Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)
Matthew Henry Whole Commentary:
Care is a burden; it makes the heart stoop (Prov. 12:25); we must cast it upon God by faith and prayer, commit our way and works to him; let him do as seemeth him good, and we will be satisfied. To cast our burden upon God is to stay ourselves on his providence and promise, and to be very easy in the assurance that all shall work for good. If we do so, it is promised,
1. That he will sustain us, both support and supply us, will himself carry us in the arms of his power, as the nurse carries the sucking-child, will strengthen our spirits so by his Spirit as that they shall sustain the infirmity. He has not promised to free us immediately from that trouble which gives rise to our cares and fears; but he will provide that we be not tempted above what we are able, and that we shall be able according as we are tempted.
2. That he will never suffer the righteous to be moved, to be so shaken by any troubles as to quit either their duty to God or their comfort in him. However, he will not suffer them to be moved for ever (as some read it); though they fall, they shall not be utterly cast down.
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 823). Peabody: Hendrickson.
If you are in Christ, the Lord will provide for you, He will be with you in trials, He will use you for His glory – and your good. Depend on these truths. Cling to them.
The Bible Belt has been on a diet. The belt keeps tightening its notches as the belly shrinks… which is to say that the Bible Belt isn’t really as fat with Bible as people think.
I surmise that nowhere is as biblical as people think. Everywhere has its challenges.
However, in the south, we use words that are Christian-y. Due to a lack of comprehension about what these words actually mean, they’ve been drained of meaning.
Fellowship is one of those words.
We use the word fellowship here as a synonym for most any social gathering where some Christians are likely to be congregating, and even non-Christians with us. Now, it’s OK to gather in social affinity, like-minded people enjoying each other. But fellowship under the umbrella of Christian love means something specific in the Bible. Here, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary helps bring the word and its command into clarity
To appreciate the full meaning of the word-group in the New Testament that conveys the nature and reality of Christian fellowship (i.e., the noun koinonia [koinwniva], the verb, koinonein [koinwnevw], and the noun koinonos [koinwnov”]) as used in the New Testament, it is necessary to be aware of two fundamental points.
First, the fact and experience of Christian fellowship only exists because God the Father through Jesus Christ, the Son, and by/in the Spirit has established in grace a relation (a “new covenant”) with humankind. Those who believe the gospel of the resurrection are united in the Spirit through the Son to the Father. The relation leads to the reality of relatedness and thus to an experienced relationship (a “communion”) between man and God. And those who are thus “in Christ” (as the apostle Paul often states) are in communion not only with Jesus Christ (and the Father) in the Spirit but also with one another. This relatedness, relationship, and communion is fellowship.
In the second place, it is probably best not to use the word “community” as a synonym for “fellowship.” The reason for this is that in modern English “community” presupposes “individualism” and thus carries a meaning that is necessarily foreign to biblical presuppositions since individualism (i.e., the thinking of a human being as an “individual” and as the basic unity of society) is, technically speaking, a modern phenomenon. So “community” seemingly inevitably today usually refers to a group, body, or society that is formed by the coming together of “individuals” in a contractual way.
The emphasis is on the initiative of the “individuals” and on the voluntary nature of the group thus formed. In contrast, koinonia [koinwniva] has its origin in a movement out of the internal, eternal relation, relatedness, and communion of the Godhead of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Koinonia [koinwniva] for baptized believers is thus a participation within human experience of the communion of the living God himself.
There is a difference between community and fellowship. Community is not fellowship, because Christians are not individuals, but part of one body- Christ’s, bound by the Spirit’s indwelling, under the ordination of God.
If this is a little confusing, then here is a short book to help. It’s by John Owen. Most of what Owen wrote is dense and difficult because of archaic language and outdated writing style, but this little book is accessible to the modern reader.
There are two sections of the book. The first regards rules with respect to walking in fellowship with the pastor, and the second regards rules with walking in fellowship with respect to other believers.
What makes a healthy church? That’s a question many prospective pastors are asking as conversations about church planting, church revitalization, and church membership seem more popular than ever. Does church health depend on a particular model, set of programs, or a good marketing strategy? Or is it something else altogether? How do we know?
