UNITY - What God DOES NOT WANT!

These things I command you, so that you will love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you

Jn.15:17-19

So...our topic is UNITY!  Do you really want to know what it is?  Turn on your TV and you

will see all the time, what it is NOT! The world loves to show you how unified it is doesn't it? War? Crime? Violence? Lying, cheating, stealing, murder, we could go on and on. But what you see on the outside is only the tip of a much larger iceberg beneath the horizon.  This was Jesus' point in the sermon on the mount (Mt.5-7) to the people of His day and ours. You think that Murder is the problem? No...there's plenty underneath the surface that has lead to it, that if it is not dealt with - has not changed you in the slightest. Here are some things to think about from this point of view:

1. There are two things to remember as concerns God's will regarding this and Jesus stated them in one phrase. "And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt.22:37-39)." 
2. 2.) Where it concerns how I feel about myself, or my arrogance that I feel that because I have not done what the world has done or what this person over here did, bear in mind that before God and outside of Christ, "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Rom 3:12
3. 3.) Be careful that self righteousness doesn't overtake you. It is easy to say that I'm a good person, I haven't done like other people, etc. Remember, you at one time before Jesus, WERE them! (Eph.2:1-3)

What God DOES NOT WANT!

The biggest thing to remember here, is that Jesus said that those who would be part of Him, would NOT be like, act like, or take on the looks of the world at all!  Remember John's teaching, "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 Jn.2:16,17). "I'm not a murderer!" you say. God says back, have you hated someone without cause? Have you spoken about someone to the damage or their character behind their back? You say, "I'm not a liar!" God would say, "Have you always spoken the truth?" Have you fudged on something to make your side look better than someone else's but you know it is not? Understand, God doesn't want any part of the world in you, and if you are serious about being godly, you will work to not only eradicate the behaviors on the surface from your life, the hidden ones will need work too.

It is hard work, don't fool yourself. But is eternity with God worth it? You tell me! You want to be like the world? Go right ahead. Just remember that life after this one, has a world in which the things of this world have no part. 

Jim

CRUELTY!

CRUELTY!

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up,

as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

Eph 4:29

Cruelty is a deliberate infliction of pain or suffering, an action that displays a quality or characteristic of being cruel. We associate cruelty with people that are evil and void of conscience, someone with malicious intent. Murder is a cruel act in and of itself but in certain circumstances can be even more heinous and cruel by things that take the act itself to the extent of torture. We don't often associate godly things with cruelty, because of the negative its nature.

We have the truth, God's word that can set us free! Its wisdom can show us the paths to walk, and its pages testify to the grace that God gives. You and I are told to study it, examine it, search it, and live it. We are told in 2 Tim.3;16,17 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." Yes! -- reproof (to convict) - we're going to slap them in chains! Correction - we're going to take a stick to them! Instruction in righteousness - for all that evil living that they are doing, we're going to rake them over the coals of God's word! But -- is this the attitude that Jesus tells us to have? I agree, that there is a time and place for all things. There is a time, when someone is doing wrong, that we need to convict them of the wrong, sometimes more sternly than others. Yes, there is a time to correct, again sometimes more sternly than others. And....there are times to rake people over the pointed edges of the word of God! But, I find these times few.

We wax bold with God's word because it makes us righteous, but we should take care to heed Paul's warning in 1 Cor.8:1, that"..knowledge puffs up.." The same word that tells us to do the things that we mentioned above also warn you and I as followers of Christ

1. Eph 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
2. Col 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
3. Jas 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
   

Just because we "have" the truth, does not mean we can use it indiscriminately. Again, God's word itself reminds us, Heb 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." It is two edged, meaning that what I use, can come back and cut me as well. If I use God's word in judgmental, harsh, and cruel ways, I may be speaking truth, but what does God's word reveal of my own intention?

Let's take care in our zeal to defend the word of God, that we do not under the guise of proclaiming "righteous judgment" inflict with our voices, actions, and mannerisms a cruelty that God does not. It is true that we must let the Bible speak for itself, and it does so very clearly. But it does not need our emotional embellishment, nor does it need our baggage attached. This is why Jesus warned the Pharisees, Matt. 7:5 "You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother's eye! "

Jim