My heart is overwhelmed. I wish my words would evoke visions in the reader, then they could feel this tightness in my chest. One could call it suffering for the sake of the faith.
A lot of folk think suffering for the faith as mere persecution, but I tell you, many of us suffer or have suffered in ways no purely self- minded man could comprehend. Because when you have Christ, you have this love that the man who is not in Christ does not; he just doesn't feel it, and so he sees all things from the outside, the surface.
Unless you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, you just can't know what it means to experience/encounter the spiritual and truly love people, nor truly understand what it means to love God. I say this from experience. Loving God may just seem like 'obedience' to you, and 'doing the right thing', 'going to church or fellowship once a week, but it's deeper than that...
I know what it's like to try and transform people from the outside in. Because I have forgotten many times that you can not 'train' someone to have a love for God. You must experience His love for yourself, or you have no basis for your Christian faith. And it's the kind of love that can only be experienced if you've been 'born again'. If you don't know what that means, you should look into it. It's not something that can happen without faith; it is the transformation and re-creation of a man from the inside out. Christ said a man cannot obtain His Kingdom if He is not born again....if he is not changed.
So many of us at least 'believe' in God, but do we really 'know' Him? Do we even really 'want' to know Him? We are fools if we do not. For if so, we have only seen the religion of Christianity, and never known the man who died on the cross. What blind wayward sons we are...
But do we really realize what sin surrounds us? And do we see the sin in our own hearts?
Surely we are apt to judge our brother, and still not follow after God. We would rather judge others as the Pharisees, and not our own hearts. I speak of what I see in the body, I speak of what I see in men.
The other day was 'Easter', or 'Resurrection Day'...and it hit me like never before, what God wants of us. He desires our reverence, but above all He desires our love. And many probably just saw Easter baskets, bunny rabbits, a cup and bread, but this celebration is all about God's grace towards us. "For God so 'loved' the world, that He gave His only begotten Son"....
There are tares that grow up among the wheat, because they claim belief in Christ, but do not follow Him in love. They stand with the wheat, and yet they have not completely surrendered their hearts. Have they not experienced the mercy of God? Have they believed that He is like men who do fail?
But the whole reason Christ had to die on the cross was for our stinking rotten sin, because we are fail-able, and ugly, and backbiting creatures without His atonement.
Christ forgave those who crucified Him on the cross, and yet we hold grudges against our brother. We see how he errors in our book, (many times we judge him for being things he is not) and then condemn him for those things.
We see the planks in other men's eyes, and not the one in our own.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matt 7:2-5
Why do we do this? Because we are not 'In Christ' but rather blind hypocrites who judge our brother for stumbling in the exact area in which we ourselves swim. How can we judge our fellow brother of a lack of love, when we ourselves lack love to be understanding and extend grace/forgiveness to him? How can we judge our fellow brother of sin, when the very things he has shared with us are the things we struggle with ourselves? How can we judge our brother or being stuck up, when we ourselves will not even shake hands with someone who offends us? What kind of people are we to judge, judge, judge, from the outward appearance of things?
Surely we should consider that it is not of God.
We are in danger of becoming Pharisees. And the Pharisees were the most religious of men...but their hearts were not toward Christ and loving others, they were only on themselves.
They taught the law but did not practice some of the most important parts of the law - justice, mercy, love. They presented an appearance of being 'clean' (self restrained, not involved in carnal matters) yet they were dirty inside: they seethed with hidden worldly desires, carnality. They were full of greed and self-indulgence. And they exhibited themselves as moral and yet wore masks to hide their secret inner world of ungodly thoughts and feelings. But above all, they hated the righteous man. They seen not Christ as He approached them, but rather only observed him to find fault.
Is this the way of the Master? Did not the Son of God, the one we should be imitating...have mercy on an adulterer? Did He not humble himself to die on a cross with the thieves? Did he not eat and drink with sinners for the sake of the Kingdom? Surely He did, and was hated for his actions. Because man looks only on the outward appearance and not on the heart. The Pharisees judged Christ cause he drank and ate with the ungodly for the sake of sharing the gospel with them. They thought he was stuck up and blasphemous for saying 'He was the Son of God', they hated him for 'healing on the Sabbath day', and any other reason they could possibly find...What I wonder is did the Pharisees always 'look' for reasons to disapprove of Christ, or was it their own uncleanliness of soul, and their own dirtiness that convicted them whenever they saw Jesus, and caused them to pick at Him?
And you may say, how are we like the Pharisees? Or say something like "Surely, I would never do that to Christ or act towards Him as those men did"....but has not Christ said, "What you do unto the least of my brethren, you have done unto Me?"
How will the world know we are His children? By our love for the Brethren.
Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community of friends that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:17-18
But you may say; "There are some I know that don't deserve to be treated with respect, because I see their sin." Malarkey. Search your own heart, and you may discover that the real root of your offense with others, is that you are looking at the carnal things, and seeing things in light of the 'law' rather than the gospel and mercy. And that the very things you judge another man of, are really on evident to you, because those are your same sins. It has been said, that the very things that a man is tempted to judge others for unjustly, are the things that are within himself. Or the very things that stand or sicken him in others, are the things he would fall into without Christ.
For example: A man judges another or being a 'holier than thou' when he himself thinks he is 'holier than he'. A man judges another or being a 'hypocrite' and yet he himself does not follow the commands of God or lifestyle of detachment from the world.
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48
Christ makes us new creations, and it is only by living in Him, and standing in His love that we can even address sin as it is. We need to repent of judging others, when we ourselves our even more wicked than they. But surely there is another reason for this...
