WHEN YOU HAVE A RECORD

"When you have a record" commonly refers to someone who has committed a crime and been incarcerated for it.  Once this crime is on your record, it can follow you for life, affecting your ability to get a job.  After you do your time, the government may forgive you but it never forgets.  Once you have a record, you ALWAYS have a record.  It takes a hero of a person to overcome that kind of mistake. I personally know a hero like that.  He doesn't give up. Keeps trying. He is the bravest soul I know.  

Fortunately for the human race, GOD is not like the government.  Sure, He requires payment for our mistakes but for some divine reason, He has come up with a system where we make the mistakes and, if we ask, He will allow His Only Son to pay for them. Well, more than pay for particular sins, but pay for our state of being sinners.  We sin because we are sinners and not the other way around. This is a kind of love that we cannot, in our human reasoning, even begin to UNDERSTAND.

Furthermore, He promises that once He forgives our sin, HE FORGETS OUR SIN.

WHAT?????  YUP.

The only thing God requires from those of us who have received this gift of LOVE is that we give it back to those around us.  For some unknown reason, many Christians I know don't seem to want to believe that God is serious about this whole LOVE thing.  We kinda brush Him off.. sort of like, "Well, yes, I've read about love.. but I think He really wants me to devote myself to helping to build the gym my church is trying to add on to our building and to sing in the choir." 

The Holy Spirit has tried to describe this kind of love all through The Bible.  God doesn't just hint at it.  Jesus didn't suggest it. He calls LOVE the NEW COMMANDMENT.   1 Corinthians 13 describes LOVE the way GOD DESCRIBES it.   

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

Nice.  Part of the way we can evaluate whether or not God's love is controlling us is whether or not we keep a record of someone else's wrongs against us.    

Remember this...LOVE IS A BIG DEAL TO GOD.

And if GOD is BIG enough to FORGET your sins against HIM...What KIND OF PRIDE DOES IT TAKE TO THINK YOU CAN KEEP A RECORD OF SOMEONE ELSE'S SINS AGAINST YOU????? (big questions require multiple question marks)

WHEN YOU HAVE A RECORD... OF SOMEONE ELSE'S WRONGS AGAINST YOU... you do not have the kind of love that God is desiring to plant in your inner being through the Holy Spirit.   IF.. when that person's name is mentioned.. you IMMEDIATELY remember a long list of offenses against you.. you cannot love that person.  Why? Love keeps no record of being wronged.  

When that happens to me, when someone's name is mentioned and the first thing I remember is how that someone else has hurt me... 

I consider it like a text message from the Holy Spirit,"See that record you are keeping?  It isn't love.  Give it to Me."  I do.  I try.  Sometimes I have to try and try and try again, but I never think it is OK with God that I have that record. Why? Because it isn't o.k. with God.

I "HAVE A RECORD" against God. Yes. I do.  I have sinned against Him and others.  
In His mercy He chooses to forgive AND forget my record against Him... 
I have learned that..

WHEN I HAVE A RECORD of SOMEONE ELSE'S sin against me
I DO NOT HAVE LOVE.

If I don't have love.. I am nothing. 

And....so are you.

"If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."1 Corinthians 13:2

ON BEING BART

Every now and then someone preaches a sermon that really hits you in the heart and comforts, exhorts and edifies.  Last Sunday I heard such a sermon.My son, Philip, was the one who was delivering it.  The sermon title was "SHOUT!"  Makes a Mom's heart happy to see a son who loves God.  Funny how he wasn't my son anymore, but a man of God delivering God's Word.   Anyway...

I know I won't do justice to the sermon, but he started out talking about Nazareth. He reminded us of the question Nathanael asked Philip when Philip invited him to meet Jesus of Nazareth. 

 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. 

(John 1:46) 

Evidently, Nazareth had a reputation of being a loser town. 

