day and make an account for the choices we made and didn't make. Some folks would tell me that my love of the clarinet is wrong because I enjoy it so much but it isn't about the pleasure of a thing. I speak about wine this way because the Bible gives clear definition.
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise." - Proverbs 20:1 ESV
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart," - Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV
There it is. Do with it what you will. I see a stop sign. What do you see?
I see music that glorifies God as a recommended pastime.
When I was young mockery and brawling were fun activities. Not anymore.
I want the teraphim out of my house. If the public idols were taken away our streets would be safer and our children would have a better chance at life. I have a God and He is amazing. I don't want to worship anywhere else or anyone else. There are pain relievers on a shelf in my bathroom. I use them when needed but by God's grace they will never come before Him. If they ever do then I would rather live in pain. I am thankful that there is a provision for pain available.
Josiah was a unique king and we are unique people with a unique sphere of influence. I want to share God's grace with people and recommend the great Comforter as a remedy for what ails them.
Let's live like royalty today. If we have control over our space then we can exercise that control like royalty.
--
Josiah was a unique king. He went against the current of the time.
I picked this version because it left a word untranslated that interested me. Teraphiym (Strong's H8655) is used 15 times in the old testament and is often translated image, idol or household god. It is plural for the Hebrew root Rapha (H7495) with means healer or physician.
In other words he took away the things that people used to self medicate. He removed public idol worship and private idol worship. Oh, how people would be up in arms if that was attempted in most societies today. I am not recommending this course of action. Josiah was unique and Israel was unique.
I do think that there is much value in separating our own household from idols and teraphim. Self medication cuts us off from receiving true comfort. Josiah knew this. The people could not worship the true God but have all these idols around. It was one or the other.
Perhaps I don't speak about my own hobbies here very much but I have some things I enjoy and derive great pleasure from. I am in my forties and I'm learning my first musical instrument and discovering the joys of reading sheet music. Most days these halls echo with the sound of a clarinet for a short time. As the weeks go by I'm getting more proficient. The dog doesn't howl like she used to. I still get her going from time to time and I have a long way to go. It is new territory and a different avenue for me to worship God and I just love it. I listen to more jazz, big band and klezmer music and find the different instruments as I listen. I am developing the ears of a student.
I'd love to go listen to live venues but where is most jazz played? In bars. So guess what... I don't go to those places to listen. Not gonna happen. I won't cross the line. I don't want to take home what is being served there.
I see a lot of posts on social media about wine. Wine is a classy way for women to self medicate but do people know that there is a Comforter in Heaven and here on Earth inside each one who believes? When we find comfort in other places we are committing adultery the same way a married man or woman runs to the arms of a strange lover.
I don't say this to condemn anyone or bash your lifestyle. Do what you do. We will both stand before God some day and make an account for the choices we made and didn't make. Some folks would tell me that my love of the clarinet is wrong because I enjoy it so much but it isn't about the pleasure of a thing. I speak about wine this way because the Bible gives clear definition.
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise." - Proverbs 20:1 ESV
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart," - Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV
There it is. Do with it what you will. I see a stop sign. What do you see?
I see music that glorifies God as a recommended pastime.
When I was young mockery and brawling were fun activities. Not anymore.
I want the teraphim out of my house. If the public idols were taken away our streets would be safer and our children would have a better chance at life. I have a God and He is amazing. I don't want to worship anywhere else or anyone else. There are pain relievers on a shelf in my bathroom. I use them when needed but by God's grace they will never come before Him. If they ever do then I would rather live in pain. I am thankful that there is a provision for pain available.
Josiah was a unique king and we are unique people with a unique sphere of influence. I want to share God's grace with people and recommend the great Comforter as a remedy for what ails them.
Let's live like royalty today. If we have control over our space then we can exercise that control like royalty.
--
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
One Helpless Thief
All day long I have been thinking about the two thieves crucified next to Christ.
One thief on the cross next to Jesus started out a mocker just like the other one. He did not do anything. He was powerless.
Somehow He saw the royalty of Christ. A man with arms bound and struggling for breath just wanted to be remembered by someone divine. He believed and God put righteousness on this helpless man's account.
After he believed he was just as powerless. He asked to be remembered but God was now going to take this man somewhere. He was going with God.
Amazing. He just believed. We just believe also. We believe and ask and God does more than we ask for.
I wonder about the sign in different languages that said 'THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS' (see Matthew 27:37) nailed above Jesus' head and what role if any it had in this man's conversion.
Not many would have been close enough to read it. Was it a personal witness to this thief? I know the religious people were angry about it but surely if the thieves could read they saw it also.
--
One thief on the cross next to Jesus started out a mocker just like the other one. He did not do anything. He was powerless.
Somehow He saw the royalty of Christ. A man with arms bound and struggling for breath just wanted to be remembered by someone divine. He believed and God put righteousness on this helpless man's account.
After he believed he was just as powerless. He asked to be remembered but God was now going to take this man somewhere. He was going with God.
Amazing. He just believed. We just believe also. We believe and ask and God does more than we ask for.
I wonder about the sign in different languages that said 'THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS' (see Matthew 27:37) nailed above Jesus' head and what role if any it had in this man's conversion.
Not many would have been close enough to read it. Was it a personal witness to this thief? I know the religious people were angry about it but surely if the thieves could read they saw it also.
--
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Awakened To The Supernatural
It is amazing how people adjust. The very abnormal can begin to seem normal. Natural seems normal. Seasons seem normal until you move to a place where there are no seasons. Abuse can seem normal until you are in an abuse free relationship. We see things and the alarm bells are ringing somewhere in our soul but we do not know the source of the sound. They are muffled or they are so loud that a person is surrounded by the noise and just reacts.
People can go through life like a sleeper who turns off their alarm clock in the morning but it doesn't wake them up.
The Bible teaches us that there are two supernatural kingdoms that overlap humanities experience. God's eternal kingdom and the powers of darkness that form as a seamless web.
"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?... Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble." - Job 41:1, 26-28 ESV
Darkness dwells in powerful arrogance. Humanity can not pierce it's armor.
"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel... Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:22-24, 28-29 ESV
Darkness is not normal and neither is light. Darkness is an aberration and light is eternal. Forces overlap on us and even inside us that are not us. Sickness isn't normal. Death isn't normal. Hatred isn't normal. These are common things but not normal things. Immorality is not normal yet we adjust to it. The alarm bells are ringing but we don't know why.
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." - Romans 14:17 ESV
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." - Romans 15:13 ESV
When will will wake up? What will will it take to show us that being victims is not normal? What friend needs to come and show us another way. When will we listen? Much energy has been invested in adjusting, rationalizing and explaining. Denial can seem safer because it is done on our terms.
Hope makes our expectation of the future wonderful. We expect things that are not normal. We look for the side effects of blessing and we can live like a child on their way to an amusement park that they have never been to before.
Grace awakens us to God's dynamic. We see kingdoms and things begin to make sense to us. See what is natural and what is not. We begin to discern.
Faith is not normal but it is real and it has power because it is aligned with God's kingdom. Faith is revolutionary. It always has been and and it always will be.
People can go through life like a sleeper who turns off their alarm clock in the morning but it doesn't wake them up.
The Bible teaches us that there are two supernatural kingdoms that overlap humanities experience. God's eternal kingdom and the powers of darkness that form as a seamless web.
"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?... Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble." - Job 41:1, 26-28 ESV
Darkness dwells in powerful arrogance. Humanity can not pierce it's armor.
"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel... Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:22-24, 28-29 ESV
Darkness is not normal and neither is light. Darkness is an aberration and light is eternal. Forces overlap on us and even inside us that are not us. Sickness isn't normal. Death isn't normal. Hatred isn't normal. These are common things but not normal things. Immorality is not normal yet we adjust to it. The alarm bells are ringing but we don't know why.
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." - Romans 14:17 ESV
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." - Romans 15:13 ESV
When will will wake up? What will will it take to show us that being victims is not normal? What friend needs to come and show us another way. When will we listen? Much energy has been invested in adjusting, rationalizing and explaining. Denial can seem safer because it is done on our terms.
Hope makes our expectation of the future wonderful. We expect things that are not normal. We look for the side effects of blessing and we can live like a child on their way to an amusement park that they have never been to before.
Grace awakens us to God's dynamic. We see kingdoms and things begin to make sense to us. See what is natural and what is not. We begin to discern.
Faith is not normal but it is real and it has power because it is aligned with God's kingdom. Faith is revolutionary. It always has been and and it always will be.
--
Monday, July 27, 2015
Hear First And See Later
"Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion." - Isaiah 8:16-18 ESV
"He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!" - Psalm 107:20-21 ESV
"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." - Acts 20:32 ESV
God hides His face but sends His word. Jacob was and is a deceiver. He lies to get by. He lies to others and to himself. God hides his face from Jacob and sends words.
