- Oct 29, 2015
I would like to share with you some things about walking in the Spirit and the
Fruit of the Spirit and being closely acquainted with the Lover of our soul.
It’s in these things that we find true strength and comfort. Never mind half the impressions that have been passed on to you about being strong in God –
these simple things will make for true strength. Also, if practiced, you will be able to bring comfort to those around you
“He who waters will himself be watered” You can become a Father-Pleaser and bring Him much Joy!
There are a few principles here you need to know.
Through the Fruit of the Spirit we reign in life, instead of being enslaved to our senses
- what offends us, what we don’t like, what we prefer, selfish ambition, lack of consideration, pride, envy and anger etc
Yes, we can walk above these things and live like the Redeemed of The Lord– His
Precious possession and He can Sing over us because His Banner over us is Love.
We are actually living like this as a reality and we can Rejoice together with Him.
Walking in the Spirit has to do with putting our spiritual clothes on each morning
when we wake up – being mindful that we carry the King of Glory in us.
So we choose – before breakfast time or when we walk through our front door
that we are going to walk in love……..what makes Him happy makes us happy
and what does not make Him happy does not make us happy.
We decide to live that day with Love, Joy, Peace and Patience. We desire to walk in Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and to have Self-control.
THIS IS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – AND WE CLOTHE OURSELVES
This is a wonderful way to live and the best way to live!
And as long as we live in this earthly tent, it gives purpose to our day.
YES, WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS
The King of Creation lives in us and He is our Prince of Peace.
Because He is our Prince of Peace, we find ourselves living in peace with others
and appreciating nature around us.
Many have experienced a sense of the grass looks greener and the sky looks vivid blue when they first experience the New Birth in Jesus and at a later date when they receive their new prayer language in the Spirit.
Why should it stop there? I will share a little secret why it does.
That love experience grows dim for many because we become less sensitive to His Spirit in our walk. That’s why the apostle Paul said “as you have received Christ, so walk in Him” – continue to walk in this Love, this Grace, this Joy!
For sure, it is FRESH when we first experience JESUS or that Prayer Language but it is possible to keep something of that freshness. Yes!
Valuable time spent in His Presence and Scriptures like when we first had the wonder of them is the way to experience that Freshness again.
Try not to be involved in church services, programs and conferences etc
so much as we can be with Him – let Him be your craving, He alone can satisfy.
This is a good start. And once you do this, don’t look back.
Go on from there.
You will find the Fruit of the Spirit will enrich this experience. When you are prepared to balance Love, Joy and Peace with Patience, Kindness and Faithfulness……..it will come true for you.
Yes, when you are prepared to take on Patience, Kindness and Faithfulness in your daily walk, you will also find the Love, Joy and Peace that comes with them.
It is a wonderful way to walk.
BECAUSE THIS IS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (singular) NOT FRUITS (plural)
That means that you can’t pick and choose what you want
– dispensing the others – no it does not work like that.
You are trying to divide the Holy Spirit (so to speak).
Follow Jesus example. He went with the whole recipe. He did not leave anything out – He went for the whole Fruit Salad.
Even with Love, Joy and Peace:
As we choose to Love others we are filled with God’s Love.
If we choose to Rejoice, we will experience His Joy.
When we walk in Peace with others, He causes us to experience His Peace.
The same with Goodness, Gentleness and Self-control
If we don’t shy away from them we will experience more of the
Goodness of God.
My friends, then we find “Goodness and Mercy following us through our
days in life”. But how can we expect to find goodness when we show little goodness
or mercy when we show none in certain situations?
No, in bible days this was not so – can we really expect it to be different for us?
And please don’t have some illusion that life will be perfect for you, because that is not to be found on this earth. That only leads to disappointment or disillusionment.
Churches have no right to introduce Jesus as a Santa Christ (so to speak)
where He becomes your Savior and gives you everything you want.
That is a social-gospel not True Gospel. They have kicked out Repentance and the Lordship of Christ. There is no Joy of sins Forgiven in that kind of gospel - they've taken all the Good News out of it and replaced it with a Lie. It requires no holiness, no commitment - it is very unbalanced and sure to bring hurt.
IF YOU ARE THAT KIND OF PREACHER, YOU ARE A MEN-PLEASER,,,,,,,,NO
SERVANT OF GOD. YOU SERVE THE GOVERNMENTS BECAUSE YOU FEAR THEM
MORE THAN YOU DO THE LORD - YOU WILL NOT MOVE IN GOD WITH HEALINGS
AND MIRACLES IN THE DAY OF HIS POWER. IN FACT SO RESISTANT YOU ARE
WHEN YOU COME ACROSS THE TRUE POWER OF GOD BECAUSE YOUR HEARTS
ARE FAR-YOU SEE AND THAT EQUALS A PHARASEE.