Philip pointed out that the people had kind of adopted everyone else's opinion of Nazarenes. They thought of themselves as losers.  These thoughts had them doubting that the Messiah could come from a town of losers.  BECAUSE OF HOW THEY VIEWED THEMSELVES...They brushed Jesus and his reputation off by saying, 

"Isn't this the carpenter?.....Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home. He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith." 

(Mark 6:3-6)

Philip likened this crowd to those of us who have been in church forever. Grew up with Jesus, more or less.  He's familiar to us, and we don't really see any miracles.. and so we don't really ask for them. We have become too familiar with Jesus to see Him for Who He Really Is. He might also be amazed at OUR lack of faith. 

THEN.. Philip compared that attitude to the one that Blind Bartimaeus had. (Mark 10:46-52)

Blind Bartimaeus didn't want to be blind anymore. So he SHOUTED, 

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

People around him told him to be quiet. Why would people tell him to be quiet? Why would people not want a blind person to see?  Their cautions to be quiet made him shout even MORE.  He was crying out for MERCY.  Jesus didn't owe him anything. He knew this.

He was crying for mercy. His situation was so pitiful that ONLY THE MERCY OF GOD could repair it.   

His shouts for mercy got Jesus' attention.

He called for the man to be brought to His side. He asked:

"What do you want me to do for you?"

What?  He's blind, Jesus. He wants to see.  Jesus KNEW what Blind Bartimaeus needed and wanted.. still.. He wanted him to use his mouth, to speak the words out loud, to tell Him what he wanted.

Philip reminded us that we have to use our mouths... to cry out.. to SHOUT out.. to tell God what is in our heart.

Blind Bartimaeus threw his cloak aside to be able to better run to Jesus.  We also, Philip said, have to throw off whatever may hinder us - pride, doubt, fear - from running to Jesus.  People around you may mock you for your shouts, for your passionate belief that Jesus is able to heal you and heal you completely. Shout to the Lord! Shout Louder! Shout more!

After Jesus healed him, 

Blind Bartimaeus was no longer blind!

Philip said, "He could no longer be referred to as Blind Bartiemaeus. Maybe.. from that day on he was simply known as 'Bart."  His identity was no longer as a sickly and needy man but as the healed man."

When God delivers us it is because of His mercy.

When God delivers us He delivers us completely.

Philip reminded us that we can be changed from "the person with the addiction" or the "couple with the bad marriage" or "the depressed person" to be people who shouted from our hearts, cried out to God in desperation and God heard us.  

Blind Bartimaeus had an identity change.

I wonder what he would have said to anyone referring to him as "Blind Bartiemaeus"?  I'm sure he would have pointed out, "Uhhhh.. excuse me.. I'm not blind anymore.  Jesus healed me. Just call me 'Bart'"

I wonder what we say when someone reminds us that we used to be wild and crazy? Sinful and lustful? Angry and hateful? Weak and sickly? 

"Uhhh... excuse me... I'm not those things anymore.  Jesus has healed me.  Just call me Bart."  Well... o.k.... maybe your name isn't Bart, but you get the idea...

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

 2 Corinthians 5:17 

WHEN SOMEONE HATES YOU

It happens.  
For some reason every now and then someone leaves your fan club. They're not that in to being your friend that much anymore.  Really?Yes. 

It happens. 
It hurts of course, but, eventually we move on. Because, as the song says, "I can't make you love me if you don't."  Every now and then a friendship runs its course. It ends. You live. You survive.  You get over it.  You might wonder if there was something you did wrong, or something more you might have done right.. but.. when someone doesn't want to be around you.. that's it.  You get the hint.  You move on.  

There are people who choose to move out of your life.. and then.
.......there are those people who hate you. HATE. Despise you. People who openly or secretly wish that harm and bad things and challenges and hard times would come your way The dictionary defines "hate" as passionate and INTENSE DISLIKE.  

I think HATE is the state of being where there is an utter absence of love. 
NO LOVE.  
JUST HATE.  

It happens. 

