Greetings all,
Well, it is Tuesday again and God has been really talking to me about an issue that I believe is one of the biggest issues in the Church. It is how we talk offense to words or action of others without even looking at things from the other point of view or, as we would say, put ourselves in their shoes.
Now, I am not saying to change your opinion or admit that they are right. What I am saying is that we need to offer grace and restoration so that we can walk in the foot steps of Christ. Now, I know that there are times when we are called to take a stand and not back down, but how many of those times do we really have? I mean how many of us say, “God is telling me to do this or say this” when really it is just a reaction to what we have fenced in our own lives. What do I mean by this? Well, We all have had things happen, we believe different things, we have different ideologies and ways of think about issue and events. These things have been place in our “yard” of life and these really have a direct effect on our perceptions. Some of these things are drawn from trauma in our lives or hurts – these become a protection mechanism. Some of them out of selfishness and pride – SIN.
So when someone says or does something that we perceive as an offense we react and we tend to lash out without thinking or praying or looking for counsel. When this takes place we hurt the body of Christ. I find that in the scripture Jesus say that we are to go to the brother that has something against us and make it right. He talks about this when He is teaching us about taking Communion in remembrance of Him. So, when was the last time we, after being offended, did we remember Christ before we reacted.
Jesus also taught that in this life we would be persecuted. Now, many of us hear that word and we begin to think that this is laying down of our lives for His name in a dramatic way, like being burned at the stake. But, I think we need to give it a broader thought process. I think it is much more than that, I think it is saying that we are going to be offended and we are going to laughed at and we are going to be hurt. The thing that matter is how we respond to all these things. Do we really turn the other cheek? Do we really put others first? Do we really practice what we preach?
The fact is we really don’t know what is piled up in the “yards” of the lives of people. We don’t know how deep the hurt is that they are trying to protect. We don’t know how hard they try to protect them selves. We just assume that they are attacking. Well, maybe they are or maybe they are just defending their “yard”. I believe that we as a family are called to jump in and help do some “yard” work. but it all starts by walking through the fence and doing the hard stuff first. That is offering ourselves as living sacrifices, by asking for forgiveness and asking what needs to be done. Nine times out of ten, it is all a misunderstanding and God is using these situations to begin healing. Are you going to be God’s tool to help in healing or are you going to give into what the enemy has done for centuries in the church and react to the point of damaging His body? Have you ever thought about it that way? When we take offense instead of walking through the fence we are hurting His body, His family and His Chosen people. Just something to think about.
In His Grip,
Pastor Jason
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