Have you every been blamed for something you had no part in!
Indignation can consume us when we get blamed for something we
do that takes wrong turn we didn’t predict is tough enough, but when we get blamed for doing something we didn’t
even do it really gets tough not to retaliate in some way.
Now I am a fighter!Have
been since I was a boy! In those days I would settle my differences with fists and fury. Then I became a Christian, and for
the first while I changed that for words and anger. The problem with it all is that if we give into this retaliatory behaviour,
we damage ourselves (even if we inflict more physical or psychological damage on the other person).
The worst
part is that if I fight, I loose the wonderful peace and joy that is part of my life now!
The experience
of God’s leading and calm in my life is far more important to me than “getting back” at someone. Now days
I understand what Jesus was getting at when he said “love you enemies”! Radical! That’s how Jesus
was and is!
Okay, so to get back to dealing with these people who wrong us, what do we do?
Well firstly, get understanding of exactly what they are saying. Sometimes it’s us that read
intentions into words and we get it all wrong. Everyone talks from their viewpoint and so, tough as it is, we have to try
and take a look from their viewpoint. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding. Those can normally be sorted out by a loving
response showing we have heard and understand but that the facts are not quite as the other person sees them.
Unfortunately life is not just, and sometimes people just don’t care, they’re out to
get us for apparently no reason, or a wrong reason! In this case trying to discuss the situation will just devolve into angry
statements from them as a minimum.
So, we simply ignore them and prepare ourselves with a simple statement
of the facts that makes NO statement about the other person for interested third parties who may approach
us for the information.
As a good friend of mine says, “Sanity will prevail”. People will
judge for themselves so give them facts. If we react negatively against the other person, anyone asking us about the situation
will put us into the same group as the person mistreating us. It’s far easier to label us a “fighting” with
person x if we speak or take action against them.
Fighting evil is the Christian way, but we do it by
"loving" others!
Now a word of caution! This does not mean we become a
slave to an abusive person. They have no right to dictate what we do (unless they are in authority over us as
agreed to by us ourseloves at some time, or they have authority by God’s guidelines!)
What
I am trying to say is that it is far better to learn from God’s loving guidelines, let them fear God’s retaliation,
put our hope in God’s word, unfailing love and compassion, keeping our heart blameless, than loosing our peace and joy
by reacting in a poor manner!
Love can be tough, but its worth it! Even when it comes to
loving our enemies!
Hey, have a blessed productive and joy fulled day!
Alpha
is the first Greek letter and Omega is the last. They symbolize the BEGINNING
and the END.
The Christian bible has Jesus stating
“I am the Alpha and
the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.”1
Now the Christian bible also has another interesting part where this Guy Moses asks God who
he is and God says, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has
sent me to you.' "2 so we see Jesus is saying he is God in this statement since the words I AM refer
both to Jesus and God at the same time.
Also notice that he doesn’t say he was AT the
beginning. He says he IS the beginning. Then he points out he IS also the end.
You see we as Christians believe Jesus is the creator and sustainer of everything. He is the glue that holds life
together. The scientists are still trying to find the God particle, but Jesus is the God behind the particle!
Okay, so what about us? We have beginning and ends as well, and between the two we have our lives.
The Christian bible puts it this way. . .
“the
LORD God formed the man [ADAM]
from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being”3
Some one has said we are made from star dust. Wiki Answers points out we are made up as follows:
Oxygen (65%)
Carbon (18%)
Hydrogen (10%)
Nitrogen (3%)
Calcium (1.5%)
Phosphorus (1.0%)
Potassium (0.35%)
Sulfur (0.25%)
Sodium (0.15%)
Magnesium (0.05%)
Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt,
Iron (0.70%)
There are also trace
amounts of Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic and Bromine
This means we are worth a few $’s worth of chemicals
when everything is boiled down to basic components! But the breath of God is priceless!
We work our lives away and end up in the same state
we started, as dust! WE all have a terminal illness. . . life! We will all die and decompose one way or the other!
The bible puts it this way. . .
“By
the sweat of your brow
you will
eat your food
until you return to the
ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."4
Take the
water out of us and burn us and we end up as ash! A pile of dirt!
But we are more than dust and ash. We are alive! We influence
each other and our environment, and if we understand we are also spiritual we actually can speak to and influence
God himself! One biblical example is Abraham who negotiates with God to save his nephew and some other people at
Sodom in ancient times. Abraham says
“Then
Abraham spoke up again:
"Now
that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord,
though I am nothing but dust and ashes,”
He knew what he was in God’s
creation but knew God had given us a special relationship. It’s one where we can communicate with God and Abraham was
using it!
We
are considered very important to God and he gave this Earth and everything in it to us! The bible says it this way:
"What is man that you are mindful
of him,
the son of man that you care
for him?
You made him a little
lower than the angels;
you
crowned him with glory and honor
and put everything under his feet."5
God
has great love for us and really wants us to be partners with him in running this Earth. The problem is that we don’t
get it, and we want to run this Earth ourselves without consulting God. We think we know better than God and so we screw it
up! The current global warming may be one of those screw ups, but we do lots of them! A Few years ago it was the ozone layer(we
seem to have fixed that screw up at least). What will it be tomorrow? We need to understand who we are and who God is and
what he wants!
We
have responsibility to God! The bible puts it this way:
“Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but
the proud he pays back in full.”6
God loves us but when we get stuck up with pride in ourselves, he gives us what
we ask for and we often don’t find we like it! Then we have got only one way to go if we are wise! We
have to go back to understanding we are dust and God is God!
The ancients
had a way of doing this in a way that we no longer do (and its probably just as well because it’s rather messy).
They would take off their fine clothing and jewelry, and put on the cheapest cloth available, and cover themselves
with ashes. It’s difficult to feel proud in that state! It says in the writings about priest who need to repent needed
to do the following:
“[ A Call to Repentance ]
Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;”7
We need to understand that we are not worth anything without the power of God in
us and with us. When we get full of ourselves and full of pride, we need to remember who we really are! The
ancients got into sackcloth and ashes to remind them! They could not look important in that state, so it helped them get to
the right mental attitude.
That’s where we need to be if we are
to meet with God. It’s sometimes not a bad thing to have difficulties that take us down, because as we go down we get
closer to acknowledging God is who he says he is! This is the place we need to get to before we start to experience the good
things God has for us!
Then we need to believe God is who he says he is. In Christian terms they call it
having faith!
Then in Psalm 103:12 it says
“as
far
as the east is from the west,
so far
has he removed our transgressions from us.”
“Transgressions”
is another big word for the selfish ignorant and nasty things we have done wrong! The bible calls these “sins”
to summarize them under one word. In simple terms, if we accept Jesus is God’s son, that he came to let us know about
God’s plans for us, and we decide to follow what Jesus says and believe in God, learning to love Father God, then Jesus
takes away all these selfish, nasty and ignorant things we have ever done and gives us a new experience of life with Him!
The sins are gone because Jesus stands in front of us when God comes to Judge us! He asks his Dad
not to touch us, since he is taking responsibility for everything we did wrong! (Wow! To think of things I have done that
I am not proud of and Jesus takes responsibility for it all!)
The bible puts it this way in John
3:16
“For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
will not die
but have eternal life.”
So, if we believe then Jesus gives us the right to
rule everything the right way and we get to have eternal life as well!
We have
free choice and the gift is free if we accept who Jesus is AND we then live our lives within this acceptance! This
means we need to believe what Jesus said and try and align our lives with Gods will for us so that our lives purpose is FULFILLED!
The bible describes the coming to heaven of the nations in symbolic language. It describes our clean
state with God as us having “white robes”, and our attitude to peace by us holding “palm branches”
and waving them. It also symbolizes Jesus as the “lamb” of God. This is because in the old days lambs were killed
and their blood poured on the ancient altars to allow people to be forgiven for selfish, nasty and ignorant things they had
done. This no longer happens since Jesus died on the cross as he was the last sacrifice!
John
who got given this vision of heaven in the bible says:
“After this I looked
and there before me was a great multitude
that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and
language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.
They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches
in their hands.”
Then
in Revelations 22 it says we will be given ability to drink from a river that gives everlasting life (I don’t get how,
but I get the symbology!). There is also a tree that has leaves that heal. The different nations in heaven will not be having
arguments and conflict. In fact, there is no painful work, arguments and conflict in heaven! We are able
to just know things without learning them (that’s cool!). Amazingly everything is brilliantly lit by this aura or glory
that flows from God. No having to switch on a light to see, and no getting tired! So no need to sleep! (Cool!).
Now the bible says about us “They will rule for ever and ever.”
We
cannot rule unless there is something following our rules, so obviously we will be given responsibility and something
to rule. We are NOT going to be sitting on clouds with harps! That’s a crazy commercial idea! Let’s get
that one out of our heads!
I wouldn’t
be interested in a heaven with harps, clouds, white cloths and singing all the time. Not my scene! However walking down the
streets of God city, in an amazing place doing good useful stuff, easily, without pain and tiredness, and being with everyone
who we love from the past, present and future will be really great!
Jesus
said he would come again and we must be ready.
I am, are you?
Do you know Father God, Jesus and have God’s amazing Holy Spirit guiding you through
your life’s purpose.
I sure hope so!
Hey, have a great day!