Perhaps those who have a tendency to judge others, do so only because they are 'looking to others' instead of God. They are looking to others as God, and then when they fail them, they pack up their bags, and throw in the towel. But, this is not Christianity, nor is it a "house built upon the rock", but rather a faith built upon the shifting sand.
The whole point of the gospel is this...Man is sinful, and God is good. And the only thing that makes man good, is God. And as followers of Christ we are to imitate Christ....the same Christ who died and sacrificed, came down from his throne, for SINNERS.
And we find a few marks wrong with our brother, and judge him...and what are we truly doing? Judging the Man on the Cross. Because there is NO condemnation in Christ for those who are in Christ, born into his life by faith and baptism, right? Meaning, we judge others as if they are not covered by the blood of Christ. What we do not see, is that "He who knew no sin, because sin for us, and died in our place". We need to get over our offenses, and when we do see sin in our fellow brother's life...we should pray for him, because 'that' is WJWD.
And why is my heart heavy? My heart is heavy, because I see that there are many un-redeemed
believers among us. And how do I perceive that? Because they have not love nor the grace to forgive their brother, and because they look to people as the foundation of their faith, and not Christ himself. Therefore they do not know the gospel, because the gospel is 'Christ, and Him alone'. And if your faith is in anything else than it is bound to fail, and your world is bound to crumble.
If your eyes are not on Christ, you will only see other people's faults. The man who's eyes are on Christ prays for his brother in sin, his heart hurts for his soul, because He has the love of the Lord flowing through his veins.
It's all about love.
1 John 3:
10By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
11For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13Do not be surprised, brothers,c that the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
What greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends?
But you may not feel love for the un-lovable. Your heart may be bitter with the hurt of friends who let you down, or perhaps a congregation who failed you.
Remember the root of this is love. All your heart really wants is to feel loved, and to belong.
If you let down your offenses, and forgive your brother. Christ will then be able to forgive you of your sins. Matthew 6:15: But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
We can only inherit the Kingdom of God if we are His Children. And His Children are filled with His love, and the fruit of His Spirit. The Devil 'believes in God' it is not enough just to 'believe He exists', one must 'act like He does'. God is love. God is love. God is Love.
Perhaps we should consider if there is really the 'fruit of love' in our lives. 4" Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil (or finding fault), but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Cor 13:4-7
It was Resurrection day, and all I could think about was what Christ did for us on the cross....and my heart wanted to sing to Him like to a lover. For I love Him...because He first loved me. He is a jealous God, and deserving of my praise and of great admiration. For He is without fault, and humbled himself enough to wash the dirty feet of his followers. His example is for us to follow. To love the sinner and not the sin, to serve the least of his brethren, for the sake of the Kingdom.
And then it hit me like a wave...not everyone feels as I do. How? How could they not? Surely everyone must realize what a great sacrifice of love Christ made? Surely, it is widely known?
And there is that pain in my heart. Yes, I can physically feel it crushing. Not every man has known the love, has seen that love, believes that love, has received that love. Not every man has been redeemed and changed.
All that matters to me is that I see y'all in heaven. Because this earth will fade away, men will come and go, but when we all "Wake Up" we will realize that all that mattered in this life is how we loved others and whether or not we knew the true King of Kings.
When we're standing before a judgment seat, all we are going to want to do is make right all our wrongs, and it will be too late...too late to forgive, too late to love, too late to live a holy life.
In some ways I feel those lyrics "Wake me up when it's all over"...because I've always looked forward to eternity in my true home land. But, then I think about those other lyrics to the song "All this time I was finding myself, And I...didn't know I was lost".
Oh God! What inconsolable pain one would feel to come before you after this is all over, and realize that all the time they spent living and 'finding themselves' they never truly found 'You'...and they were 'lost' all the while, and never realized it.
God my heart is full.
Please, my dear friends. Be ye children of God on high. Repent of bitter hearts, of a lack of love for the brethren, for unforgivness, for judging when you should be praying, for looking to others, when you should have been looking to God. For not being grateful for what the Messiah did for you on the cross. The blood flows down the tree....
I want to see you in paradise. Truly surrender your lives to the Lord. Ask God to be "born again" ' to be changed from the inside out. Do me the biggest favor you could ever do, relieve me of my pain, and be 'assured' you are going to heaven. Forgive your Debtors, and ask a new for the Savior to come into your heart and wash you clean. We cannot inherit eternal life if we do not have His Spirit nor walk in His righteousness.
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.a ”
4“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritb gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youc must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”d John 3:4-8
Remember I only share this with you my brethren because I care, and want you to be in paradise when I get there.I may share this post with many, just because I feel this heavily on my heart to share this with His people, as an admonition.
The Lord asks "Are you mine?"
How do we know we are His?
"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
"And this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3:16
If you do not truly understand what Jesus did for you on the cross, if you have not identified yourself with it, nailed your old self on the tree with Christ, and been re-created by redemption...than how can you love? And it is the man who loves that is of God, and will live with Him in eternity.
Do you have eternal life?
Do you have love?
Have you truly surrendered all to Christ?
He won't let you down like man will.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
"And this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3:16
If you do not truly understand what Jesus did for you on the cross, if you have not identified yourself with it, nailed your old self on the tree with Christ, and been re-created by redemption...than how can you love? And it is the man who loves that is of God, and will live with Him in eternity.
Do you have eternal life?
Do you have love?
Have you truly surrendered all to Christ?
He won't let you down like man will.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
"Hey Brother, know the water's deep, but (His) blood is thicker. And oh if the sky comes falling down for you, there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do. And if you're far from home, o brother I will lead you home, and if you lose it all, o sister I will hear you call...there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do." - Hey Brother, Avicii
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