Replies

Luke chapter 6 is a powerful guide to living. This passage is my touchstone:

20: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21: “Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
23: Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24: “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25: “Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. “Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26: “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
27: “But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28: bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29: To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.
30: Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
31: And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
32: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33: And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34: And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.
36: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
37: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38: give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
39: He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
40: A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.
41: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
42: Or how can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
43: “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;
44: for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
45: The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
46: “Why do you call me `Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
47: Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
48: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49: But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Now that you two have edified us . . . no more excuse for my tardiness . . . in trying.

First, confession and repentance are more fitting.

I repent for taking joy and comfort in slapping down another brother/sister.

I was going to say--far too often. But any is far too often. Thankfully, it's not been as much or often as some might suppose or assume from my wording and tones . . . but it has been far too significant a percentage of the time.

Oh, I know, I could rationalize a long time about slapping down satan's junk in what they were saying. And, we've all been guilty of junk in what we said--too often, even satan's junk. And it needs slapped down or at least countered in edifying ways.

But taking joy in smacking a brother for even stupid UnBiblical satanic stuff is not likely Christ's motivation nor a fruit of His Spirit. And I really prefer to have His motivation and His fruits of His Spirit.

And one can't have the fruit if one is determined to maintain a death grip on the fleshier motivations.

Will I never again be perceived to enjoy slapping some silliness on the rel forum down? Wouldn't bet on that. Will I never again exalt in, luxuriate in, viscerally enjoy such assaultive attitudes toward another FREEPER BELIEVER? I don't know that I could even confidently commit to that. But I shall earnestly try as Holy Spirit enables me to have a truly charitable, caring, empathetic, loving attitude toward all believers hereon from henceforth.

That doesn't mean that my style of debate or discourse will be totally new. I'm a work in progress but I'm also who He's made me and conditioned me to be and that's evidently not 100% evil. So there should be some familiar features still around.

And, I'm even still likely to be quite fierce toward what I perceive, construe in my spirit to be pharisaical propositions of great destructiveness to one of what I consider God's higher priorities. But I shall redouble my efforts to assault ideas and not people posting them.

What about those precious brothers who seem to absolutely deliberately beg and seemingly choose to forcefully provoke one to specifically rush out and finding a 4 X 4 timber with a rail road spike in it to whack them with?

I don't know ahead of time. But I shall persist in earnestly attempting to relate to them hereon as I'd imagine Jesus doing . . . as I'd prefer to be done unto me.

Trouble is, on that latter stance, I'd RATHER be whacked with a 4 X 4 instead of blindly go on with some satan generated pollution to my construction on reality! LOL. So doing as I'd want done unto me would not always be perceived as the most loving thing.

Anyway . . . I don't recall of any other specific need to repent toward anyone hereon. If there is such an awareness on anyone's part, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Am happy to comply, if I can remotely see any truth to it.

############################################

Now, to:

Romans 15:7
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.

Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER. I confess that's often been easier than accepting myself. Those of us with REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER can all probably identify with that. And the verse is about loving others AS WE LOVE OURSELVES--evidently hard to do one without the other. Which gets back to parenting, healthy nonsexual affection etc.

But, over the years, for a diversity of reasons--not always the most pure and pristine, I have learned to accept a wide diversity of people as made in God's image. As I often said to clients--either I'd done it; someone in my family had done it; my parents' renters had done it; or my someone in my extended family had done it--or it likely had not been done.

I still remember after a sermon wherein Pastor had mentioned loving the unlovely--in Jr High--the next week to a month--riding around with mother on errands etc. . . deliberately asking God to help me feel in the skin of hobos and drunks on the street--what did it feel like to live in their skin; live their lives etc. And I kept earnestly praying that way and thinking that way until God began to do so more than I'd have ever imagined. Does a lot to change one's perspective when God answers that way.

Of course, my mother growing up 'poh whayt trash' in the South insured I never displayed an uppity attitude and remained unmangled to tell about it.

But it's a somewhat easy lesson to shove aside if pride gets a nose under the tent. Seems like a lot of my long dark nights of the soul have been engineered against that dynamic.

It HAS HELPED to pause still and pray--to ask God to help me feel what the other person is feeling and what it's like to live inside their skin and lives. Then to respond with Holy Spirit's help, as Christ might from that perspective.

