Embrace the Within no. 84

"What will attract others to the truth and power of the Gospel? When they see Christians loving their enemies, being joyful in suffering, patient in adversity, pardoning injuries, and showing comfort and compassion to the hopeless and the helpless. Jesus tells us that we do not need to fear our adversaries. God will give us sufficient grace, strength, and wisdom to face any trial and to answer any challenge to our faith. Are you ready to lay down your life for Christ and to bear witness to the joy and freedom of the Gospel? "

Don Schwager

I had a friend, we are currently taking a break from our friendship, that recently told me that people don’t want to hear that they need fixing all the time. That is part of the basis for us no longer being friends at this time. He was tired of me talking about how folks are broken and need fixing through Christ’s salvation. And he is absolutely correct. People do not want to hear they are broken, wrong or guilty.

Now that doesn’t change the Truth that people are broken, wrong, and guilty. Not wanting to hear the Truth does not make the Truth any less true or real. People would rather hear a comfortable lie than the uncomfortable Truth of the Lord. And I get asked here and there if there is any fire and brimstone in my message. I get asked if there is any judgment in my message. And I simply stand on the knowledge of the Truth. And the Truth is that love has rules. God’s love has some very basic and simple rules BUT there are still rules. And if you break the rules, then there are repercussions. I am not in charge of the repercussions. I am not in charge of the judgment. I am only in charge of the part I play in the whole scheme. And that is the part of following God’s rules. My role ends with love.

So, rather than worrying about judgment and punishment, I worry about what I am supposed to be doing. Instead of worrying about the future or hypotheticals, I worry about loving. I am here to SHEMA to God. And listening is not just hearing. Listening is putting what I hear into action. And I need to put that into action with all my thoughts and with all my life and with my everything.

People do not want to hear the Truth. BUT we don’t get to stop speaking the Truth. We don’t get to stop living the Truth. We need to SHEMA to what the Lord is saying and walk in His Way. And we need to do that whether it costs us friends, whether it costs us invitations, whether it costs us seats, whether it costs us even our lives.

I am to love my God, my neighbors, and my enemies. My battle is not with flesh and blood BUT with spiritual powers. My battle is not against my neighbor or my enemy. They are fighting in the same battle whether they know it or not. I am fighting with the knowledge of the Truth. I am fighting with love and not with physical weapons. I am fighting in prayer and study and worship and love. Above all these things, I am fighting with love.

How else are others to know that I have the Truth? They will know us by the way we treat each other. They will know us by the way we treat the least. They will know us by the way we serve. And that is why I teach love. First because that is what Christ taught. Second, because the Truth of love is founded on rules and relationship. Without boundaries and a relationship, we cannot love each other or God.

Stop saying you love the sinner and hate the sin and actually go out there and love the sinner. It takes a lot more love to do the Truth than to just mindlessly say a catch phrase. Get out there and show love and not hate?

As some people were remarking about the Temple, how beautiful its stonework and memorial decorations were, he said, “The time is coming when what you see here will be totally destroyed — not a single stone will be left standing!” They asked him, “Rabbi, if this is so, when will these events take place? And what sign will show that they are about to happen?”He answered, “Watch out! Don’t be fooled! For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time has come!’ Don’t go after them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, don’t panic. For these things must happen first, but the end will not follow immediately.”

Then he told them, “Peoples will fight each other, nations will fight each other, there will be great earthquakes, there will be epidemics and famines in various places, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from Heaven. But before all this, they will arrest you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons; and you will be brought before kings and governors. This will all be on account of me, but it will prove an opportunity for you to bear witness. So make up your minds not to worry, rehearsing your defense beforehand; for I myself will give you an eloquence and a wisdom that no adversary will be able to resist or refute. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends; some of you they will have put to death; and everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will be lost. By standing firm you will save your lives.

Luke 21:5-19 CJB

Meanwhile, as a crowd in the tens of thousands gathered so closely as to trample each other down, Yeshua began to say to his talmidim first, “Guard yourselves from the hametz of the P’rushim, by which I mean their hypocrisy. There is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not become known. What you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.

Luke 12:1-3 CJB

For their lives show that the conduct the Torah dictates is written in their hearts. Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them on a day when God passes judgment on people’s inmost secrets. (According to the Good News as I proclaim it, he does this through the Messiah Yeshua.)

Romans 2:15-16 CJB

Yeshua used this indirect manner of speaking with them, but they didn’t understand what he was talking to them about. So Yeshua said to them again, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep. All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

Yochanan 10:6-10 CJB

Yeshua replied to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me; because I came out from God; and now I have arrived here. I did not come on my own; he sent me. Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you can’t bear to listen to my message. You belong to your father, Satan, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. From the start he was a murderer, and he has never stood by the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is speaking in character; because he is a liar — indeed, the inventor of the lie! But as for me, because I tell the truth you don’t believe me. Which one of you can show me where I’m wrong? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God listens to what God says; the reason you don’t listen is that you don’t belong to God.”

Yochanan 8:42-47 CJB

So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.

Messianic Jews 12:1-4 CJB

For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled! And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.

Romans 5:6-11 CJB

Grace and shalom to you from the One who is, who was and who is coming; from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; and from Yeshua the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the earth’s kings.

To him, the one who loves us, who has freed us from our sins at the cost of his blood, who has caused us to be a kingdom, that is, cohanim for God, his Father — to him be the glory and the rulership forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation of Yeshua to Yochanan 1:4-6 CJB

Shavua tov. Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

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