Mourning

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying

 

Mat 5:4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

 

Psa 69:29  But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

 

Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

 

Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Isa 61:3  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

 

Joh 16:20  Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

Joh 16:21  A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

Joh 16:22  And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

 

2Co 1:4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2Co 1:5  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

2Co 1:6  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

2Co 1:7  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

 

2Co 7:9  Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

2Co 7:10  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

 

Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Rev 7:16  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

Rev 7:17  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

 

*******

 

Mat 5:4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

 

We are taught that as Christ followers we will mourn.

How can we not mourn?

Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation.

Suffering brings forth mourning- partakers of the suffering we will also partake of the consoling.

Now we have sorrow, but we will see our Savior and then we will have joy that NO MAN can take from us.

 

So why do we tend to believe we are slipping further from Christ when we mourn? Satan would have us believe that we are to be happy- to have that happy emotion because if we don't then we are not trusting in our God for all things. Satan LOVES EMOTIONS because he's so masterfully warped them, twisted them along with our thinking so that we are led to DESPAIR, so we are led past all hope.  Satan would have our sorrow consume us so that we forget about the HOPE we have in CHRIST. We truly may suffer horrifically here and now, we may mourn here and now constantly, but in that suffering, in that mourning we do have HOPE that one day all the suffering and mourning will be taken away forever by our Savior.

 

We can mourn and still have hope.

We can suffer and still have hope.

 

We are blessed when we mourn because we SHALL be comforted.

 

We have this Blessed HOPE.

 

We must learn what our Savior is teaching us, this is a LIFE lesson.  This is a lesson we need to learn and hold fast to the rest of our lives. 

 

By the grace of God may we LEARN the lessons our SAVIOR has to teach us!

 

All through HIS LOVE!

 

 

Poor in spirit

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Jesus is teaching.

 

When someone teaches - someone is expected to learn.

Does anyone ever teach without having someone to learn? Is it even possible to be a teacher without at least one student?  It kind of negates teaching if no one is there to learn.

 

Jesus is teaching.

We are His students, we must learn from HIM.

 

His first lesson here-

 

'Blessed are the poor in spirit- for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'

 

Mat 11:25  At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

 

Poor in spirit- babes.

 

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

Poor in spirit- little children.

 

Deu 8:2  And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

 

Poor in spirit- humbled.

 

Job 42:6  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

 

Poor in spirit- repentant.

 

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

 

Poor is spirit- broken hearted, contrite in spirit.

 

Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

 

Poor in spirit- contrite and humble in spirit.

 

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

 

Poor in spirit - contrite.

 

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

Poor in spirit- humble.

 

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised

 

Poor in spirit - Preach the gospel to the poor.

 

Poor in spirit- contrite, humble, repentant, broken hearted.

 

Understanding our condition.

Understanding our place in the grand scheme of things.

Comprehending in a world where self exaltation is the norm, that self exaltation is the worst.

 

Being poor we recognize our need to be made rich by another.

Being poor we recognize our need of a Savior.

 

Those who believe they are rich in spirit in and of their own accord are not rich at all.

 

We have to realize our state and that state is one of dependency on our Savior for all things.

 

Blessed are the poor in spirit-  because they truly comprehend their need.

 

Rev 3:17  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:

Rev 3:18  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.

 

WE buy of our SAVIOR, we realize that there is no other source to buy from, no other way we can obtain what we need. We are POOR and we need to BUY of JESUS GOLD TRIED IN FIRE- FAITH IN HIM. 

 

Blessed are the POOR IN SPIRIT.

 

Please LORD help us to realize our need of YOU in all things.

 

Help us to be POOR in SPIRIT so that we may have the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

 

Help us to be contrite, to understand our nothingness without CHRIST.

 

Please LORD teach us, help us LEARN from YOU all that we need to learn and live all that you would have us live.

 

All IN YOU.

 

All in Your LOVE.

Whosoever hears...

Jesus said--

 

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

 

Whoever HEARS what JESUS is saying, and DOES what He is saying- is WISE.

Whoever HEARS what JESUS is saying, and DOES NOT DO what He is saying- is FOOLISH.

 

We HAVE to hear our Savior and then DO what He tells us to do.

 

This is Jesus speaking! This is straight from our SAVIOR!  So why do so many believe they don't have to do anything at all? Why?

 

Jesus teaches we must learn.

 

What we have to learn is what choices we have to make in our lives. 

The differences between right and wrong.

We aren't left to wonder what we should do and what we shouldn't do.

