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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Should I Not Have Compassion?

"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"  Jonah 4:11
Continuing the theme, that we have no clue as to how amazingly filled with compassion and forgiveness our God is.
The prophet is sent to the enemy and he goes where he is sent after God compels him to go there.
He arrives with a message and he delivers it with and angry heart.
God causes a message that was given in a mean way to bear fruit.
But this is a story that is actually about the messenger, not about the greatest recorded revival ever.
God pushes Jonah, with a question.  Why are you so angry?  Why don't you have compassion?
Jonah knew God well enough to know that He would have compassion, but he did not know him well enough to share in that compassion.
The only goal worth having is to be one with the Father.  Caught up  in the love relationship between the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
As Metallica would say, "Nothing Else Matters." 

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Dimly Burning Wicks

The simple fact that God states very clearly that when it comes to compassion, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.  (Isaiah 55:8) should be enough to cause us to be very slow to open our mouths about other people.
But wait there is more...
We serve a God who says we are to love our enemies.  How often do we let fear overcome love?
We are vessels of the God who will not put out a dimly burning wick. 
He pays the guy who shows up late to work as much as the guy who worked all day.
He speaks harshly to a Gentile woman and when she responds in humility, He praises her actions above His chosen people.
Eternal souls have great value in His eyes.  Nothing they are doing or saying would cause Him to cut them off. 
His sacrificial love is always reaching across the divide. 
 He is always wanting to keep the lines of communication open. 
Brokenness for the people is the mark of true prophet.
Jeremiah 8:21  "21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
    I mourn, and horror grips me."

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Beyond Toleration to Love

Psalm 110:3  "Your people will be a freewill offering in a day of your power...."  Tree of Life version.

I am treated unjustly, rudely, and I put up with it.  That is not the way of love, that is toleration and maybe just a little martyr's complex.

I am treated unjustly, rudely, and I reach out to the unjust  with mercy and love that covers and seeks to heal whatever is the reason they reacted so.  That is the way of love.

This translation which makes a people a freewill offering, speaks of a people who love not their lives unto the death.  Not seeking a way to defend themselves or protect themselves, but looking for ways to get out of the way and allow ultimate Love, the very life of the Messiah who came to seek and to save to flow through them.

That is the way of love.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

God's Four Dimensional Love and Suicide

Paul's prayers were so simple and true, that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus the Messiah, that we would come to know the height, the width, the depth the breadth of God's love.

Wayne Monbleau pointed out years ago that is a four dimensional love and we are 3 dimensional beings, so there is an aspect of God's love that is totally alien to us, beyond us.

Suicide cuts us off from the ability of God to restore and heal in this life.  As my friend Malory accurately states, suicide stems from hope dying and giving way to despair.  A person can have faith and love but their hope can crash and burn and in a moment of time.

Now the fourth dimension of love comes in, the dimension that goes beyond and is separate from this life.  The dimension that speaks to dry bones.  The dimension that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and mocks those who do not trust in the resurrection power of God.

Suicide leaves a gaping hole in this life, but once again our call is not to trust in what we can see, but in what we cannot see.  The wounds in His hands and His side lead me to a place of accepting whatever cup the Father chooses for me.  A cup that promises healing, grace and restoration for the lost and hurting world.  A cup that releases grace and mercy to brethren, that the world will see as true love.  Attraction not promotion.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Hopeless

Jesus is driving a bus and the title in the little window that shows the destination is "HOPE", but the ticket to get on the bus is marked "Hopeless".  
Until we come to that place and it is totally grace that brings us to that place, we are not in a position to fully and totally receive all that Jesus has for us.  
Isaiah 57:10  "You were tired out by the length of your road,
Yet you did not say, ‘It is hopeless.’
You found renewed strength,
Therefore you did not faint."
 
Our own strength gets in the way of being in a place of hopeless, where
we can receive from the Lord, His hope.