Thankfully, Scripture doesn’t leave us in the dark. We’re not the first generation of Christians to wrestle with this question … The book is comprised of 22 “rules” or Scriptural commands [to fellowship] that Owen says are responsibilities of every member of a Christian church. These rules are broken down into two distinct sections…
More at the link above.
Takeaways
#1: Understand exactly what fellowship means.
Not this (necessarily):
This:
#2. Fellowship is a command
That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3).
And think about this too:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:12) .
Have you ever thought about the frequency of the word daily in practical, Christian life?
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
Taking up your cross does not mean having to deal with a trivial unpleasant circumstance, your job, your boss, your hostile colleague, your irritating mother in law or your wayward teenager … It means to endure hatred, hostility, rejection, reproach, persecution, shame, and even the most horrible death; to say no to self and no to safety for His sake (cf. 1 Peter 4:16). ~John MacArthur Commentary on Luke 9:23b
Every day, pick up that cross.
Give us each day our daily bread, (Luke 11:3).
Jesus said in that verse from Luke that we pray for our provision each day. He sustained the wandering Israelites in the desert with daily manna. He sustains us daily with the temporal provision we need each day. As I heard someone preach, if we don’t have it today, that means we don’t need it.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34).
After we pick up our cross and then pray for provision and thank Him for it, we consult the scriptures daily.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11).
Our growth is from the word of God, absorbing it, learning it, living it. Man’s wisdom will not grow us. Drifting away from the Bible will only put us at risk of neglecting so great a salvation. They not only consulted the word, but did so with eagerness.
I admit I do not consult the scriptures daily. I do a lot, often, but sometimes not daily. Sometimes I don’t even do it with eagerness.
We as believers need life defining decisions. We decide to do these things daily, making a life commitment to the One who taught us how to live. We have to think and live like the Teacher. Not just believe, but actively be discipled to Him, by obeying and doing.
I’m reading a martyr/persecution story called Hearts of Fire. Or, rather, I was reading it last summer. I stopped. I want to read the rest, but I feel too guilty.
Hearts of Fire is a publication from Voice of the Martyrs. The book blurb says,
The eight modern-day pilgrims featured in “Hearts of Fire” are the hidden jewels in the church universal. They are worthy role models of faith and passion, and women of every age will gain new strength and hope for their own times of crisis and trial as they read these inspiring stories.
Women, Men, families, and children undergo traumatic persecution which is recounted in the book. These are true stories. Some have happened in the recent past, others in the more recently distant past. Many Christians in this world experience these things every day. They run from men wielding machetes. The watch their church get bombed. They’re inside their church when it’s bombed. They come home to a burning house. Their children are kidnapped, or killed in front of them. They lose jobs, are exiled, flee to exile, and more.
Nothing of the sort is happening to me.
I live in America and Christians are not experiencing hard persecution yet. It is no risk to our lives to proclaim our faith. Not yet.
Even so, other people experience job pressures or soft persecution at their place of employment. Some live with the daily struggle of how to submit to an unbelieving spouse. Others in business experience the tidal wave of a litigious society bent on pushing the homosexual agenda. Still others live where there is no solid fellowship, doctrinal teaching, or support at their home churches. I don’t even have a dread disease to struggle with and learn how to exalt Jesus through it all.
To be clear, my life has not been a bed of roses. I have experienced traumatic events post-salvation for the cause of Jesus, but they haven’t lasted long or been life-threatening, or even put me off-kilter for more than a few weeks.
I’m not experiencing any of those pressures.
I feel guilty about it.
Of course, I don’t want persecution to come to me at this juncture, who would ask for it? I don’t want soft persecution in the form of harassment or employment pressure to come to me, who would? I don’t want hard living with a daily struggle of marital pressures of a child murder or spiritual wilderness living apart from any congregation of good doctrine.
But why should I escape?
If there is such a thing as survivor guilt, I have persecution guilt, or better stated, non-persecution guilt. If that makes sense.
Someone said to me that I am not going through a season of difficulty right now so that I can pray for others who are. That could be. It’s of some comfort. I do pray, so…
And yet I know the Lord is sovereign, and His ways are just and perfect. He has my life in His hands. He deems for it what is necessary for His glory and my sanctification. Who am I to grumble if I am in the pit of despair? Who am I to grumble if I am on the heights of comfort?