Jesus did not tell us that life would be easy but that it can be good!
When He said Life Abundantly, He was promising us a fuller life, richer in Blessings – that’s when we stay close to Him like John and David did.
Read those words again. Jesus introduces Himself as the Good Shepherd and says
“I have come to give you life and that you would have it more abundantly”
So this is to be found close to the Shepherd. He did not say easy because He said there is an enemy that seeks to snatch (our peace and joy) from us……..and he does this more effectively when we break the code of Christian conduct The Lord has given us with our brother and sister in Christ and we fail to stay close to Him.
Look how sheep stay close to the shepherd? Some places in the world still have shepherds. The principle here is near the Shepherd we have protection – it is when we venture off somewhere that the enemy lurks. That’s why Jesus
is the Shepherd.
A shepherd has a rod and a staff. A staff represents His Word to guide you with and the rod is to ward off our enemies. So where you find the Shepherd resting with His Staff, you will always find a Rod to deal with your foes.
Stay close enough to Jesus to hear His Voice; to sense those gentle nudges He gives us; to His Guidance when He says “this is the way, go here or there, do this or that” and if you wander a little, come close again to the Lover of your soul and stay there.
Yours in the Grace and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ
I wish you all well.
He says these words Today
"Be still and know that I am God"
- Oct 21, 2015
In Eph 4:32 the apostle Paul speaks about Christlike behavior among Christians. In previous verses, he addresses behavior that is not Christlike. One of the terms he uses is “unwholesome words” and how many of us have caught Christians out on this including ourselves at some-time. Negativity or negative reports is one of them. Let’s see if we can monitor our words with each-other because “our tongue is an unruly member” according to James, that does not know much restraint. We need to watch our thoughts, to make sure they are healthy too.
THOUGHTS = WORDS = ACTIONS
Paul says not to be given to anger, bickering and strife but rather
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in
Christ God forgave you”. The words compassion and tender-hearted are used interchangeably in different translations.
This article contains a few corrective words and encouragements.
You know, we hear so many things about what God can do for us in pastors sermons and what we will do for Him in prophetic messages. I would like to address some necessary things in-between if that’s alright with you?
Because the others will not be………without awareness and change in this area
(Ephisians 4 in practice). You will be short on answered prayers and moving in the Spirit in the End-Time Move of God.
Better Behavior Among Christians
If you are one of those Christians who leave things undone and someone unsettled, that does not please The Lord – He is not impressed. And you did not get away with it because you are reading this and I am writing for that person you offended in Jesus’ name.
The Lord is coming for those who are prepared. “To those who overcome” scripture says. The stressful situations in the world etc and the sin-nature as well……..anger, envy, unkindness, hostility, dishonesty and poor behavior. Whatever you have to overcome in your personal life. David said “search me oh God” yet so many take His Grace for granted and treat it carelessly – this is evident when we neglect to spend time with Him. It is also evidenced in the way we treat others. It’s a holy bond we have in Christ. We ought to respect that and act accordingly.
“Judge yourselves so you won’t be judged”. He judges us on our true performance,
not the one we like to think He does. Let's do the same so we attract less judgement.
It will matter more to us on that Day, believe me. Jesus says that “His reward is with Him”. We should not treat that so carelessly. Most of the time we don’t think about it. He goes on to say that “He will render to each one according to what he has done”.
So let’s be true to ourselves and consider Him with our words and our actions.
We dismiss so much of what He has to say often.
Our Christ likeness is determined by how we react and respond to someone in a situation. Many of us know how to have a holy conversation – we like to discuss spiritual things with Christian friends. How do we behave when a situation arises with a Christian friend?
Recently I had such a pleasant conversation with a good Christian friend and you could say that much of the content of conversation we had was holy. This sister really loves The Lord and loves to have a good spiritual conversation with a friend. The last conversation, we enjoyed so much over the phone, we thought of visiting each other and staying overnight – we live a considerable distance. This was followed by strange and inconsistent behavior.
Does God Catch You Out?
See if you can learn from this and maybe even comforted when I share about it because I do this purely so we can see ourselves or others in this example – not to air something I am displeased with and offended about.
