Take Religion Out of Me

A few years ago, in response to a visiting ministers message, I began to earnestly pray that God would take any religious spirit out of me that was not of him. The results have been astonishing.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. 

Christ is teaching us two very important and key things here; 

1. The Kingdom of God is within

2. Do not follow after ones that come to you and say, “Come here or go there to find Christ.”

Yet these very two vital points have been overlooked even I must confess, by myself. I spent almost 20 years serving a religion that had told me I was to find Christ within their system alone, and yet I became further and further away from him and more and more religious and pharisaic and blind until God was able to send a spiritual earthquake into the very core of my soul and I realized as was taught in Revelations:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelations 3:17-19

Believing I had purchased for myself quite a lofty place in the heavenly realm, I had laid aside the outward garments and jewels, movies and  taken on every rule this system had required of me- teaching me to diligently obey whether or not I understood and that I would be rewarded for my obedience. I was like Saul of old before he became the apostle Paul, zealous of my nation and all its laws, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

But Christ arrested me one day and stripped me of all my self-righteousness and opened my eyes to the hurting, hungry and bleeding souls all around me that were being trampled beneath the feet of the self-righteous. I repented and fled that state.

When I was younger and looking for an honest “church” to worship with, I was studying my Bible and not wanting to be “deceived.” And yet, I still feel I fell victim to just another religious system and the reason is simple- I quit looking within and followed those that said, “low he is here” or “low he is there.” I did not trust myself. Part of that was because of the preaching. Truth was definitely mingled in the message that was preached. But the message was also heavily inundated with fear and threat. I was taught right away that I must always be there to listen to every message- systematic brainwashing.  Then I was taught I should never leave and if I did, I would be better off to go back into sin than to ever go somewhere else looking for God. If  I tried to look for God elsewhere, I would be self-deceived.

These messages locked me into their system and their rules and their leadership which was never to be questioned or criticized. When people left it was because there was something wrong with them and their connection with God. But one day I read somewhere that when a church has a long list of spiritual fatalities, that really is a bad reflection on them, not on the people who left. That was a pivotal, awakening moment for me. Christ said, “Look at the FRUIT Liz. LOOK! Open your eyes!” I began to see things as they really were. This was not God’s special people in all the earth. These rules and regulations were dividing and hurting people and causing prejudices and harm.

One day, God told me it was time to leave. It was very difficult and has not been easy. But I have been blessed and helped all along the way and I have had my faith renewed. My God is within and always has been. I do not have to “go” somewhere to find him. I can “gather” with just one other believer and there he is in the midst of us. “Church” does not have to happen between four designated walls.

“Men choose a religion, but a Christian is chosen by Jesus Christ.” Iranian martyr Mehdi Dibaj

“Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.” Robert Ingersoll

“All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt, with different holidays.” Cathy Ladman

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.” Richard Francis Burton

“The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and those who do.” Will Durant

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it with religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal

Since I left the religious sect I was so long tied up in, if I ever had any inclination to return, it has been completely sucked out of me by the treatment of those who were once my allies and friends. Shunning is not fun nor right, especially when one has done no wrong. I have spoken to others who left before me. One woman said she didn’t stop crying for a month because of the way she was shunned by the “church” and another woman said she felt like she had leprosy or something- she felt like she was a disease. Even now, over a year later people from the “church” that run into her act like they do not know how to act around her.

I was so surprised that after almost 20 years of faithful, consistent service, not one person, not even my closest friends, would even call to see how we were doing. It just solidified the message Christ gave to me from Revelations about lukewarmness and indifference.  I was once a part of that and have had to contact other souls I affected and apologize if ever hurt them by my actions.

Today I am free- free to live for Christ according as he leads me on the throne of my heart. That is true freedom- having him back as my Lord and Savior- knowing he will never leave me nor forsake me.

Many religious people read Matt 24 like this,

Enter in thou good and faithful servant

for you went to church four times a week

you paid your tithes of all that you had

you always wore a skirt and you never wore jewelry

You never questioned the pastor and always obeyed him

Instead of what he really said,

For I was hungry, and you fed me

I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink

I was a stranger and you took me in

I was naked and you clothed me

I was sick and you visited me

I was in prison and you came to me

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one

of the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me.

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New Wine

“[No] one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.”

(Luke 5)

“They say the old wine is better” – Jesus said this after preaching from a boat, touching a man with leprosy, telling a man his sins were forgiven, sitting down to eat and drink with a roomful of tax collectors and sinners, and being questioned and ridiculed every step of the way because it was not according to the “customs of the day.”

Sermons were supposed to be preached in temples by “anointed men of God.” People with leprosy were to be kept far away from. No one but God had the right to pardon someones sins. The righteous were not mingle with sinners and furthermore, they usually spent their time fasting and praying, not eating and drinking.

Earlier in this chapter we read that Jesus went out alone in the wilderness and took time to pray. There, all alone with God, Jesus was given new wine to drink and new wine to share when he came back into the crowds. He had something fresh and life-changing.

If all you are drinking is the “old wine,” then all you will be doing is complaining whenever you see the new wine being poured out; you will be blinded to all the good the new and fresh wine is doing.  You will have one solo message; “THE OLD IS BETTER” and all around your eyes will only see that the old is not being adhered to- the old ways of doing things, the old religious systems.

Go, take some wilderness time with God alone, and let him pour forth some new wine into your soul! Let him give you something new and fresh- something relevant for today’s needs. Get out of your religious rut and back into the leading of the Holy Spirit. Let go of the old so God can bless you with something new!!!

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For Christ’s Sake

Matthew 18:

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.  25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.  He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

I have written in my Bible, next to this passage of scripture: “WARNING: DO NOT HOLD GRUDGES – YOU WON’T MAKE IT TO HEAVEN!”

In the “Vines Complete Expository Dictionary” forgiveness is defined as to release, to completely cancel, remission of the punishment due to sinful conduct, complete removal of the cause of offense.

Forgiveness is a hot topic of debate- how and when  and under what conditions it should be applied. But one thing is for certain. Forgiveness is the single most powerful action that if applied in its purest form can change the world. Forgiveness has the power not only to absolve someone of guilt and punishment, forgiveness can renew lives, tender hardened hearts, rebuild shattered relationships and bring hope back into hopeless situations. Forgiveness sets people free. Not just the people who are guilty, but the ones who carry the hurt and animosity.

However, forgiveness, like any other precious treasures, does not always come easy. Our human heart that has been injured, sometimes severely, does not always just pick up and go on. And depending upon how deep and severe the injury, sometimes a person has to work through the hurt.

Christ offers forgiveness to all, but that forgiveness does have some conditions upon it. The conditions are confession and repentance. (Matt, 18:15-17) Why would Christ expect us to uphold a higher standard than himself? We can have a ready heart to forgive someone for an offense, and even go to that person as Christ admonished us to do, but if they will not own up to their wrong and repent- be sorry for the harm they have done to us, what are we to do with our forgiveness?

I recall that when Christ was on the cross, there were with him two criminals, but only to one of them was forgiven of sins and admission into heaven promised. It was to the contrite thief.  The one who railed on him lost out. Yet Christ did not retaliate. He left the judgement in God’s hands.

But then too, I also recall that as he hung there, completely and humiliatingly naked . . .

as he writhed in suffering and agony while men gaped upon him and mocked at him with no sense of pity or compassion for his very life being unjustly stripped from him, he cried out these words, “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.”

So the other day as I was struggling with forgiveness for a certain individual who has done much harm to me and has cause me life-long emotional pain and scars, I was praying and asking God to help me with forgiveness within my heart. I think I have this forgiveness thing settled and then the memories come up or the offense is there and the unacknowledged wrongs done to me are still there. My mind then began to turn to this individuals own life and I began to sympathize and feel sorry for this individual; this is the pattern I often turn to in my mind to “help me forgive.” But this time God stopped me. This time God spoke to me and said, “Liz, the only way you can do this is to set your eyes on JESUS! You must LOOK at the CROSS of CHRIST And when you forgive, forgive not because you feel sorry for what the individual has gone through. That is like trying to find a reason that they deserve forgiveness. You don’t need a reason. Forgive for CHRIST’S sake. Look upon HIM who loved YOU and gave HIMSELF for YOU! And for HIS SAKE!  forgive!.”

And suddenly, GRACE! AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, PEACEFUL, WONDERFUL, HEARTFELT, GRACE! Came pouring into my soul and filled me with all the love and forgiveness I could ever need or want or hold and it was not anything from myself. It was all because of CHRIST. The beautiful sacrifice of Calvary. The glorious, victorious, Lord and savior of the world.

Christ taught us to forgive seventy times seven in just one day. Sometimes the offenses can come at us just that many times. Especially when whole groups of people are raised up against you as they were in the case of Christ and Stephen. And sometimes you can be misjudged by the multitudes and nothing you do or say is right in their eyes and seventy times seven times a day thoughts of these misjudgments come to rankle within your heart and pierce your heart like a million knives being stabbed into you. And you wrestle against the tide of bitterness that wants to overwhelm your soul and the enemy is ever watching your every move so he can have occasion to accuse you and say, “AHA!”

And so God says, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.  (Hebrews 12:2-3)

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Stay Free From Pharisee Thinking

Years ago a visiting minister to our congregation would not sing along with us several of the songs from our hymn book because they were written by what he believed were false christians, though why he set himself up to be their judge I have yet to understand. However, I remember our pastor later mentioning the absurdity of that kind of thinking, and well it was. The songs were very edifying and godly.
Yet its strikes me funny that we see this type of thing going on amongst us all the time in other ways. I see perfectly good sound and edifying articles posted on face book that hardly anyone hits the “like” button on and I know it is because of “WHO” wrote the article rather than anything to do with the “content” of the aritcle. The people are already judged and condemned and so is anything they have to offer. How sad. It reminds me of the parable that Jesus told:

And he spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others:  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself; “God I thank you that I am not like other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess.”
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalts himself, shall be humbled and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.  Luke 18:9-14

Many people said of Jesus that he had a devil. But others said, “Can the devil open the eyes of the blind?”

Jesus said, if you are going to judge, at least judge righteous judgement. If what you read is good, it is good. Give God glory. Be thankful for the vessel that was utilized to bring forth a good word in due season. God has even used a donkey to bring a message to a man once. If we refuse a message because of the vessel it is delivered in, even though the messsage is perfectly sound, we are a respector of persons and God says if we have respect of persons we are sinning.

If we are claiming to be living a “sin-free” life, then we should not be having respect of persons. Respect of persons is holding someone up so high that they are almost God-like- unreproachable.

You can gossip all you want about the person who “left your congregation” but woe to the one who says anything about the mighty one in holy robes who stands behind the pulpit. That is respector of persons! That is not right and God will bring judgment upon that.

People are people. Gossip and slander is wrong no matter who it is about. And if someone has left your “congregation” if you are the true body of Christ, your burden would be to see that person reconciled with the body. But cutting them off and treating them as if they are no longer part of your family is not right. That is pushing them further away and sealing them out permanently because you are not showing love but rather wounding them so deeply they will never be able to trust you again. Even God said to his back slidden church, “I am married to you.” (Jeremiah 3:14)

Our message and burden to every soul should always be reconciliation. But reconciliation never comes through the pompous, proud religous minded groups. They either lock you in to a religious system or lock you out because you wont bow to their written or unwritten creeds. Jesus would not be locked in and so was locked out.

Lets stay free! Free from sin, free from Pharisee thinking, free from religious pride, free to love souls so we can truly help them be reconciled to God and/or his body!

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Washing Dirty Feet

The Lord showed me in my sleep tonight, the reason for washing feet- it is not for ritual. It is for a lesson.

Peter asked him, “Lord are you going to wash me feet? No way I will not let you wash my feet.”

