2005-04-08
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
All through my life, I have seen and heard about the evil that mankind does. And yet, like any pendulum that swings, there arrives a point at which the evil is so detestable that at least a portion of mankind thirsts for righteousness. That certainly would apply to true believers in Jesus Christ. The problem has always been that while the goal of righteousness is right with God, human beings simply can’t achieve it by themselves. This is due to our imperfections. God understands this and is more than willing to teach us and gradually bring us to the point where we can overcome some of our past bad behavior. You’ll remember that I wrote in last week’s message about learning to channel one’s anger in constructive ways rather than destructive ones. Christ makes God’s will clear for us when there are fractures in our relationships with others in 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, and then come back and offer your gift to God.” The issue here is peacemaking and reconciliation.
MT 5: 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Peacemaking may involve swallowing one’s pride-not an easy thing to do. After counseling as many people as I have, I can only conclude that learning how to communicate in an emotionally healthy way and being assertive, not passive or aggressive, really makes a difference. I had a problem with my own brother that I now realize was due to his problems with family loyalty and my holding a grudge. Had I not been so angry with him, I would have dealt with the problem at the time, but I didn’t. This is an excellent example of not taking my own advice above. EPH 4: 26-27 should have been burning in my mind, but I hadn’t turned to God in prayer seeking His advice. Since my brother lived across the country from me, I used this “advantage” to withdraw quietly from his life for six years, secretly nursing my anger. Here’s what the citation says about that. “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day.” After the six years elapsed, I received a note from my brother inviting us to fly to where he and the rest of the family lived for a party to celebrate two anniversaries in the family. I wrote back to him [this was in the days before e-mail] and told him why I had withdrawn from his life for the first time. Then, I asked him to enter into a pact that he would never have to say “I’m sorry” and would never again discuss what happened to make me so mad in the past. I told him that if he agreed to that, then we would come to the party and resume our relationship. He agreed, and I learned an important lesson from God. Holding a grudge never solves problems and can often make things worse. I vowed to myself never to hold a grudge again and have kept to that promise.
Here is another very convicting teaching from Christ in MT 5: 25-26, “If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute with him while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, he will turn you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.” For the most part Americans tend to be quite litigious [willing to sue]. This attitude is encouraged by lawyers who, of course, are the real winners every time people refuse to settle and end up in long court battles. Christ makes it clear that God’s way is for us to find a way to reconcile differences and settle disputes. From what I can see, many judges are not making wise decisions either. We see rapists and murderers being let out of prison for “good behavior” and then becoming recidivists. The case of Martha Stewart is an example of someone caught in a lie who paid a much greater penalty for stonewalling than she should have had to pay had she shown some humility. I must admit to being a fan of her past TV shows and to thinking that she is very adept at what she does. However, it breaks my heart to think that she is planning to do another TV program as soon as she has finished her jail sentence where she will be the female Donald Trump. Martha Stewart came across to me as a real winner the day she rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange before her trouble with the law. That was her image, and sadly, it seems that my wish to be a “Pollyanna” has been dashed. The bottom line is that reconciliation, telling the truth, and genuinely caring about one’s fellow man is God’s way. When God was talking about Israel in 2 CH 7: 14, He said, “If they pray to Me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.” We can take the words “Israel” and “land” in the larger sense to include all believers and potential believers, “Israel,” and the goals and service of our lives, “land.” Even people who have been stubborn in the past like Martha Stewart and my brother have cleansing forgiveness available to them in faith in Jesus Christ. We can only pray that they will see that and open their hearts to the Holy Spirit. And yes, if there is something we can do in addition to praying for reconciliation for them with God, then we should do it.
PRAYER: O Lord, each time we come to Your mighty throne, we always ask for what we believe we need. Our act of coming to You is a right one, but we forget to acknowledge why we know we can come to You. Throughout mankind’s history, You have had to endure more bad behavior than any one of us can imagine due to the sinfulness we inherited and commit. Your love for us has never wavered, which is why Your Son, Jesus Christ, told us in JN 6: 39-40 that His first objective is to bring as many of us back to You as You have given Him. Then, He obeyed You, going to a period of unparalleled suffering and finally the cross for us. We bow down before You in utter gratitude to have this horrible load of guilt taken away from us by that single act. You inspired Paul to write in RO 8: 29 that Christ is the “first among many brothers,” so that we might be reminded that after three days in hell, You resurrected Him to Your side in heaven. That reminder also is that when we endure in faith, we too shall have the same experience. Later You told us in HE 9: 12, “When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the [heavenly] Holy of Holies, He did not take the blood of goats and bulls to offer as a sacrifice; rather, He took His own blood and obtained eternal salvation for us.” What greater demonstration of enduring love could You have shown us?! You have reconciled with those of us who have come to faith in Christ and repented of our sins [RO 5: 9-11] and have promised us that even more people will be reconciled to You [ZECH 13: 9; RO 11: 25]. You have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit [JN 14: 16-18], so that we can understand Your teaching and follow it. In view of all of that, we are equipped to spread Your life-giving message and are charged with the responsibility of peacemaking. JN 15: 16-17, Christ’s own words, shows us why we owe it to You to obey Your commands. “You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in My name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another.” We stand before You to dedicate ourselves to obeying that command and to acknowledge that having Your leadership of our lives is essential to our success in doing that. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Next week, I am led to return to the subject of Christ’s teaching about murder by way of the Scriptural background set in the OT. While I’ve written about this before, it is clear that God has more to teach all of us about this subject. That’s the supernatural nature of the Bible, a nature that sets it apart from any human-conceived book. One can return a thousand times to the same citations, and each time God has a new lesson to teach us. Despite all our suffering and losses, we are truly a blessed people. That is because we have the Holy Spirit to guide, teach, and encourage us through our troubles. Also, we live with the promise, from a Deity that never breaks His promises, that if we endure in faithful obedience to Him, we will be resurrected as Jesus was and enjoy a blissful eternal life with the Father and Him. The example of reconciliation and other kinds of righteousness that Christ set for us during His earthly incarnation gives us a paradigm to work toward. While God calls us to make behavioral and mental changes in our lives to conform to His standards, He supernaturally transforms our hearts through the Holy Spirit to make this possible [RO 12: 2]. For what more can we ask? We are equipped to carry out any task God calls us to, and have the Holy Spirit to guide us through it. God-given dreams can become realities, if we will step out of well-worn habit patterns and follow His direction.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn