Discipling the Undisciplined no. 14

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38-42). And now we get controversial again by discussing non-violent life. If murder gets some blowback and disagreement, then “Do no resist an evildoer” is bound to make folks even more oppositional. BUT that is what Jesus says. It isn’t that we forget what those folks have done. It isn’t that what those folks do have no affect or effect on us. It is that we have more important work to do. I have Kingdom of God work to do.

There are going to be a variety of folks that do a variety of things, whether on purpose or by accident, that rightfully anger us and probably an equal if not excessive amount of things that we need not take offensively that we do anyway. I need to get over all of that. And that is a lot of work. I have been working on loving my neighbor and loving God all throughout my walk and I haven’t gotten that part down yet. It’s a struggle. People are not easy to love. I spent a series on this blog just looking at how people are not easy to love. And what I need to remember is that I am not easy to love either because I am a people. 

Jesus doesn’t say retaliate when you have a good reason, we can always justify retaliation. Resist when folks are threatening your life, He surely didn’t. Resist when your property is at risk, He wasn’t too worried about treasures on earth. Jesus asks us to do more for the evildoer than even they ask. He wants us to go out of our way to be helpful even when their intentions were to do evil. An evil heart needs something and that is probably going to take doing things differently to get through to them.

I used to think that the way to change the world was to just get the right people elected. I used to think that the way to change the world involved getting everyone to see my truth. I wanted to remake the world in my own image and my own philosophy and my own ideology and even my own theology. What I want to change now is me. Doing things the same way as the rest of the world leaves me with the same void. I have a better purpose through Him. I have to work on bringing about His Kingdom now. Not to be a spoiler or anything BUT later on in this sermon He teaches us what to pray for and one of those things is,  “Your kingdom come./Your will be done,/on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). I think I need to be working on making that Kingdom a reality in my life first before I can expect others to adopt it as well. And a lot of that goes with letting things go. Forgiveness. It is so difficult BUT again, spoiler, He teaches us to pray about that too, “And forgive us our debts,/as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). It doesn’t matter if those debts are real or imagined, Jesus doesn’t want me holding on to being owed something and feeling like I have some righteous indignation for being wronged. Jesus was wronged all the way to His death and He didn’t retaliate. He didn’t call down armies of angels. He didn’t go scorched earth on the Romans. He saved us all. He forgave us all. And that is my example.

Grace and Shalom to your home. 

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherInLove #NotMyWayYHWH

Discipling the Undisciplined no. 13

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:33-37). Another teaching about keeping our promises without taking oaths. And that comes down to being honest. Honesty is always the best policy.

I have to be honest with myself. Too often the temptation is to produce this life that is unrealistic and hides my flaws. Honesty means being vulnerable and that leads to the opportunity to be disappointed and hurt. Bitterness and anger fill our world today. Folks are guarding their hearts and living separate rather than loving openly in community. Folks want to stay at home alone because it is safer. Life is not about safety. And God is all about living.

It took a lot of honesty and vulnerability for me to allow God to lead me to a prayer group, church gatherings, and corporate fellowship. I had spent decades living a dishonest life with myself and others. I pretended to have things figured out. Things looked great from the outside. BUT what I needed was Truth. And you can’t have Truth without honesty. And being honest is dangerous.

When I followed His lead and walked into my first Church experience in years, I was scared. I was scared of being rejected. I was scared of being seen as a fraud. I was scared of taking that step back into community with believers. I was scared of the churchiness of church people. And it took a lot to get up early Saturday morning and go inside a church. BUT I had to be honest with who I was becoming.

I was becoming a guy that goes to prayer groups. I was becoming a guy that took notes in churches. I was becoming a guy that read The Bible. I was becoming a guy that prayed. I was becoming honest with who I was. God wants that honesty in our relationship with Him. And He wants us to be that honest with everyone else too. And that is the difficult part of relationships . . . honesty. Honesty leads to understanding. Honesty leads to true love. So, sure, we should not swear oaths because we need to be honest. We need to live lives that are examples of honesty and Truth. And that means opening ourselves to the possibility of pain BUT also the promise of love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. 

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherInLove #NotMyWayYHWH