But then the Lord replied, “If I do not wash your feet, you have no part with me.” 

Then Peter said, “not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

Then the Lord said, “They that are cleansed need not but there feet washed.”

(John 13)

 As long as we are here walking this earth, we will need to be cleansed because we are going to get dirty- our feet get dirty as we walk the earth and they must be washed. This is symbolic.

While we are in this earthly taberbacle we will have human faults and we must be willing to bow to one another and help one another by humbly cleansing one anothers “dirty feet.” We must be willing to humbly help one another in our faults and failings.

 There is a difference of handing someone a pail of water and soap and bending down ourselves and washing their feet. Their feet is the lowest and dirtiest part of their body. But human tendency is to say, “Gross, you wash your own stinky feet.”

It is easy to get lifted up and to look down our noses at one another. Christ does not want anyone to be lifted up higher than anyone else. This is why he gave us this example and said:

Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

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He Loved Me with a Cross

We cannot learn without pain.

~Aristotle

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;~Hebrews 5:8

Many times we go through severe trials and testings that cause us deep distress. We may ask, “Why?” and, “Will this ever end?” We may grow weary at times of even life itself. It is at those most distressing moments in my walk with the Lord, that my eyes become riveted upon the sufferings of Christ, and I am once again amazed how the very suffering I am experiencing, is just a small sip of what Christ went through for us. And I am reminded:

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1Peter 2:21-24

Suffering is not easy to go through, otherwise, it would not be suffering. Sometimes we need to be reminded that Christ taught us very plainly:

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

One of the most difficult forms of suffering a person will ever have to face is persecution from non-believers and even from close relations who may even call themselves a believer. I’ve been meditating on a certain scripture lately in relation to some of the trials I am dealing with:

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Luke 6:22-23

Christ told us to “rejoice” when others treat us with disdain because of our stand we take for His names sake. I think he knew how difficult it was going to be in our humanity and so he wanted to drive it home- “Leap for JOY!” When I read this, I feel a little bewildered for I certainly do not feel like leaping for joy, but rather crying for sorrow of heart. Yet, the words are a balm for my sorrow. They encourage me that it is going to be okay, because I am living right. And when I am falsely accused, or called names, I remember that so was Christ. They could not find any fault or reason to keep Christ a prisoner, yet they condemned him to death. Christ went before us and goes before us in all our tribulations. He suffered first. He was accused of having a devil spirit:

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Matthew 12:24
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? John 8:48

They called him a deceiver:

And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. John 7:12

No matter what good Christ did, or what miracles he performed, they were not pleased. They sought to destroy him:

And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. Mark 3:1-6

“The herodians” were not even believers in the Jews God.  Herod the Great was responsible for the murder of thousands of little babies in an attempt to destroy Christ in infanthood. And Herod’s son, Herod Antipas, was responsible for beheading John the Babtist. The enemies of Christ will rally anyone they can find to destroy the Spirit of Christ which dwells in His people.

Their motive? They believe deep down inside, that by destroying the people of God, they can still the voice of conviction against their sins. Little do they understand that the seed that dies only multiplies.

In order to destroy Christ they had to lie about him and rally uncouth people to back them up. They had a mob mentality. And they were not content to just put him to death- but they chose the most brutal punishment they had in those days, reserved for the basest of criminals.

A sinner, who is not honest, who has no desire to be free from their sin, will never be a reasonable person to deal with. Unfortunately, these types of sinners many times are cloaked in religious garb. They have a church affiliation, claim to pray and be a child of God- yet the fruit of their lives is not of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the flesh.  They are no different in their living than any other common sinner.  These are they that turn the would-be repentant sinner away from the truth by their hypocritical living, and are filled with unreasonable madness at anyone that would dare to challenge their position before God.

Indeed, the  Lord Jesus Christ had to humble himself to go to the cross. If anyone had a sound defense against the onslaught of ridiculous accusations placed against him, it was Jesus. Yet, he humbled himself.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:3-8

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. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Hebrews 12:1-4

Why did Christ suffer and endure such contradiction of sinners? Why? For their salvation. For my salvation. The truth of the matter is, Jesus Christ loved them, and he loved you and he loved even me,  with a cross.