Grace words heal. Grace word produce a place of honesty in an otherwise deceptive or foolish person that hides behind fiction and fanciful notions to survive in a harsh world.
God send His word to heal and wants to bind up that word in his disciples (learners associated with a specific teacher or teaching) so that they will become the signs and portents in their circles of influence. His disciples don't have to be perfect people. They are people that have teaching and apply that teaching. They function in humility, mercy and love. They survive hard times. They are generous. They talk about grace and do not condemn themselves... or at least not for very long because the teaching is bound to them and love constrains them.
God will hide His face from people. They will say, 'I don't see what you see.' and we can say, 'Well. I'll tell you what I heard that opened my eyes and if you listen these words of grace can heal your vision.'
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." - John 3:16-18 ESV
--
"He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!" - Psalm 107:20-21 ESV
"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." - Acts 20:32 ESV
God hides His face but sends His word. Jacob was and is a deceiver. He lies to get by. He lies to others and to himself. God hides his face from Jacob and sends words.
Grace words heal. Grace word produce a place of honesty in an otherwise deceptive or foolish person that hides behind fiction and fanciful notions to survive in a harsh world.
God send His word to heal and wants to bind up that word in his disciples (learners associated with a specific teacher or teaching) so that they will become the signs and portents in their circles of influence. His disciples don't have to be perfect people. They are people that have teaching and apply that teaching. They function in humility, mercy and love. They survive hard times. They are generous. They talk about grace and do not condemn themselves... or at least not for very long because the teaching is bound to them and love constrains them.
God will hide His face from people. They will say, 'I don't see what you see.' and we can say, 'Well. I'll tell you what I heard that opened my eyes and if you listen these words of grace can heal your vision.'
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." - John 3:16-18 ESV
--
Friday, July 24, 2015
The Close Call
"And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." - Proverbs 5:12-14 KJV
I am looking at the Hebrew here in this verse and a good translation could be, 'I was a small distance away from losing everything in the assembled group.'
I could just quote the whole chapter. Proverbs chapter 5 is so good. But the idea of being close to utter ruin is what is impressed upon me this morning.
"For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" - Psalm 27:10-14 ESV
We need a level path or we might just go off the road.
I don't think being close to losing everything is a bad thing. Sometimes being reduced down to just life itself is the best thing that can happen to a person.
"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' " - Hebrews 13:5 ESV
"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." - Proverbs 18:24 ESV
"The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.' " - Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
It is there in that place that God shows Himself to be real. We may have hated the instruction we got before but now we look at what was given to us with a value system that has been transformed by reduction.
I think people get bad instruction and the hate the instruction they received in the 'assembled group' because it was stern and impersonal. There was no grace (or little grace). Maybe the people giving the instruction were to much of a contradiction to be believed. Then there are others that get great instruction from humble loving people. They are told that God's favor is freely given. They are loved and nurtured but they just won't receive what is being served up and seem to need to go away before they can come back.
Grace teaches us that once we have God we can't lose Him. Jesus is the only reason we have Him. The conditions of unconditional love were met in the person of Jesus Christ. We can't mess that up. We can mess a lot of things up so that we are left within inches of complete ruin... but not that.
"The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." - Deuteronomy 33:27a ESV
When you know God there is every possibility that what we think is the end is only the beginning. God wants to use our close call to propel us higher than we have ever been before.
Isn't it God who gets the glory when that happens! Yes. Ultimately it is.
--
I am looking at the Hebrew here in this verse and a good translation could be, 'I was a small distance away from losing everything in the assembled group.'
I could just quote the whole chapter. Proverbs chapter 5 is so good. But the idea of being close to utter ruin is what is impressed upon me this morning.
"For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" - Psalm 27:10-14 ESV
We need a level path or we might just go off the road.
I don't think being close to losing everything is a bad thing. Sometimes being reduced down to just life itself is the best thing that can happen to a person.
"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' " - Hebrews 13:5 ESV
"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." - Proverbs 18:24 ESV
"The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.' " - Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
It is there in that place that God shows Himself to be real. We may have hated the instruction we got before but now we look at what was given to us with a value system that has been transformed by reduction.
I think people get bad instruction and the hate the instruction they received in the 'assembled group' because it was stern and impersonal. There was no grace (or little grace). Maybe the people giving the instruction were to much of a contradiction to be believed. Then there are others that get great instruction from humble loving people. They are told that God's favor is freely given. They are loved and nurtured but they just won't receive what is being served up and seem to need to go away before they can come back.