It happens in a marriage.  In a friendship.  In a family.  

It happens. 

Usually, we are shocked and heartbroken to discover this. Sometimes people have been hiding this darkness behind a smile. We need time to process the betrayal.
We waste lots of time trying to figure out how this happened.
Don't bother. Only God sees hearts.
He sees theirs.
He sees yours. 
Only He can put love in place of hate.

It happens. 

When someone hates you - pray for them. That's what Jesus said.  Just pray for them. Their actions are coming from an unforgiving angry heart.  Only God can change a heart.

If anyone on earth was ever hated it was Jesus.   Yup. HATED. Yes.  People had MURDEROUS, EVIL hatred toward Jesus.  Jesus was PERFECTION in a HUMAN BODY.. never sinned.. only love.. willing to die for the people who wanted Him dead. 

And what did His say to His followers about this hatred He received?

"Get ready. It will happen to you. 

People will hate you if you love Me."

 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also."

John 15:18-25

It WILL happen.

Oh, don't be so negative, Marie. 

I'm not being negative. I'm reprinting the words Jesus spoke. Are you His follower?  

Those are HIS WORDS.

Was Jesus being negative? 

I think it's called "speaking truth".  He did that. A lot.  We don't do that a lot. Anymore.

It happens.

It IS happening.

Christians are being killed, persecuted...

It isn't happening here... yet.

But we can feel the change in the wind.

WE know that... 

Someday.. it will happen here.

Why did Jesus bother to speak these words?

I think the reason He spoke these words is to keep us from being surprised about it.  To prepare us for it.  To keep us in fighting form in this war against our souls.

In a war, the best offense is a SURPRISE ATTACK. 
Jesus warning is an attempt to make us ready. 

He didn't say "it won't happen."
He said, "It will happen."

According to Jesus.. WHEN SOMEONE HATES YOU... because you love Him...
Remember.
Just remember.
It happened to Him.
It will happen to us.

The question is not whether or not it will happen.

The question is "Will it surprise you?" 

It better not.

"Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you."

1 John 3:13

IF I WERE A BIRD

Feed The Birds: 

If God has a daily "To-Do List" feeding the birds of the earth is on it, according to Jesus.  He said:

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"  (Matthew 6:26)

If I were a bird, somehow every day, I would find food to eat.   How do I know that? The Bible says so. 

If I were a bird, I would not be earning what He gives me every day.  His compassion would make sure I am fed, not because I sowed and reaped the food I ate.

If I were a bird, I wouldn't spend every moment worried about whether or not God was going to be faithful and feed me tomorrow.

If I were a bird, I wouldn't hoard everything in fear of the future thinking my hoarding would feed me instead of God Himself.

If I were a bird, I would fly above the earth and see the bigger picture of it all.

If I were a bird, I might wonder why the humans worry so much about stuff they cannot control.  

If I were a bird, I might wonder why the humans think they are taking care of themselves and not being taken care of by God.

Alas... I am not a bird. 

(Did I really have to mention that? I don't think so.. because.. really... how many birds do you know who can type, have a computer and their own blogs?)

Don't miss the point Jesus was making.
Don't miss the lesson He was giving about the way to keep from worrying. 

IN ORDER TO KEEP FROM WORRYING ABOUT THEIR NEEDS BEING MET... 

He REMINDED them of THEIR VALUE TO GOD. 

 In this portion of Scripture, Jesus wasn't scolding them for their lack of faith in God's faithfulness, but reminding them of their HOLY IMPORTANCE to God.

He was saying, "IF GOD cares about the least important thing on earth to humans - the birds - then imagine how He cares about the MOST important thing on earth - PEOPLE.  Never forget your value to the Heavenly Father.  Remember who you are to God." 

So then.. when we worry... it's because we have forgotten our value.
When we worry... we forget HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US.

