Embrace the Within no. 213

“You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor — and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mattityahu (Mat) 5:43-48). It is easy for me to love the people that love me. The people that treat me well and want the best for me are easy to love. BUT I need to love the folks that want the worst for me most of all. The folks that hate and despise me need my love even more. The folks with whom I disagree, the folks that are evil, the folks that are mean, the folks that are sinning, these are the people I need to love a lot more than I typically do. How do I show that love? Well, I don’t show it by calling the names. Christ already said not to do that. I don’t do it by being mean and evil and sinful. That isn’t very Christlike. I don’t do it by ignoring them. Christ did not avoid those who hated and persecuted him. How do I show that love?

I need to become more like Him. I need to “do something wonderful” for those that hate me. I need to be “praying for them” and not in an angry psalmist way for vengeance BUT in a sincere way of wanting them to live a better life.

They are image bearers as I am. They were lost as I was. And when I was lost God loved me enough to make a path out. And when I was lost there were plenty of folks that showed me love.

I need to act like a complete, mature, perfected example of Christ and that means doing things completely different from others. It’s easy to love the folks that treat me right. BUT it is something else entirely to love those that lie, cheat, steal, oppress, hate, and sin.

So, I get to choose to be like my neighbors and love just the folks that are easy to love or love the folks that make it difficult to love them. And let me tell you, the difficult folks do not make it easy on you. I am in an ongoing struggle to love through a relationship with a relative that is stiff-necked about his faith BUT fails to forgive. I know from experience that this is not an easy task.

BUT it is what God wants me to do because it is what Christ would do. And I think all too often I forget that example. Christ didn’t spend all day talking to His disciples, He was out spreading love to the folks that needed it. The folks that were stiff-necked in their self righteousness and sinful ways. And He didn’t come to flame or troll or own them, He came to save them.

If I am to be an Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven then I need to be a son of my Father. And my Father causes it to rain and shine on the just and unjust, on the righteous and unrighteous, on the saint and the sinner, on the friend and the enemy. So, I need to ignore the labels that the world and I heap on others. I need to look beyond how the world would categorize folks and look at each and every person as the image bearer of the Father that they are.

I am not here to judge. I am here to offer the love of Christ by being His representative, His Ambassador. I am here to walk in the Way of the Lord as a model for others. And I can’t do that in hate or judgment or self righteousness. I can only do that in spiritual maturity. And that means not going low, not being mean, not being vengeful, not being spiteful . . . It means a lot more of denying me and my ego in order to be obedient to His Will.

Today I pray that the Lord help make me perfect like Him in my love for the folks that want nothing BUT evil for me. I pray that I can show the love of Christ to folks that make me angry, folks that are stubborn, and folks that are downright nasty to me. I pray that I choose love and peace and mercy and grace like Christ. I pray that my example of God’s love is enough to help show them a path to salvation. I pray that my example leads them to a connection and a commitment to a relationship of love with Christ.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

Embrace the Within no. 212

"Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them. Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love” (1 Yochanan (1 Jo) 4:16-18 CJB). A long time ago in my life I had a difficult time reconciling the God I read about in The Bible with the way God was presented on the pulpit by many preachers and adopted by their congregations. I can remember as a child being scared of God after one of these sermons, and there were many. And I found those people constantly looking for reasons to make me afraid all throughout my life. Fear in the church drove me away from the church. Fear made me question Christianity. Fear made me look for another way. And fear led me back to Him.

When the plague hit, I was afraid like many folks. I was afraid that the plague was going to take us out. I was afraid that the supply chain problems were going to cause my family to starve. And fear led me to realize that I was tired of being afraid. Folks had been using fear to control me for way too long. And I was tired of having another reason to be afraid. So, I undertook a journey to no longer be afraid. And that journey started with fixing my supply chain. That journey continued with fixing my health. And that journey continues with knowing a loving God.

I spent a lot of time studying and teaching influence over the last decade. Knowing a lot about influence does not make you immune to influence. It does allow you to see when it is happening and recognize how it is making you act. Influence is a human art form that we use consciously and subconsciously. And I was tired of folks having the power to influence fear into me. So, I made a lot of changes.

And I learned that God does not want me to be afraid of Him no matter what I heard from the pulpit or what other folks tried to tell me. Churches wanted me to be afraid. Pastors wanted me to be afraid. BUT God didn’t. When He created people, it was to share rulership with them. He spent all this time trying to fix the relationship we broke. He died to mend that relationship. That does not sound like God trying to scare me. That sounds like a God that wants me. A God that would do anything, including die for me, in order to fix the broken relationship. That sounds a lot more like a loving father than a boogeyman.

I got tired of being afraid. I have come to accept that there is nothing I can do to fix my relationship with Him. He fixed the relationship. There is nothing I can do to be worthy of His love. He gives that love to me regardless. What I can control is how I live after understanding that He loves me. And I choose to live like He loves me.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH