2013-11-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We still haven’t gotten to the point where this overarching question can be answered: We all want unconditional love. Are will willing to give it? But don’t despair, there will be a time when each of us individually will know if we are willing and able to do this. In the meanwhile, we need to continue working toward getting what we need to answer it. Last week, the Holy Spirit led me to begin discussing the issue of family, and I will continue with that today. We find ourselves in more than one type of family. There is our nuclear family, extended family, and belonging to God’s family on earth and in heaven. When it was time for Paul to pray for the Ephesians with whom he had been their leader for almost three years, in EPH 3: 14-20, he understood the Lord’s attitude toward His family well and tried to get that across to his listeners. “For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know His love that surpasses knowledge –that you may be fitted to the measure of all the fullness offered.” This prayer is offered up to the glory of “Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.”
To understand God’s will in this matter, we need to return to Christ’s words in JN 13: 34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples; if you love one another.’” None of this tells us doing this is always going to be easy. We all know there are some people in our lives who rub us the wrong way, whose thoughts and actions might anger us, or who are just plain mean-spirited. I’m reminded on one young man, my classmate in the sixth grade, who was a bully. He was heavy-set and angry at everything and everyone around him. I didn’t know why. In view of his often obnoxious teasing of girls in our class, I kept my distance and didn’t have any one on one confrontations with him. But he was always there in the playground, forcing me to be on the alert. Years later when we were both adults, I ran into him in the grocery store. He remembered me and came over to speak to me. I was floored by this and did a lot of listening. He spoke softly and kindly, telling me he was sorry for his past behavior. Then, he told me it had been his reaction to his older brother’s death at the age of 17 in a motorcycle accident that had happened just two weeks before he began the sixth grade. After high school and college, he had become a CPA and someone had brought him to where the Holy Spirit had given him faith in the Lord Jesus. His life had been transformed.
It occurs to me to ask a tough question, one that has had a gigantic impact on my own life: Have we taken the time to examine all those parental and other comments about us to see if they are really true in the light of our maturity as adults and our faith as believers in Jesus Christ? There are lots of rather mean things that people say in the heat of emotion-some of which they don’t mean and others of which are simply thoughtless and destructive. Everything from children calling another “Fatso” or “Bucktooth” or other such names in the school yard, to the nagging of a parent in his frustrated efforts to teach something to his child. “Don’t walk like a duck!” “You’ll never be pretty without some makeup,” said to a pimply red-headed teenager with freckles. Many comments of this ilk don’t reflect careful consideration for one’s feelings or shed light on what is a person’s full potential. God alone knows that, and it’s up to us as believing adults to update those negative messages in the light of Biblical and observable truth. God’s love for us the source of real happiness, and it’s up to each of us to find that for himself. 1 JN 4: 12, 19, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, Gods lives in us and His love is made complete…We love because He first loved us!”
Human foibles have been depicted with eloquence in many stories from the Bible. One which screams out to me is the favoritism Jacob showed toward his two young sons, Joseph and Benjamin. We all know the many negative consequences of this, and yet, repeatedly generation after generation (maybe even in our own nuclear families-mother, father, and children) we see it popping up. God alone loves each of His children with equal kindness, generosity, and heartfelt feeling-even the ones born with tremendous mental or physical challenges. It’s because of this love, that we can painfully disappoint our Creator with our bad thoughts and/or behavior, our rejection of Him. We were never meant to divide ourselves into separate denominations, divided due to squabbles over polity, relatively minor points of theology etc. We were placed in congregations to worship, serve, and learn from our Lord. We were meant to be one in the body of Christ. Then we are meant to reach out in faith to the community of unbelievers in need of peace, reconciliation, and salvation. Having said all of this, we must remember EPH 4: 3-6, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.”
PRAYER: O Lord, once again we approach Your mighty throne with our prayers, said in reverence and in awe of You. We are grateful that You designed this world with the intent of supplying all our needs, even to the point of placing us in charge of all the creatures that inhabit this earth with us [GN 1: 26]. And yet as early as GN 3: 1-6, mankind’s history begins with the original sin. We have not been grateful in our history with You, for all that You have so generously provided. We have not thanked You enough for keeping the often-repeated promise You made never to abandon us [DT 31: 6; PS 9: 9-10; IS 49: 16-18; JN 6: 37; HE 13: 5-6]. We acknowledge Your greatness and seek to humble ourselves before You. PS 95: 6-7, “Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.” For, Dearest Abba, You have told us, in 1 PET 5: 6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” Even with all our imperfections, You work every day to seek our cooperation in making our agendas conform to Yours. All the while You work with us to sanctify us, Your motives are the purest-to bring us back to Your side for a heavenly blissful eternity together with You [JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5]. You sacrificed Your only begotten Son, so that we might have salvation, reconciliation with You, and eternal peace [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. You have placed us in families to help make this future our reality. We offer You utmost praise and thanks in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: It’s necessary for us to hover for one more week on the issue of families as we stretch toward answering for ourselves the main question this “Our Covenant Bond” segment of the “Our Covenant” messages. This leads us to a logical conclusion. This time, we’ll look at our own nuclear and extended relatives. Our God is a faithful God, One Who deeply cares about every one of His human creation. PS 55: 22, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be defeated.” While He allows challenges to our faith to come our way, these are carefully measured so as to be just right to strengthen our faith as we work through them with His help and guidance. They are never designed to go so far as to break our resolve [1 COR 10: 13]. We should be reminded of the bigger eternal picture. Those who have read and believed the prophetic books in Scriptures, ones like Daniel and Revelation, know that God will take care of His flock [those who believe in Christ], as a loving Shepherd takes care of His sheep. Note Christ’s words in JN 10: 11,14-15, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…I know the sheep, and My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” We can feel God’s love, if we are willing to seek Him out and follow His direction, even amidst the pain of working through our trials. He is with us and cares about us all the time. To this author’s way of thinking we are truly a blessed people! Praise and thanks be to God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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