The lesson for me is to make the most of this time where my equanimity is abounding and I can study, pray, write, and help. I know that the Lord promised that any true believer will experience difficulties for His name. So I’m waiting. Tomorrow I may be diagnosed…be in a car crash…learn something terrible about my family…experience job loss…
Or I may go to the County Library book sale, get a coffee and come home.
Over the past few months, John and I have seen the need to let my evening Personal Care Attendant go. The reasons are best unmentioned, especially as I struggle with feelings of unforgiveness, but suffice it to say that we kept her on because we understood her financial situation and didn’t want her to lose any income. Hopefully, I’m not boasting about any magnanimous attitude on our part — we simply wanted to be as obedient to the Lord as possible under frustrating circumstances.
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ~~Matthew 7:12 (ESV)
A few weeks ago, however, we realized that keeping her just wasn’t fair to us. The encroachment on my time (her schedule necessitated putting me to bed earlier than I wanted) left little time to do digital art for this…
Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse that the end times will be such as they were in the ‘Days of Noah’ and the ‘Days of Lot.’ (Luke 17:26-30, NIV; cf. Matt 24:37-39). That, in the mad search for pleasure and prosperity, mankind sank into such great depravity, the Scripture says, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5; cf. 18:20-21). Further, Jesus said social wickedness would increase prior to His Return: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12, NIV). A thoroughly drenched, wicked and evil society was happening then and it’s happening now. is occurring now. In the Ark days, Noah held his eyes on God and remained rooted in Him. We must do that as well.
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In prayer and bible reading mode this week, the phrase came to me: “Be not troubled.” Prayer and close relationship with Jesus alleviates our strongest fears, troubles, distress. Let us always exhibit the peace that passes all understanding in the face of incomprehensible headlines. And then share that peace with urgency and mindfulness with people who have no hope. He will come. Until then, we run the race.
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I used to teach kids at church on Wednesday nights. I love their conversations and their thoughts and their joy. One night they were asking about Jesus and heaven. They got so excited when they figured out that their Christian friends will be in heaven too. They practically jumped out of their seats when they made the connection that they will actually see Jesus and hang out with Him. They started making plans, clapping their hands … Ironically, the story this night was of Mark 10:13-16, “suffer the little children to come unto Me, do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Boy, does it ever. Let US be excited, innocent, planning, expectant, too. Are we? We should be!
Do you feel joy? Do you feel fear? It is normal to be anxious in these times, but oh, joy, bathe yourselves in His Holy and experience all the comfort of eternity in there. I recommend reading Psalm 34 yesterday and it is very good advice! If you feel caught up in the events of the day, remember that He is in command if every situation. As is often said, “Satan is on the prowl, but Jesus in in control!” Take a bath, friends, bathe in His word, and you will feel His arms and return to the blessed peace that is our to claim by His grace!
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Martin Luther said:
“The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed;” This same theme of tickled ears carries through to the end generation, the one living through the reign of the antichrist.
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Christians know true freedom, whether incarcerated within walls or confined by duties or confronting an addiction, we are free, truly free. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1.
Do you feel trapped by social media? Does it make you sad, or anxious? Do you waste time? Many people say yes to all of the above.
I like social media. I have an account at Pinterest, Twitter, 2 Facebook pages- (a theological page and a personal page), two blogs (one theological and one personal) and an Instagram. My personal blog is 11 years old, my theological blog is 9 years old. I have 4,325 essays at my theological blog.
I am also on GroupMe, a mass group text messaging service. LOL I obtained my very first cell phone last month, solely for the purposes of calling AAA when my car breaks down (and is always does) and to receive church messages. I have photo accounts at Flickr and Unsplash. My account at Flickr is 11 years old and I have 1,936 pictures there. Unsplash is newer. I joined when it began, three years ago.
So you can see that I enjoy social media, to say the least. But then again, I have a lot of time, being unmarried without children. I like to stay-at-home and use the internet for witnessing in discrete and selective quantities. (I also attend church, go to small groups, disciple, and witness in real life, to be clear.) I also use it for my entertainment, having no television.
