2019-08-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Years ago, as a young idealist, I would have encouraged people to believe that the people of the world can learn to live side by side as a “world community,” respecting each other’s ethnicity, cultures, and different societal traits. Sadly, the years of my experience have shown me otherwise. The question is: what can we do both individually and collectively to prevent a cataclysmic war that leaves the world as it was found in Nevil Chute’s novel, On The Beach? That is barren and destroyed. I would like to think that somewhere in between total peace, which may not be attainable, and its opposite. Only our Father in heaven knows the future, but I choose to believe in the conditions outlined in the book of Revelation. If some form of world community is possible, it would arise out of a large group of nations becoming allied to one another under Christ. The bigger picture depicted in the Bible where there is a separating of the sheep (representing the godly people) and the goats (representing those who are evil) leads my thoughts down their present path. So now, I am led to continue presenting supporting Scripture to the book of Colossians and examining the relationships we have with our Deity and with other people.
As a person brought up in a Jewish home, I feel strongly that the two traits that were missing among those who reared me were humility before God and other people and forgiveness. Had they been a part of our lives, a lot of inbred prejudice against other groups and grudges held would have been absent in my childhood. This is one of the sad truths that living among devoutly Christian people has made clear to me. Are Christians perfect? Of course not! We all (including myself) have our foibles. COL 3: 11 has told us that all these ways we humans have separated ourselves (by gender, ethnicity, religious denominations, economic status, education, etc.) really don’t matter. God will judge us all with the same standards, and none of these divisions matter. COL 3: 12-13, “You are the people of God: He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Have you noticed, dear readers, that several of these traits mentioned here are from the gifts of the Holy Spirit [GA 5: 22-23]? I will write an entire series of new messages coming up soon on them, and many of them are self-explanatory.
Most of us know what forgiveness is, but at times, feel it’s hard to practice. However, if we look at the very basic lesson our Lord Jesus teaches us to say, it is important enough for Him to have mentioned it in His very own prayer [MT 6: 9-13]. (12-13)… “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For You are the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.” We often say these words without thinking about their meaning and what they mean to us. This shouldn’t be done, because this deceptively simple prayer has deep and wide-spread ramifications in our lives. We must remember that the Lord Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection provides eternal forgiveness for one’s sins. The Jews were only forgiven for one year, and then had to go through the lessons of the High Holy Days [Jewish New Year-Rosh HaShanah-the 10 Days of Awe, and the Day of Atonement- Yom Kippur] all over again. Other groups don’t even think of taking responsibility for their sins.
That’s the story on forgiveness, and then there is that of humility to consider. As a small child I was given a picture book on the life of Abraham Lincoln. In it is one story about him walking several miles to return to a general store to give back a few cents that he was given over the change for a purchase of some thread that he was owed. This kind of honesty and resect for the rights of others is part of what made him such a humble and honest man. These were some of the traits that made him one of the greatest presidents this country ever had. Learning humility means not always taking the most pragmatic path in dealing with the challenges we face. Respect for others and not bragging about our own strengths is what humility is all about. This shows there is sometimes more strength in revealing our own weaknesses than in its opposite. The apostle Paul understood this when he humbled himself before God and took God’s direction, even though he mentions his sufferings in 2 COR 11: 23-33. One passage that as come to mean a great deal to me is 2 COR 12: 7-10. This is where Paul tells us that he prayed three times for God to remove a painful affliction from him. Then, he tells us God replies, “When you are weak, I am strong. My grace is sufficient…” God forces me, admittedly sometimes against my will, to reveal my own weaknesses. Each time, he is teaching me much-needed humility before Him. It is at these times when I must reflect after the fact, on the lessons He has had for me. He offers to do the same for all people who profess Christ’s Lordship and who remain faithfully obedient to Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are humbled before You and have felt Your cleansing forgiveness, made possible for us through Christ’s Atonement. We seek to be not only be humble but to remember Your assertion that we must not forget how You have forgiven us, and we should forgive those who do wrong against us [COL 3: 13]. These are only two out of the many blessings we have received due to our faith in Christ. It may be strange sounding to hear such words from a Jewish person, but Christ is taking some Jews on a long journey to where they can profess faith in His Son long before their Jewish counterparts are ready to do so. We know from RO 11: 25 that the stubbornness of the Jews in coming to faith in the Lord Jesus is only temporary until all those Gentiles that will come to faith in Him will do so. Mankind has built-in sinfulness, both inherited from the original sin [GN 3: 1-6] and from sin we add to it. The extent of our sinfulness was seen in the actions of the Nazis during WW II and in the prejudice of others. It shocks us to think that mankind is capable of such behavior, but we are. It is You, Lord, Who brings goodness, humility, kindness, and forgiveness into this world. We should consider them blessings and note in Christ’s thoughts and actions that they reside. We seek to learn these things and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, to improve ourselves. We thank and praise You, Lord, for blessing us and teaching us with all the wisdom that You have. We urge You to help us better ourselves and be more like Him. In the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The remainder of our thoughts rest on REV 7: 7-17 next week at the behest of the Holy Spirit. What we have been reading in the book of Colossians is supported by God’s promises kept, as prophesied in the book of Revelation. God has told us He will wipe away every tear and sadness that we now experience. His power to “inwardly transform us by the change of our minds” [RO 12: 2] can be examined and seen in this powerful passage. Perhaps, it’s been too long since I last served on a Via de Cristo weekend, and that is the cause of a certain amount of cynicism in my thinking. It’s hard to believe that true overall world peace will happen when other denominations believe in Jihad (their sworn duty to destroy all others who do not believe as they do and refuse to be forcibly converted to their way of thinking). But we must consider God’s amazing power to renew minds from evil doing to its opposite. Nothing in the universe is quite like that. While remaining realistic in our thinking, we must not exclude that God has kept every promise He has made. And one of His promises is that evil will come to an end. I would much rather hold on to my faith in that! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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