Christ loved us with a cross- inspite of all He had to endure because of our sins. Cannot I, by the grace of Almighty God, endure the little I must sip of the cup of Christ?  Yes, Aristotle was right when he said, that we cannot learn without pain.

The great lesson of the hour? Love! -Love that transcends the agony of the cross.

The refrain from a popular choir sings:

He loved me with a cross

He loved me with a cross

In answer to the call of life

He loved me with a cross

Though I could not imagine what

Loving me would cost

Jesus went to Calvary

And he loved me with a cross

See the Youtube video: WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD

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True Warmth and Affection to Spark Revival

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great. Job 3:11-13

I think often about Jobs comforters who have been notorious examples of what not to do when trying to help one through a terrible grief and heartache. Yet these friends had every good intention in their heart when they came. They sat with him for seven days, saying nothing. That is commitment. But what happened? I believe the answer is very important to us in so manyways.

My first thought is that it was not their pain. They could see his grief was very great, but they had no idea how it felt. And so in their minds seven days should have been sufficient to see a shift in his grief and a “beginning to put it behind him.” But instead, something completely different happens. Sitting with him those seven days had not diminished his grief at all as we see when Job finally speaks:

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein…[read more]

It was after Job spoke, that his friends began to speak and to upbraid him for not handling his trial better and eventually accusing him of sinning and bringing it all upon himself. What happened? Where did that first initial care and concern go?

Job said, “To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.” Job 6:14

I believe they became weary of his trial. They wanted to speed it along. They did not want to sit any longer with him in this misery. They forsook the fear of God- the fear that they themselves could at any point be in this same position, that “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

I see this as a very human tendency in all walks of life. That is where phrases such as “misery loves company” and philosophies such as “its all your attitude” have been born- born of ones who had not the patience to allow the work of true healing of a broken heart.

When the Good Samaritan took the one who was beaten to an inn, he told them, “Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.” He knew that injured man was not going to heal overnight.

How many broken hearts are unhealed because of the impatience of others. And even,  as in the case of Job, are broken further by thoughtless advice. Why is that? The sacrificial love that Christ showed must be born by the strong and those that are able. It means that we must suffer– we must get out of our comfortable lives and suffer with the suffering. Not many are willing to do that. The Bible tells us that Christ was touched with our infirmities. He felt them. That is why he came, so he could be a compassionate intercessor. He had to feel the affliction- and it did not feel good. He was willing to suffer.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matt. 25:34-40

We all pray for a revival. But how earnestly do we want to see the world saved? Christ wanted it badly- so badly, he had not where to lay his head. So badly, he was willing to be beaten, mocked, and crucified. So badly, he commanded us “go out quickly into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in…” [Luke 14:23]

Sacrificial love. True warmth and affection. Revival. All beautiful words that ring sunshine into the soul. But do you know these things begin in the wilderness of temptation and end in a crucifixion?

Are we willing to find the thirsty, and give them a drink? To notice the hungry and share our bread? To not know somebody very well, yet take them in and care for them? Do we clothe the naked? or like Noah’s son Ham, are we just going to exploit them to others? There are a lot of sick people, heart sick, spiritually sick and physically sick,  that need someone to visit them, and many are imprisoned with chains from years of sin. Are we going to go to them?

We sing, “We need eachother brethren, for only love will carry us through…Lord give us true warmth and affection, when one fails help us rescue his soul, he’s not heavy for he is my brother, let us cry as we carry his load.”

We need to pray for more true warmth and affection, more sacrificial love, more longsuffering. I believe as we do and as we being to rise and see the harvest- the poor, maimed, blind and halt, and put our shoulder to the plow, not looking back,  a revival will come speedily and powerfully, and “The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.”

These are thoughts that God has put on my heart in the midst of my own very grievous battles. They are challenging me so I thought I would share them.

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