When we worry... we are devaluing ourselves and acting as if God does not care about taking care of us.
When we worry... it's because we forget WHO WE REALLY ARE.
When we worry... it's because we forget WHO GOD REALLY IS.
The key to rest... the foundation of a worry-free existence is to VALUE OURSELVES the way GOD does.

When I remind myself that:

I am God's precious child. 

He gave the life of His Only Son so that I would not be separated FROM HIM forever.

I am seated with Him in heavenly places.... higher than any bird can fly.

When I remember MY VALUE TO GOD.. then...I can relax.  God's got it.  

God will take care of what I need... because..

I am the most precious thing in the entire Universe to Him.  

And so are you.

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it 

is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and 

seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in 

the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, 

expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." 

Ephesians 2:4-7

GOING "UP THE LAKE"

I did not grow up in a wealthy family.  Still, my mom and her four sisters pooled their money and bought a house on a lake in the early 1950's. (The picture above is of that lake.)

It was in New Jersey, about a two hour drive from our home in Staten Island, N.Y. Every year, a few days after school was finished in June, our grandmother, Nonnon, and all five aunts and all nine of my cousins would pack our stuff, get in a few cars, and have a caravan drive to "The Lake."   
For the two hour trip... we would pack lunch, and stop on our way to eat it.  Because.. really... you can't go without eating something for a whole two hours... right?   To be honest, all year long we all waited to "go up the Lake."  (We didn't go TO the Lake. We went UP the Lake. Why did we go UP instead of TO?  I don't know why)

When we got to The Lake we just unpacked our stuff and lived. We didn't have anything more planned than being there and being together. Everyone had an assigned bed, and assigned bedroom.  And that was that. And we just lived every day.  All the aunts (referred to as "The Mothers" by all the cousins) Nonnon and cousins together.  We swam. We jumped off the wooden rafts that were floating in the water.  We got along (most of the time.)  We were family. And we were just happy to be together and "up the Lake." 

Somehow we all ate three meals a day.  I vaguely remember some of "The Mothers" going to town to buy groceries every now and then... but it was a side event for me.  I never worried about being taken care of.  I just lived without a care. Swimming in the lake, having fun with my cousins was all I cared about.  

Every weekend, "The Uncles" arrived.  And every Sunday night The Uncles went back to the city to work.  And then we just lived another week at The Lake.  No one made big plans. Sometimes, if The Mothers allowed, we walked to the local gas station to buy soda, or candy.  We walked to the bakery nearby to buy sweet rolls.  We jumped in the water. We played in the sand. We didn't do anything but just be at The Lake. And be together. It was the way life was meant to be.  No pressure. Nothing but simple joys.  

I realize now, as do my cousins, that we all lived an idyllic childhood.  

The reason this life of joy and love and happiness was made available to me and my cousins is the foundation of deep, deep love between my mother, her sisters and our grandmother, Nonnon.  This LOVE covered us all like a blanket of security.  It was LOVE that kept them together. It was LOVE that kept us together.  LOVE.  LOVE. LOVE. 

And we knew that the foundation of THAT LOVE was JESUS. We all knew that loving Jesus, thanking Jesus, praising Jesus was the foundation of being alive.  Nonnon was a woman of prayer.  
We heard her praying in her room.  
She was never on vacation from prayer.  

IF there were moments when some of us did not get along (and of course there were) there was NEVER a moment when Nonnon would ACCEPT division in the family. 
We were never allowed to let division become permanent. Nonnon would not allow it.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from my years of going UP the Lake is that: 

Unity begins in a family.  

Love is modeled in a family.   

OK... So what? Good for you, Marie, and your family. 

The world is crying for UNITY.  Jesus knew that UNITY begins in a FAMILY.  The Family of God.  

In our family - we did not SEPARATE when we did not agree.  It wasn't even considered. We accepted that telling the truth to one another was not always something that brought harmony... but it never divided us.  Not while Nonnon lived.  We worked it out. We talked it out.  Sometimes we continued to not agree, but we never continued to not love. I am perplexed by people whose hatred has blinded them so much that they feel justified in walking away forever from a family member.  

