2009-08-07
Good Morning Cherished of God,
The issue of the judgments God allows humans to make is very important to Him; it’s why there are so many messages in this segment. We continue with the keys to righteousness mentioned in MT 7: 7-12. So far, we have looked at: 1) God wants us to seek Him first; 2) we are to know that God loves us; 3) All good comes from God. Today, it’s the Golden Rule from MT 7: 12, “Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets.”
The Holy Spirit prompts me to begin with the last group of the Ten Commandments [EX 20: 13-17], “Do not commit murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not accuse anyone falsely, and Do not covet.” In each case, there would be harm to another person if we committed the act. So, the expectation is that we will follow the example of the Lord Jesus and never do any of these things. In turn, we would hope that no one would do them to us. Very few of us have gone through our lives without experiencing any of them done to us. I remember placing my purse in a locked gym locker when I was in junior high school. It was known I was Jewish, and one day a bunch of anti-Semitic girls decided to break in to my locker and take it while I was still in class. My car fare to get home and my lunch money were in it, so it’s not hard to imagine how I felt when I came back and discovered it missing. I went down to the main office to report this theft, and learned that a series of these things were happening to the Jewish students in the school, both boys and girls. The assistant principal was kind enough to loan me the car fare to get home, but that still didn’t solve my predicament of being told later at home that I was irresponsible for “losing” my purse in the first place by my father. A couple of weeks later, the group of students responsible for these thefts were uncovered, when one of the group was caught in the act by an alert teacher. She was forced to tell where all the loot was by being threatened with expulsion, and she sang. Everything was found in a field not far from her house, and soon the others working with her were revealed too. I got my purse back minus the money that had been in it, and the group were suspended from school for a month after that. That was not the last time in my life I would be facing persecution for my family’s religious beliefs.
PS 37: 1-4 contains instructions that are sometimes hard to follow when placed side by side with the Golden Rule. “Do not be worried on account of the wicked; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. They will soon disappear like the grass that dries up; they will die like plants that wither.” As a Messianic Jew, I’m not given the reassurance that people in my family who physically die [who have not accepted Christ as their personal Savior] will gain eternal life in heaven. It stands to reason that it makes sense not to want to take on the behavior of wrongdoers [PS 1: 1]. However, things get more complicated when the wrongdoer is a member of one’s own family. There are still those family ties that must be addressed. Nor am I saying that all who do as they have been carefully taught to reject Christ are wrongdoers, in the sense of knowingly breaking the Golden Rule. From experience I have some observations. Oftentimes, these people are incredibly self-centered. Their actions often hurt the feelings of others, and they are very stubborn about seeing a Christ-like alternative choice to them. A relative of mine speaking about another relative who is dying, compared this person with one who had recently passed away from his believing family. “She will be forgotten quickly, instead of being remembered long beyond her physical life for the legacy she left behind.” Those painful words are no doubt true. Our commitment to living “in Christ” comes with a cost, one that I still think is worth paying. I keep in mind that our Lord Yeshua paid the ultimate price, so that all who believe could be saved, and in the case of my being Jewish, become “completed” [JN 3: 16].
RO 6: 18, “You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.” RO 14: 7-9, “None of us lives for himself only, none of us dies for himself only. If we live, it is for the Lord that we live, and if we die, it is for the Lord that we die. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For Christ died and rose to life in order to be the Lord of the living and of the dead.” That puts the professed and true believer in a wholly different category than a person who rejects Jesus Christ. The person truly living in Christ won’t choose to say things or take actions that deliberately hurt others. He has been told in RO 14: 31 never to do anything that will bring his brother/sister to sin. Selfishness is not an option, if one is living in Christ. Consideration for the feelings of others around is not a choice, but a must. Surely that applies when we are getting ready to witness to another. God gives us healthy churches where there are plenty of opportunities to serve Him by serving others, using the talents He has given us. Christ has left us with this directive, in RO 13: 8, “Be under obligation to no one-the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.” When the Lord tells us to “love one another as He has loved us,” as He does in JN 13: 34, He is only repeating something the Father feels helps us to live by the Golden Rule.
PRAYER: O Lord, once again we approach Your mighty throne with acknowledgment of Your loving attributes, what You do for us, and how You intervene in our lives. We love You and offer You thanks and praise for Your patience, wisdom, honor, and compassion. You already know our lives are complicated with trials, which you allow, from the adversary. These are meant to test our faith, but not to break it [1 COR 10: 13]. You love us and thus, strengthen us as we work through these trials step by step with Your help. EZRA 7: 28, “I was strengthened, as the hand of the Lord was upon me.” PHIL 4: 13, “I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me.” Some of us are in difficult positions, because while we love our families, we are divided from them as a cost of believing in You. It is a cost that is difficult to pay. Yet You warned us that such a thing will happen in some families, in MT 10: 21-22. “Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me. Whoever holds out to the end will be saved.” We will have to handle persecution, as today’s Messianic Jews are experiencing from traditional Jews in Israel, as part of the test of our faith in Jesus Christ. 1 PET 2: 20, “For what credit is there if you endure the beatings you deserve for having done wrong? But if you endure suffering even when you have done right, God will bless you for it. It was to this that God’s called you, for Himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in His steps.” This, Dear Father, is part of the cost for being Christ’s disciple, but it is a cost that is truly worth it when one considers the reward of a blissful eternal life with You to follow. You have told us, in 1 PET 4: 14, “Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ’s followers; they means that the glorious Spirit the Spirit of God, is resting on you.” Your Spirit is Your gift to us for believing in Jesus Christ. It encourages us, equips us, and directs us to care about others, have courage in our faith, to love You, and to endure to the end. What greater example of Your love for us is there than Him? We offer up these acknowledgements along with our prayerful pleas for Your continued presence and intervention in our lives. These things we ask in the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next week, we will learn about finding our lives to be totally dependant on God, if we are living in righteousness. If there is one signal that a person is mature, it is a lack of selfishness. Sadly, there are people still living in their 90’s who have spent their whole lives being self-centered. Either they never learned the blessing of caring about and helping others, or they learned it and through emotional abuse departed from that unselfishness. Totally self-centered people are unwilling or incapable of falling in love with the Lord, hearing the Lord’s direction in prayer, and having the courage to take it. Falling in love with Jesus Christ is not the same as falling in love with another human being. This is a spiritual decision that one makes to believe as a result of being chosen by the Lord. Remember, He chose us first, not the other way around [JN 15: 16]. It is willingness to repent of our sins and believe in Him that brings us to be adopted into the family of God [RO 8: 14-16]. It is the Father, Who gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit and who deems us acceptable to Himself [JN 14: 16-18]. Can we see His unselfishness that He is demonstrating to us? He wants us to be equally unselfish, without leaving off taking care of ourselves too. There needs to be a healthy balance, so we can function as Christ modeled for us. And when we do this, we remain righteous, don’t make cruel, unfair judgments, or live outside of the teaching we have from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, including the Golden Rule.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn