REFLECTIONS ON LOVE, HURT, AND BRIGHTER FUTURES!

Some folks are just hard to love.  At least by human standards, there are times when I can't imagine why some people deserve my kindness at all.  Not that I wanna be mean, but I just can't find a warm fuzzy feeling about them especially once they've shown me a total lack of sincerity and kindness. Once I've seen the ugliness of someone's heart it becomes very difficult to just love them, only to risk my own heart being stepped on again.

However, there are people in my life whom I have loved who barely deserved to be tolerated.  People whose partiality and insincerity, whose lying and judgement, deserved for me to not see them, much less see the 'good' in them.  Yet, I did it and it moved mountains.

Jesus called us to love our neighbor as ourself.  Grappling with this, I asked my son, who exactly is my neighbor?

He answered, mom just like Jesus told the parable about the Samaritan and the Jew, who historically hated each other, your neighbor is everyone! Everyone needs love and you are to love everybody!  I hate that my kid is so aware at times.  He is much better at the loving his neighbor thing than I am because he doesn't seem to wrestle with it as I do.  I'm a work in progress.

The whole conversation about this parable made me think of a saying that my dear pastor friend Charles E. Blake from the West Angeles Church Of God In Christ always says...I see you in the future and you look much better than you do today!  Thats so awesome. That's how Jesus sees, and once saw, us.  He saw, and continues to see, our future and it looks better than the ugliness of our present.

Yes, it's hard to see some folks in the future and imagine they look like anything more than the sneaky, self possessed, caught up, fake, sold out sinners that they are.  However, if Jesus can we should!  We must.

We must, not just because Jesus said we must, although that could certainly eliminate any other reason why we must.  But, I will go further into some practical reasons.  We must because it's the only way to walk above this world un-offended and unaffected by people and their current sinful conditions.  If you cannot get above the daily offenses of people you'd be a walking bucket of anger, bitterness, jealousy, and hate, instead of an overflowing well of love and life.

But, people hurt me, you reply?

We'll, I too have been affected, deeply hurt even, by people's lack of love for me in return to my outpouring of love for them. I have been talked about, lied to, used, abused, attacked, publicly humiliated and accused for no reason, and worse seen my very own child suffer these things from folks.  Now you know how much a mom can hate you when you lie to and hurt her child!  Yet, I can't help but understand how much more was, and is, Jesus hated daily in return for His abundant love.

He poured out His life.  We pour out our humanness in a fleshly, prideful, display of thinking we got it all under control ourselves. He poured out His mercy.  We pour out politics and self serving agendas.  He poured out His grace.  We pour out lies and deceit.  He poured out His love.  We pour out destruction.  He poured out His eternal support.  We support eternal ugliness, killing the hopes and dreams of righteous children, while promoting the hopes and dreams of the unrighteousness.  He poured out His leadership for us as an example to follow.  We promote men to positions of leadership who shouldn't be followed and who are a bad example.  He poured out His divine friendship. We prefer friendship with a world who follows Satan. He poured out eternal justice.  We pour out unfairness and injustice daily.

Recently, I had a riff with a dear friend who mistakenly misinterpreted some things my husband said with the best of intentions.  It's not important. God will heal it with love.  But, her response really hurt me and I've been so sad about it.

Hurt can challenge our ability to see past peoples present condition into their future more than anything.  The pain people can cause us is often overwhelming and undeserved.

The point is, I have been asking Jesus how I love my neighbor when he or she hurts me?!

Jesus answered, rather simply, love will give you the wisdom to see past what happened in that moment into the future.  And since love thinks the best, the future will look much better than it does right now from your viewpoint of your own personal hurt, pain and disappointment.  This is how I love you daily.  Awesome.

She may hate you, she may have even caused others to hate you, and provided fodder for them to gossip about, and be fake with you about, and dislike you about, but she is your neighbor and you should love her as you would want her to love you if the situation was reversed.

In fact, Jesus continued speaking to me, you want me to love you when you fall short.  Right?!  You want me to see YOU looking better in your future than you do today! You need me to see you looking better in your future, because trust me sweetie, your today isn't as beautiful as you'd like it to be!!!  OK Jesus that was harsh!!!  But true!

To Me, my dear daughter, Jesus continued, you are as ugly sometimes as the Jews were to the Samaritans and vice verse, yet my command is that you love one another.  I died because I love you.  Respect why I died by killing your own point of view and adopting mine.

He's asking us to die!  To die to our own feelings and embrace His.

Daily.

And, it's not easy.  Nothing worth having ever is!

I have learned that the Jesus of the Bible expected Christianity to be a lifestyle, not just a Sunday trip to church, a get out of jail free card, or something you embrace when it's convenient and easy to walk out.

Christianity should be your life!  I am a walking epistle of Jesus.  I am a walking lesson of His love and grace. I am a surrendered vessel.

The Jesus of the Bible, not Jesus as He's been watered down, marginalized, and manipulated, by Christians today who've ruined His image in the world, expects me to represent Him well and He asks that I love my neighbor. It's really not that much at all when I consider how much like my neighbor I can be, if I'm honest.  It's really not that much at all when I consider how much I want Him to continue to bet on the fact that I'm gonna look even better in the future than I do right now.  It's really not that much at all when I rely on His love for me.

As I know Jesus so my life reflects Jesus. And as my life reflects Jesus He is honored, He is loved, and others experience Him.  When others experience Him and His love in me the transforming power of Christ is released to work miracles.

I've been away from the blog for a while because I'm immersed in developing my new tv show and finishing book number one.  But, this lesson of love and hurt and our neighbors and the injustice we see around us that causes us to naturally question how an intelligent God could expect us to love others has been tugging at my heart for weeks.

Love is the most critical and essential piece of everything!  Not passive, numb, love.  Powerful, consuming, victorious love!

He keeps leading me back to trust Him.  He keeps leading me back to the promises and prophecies which lead me to the place I am in my life right now.  A place that doesn't look anything like I thought it would I might add.  He keeps telling me to love in the face of attacks and to stand strong in prayer over everyone, and everything, because He, and therefore we, will win before it's all over.

The glory of The Lord will be seen and His name will be exalted above every other name that has taken a false throne as god. His standard will be lifted up.  His servant will see victory. And, His people will know His love.

How?  Because of how I choose to respond in love to every situation that's how!!!

He keeps leading me back to love and showing me the aggressive, powerful, competitive force that love is.  Love is not passive.  Kindness is not weakness.  Humility is not a lack of self-confidence.  People have it all twisted and they see these qualities through fleshly, worldly, eyes.  A child of the King sees these things as they really are.  Weapons of mass destruction against the enemy.  Weapons of warfare that are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.  Weapons that will eventually destroy obstacles in front of us and deliver into our hands the starting position on the playing field.  Love conquers all. Love always has a winning season.  Love made, and will make, a way out of no way.

And, I love, because He first loved me.

If Life is truly a sermon that you live out loud.  Then, Love is truly the words on life's pages.

LEAVE THE PAST...BEHIND!

Without realizing it, we often carry something around with us everywhere we go. We bring it out in our conversations, and it shows up in our attitudes. Whatever that thing is from the past may never have really existed, yet its power lives inside us and keeps us from moving forward.

Listen to people talk throughout the day, and take note of where their conversations are grounded—in the future, in the present, or in the past. Where would you guess most conversations draw from?

The answer is the past.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.See, I am doing a new thing!Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wildernessand streams in the wasteland. — Isaiah 43:18–19

Some of us take our past — and, therefore, stress — with us everywhere we go, towing it along behind us. Why do we do it? It’s familiar to us. It’s that warm and fuzzy bag of stories we like to take out and share with our family, friends, and coworkers. This comfortable past is often our “best friend.” It’s who and what we know best. It’s like a worn-out easy chair or an old pair of shoes that fits us and feels just right. But God commands us, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past." (Isaiah 43:18), lest we miss the new thing He is doing right in front of us!

When people talk about or think about their past, it seems to take on the characteristics of a real-life being. The past cannot breathe, talk, think, or do. However, it is immensely powerful and can take over our future—if we let it. It’s like the sirens on the shore, luring you toward the rocks over and over again. Focusing on the past will certainly limit your choices for the future.

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. — Charles Dickens

For a lot of people, I know the past holds a difficult childhood, an abusive marriage, or a financially draining job loss. Yet no matter how painful our past may have been, for some strange reason we often choose not to let go. In order to get on with our future and simplify our lives, we must choose to make a clean break and leave the past behind.

There’s an engaging Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is apologizing to Charlie Brown for missing a fly ball during a baseball game. She’s sorry she missed the fly ball and says it’s because she started remembering all the others she missed. “The past got in my eyes,” she says.

Many of us know people who are very reasonable—they have very good reasons for why they can’t move forward in life. Take for instance a person who has endured multiple bad relationships or marriages. He is certain that because of these relationships, he’s stuck in the terrible spot he’s in today. Isn’t it difficult to watch that person once again become attracted to the same type of person with whom he just ended a contentious relationship?

I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it. — Sparky Anderson, Major League Baseball Manager

Carrying the past forward to the future will provide us with only one thing—incremental change—in our lives. “Unreasonable” people make a choice to create transformational breakthroughs, without “reasonable” ties to the past.

Each of us has a powerful choice. We have the ability to create our own simplified future by starting with a blank sheet of paper and a heart surrendered to God’s will for our lives.

We must always obey the mandate — 'onward, onward, onward.' — Charles Spurgeon

Choose to leave the past behind, and begin living a life filled with new possibilities!

* * *

Your Turn

• How has holding on to your past put limits on your future?

• What might you need to leave behind or let go of in order to move forward into the future?

• Is there a situation or a conversation from the past that you need to deal with in the present in order to move on to your future?

WHAT IF I WAS ME

What if...today I was a REAL Christian!

What if...today I decided NOT to tip-toe around the truth so as not to offend, and defend the Word of God that lives inside me!

What if...today I decided not to look like the rest of the world, but to look like Jesus, by whose name I am saved?!

What if...today I told you to your face that you're lying and that to lie is a sin?!

What if...I told you I don't want to hear about the girl, or the guy, that you slept with this weekend and how good the sex was, because fornication is a sin and if you continue in it you risk going to hell?!

What if...I asked you not to curse around me.

What if...I explained that the fruit of the Spirit of Christ is joy, and kindness, and patience, and gentleness, love, and self-control.

What if I told you that you're not a Christian, because by your fruit I don't even recognize you?!

What if...What if...

What if...I lost my patience with compromising my faith to make you comfortable.

What if...I threw you out of my house when you use the Lord God Almighty's name in vain?!

What if...I was loving, yet honest, about how the compromises of this world and the serving of Satan sickens me?!

What if...I dared to be politically incorrect and actually BE a Christian?!

What if...I told you that I refuse to live in secret hoping not to offend your beliefs when you offend me and mine EVERY SINGLE DAY by your words, your deeds, and your actions?!

This would be very dangerous! I know.

Yet, what if...

What if...I dared to be dangerous for Jesus?!

What if...I dared to stand up for my faith by my actions and not just my words?!

The Kingdom of God suffers so much violence.

What if...we violently, forcefully, took it back?!

What if...I told you that Jesus will do just that?!

What if...I dare to live my life violently taking it back from you, and what you want me to be to be liked by you and accepted by you?!

Because I don't care if you like me or accept me!

What if... I told you that you do NOT define me, you will never DEFINE me, and you cannot even try to define ME?!

What if... I lived ONLY for my Creator by whose will and for whose pleasure I exist?!

What if...

USED BY GOD

The power of this scripture humbles me.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I
will guide thee with mine eye. (Psalms 32:8)

God promises to instruct His children into every righteous path. He 
sent us His very Spirit to guide us in His ways. God cares for us
beyond measure and His Spirit will be faithful to illuminate
the glorious treasures of His truth. Ask God to teach you. Ask God to
make you teachable. He will faithfully do both! And by your growth God
will use you to edify others in the body of Christ!

And by your growth God will use you to edify others in the body of Christ!

And by your growth God will use you...

And by your growth...

This is WHY I am where I am in life, living where I live, doing what I do, 
waiting on what I wait on; because God told me I can use you. That seemed like a 
powerful call to arms in a most worthy war.  He can use me! He does use me.  He 
can use you too!!! 

It's an awesome thought to even consider being used by God in my opinion.  All around us in todays world we see people being used by Satan, by darkness, by negativity, by confusion.  Nobody grows or benefits in ANY way from folks NOT being used by God.  Think about it?

To be willing to submit to growing daily has enormous consequences.  Those consequences are that the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, will use you to carry out His will on His planet.

How do we submit?  Give up your God given right to choose NOT to submit to God.  Stop living only for yourself.  Start seeking to grow in your knowledge and relationship with Jesus!  Oddly enough this submission leads to an empowerment and a freedom like you've never experienced before. You become humbly confident, compassionately truthful, and ever triumphant in all you do.

From that place of reliance on God...He will use you!  And when He can use you look out world. You will be taught and instructed in the way to go, the way to live, what to say, and what to do in ALL situations and His power at work in you will be beyond measure.

I know...I SEE it every year, every month, every day at work in my own life.

HOW DO WE WIN?!

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of 
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set 
before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; 
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising 
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 
(Hebrews 12:1-2)

We have so many 'witnesses' that have gone on before us. So many men 
and women of faith (Hebrews 11) that are the examples the Lord has 
given us to follow. We are to lay aside every weight. Now, what are 
these weights? They are the things that bring about stress and worries. 
They are the things Jesus wants to carry for us! We also need to lay 
aside our sin. Sin is inevitable. Even the lives of the very witnesses 
spoken of in Hebrews 11 are fraught with sins and the remorse of sin! 
Even though we cannot be perfect of ourselves, we must lay aside our 
wants and desires and choose to follow the Lord (Romans 6:15). This is 
a hard thing to do, but we must run with patience. 

Jesus has given each of us a race to run. Each of our races are 
different, this means that we cannot compare our race with others. At 
times, our race is difficult. We become tired and worn out, but then 
God reminds us of how much we need Him! We are not running alone! We 
have the Creator of the world running beside us and He is willing to 
carry us when we cannot go on! In order to run and run well, we need to 
fix our eyes on Jesus. 

There are so many things that can take our gaze off Jesus! People. 
Circumstances. Difficult struggles. Self-pity. But as Peter learned, it 
is when you take you eyes off Jesus that you sink! In all that we do, 
no matter the circumstances, we need to keep our eyes focused on Him 
for He knows all things (Proverbs 4:25-27)! If we fix our eyes on 
Jesus, our paths are made straight. 

Jesus has endured the cross for us! We are the joy set before Him! He 
went through so much pain and shame, for us! Think about it, Jesus, the 
SON of GOD came to EARTH as a MAN and was crucified as a CRIMINAL!! 
What a humbling experience! We often do not recognize how much shame He 
went through for us! But now! Now He is seated at God's right hand! And 
He continually intercedes on our behalf!

LETTING GO

Sometimes it’s easy to surrender to Christ and other times it’s not. I love those easy days, but what about the ones where I don’t feel like surrendering? You know how it goes—where you’re like: “Yup, I know what’s the right thing to do, but to be honest, I just really don’t feel like doing it. Yeah, I know I’m in a bit of a mess making some wrong decisions and I know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m just kinda enjoying the mess I’m making at the moment.” 

In moments like these this is the worst time to run from God, because did you know that he’s looking upon you with the hugest smile and love even in the midst of your junky choices? He actually loves when you draw near to him during these times of craziness!!! But here’s the kicker--which I’m sure you’ve heard before--so let’s “cliché it” for a moment: God loves you exactly the way you are right now, but he loves you WAY TOO MUCH to let you stay the same. So when you start to notice the nudge of God wanting to re-arrange the inner house’s furniture a bit (you’re the house; your ways of doing things is the furniture) let him in! Yes, God is a redeeming God--but also know this--before he wants to be known as a God that wants to cleanse and redeem you he wants to be known as a loving father who madly and passionately loves you, pursues you, thinks about you, and is incredibly & wildly enraptured by you.

Let’s get back quick to the conversation mentioned above where we’re in a position of enjoying junky choices. Personally, if it wasn’t for me FIRST knowing and having the out-of-this-world revelation of God’s passionate love for me, I probably wouldn’t really care about a God who was ONLY concerned about how pure and holy I was acting. I mean seriously, can you imagine having a parent who didn’t love you at all, but only talked to you or noticed you when you were doing something wrong in order to fix you? 

Yeah, well God is not that parent. Is God a redeeming God who cleanses us of our sin by the power of the shed blood of Jesus? Yes and thank God. But just a sweet reminder that he’s looking at you with his love for you first and foremost before he is concerned with molding you into his image of beautiful righteousness. So, THIS is what helps me surrender to Christ and what he wants for me—knowing him, knowing his love. And when I deep down know this, it is all the more a pleasure to surrender to this almighty God who is beyond worthy of my love. If the greatest lover that ever existed wants my surrender, I’d be a fool not to give it to him. Yep, a love-sick, dearly beloved, child of God signing out now.   

Scripture of the Day: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 8: 37-39.

by: Maggie Shunk

ASK FIRST!

I believe that many of the issues we face have been because we failed to ASK God, FIRST!  Some of our challenges and struggles could have been avoided altogether.  Do any come to mind right now?!

In Joshua 9, the Israelites and Joshua made a decision where they failed to ASK FIRST. The Gibeonites, their enemies, heard the report that the Israelites were taking everyone down and they didn’t want to be next. So they devised a deceptive ploy to get the Israelites to be their allies. They pretended to be from a far away place (when in fact they only lived 3 days away), lowly and helpless. Not only did the Israelites respond by giving them some of their own bread and provisions, they entered into a full-blown peace treaty with them!! God sat by quietly and allowed them to do so because they didn’t follow His known order – ASK FIRST. The Israelites lives were not their own. They were God’s chosen people and every decision they made was to be approved by Him. Even though it seems like they were doing a good deed to help those in need, their decision cost them greatly! Once they found out that these “far away foreigners” were in fact their enemy neighbors, the covenant had already been made and could not be undone!

In the very next chapter, the drama unfolds big time. The Gibeonites’ enemies were now assembled against Israel because of their alliance and the Israelites had to fight a battle that would have otherwise not been theirs. However, this time, Joshua received God’s word of victory on the issue BEFORE he jumped into action. That made all the difference!

Years and generations later, Saul, the rebellious, lawless king, destroyed the Gibeonites and because of this, God’s judgment fell on the Israelites. Even though the Israelites were deceived by the Gibeonites, they were still required by God to honor the oath that they had made. David inquired of the Lord on how to rectify the situation and it required him to make some very difficult decisions. Undoing something is ALWAYS more complicated than doing it.  Don't believe me?

Well, on average, it takes about 1-2 hours to get a tattoo, but it can take 6 months to 1.5 years to completely remove it! It’s also about 10 times more costly and much, much more painful. The same can be said for retail transactions. It takes about 2 seconds for the clerk to swipe your credit card and the bank to put a hold on your money, but if you want a refund, it can take almost a week! Sometimes God has to allow the consequences of our actions to fall on our own shoulders so that we will learn the lesson and avoid repeating it.  ASK HIM FIRST!

The next time a decision is required of you, ask the Holy Spirit now to remind you to pause and ASK FIRST. Unnecessary battles and frustration can be avoided when we follow God’s divine order!

He is ruler of our lives, if in fact we have given Him our life, so let Him rule.  ASK THE KING FIRST. RECEIVE YOUR ORDERS.  ACT AND SEE VICTORY IN ALL YOU DO!