God is interested in our daily behavior more than we think. See in this situation
I will give how God catches us off guard often and also how we do not consider Him
in our interactions with others. At times we need to seek counsel from Him.
At the time a situation came up with this friend and myself, she had been giving me some really good encouragements about one of my websites I had put such a lot of work into over the expanse of several months. The site in question – whether I would keep it or not was really nice and allowed Christians to participate and inspire each-other but only a small handful did over more than a year.
This sister is generous with expressing her joy about my giftings in website creation etc from The Lord consistently since I’ve known her. That takes a big heart when you’ve been unemployed for some years and would dearly love to have a gift to express yourself in or success with something ventured.
She was not well and had experienced considerably stressful circumstances in recent months. I had it in my heart to really bless this person. I said I would be getting an item she needed and would be sending it to her and she was happy about it and in addition to that – unknown to her – I thought I would surprise her by placing content along the lines of something she likes very much on one of my websites. I had some really good news to share with her as well.
However, when I went to phone her, she had a headache…..said she would phone me when she’s ready but I never got a phone call. When this went on for several days –
she had discovered the surprise on my website, she failed to express her thanks whatever. I was mystified by this – and I am big on thanks – I was’nt sure about sending an item to her that week but sent it in good faith.
I did send a message asking her why she did not contact me or respond in anyway. That made her indignant – she replied saying that she was cancelling the friendship and sending the item back. She did so, unopened and unwrapped………phoned me to say it was on the way back…….reprimanded me, saying that “she does not like phone calls at all in the morning, she likes to pray then!” I usually respected this but had made an exception to let her know about an opportunity that had a time limit. She would not
let me get a word in edge-ways to respond to her and she went promptly on her way.
The Lord gave me wisdom to make my query with her short when I contacted her but I failed to do that – saying that I’ve had baffling incidents with Christians before and would she please not repeat that. She said she phoned me a few times the day I phoned her and that I would not pick up the phone. Then she repeated words back at me and said “no, it would not be repeated” (what I did).
There was so much blessing in store for her I had in mind. Part of her actions made sense and some did not to this day. In different ways, both of us failed to do the right thing. I did’nt listen close enough to The Lord. She did not respond with thanks or express her joy but shared the news with another friend. Then acted with haste in a moment of anger.
My advice to you in some of that is when you tell someone something they did or failed to do is “keep it short and sweet” and it’s usually better to “ask first”. Try to avoid making them too uncomfortable.
NOW I WILL GIVE YOU ENCOURAGEMENTS THE LORD INSPIRED ME TO WRITE FOR YOU
2-3 WEEKS LATER. I KNEW HE WANTED ME TO HELP MY READERS WITH COMMUNICATIONS
BUT NEEDED TO DISTANCE MYSELF FIRST.
Words of Wisdom and Comfort
If we do not forget what we have been through in past relationships,
it can trip us up in present relationships and/or cause discomfort to someone we have to communicate with now. This in turn can cause considerable distress to both parties – you and another person when a situation arises where neither yourself or that other person is at fault. ie you may misinterpret something another person says or does (or does not do) and they will not know how to interpret your reactions.
Also, circumstances appear to be a certain way sometimes and you can best interpret them when you have had healing from past experiences. Don’t let them – or give them occasion to – mould your present response and reactions in life. Yes, this actually caused a rift between a very good friend and myself and she must have concluded that she would be more peaceful without the friendship. Circumstances certainly did appear to be different than they were and I reacted to the evidence of what seemed to be.
That is why always, it is good to look at our perception of things – in a given situation – we are not sure of or there is some element of doubt. We need to stand back and take a good look at things. We can best do this when giving ourselves a distance from a situation at hand.
You do this in meditative prayer. That means you take a matter to God and ask for His guidance – objectively instead of subjectively. Sometimes we need to line things up with scripture. That is a good way of handling impressions because as they say__ “impressions can be wrong”…………”things are not always what they seem to be”.
You have heard the saying where someone “looks at things through rose colored glasses?”
We need to be careful that we are not looking through lemon or grapefruit glasses sometimes……thinking that things have gone sour again; they did not work out…….or bitter, where our thoughts become angry or unkind towards someone…….or we are expecting them to be angry or unkind with us because we have experienced that before.
Please also consider that when a situation is confusing or baffling to you, our enemy could be at work – influencing your thoughts – and maybe attempting to spoil something good in one or both of your lives. He knows that “united we stand and divided we fall”. You know that we can actually fall away – and cause another person to – a blessing The Lord has install for us and maybe even our friendship. There have been instances in the lives of Christians where our enemy will even incite one against the other (both parties) through confusion and misinterpretation accompanied by unkind words and selfish acts. Please be aware that this sometimes occurs with good quality friendships.
He looks for a weak link in our amour of light. So be vigilent.
Some perfectly good Christian marriages have gone by the wayside when the enemy has found a chink in their amour and built inroads into their thinking. Things exist in our thinking first…..we dwell on them…..and it is’nt long before they become words and actions (by-products of our unhealthy thoughts or faulty thinking patterns).
That’s why scripture tells us to “cast aside every thought and imagination that comes against the knowledge of God” or a person you have a good relationship with. In other words “throw off these thoughts…… don’t let them sit there” until they disturb you more. Yes rather, think pleasant thoughts like we are encouraged to in Phil 4 and displace the threatening or unpleasant thoughts with something good. You can do this best by making Phil 4 your pattern for this procedure.
This is good warfare (sideways) for those who don’t wish to engage the enemy directly with spiritual weapons because they have been intimidated one too many times. Maybe they have become battle fatigued. In this case, instead of taking up the offensive weapons of war…….pick up the simple sling-shot like David and dismantle the thought patterns you are developing (or have developed) and dwell on all the pleasant things you can!
You can also make a simple act of will by contacting that person and saying (or inviting them to do) something nice. This way we can challenge our thoughts and change them to something constructive. With this practice, we can often surprise ourselves by finding out that what we have/had building up in our minds is simply not true. Simplicity is the best way often with many things in life – don’t allow your thoughts to become complex and complicated. That is what these scriptures are telling us. We would be wise to follow Paul’s counsel. Jesus used him to fill in so many practical things for spiritual applications that He did not address in the Gospels. Also, he did this hands on through Paul, giving us this spiritual training that for whatever reason, many of us miss out on.
Necessary for Victories
The Lord in recent years is also raising up brothers and sisters who have captured certain principles in scripture and put them into practice. Those who have been through negative experiences seem to offer the most Hope because we can see they have won their way through to some mighty victories, they share with us. We can all take part in this when we seek The Lord for answers like they did or try solutions God has
given us through them.
The Holy Spirit revealed to Liberty Savvard years ago that we build up protective walls around ourselves we think are helping us cope better. The way we respond and react to people and life’s situations can be the very things that defeat us. She explains how the lurks and strategies of the enemy are dependent on these (or creating them) to gain advantage over us. So as long as we are in this earthly tent, we need to be aware of these things and not consider ourselves exempt.
The best way we can deal with the enemy’s strongholds often is to tear down the thought patterns that came with them in the first place. It is by far preferable to always nip things in the bud – temptations and all – before they become difficult to manage.
You know that often, when he sees us to be a threat, he seeks to spoil things. At times he devises mischief when two Christians are experiencing much blessing or are about to be used by God in a certain way. My friend and myself were caught off guard.
Please try not to be.
Added Words of Comfort
The Word of God can help you to think soundly and maybe prevent you from doing something you can regret because if given a good chance, it can restore you to a peaceful state of mind. You can even be given insight into a situation………it may also cause you to think, act and speak differently to what you would have or could have.
Yes, this is a good way of preserving good relationships at the present time and/or potentially good relationships. Such a practice will help you grow and make your steps sure.
You can be a blessing to others and they can continue to be a blessing to you.
Peace, my brother and sister, to all your friendships and communications in Christ Jesus. Together, we can be a happy family and a light to those around us as the
Love of God becomes evidenced in our hearts and lives.
The Challenge
“See how they love each-other” and more men, women and children will come into
the Ark of Refuge. But what safety will they sense if our communications are unsettled? Perhaps they handle some of their relationships better in a world of stress?
Please do consider the content of this post seriously – each one of you – and we can make our Heavenly Father’s Heart Joyful that He sent His Son to Save Us.
Yours in Christ Jesus.
- Oct 14, 2015
Like many of my writings, I asked the Holy Spirit for a title with this article. That is so important. I also do this when writing spiritual poems. The title can make all the difference and this one bears the Heart of God – what concerns Him the most. “Father, I pray that they would love one-another as we love one-another and that they would be one even as we are one".
Jesus wants us to “love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength and treat each-other as we like to be treated”. Yes!
If we want to be His and live for Him, there’s no way around that.
There really is’nt. So many things our conversations and sermons we hear major on while those things that were more important to Jesus are treated with less importance and sometimes are missing – I mean completely left out and we consider ourselves to be spiritual. Well if you are “Let him/her who has ears hear what the Spirit says” in this address.
The second opportunity
So often in life, The Lord will give us another opportunity to
Live better than we have
To behave more Godly
To change our manner into
a Christlike manner
Is there no application for Scripture? Is it something that we should pick up and read
once a day and then put it down and feel holy, that we have done what is expected of us and pleased The Lord?
No, it is shown in His Word that He expects more from us – where is the application in relationships, in life’s situations, with family, with believers, with those who don’t know Him yet?
I put it to you that for most of us 60 – 70% of our lives from day to day, at least weekly, has to do with relating with others, not things so much. And The Lord is interested
in how we are relating with these people, not someone else or some other situation but right now today – how we are responding to this person or that person?
How we are interacting?
It’s there that our Christlike nature is determined – not our aspirations so much
– it’s there that we can gauge it – at the end of that day or that week or that given situation. How did you score this week? What scripture or how much scripture did you apply? Look back over the last month and the last year and see what you find.
There must be a practical working out of our faith.
What do you see here?
For more than twenty years, I have been an independent Natural Health Researcher. I know what I’m doing…..the Holy Spirit gives me some good finds…..often through the years, there have been some unique discoveries. Does that mean I put it into practice in my personal life?
For me, no it does not! There’s so much I know about natural brain chemistry and anti-aging, special herbs and nutrients, therapeutic properties of foods etc The passion for knowledge and discoveries is there…..no doubt about that…..I have a professional website……I am known as a Natural Health Researcher.
Natural Health is part of me……..but is it? There’s so much I have not put into practice through the years. Things that mattered most to me have been neglected, I’ve been so busy, even with the work itself.
(I meant to practice more skincare and a longevity program)
May I put it to you, that with many of us as Christians, we are good researchers.
We hear many sermons, we study lots of scripture, we attend conferences or seminars even…….but we fail to put it into practice? Yes, we have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for the things of God but like myself with my work, we are not living it.
So often we are finding out something new but leave it right there.
I have an inspirational website called Inspirations for You with many poems and inspirations the Holy Spirit gives me. One of the sayings is
“Experience is True Knowledge that Stays with You”.
Is’nt that true? Does not James tell us “to be Doers of His Word and not Hearers only?” and Paul says “to be Imitators of me?” Oh, but “we’re good researchers” we say, and even the Pharisees were told by Jesus “search the scriptures, for they speak of Me”.
We know about Jesus, He has been our Savior for months or years……but how much do we “KNOW HIM” and the power of His Words to change us?
That my friend, will be evident by the amount of Change we have experienced. I’m not speaking about church attendance here etc If you subtract various commitments and even scripture studies, how much of God’s Word has become “PART OF YOU?”
That’s what He is looking for with us……and that is what He is waiting for so He can Move in Power. “Oh that I may Know Him and the Power of His Resurrection”…………”Let me See Jesus”……….
We have been looking on the outside for Him but He is “Christ in Me, the Hope of Glory!”
The Apostle Paul spoke about “Christ being formed in You”. It is a good practice to take honest inventory. We must do this regularly - not to become introspective or to feel bad but how did we react this day or this week? That way we can know how much of Christ is evident in our hearts and lives – not our holy routine.
Think of it like homework__ how much did we practice? What scripture are we reading?
Friends, it needs to be lived out. May I suggest here to you, that it is not how
we think we would apply scripture so much, ideally speaking (we all have ideals) but what application the Word of God found in us today, this week. How did you score?
We should not kid ourselves to think of ourselves more spiritual than we are but to take life’s challenges and opportunities in small ways today and the next day with this person and that person, with this matter and that matter. But so often, we have our
holy routine (and that is good) then our life situations and relationships are treated separately. The Word of God is not lived out OR maybe just what we are comfortable with.
He calls us out of that to maturity, my brothers and sisters. Let us put on Christ.
OH TO BE CHRISTLIKE – TO BE LIKE HIM
This is not of a Wednesday and a Sunday (whatever) this is during the week.
We can’t be part-time Christians and we can’t work at it part-time either.
Yes, He expects more of us, like a farmer looks over his crop and sees it’s yield.
Scripture says to look forward to His Coming – How many of us do that?
How many ‘LOOK FOR HIM?”
We are so caught up with daily life and distractions. And scripture goes on to say
“let him/her who has this Hope purify himself/herself” for JESUS IS NEAR.
We are so used to thinking He is afar off__ we think about it and talk about it sometimes but we do not realize it could be Closer than we think?
"Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of Light. Let us behave properly as children of the Day"
(Rom 13:11,12)
How ardently do we expect Him? Or are we dull and lifeless in heart? Are we perhaps a little hard like the world – so to speak – with life’s stresses? Jesus said that some won’t be ready for Him, that their lamps will be run out of oil or unlit.
With any love relationship, a lantern needs to be topped up on a daily basis.
The lantern speaks of warm hearts – a passion – this is found in affection and adoration. It also speaks of a readiness “not to sleep (spiritually) like those in the night” that is supposed to be the world, not us.
“LET US PURIFY OURSELVES”
That is how we respond and react from day to day (not a separate holy routine) let’s follow through and not leave things - the important things – undone or attended to.
Yes, this is how we are going with Jesus: He calls us out of the Comfort Zone
(what we like and don’t like) to put on our raiment ready for Him. This speaks of clothing ourselves with Christ and righteousness (appropriate behavior and kind deeds).
Friends, if we call ourselves by His name__ Christian, a Child of God…….then we also need to live like Him. Yes, otherwise we are not being true to ourselves. It is there that He is coming for, not a holy routine – and many don’t even have that.
Let us walk worthy of Him – true to ourselves and others.
How do we read to others? Paul said that “we are living letters, read by men”………..that includes fellow Christians. How did you react in the last situation? Did you leave things undone or half done? He is not interested in half efforts.
Even now, is there something you could make amends for?
Apologize to someone and say “I did not handle that correctly………I did not show regards for your feelings……..I just thought of myself and did not consider you”. Maybe you did not even pray for them – you were so annoyed or offended? Maybe you did pray something but did not examine yourself. If you did not say or do the right thing – in God’s sight – you did not put on Christ and failed to please Him in that situation. Maybe that person is still hurting or upset because of you. Maybe their prayers are hindered or unanswered even, because they prayed about you.
This is not good in the eyes of God. Let us look to Him and see if we can put some things right and open up the channel of blessing for us and that person.
THESE ARE THINGS THAT THE LORD WILL ASSESS OUR SPIRITUALITY BY…….NOT THE LAST CONFERENCE WE ATTENDED OR EVEN HOW MANY BIBLE READINGS WE HAVE.
Because He is a God of Grace, we often take for granted that He is not concerned with a situation – something we did or did not do. But He does care about that person we offended or failed to bless following a situation. True repentance is not if we confessed it to The Lord. No, it is if we have confessed it to that person as well.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot just confess things to The Lord, leaving that person upset, bewildered or hurting. So often we think of when we’re offended and not the other person.
Yes, true repentance is a true change of heart and mind. Many have actually left the faith because of someone’s wrong behavior. Maybe more than one. Then it does get
to be a bit much – believe me – when different ones have been so thoughtless or inconsiderate. They have said unkind words……left us up in the air or maybe demonstrated a ‘hit and run’ behavior even.
Yes it is discouraging and we will have to answer for that to the One we have to do with if we fail to make amends. Make no mistake about it.
How do Christians go on with their week or their lives as if nothing has happened…….break bread on Sundays……be happy with whatever they are doing? Sorry to say, I have no comprehension of that.
No, with the Early Christians this was not so – they had more regard for The Lord and each other. All the emphasis we place on the Early Church and fail to see that is beyond me! We are “so spiritual” but are we? In conversation we are so idealistic__
“if things were only like the Early Church”
“we should be like the Early Church”
"we pattern ourselves like the Early Church”.
No, it’s in the real conversations in life that He is concerned, not our ideals so much because He sees our true desires in the way we conduct ourselves. Paul mentioned people who “have a zeal for God but need to be enlightened”……..sometimes that describes us.
Hearts Unified and Rejoicing, that’s what will attract those around us………”see how they Love each-other?” not “see how they don’t love each-other?” (or fail to). Yes, and then there will be the Great Harvest but not beforehand.
THEY NEED TO SEE JESUS SO HE CAN BE THEIR HOPE OF GLORY.
But for now they’re waiting………waiting to see that “God is Love” in a loveless world.
It does not speak well of us if they handle situations better than we do – in their family, social life or work relationships. Seriously, would that attract you? Would you see the need for repentance if you live better than some Christians do?
No, the world is waiting. They need to see the Light and the Love__ this will really draw them. They will come into the Body of Christ when they see the warmth. It’s more inviting. They don’t want an invitation to a church service………they have tickets to the theater and invites from friends.
What will they really take notice of? I leave that for you to work out.