IN God's Family.. the same is true.   

I must admit, that in some ways, the family I grew up with left me naive about being in the Family of God. I have been perplexed when people who name the name of Jesus separate from one another over a disagreement or a disappointment or a difference of any kind.  I am not used to someone in a family simply walking away because they don't like what you did.. or what you did isn't what they wanted you to do.  Families never separate. No one ever cuts off ties with another family member. Only God can help anyone who separates God's Family.

Someday.. every child of God will be "Up The Lake"... together with every other believer.  Eternity is simply a new heaven, a new earth with new bodies that never decay.  And we will all be Up The Lake together forever.

I must have an odd way of looking at things when you look at them through the words in Scripture.. but.. isn't it ridiculous to think that we can hate another believer down here, but not UP there.  We are ONE family.  

IF WE WANT UNITY IN OUR NATION.. 

WE MUST FIRST HAVE IT IN THE CHURCH. 

I wonder if God wonders how we think we can be together forever but separated here?  

1 John 2:9-11:

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. 

They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them."

THE SPIN ON CHRISTIANITY

In recent years, we non-professional audience people have become familiar with a media term - "the spin" or "putting the spin" on something.

The dictionary defines the term as: "To twist a report or story to one's advantage; to interpret an event to make it seem favorable or beneficial to one self or one's cause."
In this election season, it's easy to see what I'm writing about.  Just take your remote control and flip back and forth between the different news channels.  On one channel a candidate is the savior of the nation and just one flip of the remote later that same candidate is satan in human form.

It's not just media people who "put a spin" on things.  We all do it all the time.  For example, when a friendship hits a wall, and possibly ends... the "spin" on what caused it's demise will be different depending on which side of the friendship you hear from.  No one I know ever says, "Well the friendship ended because I am intolerant and unforgiving."

People put a spin on things because they want the people listening to receive and embrace and accept what they are saying. 

Sometimes, lately, I've noticed lots of my brothers and sisters in Christ becoming concerned with whether or not what we are saying about Christ and the Gospel is acceptable to the masses.  They seem embarrassed by the narrowness of the idea that Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me."  They seem to shy away from the fact that He point-blankly said, "The path to follow Me is NARROW and FEW will find it."

Now, I'm not talking about being narrow-minded. I applaud people who whole heartedly question the status-quo and with open hearts take the time to investigate thoughts we embrace as Holy Truth but are merely human tradition.

However, I see a subtle "spin" being put on Christianity.  It's a "let's move away from the whole Cross thing, the whole sin thing, the whole only begotten Son of God thing" and lets move to something more palatable.  Let's say that Jesus made the way so that even people who don't believe He is The Way are going to be o.k. in the end."  With all my heart, I wish this spin were true. Because so many people I love deeply are not on that Narrow Path.

It's a wonderful spin.  It just isn't Truth.

"For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.  They will reject the truth and chase after myths."

1 Timothy 4:3-4

FOR CHRIST'S SAKE

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.  Ephesians 4:32 

For some reason that verse, and especially that word "tenderhearted" has been running through my mind all morning. 

I investigated the word and it means what it seems like it means.  Having a tender, soft, merciful heart toward other Christians. It should have seemed unnecessary for Paul to have to remind the people whose Leader pointedly commanded them to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.. that... uh... well.. He MEANT what He said about the whole LOVE ONE ANOTHER THING.  It should seem obvious that The Forgiven should be the first ones to tenderheartedly forgive.

He was also reminding them.. in case they had forgotten... that it wasn't because they were worthy of being forgiven.. or deserved God's mercy... or because they had been chosen and predestined from the foundation of the world to be God's child...

but it was 

FOR CHRIST'S SAKE

that God chose (and chooses) to forgive us.  

Live. Give. Forgive. Love.
For Christ's sake.

If that's reason enough for God to forgive....who are we to think it is NOT reason enough?

XO,
Love