2002-09-26
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
Each of you is so treasured by God and by me. That always needs saying, because I am so aware of your diligence in reading these messages and beginning your day with your mind focused on God. Perhaps, it is a very Jewish thing that the Lord leads me to restate His will for us from DT 6: 4-7, "Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. [The Shema]. Love the Lord, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Never forget those commands that I am giving you today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working." When He addresses this message to Israel, count yourselves in, even if you are a Gentile believer. Your right to do this is explained in RO 11: 16-24, which I hope you will read. While this DT message was delivered to people under the old Covenant of the Law, God knew that it would have to be replaced with a new and improved Covenant of Grace when He felt the people were ready for it. Because He esteemed certain of His servants who did a remarkable job of remaining faithful and true to Him under remarkably adverse circumstances (where Satan was hard at work thwarting their efforts), God allowed these servants to see into the future. One such servant is Jeremiah. That is why Jeremiah was able to write in JER 31: 31-34, "The Lord says 'The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know Me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins, and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord have spoken.'"
As you can see from the previous paragraph, God's will for us has never changed throughout mankind's history, nor has His compassion. Without the latter, there would have never been the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, giving us the opportunity for salvation. The same is true for the gift we have received of the Holy Spirit. By now, you are wondering why I brought all this up. The reason is that we need to look at the last two directives in EPH 4: 25-32 within the context of the overpowering importance of God's consistent will for us. These two issues are: 1) taking responsibility for one's own thoughts and actions and 2) refraining from bitterness when disappointed by something or someone. Note EPH 4: 30, "And do not make God's Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you, a guarantee the Day will come when God will set you free." We all remember the times when our parents caught us in a lie, found out we had done something wrong, and/or swearing like drunken sailors. Yes, Dear Ones, I did that all. As an immature child, my first reaction was to find a way to shove the blame on to someone else, in other words, refuse to take responsibility for my own thoughts and actions. It's bad enough when children do this, but when adults do it, the situation is even more serious. My efforts to do this only made the final consequences even worse. That state of affairs exists right now with people who have been caught by law in this wrongdoing and then work feverishly to affect a cover up. Richard Nixon comes to mind as a famous person caught in this kind of web. Christ has said in JN 8: 32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." How free can a liar, cheat, deceiver, and one involved in intrigue ever be?
As we turn our attention to the issue of bitterness, this problem can sometimes hit very close to home. EPH 4: 31-32, "Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort. Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ." How can a person produce spiritual fruit [as defined in GA 5: 22-23] if he harbors bitterness toward another? It can't be done. Bitterness is poison. It prevents inner peace; it prevents the Holy Spirit from filling ones spiritual vessel; it breaks relationships; it causes physical illness at times; it interferes with one doing God's work; it destroys the quality of life. Yes, it may even destroy life itself. I have good reason to be bitter against someone who borrowed something of mine and then lost it. What good would that do? It wouldn't bring back the lost item. It would destroy what is otherwise a healthy relationship with mutual respect. It would eat away at me and prevent me from doing what the Lord has called me to do. The only release from such a prison is forgiveness, blessed forgiveness. In RO 7: 14-25, Paul speaks about the conflict between the inner spiritual self and the outer fleshly self. This leads to him asking in RO 7: 24-25, "What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from the body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin." One more citation puts the cap on this exposition of God's will for us. MT 5: 23-24, "So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, an then come back and offer your gift to God." Our Lord is Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace. He asks us to conform with His will.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You today having been made aware of Your will for us. You want us to take responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, and You hate it when we remain bitter against our fellow man. All along, Your will for us has been consistent and ever-righteous. You know that we must step away from our comfort zones to follow Your commands. Your Son's words have shown us Your will in JN 14: 21. "Whoever accepts My commandments and obey them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him." We think we avoid trouble when find a way to shift blame to another. Instead, we are only leaving Satan a wide opening to establish a stronghold in our hearts. We think we are accomplishing something when we hold bitter feelings against another person. Instead we are showing how little faith we have in Christ's own important words to us in JN 13: 34-35. "And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another, then everyone will know that you are My disciples." It is always time for us to lift You up in praise for all that You are. Your presence and guidance in our lives is life-giving, and we know that. We acknowledge that You are our supreme and superior God, Who sent us Your Spirit to bring our hearts into the place where we could accept Your invitation to join You in Your work. We witness to the truth of the Gospel message of salvation and peace. We dedicate ourselves to carrying that message to others and to living it in our lives. Thank You, Dearest Abba, for never being bitter against us, for giving us the faith we have, for teaching us the ways of righteousness, and for giving Your Son on the cross for us as the once-for-all sufficient sacrifice that opens the narrow gate to eternal life for us [MT 7: 13-14; HE 10: 10]. We humbly confess our sins and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen.
I am led to write about more of this issues we must face in our preparation to witness to the Gospel message of salvation and peace. God has even more to say about anger in other citations, and tomorrow, we will examine these. We are so blessed that our Lord is consistent, that He loves us enough to be patient and compassionate as we struggle to conform to His standards, not those of the world. When we are troubled and angry, we can turn to Him for wisdom, grace, and encouragement. Anger itself is not a sin. Only using our anger for unrighteous purposes or conveying it in evil ways is. God is there to love and guide us, if we will only turn to Him first and listen for His commands. He blesses us by never abandoning us. Even if we must wait for His time to answer our prayers, He will. We must use the model of Jesus Christ as the way we should lead our lives. When we do, our loving Abba is exceedingly pleased with us. His love is eternal. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn