Take responsibility, not offence

I read something that someone said about people getting upset about things people do. They said if it isn’t going to make a difference in five years from now then let it go because it won’t be worth making a fuss about. That’s a good philosophy to follow but I started thinking about it a bit differently. I want to ask the question. “Is it going to make a difference when I get to heaven?” and most of the time I’m sure it won’t. What if I turn that question around and ask, “Is this issue going to prevent me from going to heaven?” Sometimes we get so enmeshed in offences that we forget all about our salvation and the matter that is foremost in our minds becomes the most important thing in our lives. What did God say about having other gods before Him? But this issue isn’t a god, it’s between myself and whoever caused the offence. If God is the most important in our lives then we wouldn’t get entangled in these webs in the first place. If you go to bed at night and something that happened during the day is replaying itself in your mind, then you have a problem with letting it go, but if this happens night after night after night, you really have a problem.  You cannot allow offences to influence your salvation!

John 6:56, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”

v61, When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?

v66, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

They thought that Jesus was referring to physical eating and drinking and they were freaked out by it. They didn’t stay and try to understand, they just assumed that they knew. I am sure that the offence these people took at a statement they didn’t understand fully caused them to lose their salvation. We have to realise that we aren’t always going to be given an explanation. Most of the time people say things and they never even know that we have taken offence. They don’t have a clue because they didn’t mean to give offence but we walk away and beat ourselves up and in our minds have all the answers we should have or could have given them but  didn’t. The only one who is hurt and suffering in the process is ourselves.

Matthew 18:7-9, Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

“If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

This is saying that offences will cause us to lose our salvation.

What if I were to take offence at something someone says to me at church and because of that I decide not to go to church anymore because church is full of hypocrites and I’m better off on my own without all these awful people. Who am I hurting? Me! I am hurting myself and I am in danger of losing my salvation because of the offence I’ve reckoned to myself.

If we don’t know how to speak the truth in love according to Ephesians 4:15, then we have to learn how because nobody is going to pamper us to make sure that we understood them correctly. We shouldn’t be spiritual babies that need to be fed milk. If we want to be warriors who can fight in the front lines then it’s time we stand up and take responsibility.

World Changers

A friend and I were talking about how, when we were young we did not have the luxury of being idle. There was always something that we were expected to be doing. And we did what was expected of us. She said, and I reiterated, that if she tries to relax and just do nothing, she tends to feel guilty. When you are in the position of having to employ people there will always be issues with expectations that aren’t met. Some people just aren’t as willing to work as others. You get people who are really so self motivated and enthusiastic that they continually surprise you with their willingness to work and learn. Then you get others who just do the bare minimum, usually just enough not to get dismissed. They don’t really want to be where they are but they do want their salary at the end of the week. I seriously pity them because life must be so bad. I speculate that their mindset is that they don’t have a choice and that maybe one day something or someone will come along and rescue them out of the hole of self pity that they are wallowing in. I might be wrong, but that in my observation. It seems to me that this tendency is becoming more and more common. The Bible tells us that we shouldn’t be lazy.
Proverbs 23:25-26, The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.
I see this bottomless pit of craving that can just never be filled up because the lazy person just wants to get without ever giving. Not giving effort, not giving time, not giving money, not even giving mercy.
2 Thessalonians 3:10, For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Proverbs 10:26, As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him.
These are rules which ought to be enforced in society today. If they were I think there would be way more entrepreneurs because people would be forced to seek employment, and if they don’t find any they would have to find a way to earn a living. With the poor moral standards in our society today it seems that becoming a criminal is quite acceptable in some areas. A lot of the time I see that people feel there is nothing they can do about unemployment, crime and the decay of society in general. But look what Proverbs 21:30 says, There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Acts 5:39, But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourself fighting against God.
2 Corinthians 13:8, For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
I just love what is being said in these verses. They are so strong and positive. If we pray for the right things to happen; if we pray scripture over businesses, towns and cities, then things are going to happen for the good. God says over and over that He has good plans for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us. We cannot expect, however, that things should be going well with us if we aren’t reaching out to others and spreading the gospel. The only way people are going to change is if they discover God’s love. The only way they are going to discover God’s love is when we show it to them by living it, and by telling them. We have to become Kingdom orientated; we have to start propagating a Kingdom mindset. When people don’t know Jesus and the Holy Spirit doesn’t live inside of them, they are much more easily deceived by the devil and that is why society looks the way it looks. It is our responsibility to start changing our environment. We need to start by asking Jesus to show us who we have to pray for and who we need to speak to so that we can start to change the world.

Ascension Day

Today is the celebration of the ascension of Jesus to Heaven about 1986 years ago. As we know Jesus died because of crucifixion, was laid in a tomb, rose from death on the third day, spent 40 days walking of earth talking and teaching his disciples of what was coming. Then He ascended to Heaven. The bible says in Acts 1:9 – 11 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

So Jesus was standing there and He started to rise up off the ground. How incredible is that! I can just imagine all the gaping mouths. I would certainly have been shocked if I was there. I think they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The disciples knew from what Jesus had told them that He would be going to heaven and they hoped that He would be restoring Israel as a country. At that time Rome was governing Israel and the Jews had believed that the Messiah would come as a military hero to restore Israel which obviously didn’t happen. Now the disciples still held onto the hope that He would be making this happen.

Acts 1: 6 – 8  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus was telling them that it was more important for them to listen to Him and follow His instructions than to be worrying about when Israel would be restored. There are times that have been ordained for everything to take place and those times are not for us to know, or to get anxious about. We need to be following what Jesus said and not be following our own agendas.

The promise He did make that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on the believers and that we would receive power. The other promise that the angel made when Jesus had gone to heaven was that He would return in the same what that He left.

We have so many promises that we can hold onto. We have the whole Bible which is full of promises but we often forget all about it and complain bitterly about how unfair life is and how disadvantaged we are and how difficult everything is. We put personal feelings and culture and all our other idols before the word of God and then we complain that we aren’t being blessed. I just wonder how God must feel when His heart is so full of love for each one of us, that He made uniquely and with purpose, when we forget all about Him and clutch at all kinds of straws when we are in trouble. If we put ourselves in God’s place and if our children were to treat us like we treat God, how would we react? But God says in Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?”

We forget that God is so big and people are so small. Let us remember this day that Jesus went to Heaven and left for us power and promises and let us rejoice about it. But we shouldn’t just do it once a year, we should remember it every single day.

Revelation 7:12 “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,

Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,

Be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.”

God loves you

Don’t you just love it when something suddenly just makes so much sense that you can’t believe you never saw it that way before? I was looking for the verse that says ‘ God is for us, who can be against us?’ just to make sure that I got the wording right. It’s really easy for me to write a verse in my own words, and in doing that, possibly corrupt the meaning. I found the verse I was looking for – Romans 8:31 – ‘What then shall we sat to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?’

Yaaay!! I got the words right for once. I continued reading that piece and verse 35 hit me like a ten ton truck and stopped me dead in my tracks.
Romans 8:35 ‘Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or nakedness, or distress, or persecution, of famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ Paul goes on to say in verse 38 and 39 that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Therefore!! I love that word – Therefore, it doesn’t matter what state we are in, God loves us. That knowledge is so liberating. If I am sad God loves me. If I am really hurt god loves me. If I am hungry, or angry, or lonely God loves me. When someone has broken my heart with their words or their actions God loves me. When life is unfair and I feel like I’m always drawing the short straw God loves me. When my friends or family let me down God loves me. When I’m sick, or just sick and tired, God loves me. If I lose everything I own God loves me. If I suffer from stress or depression God loves me.

That’s just such and absolutely awesome truth I had to share it. Therefore, remember the next time something bad happens or someone lets you down – GOD LOVES YOU!