I’m old enough to remember when the internet didn’t exist, and it was hard to get your message out. I mean in that era when I was unsaved, my message was my secular writing. It was hard to break the gates of publishing in the 80s and 90s. So when self-publishing on blogs and such came along in the 2000s, I was thrilled. No gatekeepers except my conscience.
Being unsaved for most of my early adult life, until age 43, I didn’t have a Jesus message to share. But now that there are so many venues to share about Him and learn about Him from others’ social media pages, I enjoy using it all for that purpose. I like being able to get the message itself out more widely. Therefore, I have a goal, to use social media as a platform to share the beauty and truth of Jesus Christ. I use it to encourage, exhort, teach, and edify. I use it to learn from others.
Even then, I still have to limit my use of it. Temptations abound! I think long and hard about who I am going to ‘Follow’ or ‘Friend’. I do not want excessively negative things passing before my eyes. I liked when FB implemented an option to mute friends, that is, not to unfollow them but to not see their posts. I don’t like to see continual political posts. I won’t look at abortion photos. I won’t follow someone rambunctious or rebellious. Constant ‘woe is me’ pity parties get a mute.
As for my ministries, I also work to get the me-centeredness out of my fingers typing, and stick with my goal and plans: focus on saying something scriptural, something positive about Jesus, and something encouraging to my friends and church members every day. If I don’t, what is the point of all these social media accounts?
Still with all that social media can be very depressing. Often, it displays the worst of man, unsaved and saved. Here are four essays that I hope will help bring perspective and encouragement regarding social media.
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Social media requires a different kind of brain work than does sitting for long periods with a book. Personally I think the two kinds of reading are at odds. I strive to maintain the ‘book reading’ skills I’d taken for granted most of my life. I do feel a negative impact in this area from social media use. So does Michael Harris: I have forgotten how to read
For a long time Michael Harris convinced himself that a childhood spent immersed in old-fashioned books would insulate him from our new media climate – that he could keep on reading in the old way because his mind was formed in pre-internet days. He was wrong
Some people take long breaks from social media, or take the drastic step of abandoning it altogether. Here, Aaron Armstrong has some tips for using (or not using):
This weekend, my wife and I spent a great deal of time talking about social media—specifically how she responds to it. For a few years she was on Facebook, up until a particularly negative incident led her to abandon it.
In the old Bulletin Bard days (with 300 baud, remember that? lol) something called “flame wars” would erupt. That’s just internet lingo for people fighting online. Arguments are easier online because we forget there are actual people on the other side of the screen. Somewhere. Flame wars ignite on Twitter, Facebook…anywhere there are people. Here, Michael Coughlin reminds us at Things Above Us that
Everyone you meet is made in the image of God. Thus, each person you encounter has a level of dignity because of his or her Creator, and you are responsible to treat folks with respect as a consequence of this fact.
I was a journalist for almost 6 years. I hunted stories, dug up stores, investigated, published. Of course, a reporter is driven to get the story first. That drive still ignites me when a major even happens, but as a Christian, even a Christian ex-reporter/now-blogger needs to hold back and ‘consider these things’ first. And pray. When everyone is jumping on the bandwagon is takes maturity, patience, and wisdom to know when to speak and when not to speak. Not everyone needs to know my opinion. But then again, if we have some insight that might help a local body, then by all means publish. The wisdom is to know which to do when. Chris Martin has a few ideas for us.
I made a concerted effort to stay off of social media most of this past weekend because I was already a bit exhausted at a lot of the response I was seeing to the tragedy last Wednesday. … I should say before I continue, what follows are my opinions. These suggestions are not stone-cold social media sins. So, take them as you will. Here are three ways NOT to use social media immediately following a tragedy:
Killing sin in ourselves is a tricky and delicate operation. How to slice marrow from bone without damaging the bone? The Holy Spirit is in us and He is the glory and purity we need, but surrounding Him inside us is all our depravity. We are so dark inside that often, we can’t even see our sin!
Puritan John Owen wrote a monumental book addressing this very issue. It’s called The Mortification of Sin. (1656). Mortification means, “The action of subduing one’s bodily desires.”
Owen wrote another monumental book called The Nature, Power, Deceit & Prevalency of Indwelling Sin In Believers. (1675). They are scriptural, convicting, towering books of the faith. They are also dense, difficult, and full of antiquated language. Sadly, for many people these books aren’t read, because they are just too difficult.
But they need to be read. To that end, Kris Lundgaard wrote a book called The Enemy Within. He said that reading Owen was difficult but he stuck with it. He said he benefited greatly from Owen’s treatment of sin in us, our sin nature and the Christian’s duty to slay it. He knew though, that the many Christians would likely not read Owen, of if s/he started, would probably give up. It’s a slog. (I can testify to that, I tried to read Mortification of Sin and stopped).
Fervently believing that the important treatment of killing sin in ourselves, principles Owen had outlined in his book, should be available to the widest audience, Lundgaard wrote a sort of Cliff’s Notes to the Owen book on Indwelling Sin. It’s an adaptation of Owen’s work, modernized and synopsized. Hence his title, The Enemy Within. This and other books by Lundgaard are –
adaptations of works by English Puritan John Owen [1616-1683]. Someone has suggested these books should be subtitled: “John Owen for Dummies” (not to be confused with John Owen’s original works that simply make most of us feel like dummies).
I had to read with a dictionary in one hand and Owen in the other, and until I got the hang of his style I had to read many sentences several times over. But the value of Owen had been undersold: I was underlining more than half of every page. In his works on Temptation, Indwelling Sin, and Mortification, my heart was being laid bare. How did he know me so well?
But he didn’t just cut me up and leave me to pick up the pieces. He offered help, strong medicine—lots of strong medicine. And by God’s grace things began to change for me. I’ll always be grateful to Owen for that—I hope to tell him so when I see him.
Owen’s ability to exegete my heart overwhelms me. He exposes my flesh’s defense strategies, which leaves me vulnerable—vulnerable to the gospel. He doesn’t just tear down; he builds up. And he helps me to see Christ more clearly, so that I may adore him more fully. Lundgaard in an interview with Tony Reinke
I have read half Lundgaard’s book. I’m 6 1/2 chapters into a 13 chapter book. It’s highly readable, and it’s helpful. It actually makes me want to read Owen! I’ve got both of Owen’s books queued up at Amazon for purchase. Killing sin in ourselves, an essential subject.
Meanwhile, my friend and poet Kay Cude had sent me her latest piece. She didn’t know I was reading The Enemy Within. The topic of her poem is about indwelling sin. How perfectly providential! She wrote,
A “take heed” to my fellow beloved redeemed in Christ from my personal experience of walking in the flesh and being caught in its snare. The immediate results were heart-wrenching and slammed me to my knees. And that is good place from where to repent and examine myself as I look up into the face of the forgiveness and mercy of God.
I was quite taken by her poem. This is a wonderful piece of poetry inspired by scripture reading and life application. Please take a moment to bask in this quality work. There are further resources at the bottom of the picture.
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7).
I posted the full passage so that you can read the main verse under discussion today in context. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
The Second Letter to the Thessalonians was a very early letter. Paul wrote it in about AD 51, just a few months after he had written his first letter to the church at Thessalonika. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul had obviously spent some time teaching the new Christians in their new church about the end times. Now, there’s proof positive that eschatology is not only for the mature, nor is it a marginal doctrine to be learned after all the other, more important doctrines have been taught. Paul launched right in to teaching about the rapture and the Day of the LORD (The Tribulation) to the newest Christians. He reminded them in the 2nd letter about the important points, probably to refute false teachers who had come in to tell the Thessalonians that the Day of the LORD had come.
By the way, this is another proof the rapture will happen before the Tribulation. If the sequence of events was that the rapture happens at the end of the Day of the LORD, why were the Thessalonians so concerned and sought Paul’s advice? They should have been happy. And encouraged.
Why did Paul have to calm them down and remind them of what he had already taught? And further, the pre-tribulation rapture was supposed to be an encouragement. (1 Thessalonians 4:18) if the sequence was post-tribulation rapture then they should have been encouraged, not concerned, becuase it was almost here.
Today’s verse involves the One who restrains. In the passage above, Paul is describing someone who is powerful enough to restrain the man of Sin (antichrist) and to restrain sin itself. Who is powerful enough to do that? No human, certainly. The Holy Spirit.
Paul is saying here that when the Holy Spirit ceases His ministry of restraining sin, the Man of Perdition will be revealed. The Tribulation will come into full swing.
Barnes’ Notes describes the restraining ministry’s effect:
It was some power which operated as a check on the growing corruptions then existing, and which prevented their full development, but which was to be removed at no distant period, and whose removal would give an opportunity for these corruptions to develop themselves, and for the full revelation of the man of sin.
Did you ever stop to think about the restraining power the Spirit does while He is inside of us,the Church, while we are on earth? We hear people say that America is or was “A Christian Nation.” No, we never were. But it seemed like we were because so many people were Christians. Many of those were not, of course, but they modeled the precepts and behaved morally because so many other Christians were around. They might have had poor motivations to behave as a Christian, for business purposes, or for a social network, of for help with provision, but nevertheless, they adopted an external morality because that was the way to get along in society. Cultural pressure was brought to bear. The real Christians acted as salt.
We see this in 2 Corinthians 10:15. “We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged,” When the crisis at Corinth as resolved, Paul expanded the ministry to new areas.
Salt is preservative holding back decay. We are that salt. Each Christian with the Holy Spirit in him or her, acts as salt in the world. Salt prevents flesh from putrefying. When the Holy Spirit ceases His major ministry of restraining sin, and then He takes us out of the world in the rapture, each of us as a little salt crystal-Christian will disappear. There will be nothing left to stop the remaining flesh from corrupting. When we are removed the sin of the flesh will blossom, and quickly.
To be sure, the Holy Spirit is the power. We’re not. But us as little salt sprinkles around the world…when we AND the Spirit are removed out of the way, pow! Sin will be unrestrained in the world. Just think on it.
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Titus 3:3
I was saved in my early 40’s. I vividly remember my antipathy toward Jesus for most of my adult life. I conceded that there was likely a God, that part was easy. Just look at the Creation. It’s obvious someone made it all.
A distant God who didn’t meddle in my affairs, but was intelligent, provided this earth to dwell on, and was amiable in His looking down at us was the God I’d made up in my mind.
The notion that God judged, was involved in our affairs, and created heaven and hell as well as earth, was unconscionable to me. I was a good example of the people described in Romans 1:21.
The Jesus, blood, sin, wrath, resurrection thing was beyond me. I thought the cross was ridiculous and gross. I wanted nothing to do with any part of the Jesus story. I hated Jesus with all my body, soul, strength, and mind. As a result, I hated others too, as the verse says. This world is full of haters, the satanic hatred only the unregenerate, darkened heart knows.
I was a terrible sinner, going about my sins, cherishing them, justifying them, and loving them. I hated Jesus and I loved my sin. I hated others, as the verse today states.
Thus, unbeknownst to me, I had many woes laying on my shoulders, for doesn’t the scripture say-
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
I was in this wretched state when in His timing, God sent the Holy Spirit to open my eyes. I suddenly saw my sin and it was terrible. I cried out to God, yet He had even given me the voice and the urging to do it. Though I’d spent so long in the wilderness, darkened and debased, He loved me. My hate for Him was deep and abiding, but His love for me was everlasting.
Anyone who is saved now hated Jesus once, also. In our daily lives we often get so busy that we forget this great love and our former great hate, at least I do. Would you love anyone who hates you outright? My goodness, that’s a tough one. We’re called to, but actual implementation of it, even to our death, is something that mystifies me. Yet Jesus did it. He lay down His life for His friends, gave himself totally to His Father for our benefit. He died for people who hated him with a worldly, satanic hate.
Let our hate go. We should harbor none of it in ourselves after salvation. We should only hate the things that Jesus hates. As our sanctification grows, our worldly hatreds diminish because love increases. The scale should be moving in the other direction. Giving up worldly hatreds is hard, but look at the sweet exchange. We can all cry out as David did,
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! (Psalm 25:7)
Over the past few months, John and I have seen the need to let my evening Personal Care Attendant go. The reasons are best unmentioned, especially as I struggle with feelings of unforgiveness, but suffice it to say that we kept her on because we understood her financial situation and didn’t want her to lose any income. Hopefully, I’m not boasting about any magnanimous attitude on our part — we simply wanted to be as obedient to the Lord as possible under frustrating circumstances.
the-end-time.org 