Fear’s Mortal Enemy

FEAR has but one mortal enemy…

LOVE!

 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.” ~1John 4:18

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. “ 2 Timothy 1:7

“Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

“God is love” 1 John 4:8

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Jealousy is a Waste of Energy

 

13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:  wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,

14 or wealth lost through some misfortune,
   so that when they have children
   there is nothing left for them to inherit.
15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
    and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil
    that they can carry in their hands. (Ecclesiastes 5)

It is an interesting phenomena that so many people work to help those that are “less fortunate” and yet, many times this same humanity is jealous of someone else’s position in life. On one hand we do not want anyone to suffer misfortune such as poverty, abuse, or a physical disfiguration; yet, on the other hand, we feel envious towards those who have something we wish we could have, or we treat ones with disdain and snub people for minor infractions or prejudices in our heart; or we secretly envy the physical beautiful aspects of another person.

Jealousy is a waste of energy. Nothing, not one single thing, will you take from this world, except your experience of it. LOVE is the only treasure you take away with you.

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Danger in Centering Your Devotion on Fear and/or Anger

 

One must be careful that their religious devotions does not come from a place of anger and/or fear. When that happens- wood, hay and stubble will be built into ones life. There is also a danger when one’s devotions to a certain creed or doctrine is centered wrong and out of balance. Many times it manifests itself in the way they are raising their own children. That fear and anger will be mirrored onto those precious little souls and will damage their perceptions of God and the world he has placed them in. They often times will be expected to be the “saved and sanctified” little examples of the family, not having matured nor developed enough to gain a true witness and relationship of their own with Christ. They often are beaten for small infractions and many harsh rules are laid on them that makes them feel different and unaccepted in general society. The one that holds their belief system from a center of fear and/or anger will preach the message to them from this center and therefore the children will grow to fear an angry God and will, in most cases, either subject themselves to all kinds of harsh religious forms to avoid his wrath or become discouraged and completely rebel. A belief in God and a true relationship with him and service to him should be centered on, in saturated in, LOVE! Just as Christ loved us, willing even to lay down his very life, that we might understand the true love of the Father.

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Just One Drop

Just One Drop

Just one drop from your tender eye;
Just one compassionate tear that you cry;
Look thou upon me and hear my plea,
Just one drop of your sympathy.

Just one drop, of sweat from your brow;
Just one earnest effort to lift me up now.
Reach down your hand to me from above;
Bless me with strength for my weakness, my love.

Just one drop of blood you have shed;
Just one crimson drop that you bled;
Oh may in mercy it fall upon me-
Just one precious drop to be free.

Just one drop of oil, fragrant and sweet,
Found at the beautiful Savior’s feet;
Please, for my bruised, crushed heart employ;
Send through your Spirit, the oil of JOY!

Just one drop is all I desire;
One drop of Holy Ghost fire;
One drop of Calvary’s Love;
Just one drop is more than enough!

Written by Liz Ann

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Wondering . . .

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will grow cold”

Matthew 24:12

A person has to wonder
Does anyone really love at all?
Words so shallow and meaningless;
Like thin glass, shatter when they fall.

A person has to ponder,
Does anyone truly care?
If the grave were dug and you buried,
Would your memory perish there?

A person has to meditate,
of all that they’ve come to meet;
How many linger to know you,
And how many in fear retreat.

In fear that they may have to notice
That too long face to face, may reveal;
That your eyes carry pain and hunger,
And your heart has deep wounds unhealed.

So they offer a handful of sentiments;
And walk away with judgments unfair;
Pleased with their sense of discernment,
And shake off any dust of real care.

They haste from the house of mourning,
to the house full of laughter and mirth;
Too hard to sit with sorrow,
They bury their treasure in the earth.

And the Lord said, “when I’m hungry, feed me;
When I’m thirsty, cool water I need;
If I am wounded and bleeding;
Stay beside me and take care of me.

How many take time to notice?
To really love and to care?
To empathize with ones heartache;
Take time to linger there?

And a person has to wonder,
Of all who call you their friend;
Why does one feel so lonely?
Why has the hunger no end?

Written by Elizabeth Ann Van Cleve

“To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; “ Job 6:14

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2

” Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40

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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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The Beautiful Compassion of God

“A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed the swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.” Luke 15: 11-23

What a beautiful portrayal of the mercy and compassion of Almighty God! This young soul had taken everything good that God had given him and had wasted it in low-living.  So low, his brother said he spent it on harlots. He had shamed his father’s name and had nothing good to show for all his father had given to him.

But when he came to himself, when he got so low and could not be satisfied any longer in the hog pit of sin, he remembered his father’s house- a house of plenty; a house of love; a house of laughter. And he made a decision to leave the hog pit and go plead with his father to take him back, if only as a servant.

And how sweet- his father was watching and waiting for him,  for he saw him afar off coming home. His father didn’t say, “Oh no, here he comes back. I hope he learned his lesson. I hope he doesn’t expect me to take care of him now that he wasted everything I gave him.” No! His father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran to him- overjoyed that he was coming home!

And his son began to speak the words he had rehearsed, but he never finished. His father, overjoyed, called out, “Bring the BEST robe! Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet! And let us rejoice and celebrate! Prepare the fatted calf- make a feast! Hallelujah! My son that was dead is ALIVE!!!”

So it is with the sinner, when one has wasted his life in sinful living. If you will just come to yourself, and realize the goodness and mercy of God, and LEAVE the hog pit of sin, and go- find a place, and get alone with God and tell him you are sorry for your sinful life- even as you are rehearsing in your mind what you will say, even as you are seeking an altar for prayer- GOD WILL COME RUNNING! He will FLOOD your soul with LOVE and he will REJOICE over you. He will call out, “Bring forth the BEST robe- a robe of righteousness, white and clean and put it on him!” And as you acknowledge your sin and begin to believe in the blood of Jesus Christ to wash it all away, the angels and all of heaven will be REJOICING! The Father will shout, “Put a ring on his hand- a sign that he is my son or she is my daughter- and put shoes on his feet! And lets CELEBRATE!”

You will leave that altar of prayer with more joy than you ever thought possible. You will be FORGIVEN and CLEAN, and have a NEW START on life. And most important, you will be a CHILD OF GOD– the apple of His eye!

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