Grace teaches us that once we have God we can't lose Him. Jesus is the only reason we have Him. The conditions of unconditional love were met in the person of Jesus Christ. We can't mess that up. We can mess a lot of things up so that we are left within inches of complete ruin... but not that.
"The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." - Deuteronomy 33:27a ESV
When you know God there is every possibility that what we think is the end is only the beginning. God wants to use our close call to propel us higher than we have ever been before.
Isn't it God who gets the glory when that happens! Yes. Ultimately it is.
--
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Compassionate Living
The older I get the more I want for my friends and their children. I want people to prosper and have opportunities. I want lonely people to find a loving mate that doesn't isolate them from the friendship. I want people to be healthy. When I wish someone a happy birthday I want them to have a great rich year.
On the surface that may sound like a 'humble brag'... to say I want things for others.
'Gee, What a compassionate guy he is... I just want a better life for myself most of the time.'
Here is what Jesus says about my desire to see those that are close to me prosper.
"If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them... But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." - Luke 6:32, 35-36 ESV
The older I get the more I realize how selfish I truly am without Christ. My selfishness has just expanded to a more social selfishness. I don't want to worry about people. I don't want tragedy close to me. I want happy stories and cheerful pictures.
I read Luke 6 and I see just how ungracious and merciless I am without Christ because I don't want to love my enemies or do good to those that abuse me. I don't want to just kiss goodbye things that people take without asking. I want to be full and rich and Jesus says...
"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you... But woe to you who are rich... Woe to you who are full... Woe to you who laugh now... Woe to you, when all people speak well of you..." - Luke 6:22a, 24a, 25a, 26a ESV
As we get older we realize that the people who care about us are more important then we thought because there really are only a few of those people and that is a sign of maturity but it is natural maturity not spiritual maturity.
Spiritual maturity is loving the ugly and unfriendly. It is helping the person who just wants to use you until the sugar runs out and then use someone else. It is seemingly throwing resources away with the hope that people who care little about you would see the God that loves them with an everlasting love.
I don't mention this to condemn anyone. I don't condemn myself. I just draw near to the fire. I cloth my nakedness with the robe of righteousness that has been given to me.
Jesus really did love the people beating Him. He gave and gave even though He often had nowhere to lay His head.
I need to be with that kind of love. I want to live my life loving like a child of the most high.
God, please fill me with your Spirit today. This can happen if you do it in me but that is the only way it can. Help God. I feel privileged to even be aware of your Love. You have lavished it on me. That is grace. Make me a merciful man today.
--
On the surface that may sound like a 'humble brag'... to say I want things for others.
'Gee, What a compassionate guy he is... I just want a better life for myself most of the time.'
Here is what Jesus says about my desire to see those that are close to me prosper.
"If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them... But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." - Luke 6:32, 35-36 ESV
The older I get the more I realize how selfish I truly am without Christ. My selfishness has just expanded to a more social selfishness. I don't want to worry about people. I don't want tragedy close to me. I want happy stories and cheerful pictures.
I read Luke 6 and I see just how ungracious and merciless I am without Christ because I don't want to love my enemies or do good to those that abuse me. I don't want to just kiss goodbye things that people take without asking. I want to be full and rich and Jesus says...
"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you... But woe to you who are rich... Woe to you who are full... Woe to you who laugh now... Woe to you, when all people speak well of you..." - Luke 6:22a, 24a, 25a, 26a ESV
As we get older we realize that the people who care about us are more important then we thought because there really are only a few of those people and that is a sign of maturity but it is natural maturity not spiritual maturity.
Spiritual maturity is loving the ugly and unfriendly. It is helping the person who just wants to use you until the sugar runs out and then use someone else. It is seemingly throwing resources away with the hope that people who care little about you would see the God that loves them with an everlasting love.
I don't mention this to condemn anyone. I don't condemn myself. I just draw near to the fire. I cloth my nakedness with the robe of righteousness that has been given to me.
Jesus really did love the people beating Him. He gave and gave even though He often had nowhere to lay His head.
I need to be with that kind of love. I want to live my life loving like a child of the most high.
God, please fill me with your Spirit today. This can happen if you do it in me but that is the only way it can. Help God. I feel privileged to even be aware of your Love. You have lavished it on me. That is grace. Make me a merciful man today.
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