People are Not Easy to Love no. 17

“You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don’t cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:14-16 CJB). I need to burn with His light in all that I say and do to be a beacon to those lost. Like a lighthouse or a town on a hill, my example should guide others to His light. People are not easy to love because they reject the light.

The Sermon on the Mount begins with a number of blessings. The contrite, mourning, meek, hungry, merciful, pure, peaceful, and persecuted are all blessed and assured that they will receive His reward (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:3-10 CJB). They are then told of the joy of persecution for lies told about them (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:11-12 CJB). Then those same people are called “the salt for the Land” and are warned not to lose our saltiness (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:13 CJB). And finally they are called a “light for the world” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:14-16 CJB). That is quite a lot for starters for anyone to work through understanding. And I have spent a lot of time in the Sermon on the Mount recently because it is so often overlooked because it is often the most difficult teaching of Jesus. Those three chapters in Mattityahu are a lot. BUT they are also essential in shaping our understanding of who He is. How can we be His light if we don’t know His example?

So, a lot of nominal Christians spend a lot of their time looking at the Tanakh and working through the Mosaic law rather than looking at how Jesus exploded those teachings in His Sermon on the Mount. An understanding of Jewish heritage is important in reading the New Testament in context of the Tanakh BUT to truly understand a God that was set apart from His people is going to happen when we see His example within His people. His example is shown in how Jesus conducted Himself and in what Jesus taught us to be as a person. There is no need for an abstract or figurative example of how we should walk. There is no need to look at imperfect examples from the history of His people when we have a perfect example. I don’t want to be like Moses or Abraham or David or Daniel or John or Peter or Paul. I have a perfect example of Him to pattern after in Jesus. Living in His example is the only way to show His light to those in darkness.

Living His example is not going to bring everyone out of the darkness. I think that is an important thing for Christians to understand. That in spite and despite our example, we do not save anyone. That is God’s job. I am not called to save the world. I am called to be a “light for the world” and “salt to the Land”. So I need to stay in my lane and allow God to work in His omnipotence. And that is a lot to ask new Christians that are on fire and ready to burn the world for Jesus and then get burnt out and become tasteless. Some folks are not ready for the light when they see it from me. And that is okay. It doesn’t mean my light is wonky or that I am doing anything wrong. Folks are going to come to Him in His time and not mine or yours or theirs. I wasn’t looking for a walk with God and here I am. I am sure a lot of you are in the same situation while others went out looking for Him. And regardless of how it happened, He made Himself known the way it was going to work for you.

And that is the same for all people. God has a plan. God is enthroned. God is still in charge. And that is what trust in Him is all about. Despite how frustrating darkness can become in people we love, I have to give it over to Him. And that can be extremely difficult at first. BUT, like all things, learning to rely on Him in all things is a process. I believe in salvation by faith. Faith is an action. Hope is my confidence. Courage is choosing to change. And that all takes a process of, “. . . working out your deliverance with fear and trembling, for God is the one working among you both the willing and the working for what pleases him” (Phillipians (Php) 2:12-13 CJB). He is always going to get His Way.

So, there is no need to worry that your testimony isn’t working. No need to worry that you aren’t doing things right. Because you probably are not doing anything right. I have taken great pleasure in knowing that even my little imperfect ministry is not essential in His plan. And so I don’t worry so much about getting everything right. That used to bother me all the time. That I was going to somehow mess it up for Him. And, dude, I am a walking mess up. And He can use me even though I get tongue-tied and awkward and act foolishly. So too can He work in all of us and through our imperfections. Some folks reject the light today and that makes them all the more difficult to love BUT that never disqualifies them from our love or His love.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

People are Not Easy to Love no. 16

“For you fashioned my inmost being,

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I thank you because I am awesomely made,

wonderfully; your works are wonders —

I know this very well” (Tehillim (Psa) 139:13-14 CJB).

He created me and filled me with life and that makes me awesome and wonderful. Some folks do not feel awesome and wonderful despite the fact that we are made in His image, “So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them” (B'resheet (Gen) 1:27 CJB). And sometimes because of the way we feel, we find it difficult to be comfortable around His people. If they are truly His people, then you will feel awesome and wonderful like He intends. Folks are not easy to love because sometimes we want to do His Work all alone.

Folks are always looking to change. Sometimes that change is to stand out. Sometimes that change is to fit in. Change takes many forms. When I started this journey over three years ago, I learned that some change takes courage. It took a lot of courage for me to stop conforming to the way of the Goyim and set myself apart and it led to a lot of relational problems during the plague years. I had to come to terms with the change that God was leading me into and through. There was a lot to deconstruct after years of deconstruction in the past. I carried a lot of baggage that needed to be laid at His feet and that took some time. BUT I never thought He couldn’t remake me because He already made me once.

Sometimes we feel like we do not deserve His love. And that can be problematic when our gifts are not the same as others around us, even in gatherings of Ekklesia. BUT in those gatherings of the called out we should definitely not all be the same sort of called out. As Paul points out to His letter to the struggling folks in Corinth, “Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. Also there are different ways of serving, but it is the same Lord being served. And there are different modes of working, but it is the same God working them all in everyone. Moreover, to each person is given the particular manifestation of the Spirit that will be for the common good” (1 Corinthians (1 Co) 12:4-7 CJB). We are all parts even though we are together. We work together to bring out the righteousness of Him in each other. When that fails to happen, it is not His Spirit that has failed BUT our will that gets in the way of His Way.

I have grown up in and around many churches and watched way too many fall. And that happens when we take our eyes off His Plan and we start to make things in our own image. We set ourselves up for failure by doing things as the Goyim rather than following His Way. We give one person power and constantly get let down when that person falls. Jesus set His disciples out in pairs and had them work in collaboration with Him. He worked alone BUT we can not. We need each other. We all serve together differently for His good. A finger, a liver, or even a brain on its own is not going to get the job of being a human done. And a person here and a person there is not going to get His work done either. We need the rest of the Ekklesia to form a functioning body aligned in His Spirit to accomplish His Way.

Once He has remade us, our work is not done. Once we love ourselves as He loved us, we can then begin to love each other as He loves us. And that might take some time and effort on His part and on our part. BUT He is willing to do the work. I must be willing to do the work as well. And that work is made even better in gathering with others that are called out as well. We work much better together than we ever could alone. And though I am not much of a team player, God has worked on me with that in my walk with Him. If you let Him, He can work on that with you as well. Some folks are not easy to love because we want to do all His work on our own.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH