You know what's amazing. The closer I get to the Lord. The more I learn to love Him. The more faith I have in him. The more I learn to trust him. The more I realize I NEED him. The more I realize I CAN'T LIVE A MOMENT without Holy Spirit breathing....whispering to me the very words of life I need to hear to keep me going.
One would think it would be just the opposite. But it's not. As I am made acutely aware of the majesty and holiness of G-d almighty. Lord of all. Creator of everything I can and can not see. Giver and taker of life. I am at the same time made acutely aware of my humbleness. My sinfulness. My unworthiness to be anywhere near this G-d and ruler of all.
I am sooooo thankful for Grace......G-d's AMAZING Grace!!! Given to all mankind. Through His Son Jesus. His death. A mystery to all but life to those who will receive it by faith.
So simple the word of G-d tells us that it confounds the wise of this world to point where many will refuse to believe this message of salvation because of the simplicity of it. Quite sad if you ask me...but then I am not one of the wise ones....lol
This brings me to why I am writing today.
The "wise ones".
Sometimes I think we can be too wise for own good and in my humble opinion end up becoming much like the pharisees of Jesus' days. (i.e. having a tendency to be self righteous and or hypercritical. True the pharisees didn't have the blood of Jesus then, as we do now, but to make my point here .....if anything THAT should only give us less of an excuse to fall into this sin.) Still I see an alarming number of believers falling into the trap of leaning on their own righteousness rather than on the righteousness that comes through the Blood of Jesus. (Amazing Grace) Which if you REALLY THINK ABOUT IT is IMPOSSIBLE TO DO because the word of G-D tells that none is righteous but G-d himself.
Why am I so disturbed about this? enough to write about this? Well, for a few reasons.
For starters it affects me personally.
Also ~ It not only affects the individual who lives this way.... but each person who chooses to be head strong and and lean on his own will and self works to try and please God, their lives have a ripple affect spiritually, emotionally and relationally.
Also....it affects the entire Body of Christ. If there are rouge Christians out there doing their own thing thinking "they are right" and they don't need grace or fellowship or whatever, this is unhealthy. We will never have the church Christ intended, with all those unhealthy members out there. We need to be one body.... As the whole Body of Christ...One Body working together under Grace.
I understand there have been disagreements theologically since the beginning of time. I am not totally ignorant. However, on a one on one basis I see far too many occasions where forgiveness is a HUGE problem. Followed by bitterness and legalism.
AND.....The number one issue I see over all of these is lack of love. I guess you could say lack of love is what allows all the others to come about. What's funny is that in the world of today, I hear just the opposite. I hear.....if you forgive....THEN you can love and also, if you can let go of the bitterness THEN you will be able to love. However what I personally have learned am still very much in the process of learning is that LOVE is the chief corner stone the foundation that you need to establish deep within your heart and soul and mind and spirit well before you attempt to forgive....or let go of bitterness. You see once you have LOVE, true love, agape love, THEN and only then will you be able to forgive. Then and only then will you be able to LET GO of what ever it is that is causing you to be bitter.
Because G-D is LOVE .....TRUE LOVE is G-D.
Love covers a multitude of sin.
How many times have we said ,I have forgiven them." and still we cannot see them or talk to them or have feelings that are not loving or godly towards someone?
Forgiveness is a verb.
It is possible to forgive anything and everything. Jesus forgave YOU.
I am on a quest...to become like Jesus.
I am very glad I am NOT a Wise One.
:)
Shalom