And, it has helped TO FOCUS ON WHAT FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT LADEN GOAL do I want to accomplish in the exchange. Usually, pluverizing a brother with a 4 X 4 doesn't fit there.

At this point in my 60 years, when I determine to, acceptance is not that difficult. If I'm in a hurry and focused overmuch on the golden dew drops comprising MY pontifications . . . then it can get lost in the shuffle.

ACCEPT ANOTHER

AS CHRIST

HAS ACCEPTED lil ol contrary . . . me? OH DEAR!

That's a heavy calling.

Hmmm . . . How was that? How is that?

1. WITH UTTERLY EAGER OPEN ARMS--THE FATHER RUNNING TO MEET THE WAYWARD PRODIGAL. [tears typing here in the college adjunct offices]
2. WITH FIERCELY PIERCINGLY WONDEROUSLY ASSAULTINGLY LOVING EYES AND GRIN

3. SOMEWHAT like some of us [say home from years in the Middle East] would greet a 2-4 year old precious little boy or girl who's personality and temperament were so preciously loving and cute that we couldn't resist picking them up and hugging and kissing them to pieces, so to speak.

4. UTTERLY COMMITTED TO MY BETTERMENT--no holds barred; no resources spared. [more tears]

5. LOVINGLY TRUTHFUL--sometimes with great WHAM's of content and intense import. But OVERWHELMINGLY LOVINGLY NURTURING BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END.

6. DELIGHTED TO BE IN !!!!my!!!! PRESENCE--THIS CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS. [more tears]

7. THRILLED to 'hang out;' teach; wrestle; carry on His shoulders; comfort; heal; exhort; rebuke; reveal to; just SHARE WITH; SHARE HIMSELF with. And that's a LOT. 8. HE DIED for moi. lil ol moi. [more tears]. That more than says it all.

Ahhhhhhh TO THE GLORY OF GOD. Hmmmmm. No grandstanding for the fun of it? No building ego towers and castles? hmmmmm

Actually, that's really the MOST JOYFUL THING--at this point--to BRING HIM GLORY. That's the biggest kick. Especially when I keep my focus right--ON HIM.

NOT BOASTFUL. Not an outrageously chronic or intense problem of mine but occasionally crops up. I give it up, Lord. Take every last cell, fiber, subatomic particle of every last root hair of it, please, Lord.

CHALLENGING ONE ANOTHER . . . But, but, but, but . . . NO BUTS. Being a man doesn't count, Lord? Genes for jousting don't count, Lord? FONT COLOR=PURPLE> Sow to the flesh reap of the flesh. You like that fruit?

Not really, Lord. STINKS pretty quickly. Terminal indigestion, too. And the acid reflux knocks my head off. Yeah, I guess all sin is kind of that way, isn't it. Suicidal, terminal, deadly. How easy we forget or ignore such facts.

ENVYING one another. Not a great problem. Usually not much of a problem at all. Pretty comfortable being me, at this point, especially all things considered.

But there is a perverse sort of fleshly arrogance that satan's crew fosters--too often even in believers . . . that can sure stir up my dukes. THEN I need to remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Assault the enemy, not the brother or sister.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I think one of the most memorable past experiences with the precious truths of this verse was when I was in Taipei the first time in the Navy as a radioman. My Christian roommate (an Army Bro) and I had taken a taxi to visit some Presbyterian missionary friends.

They were on the 4th floor. We had to buzz them and they'd throw their keys down to get in the front door to the stairway. Trouble is, there was an open binjo ditch next to the building. At least there were plenty of big holes in the ditch covering. Of course, the keys bounced off my hands into the binjo ditch (open sewer).

Given relative ranks in that culture, the taxi driver eagerly started fishing with his bare hands for the keys. I couldn't bear that and joined him. I forget which one of us found the keys first. But it was clear he was shocked that an Amereican serviceman would dare do such a thing.

I just knew that he was as precious in God's eyes as I was and that I wasn't about to let him do such a thing for me without me helping him. He was touched, clearly.

China has been full of such experiences, for me. Praise God. At this point, I really do not want my ego or flesh or anything else--even in this distant computing communication medium--to rob me or anyone else of ACCEPTING THEM AND LOVING THEM AS CHRIST DID AND DOES ME.

PLEASE, if you catch me doing so--feel free to refer to this or whatever else--call me up short and set me again on the correct path and stance.

LUB,