 

We are given the idealized life for a reason and that reason is to make us realize what our Savior expects, and the knowledge that it is ONLY THROUGH HIM we can have HOPE. It is HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS we are to HOPE in, all the while we are to STRIVE to be all He wants us to be, knowing HE is our RIGHTEOUSNESS and we are ONLY doing all He says to do, or trying to do all He says because we want to OBEY His commands.  WE want to OBEY HIM so we act, knowing that we are striving to do His will as He commands.  We are putting our TRUST in HIM, fully IN HIM for SALVATION, we cannot save ourselves by anything we do other than CHOOSING HIM, CHOOSING to obey HIM.

 

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

 

We've studied all this before, and you know what, we could study it from now until eternity and we will keep learning. This is our LIFE, this is our SAVIOR TEACHING US LIFE and HOW TO LIVE.

 

So we begin… again all by the GRACE OF GOD.

 

IN HIS LOVE.

 

 

Trusting in God we are Trusting in Truth and Love

Mere Christianity  C.S. Lewis Excerpt - 'Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but also God's love for man and man's love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, 'If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?' When you have found the answer, go and do it.'
You are told you OUGHT to LOVE GOD.
We OUGHT to love God, there is no doubt about it.
But do we love God?
We say we love God all the time. People love to say they love God. Yet as we've studied many times the following will happened.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
These people believe they LOVE GOD!
They are casting out devils, they are doing many wonderful works, they are prophesizing all in God's name.  Do they love God? They say they do. They might even believe they do. They feel like they do. Yet there are others who aren't sure that they FEEL this love they are supposed to feel. They are going by feelings, the sentimentality, and love is so much more than all that.
C.S. Lewis tells us to 'ACT as if you did.'  Act as if you love God even if you don't have any special feelings for Him, feelings we call love. We really can't sit around making up pretend feelings any way. We feel what we feel. I had someone once tell me, or I read somewhere, that feelings aren't right or wrong, they just are. And that is so true. They exist. Situations manufacture our feelings, our reactions to situations manufacture our feelings.  If someone does something that makes me happy, I react happy. Likewise if someone does something to anger me the feeling of anger will arise and so on.  We cannot relate all this to feelings for God though. We cannot love Him when we believe He is doing things that make us happy.  It's the same for our partners, our families, our loved ones. We DON'T just love them when they are making us happy, if that were the case we'd stop loving them all the time because being happy isn't something that is constant.  Feeling love, we really shouldn't concern ourselves with FEELING love, but KNOWING love.  And in our knowing we must LIVE as if we know we LOVE God, and that living is our 'acting as if we did' whether we feeling anything or not.
'On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.' -C.S. Lewis
God's love for us. God's amazing love.
'Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. ' -C.S. Lewis
I absolutely love this- 'Christian love… is an affair of the will.'
WE CHOOSE! We choose constantly. Nothing 'just' happens. Situations occur constantly and in those situations we choose our reactions. Every action you make is born out of a choice.
'If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.' -C.S. Lewis
Amazing!
And… TRUE!
Our feelings come and go all the time, constantly. We could be happy one second and depressed the next. Angry one moment and laughing the next. We cannot count on our feelings as a gauge towards our LOVE for God.
If and when we are given those amazing feelings they really are something to cherish, but we must remember they can be very fleeting and to NOT have those feelings does not mean we've grown further from God. Satan loves for us to use our feelings to get us to judge our relationship with God. He wants us to be discouraged and believe we have no real hope. Satan will do EVERYTHING towards that end. Satan does not want us to truly comprehend the LOVE of God, because in that comprehension we realize so little actually depends upon our FEELINGS, and much more depends upon our act of will- our choices made regardless of how we feel at any given moment. The LOVE of God is NOT this sublime feeling of ecstasy that people want to believe it is.  No, I'm not saying it can't be that kind of feeling, but to believe it HAS to be that kind of feeling is a trap.
We can KNOW, we don't have to FEEL in order to KNOW.
1Jn_5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Ye may know.
KNOW.
Not, you may feel you have eternal life, but rather you may know.
We can know. We truly can know. We do not have to trust our feelings, they are terribly unreliable and subject to too many variables. We cannot trust our feelings, we can trust GOD and KNOW, HE KNOWS. If we trust in GOD we are trusting to TRUTH, to true LOVE.
All by HIS GRACE.
ALL By HIS MERCY!
ALL IN HIM!
OUR SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!
OUR LORD!

It won't come naturally so don't waste time thinking it will.

Continuing with C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

'This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become-and so on in a vicious circle for ever.'

True?

When you treat someone badly once and there is no reprimand, no regret it gets easier to treat them badly again. When others are treating someone badly and you DO NOT want to put yourself on the spot for fear they'll treat you badly, it's easy to go along with their behavior. How many people go along with something that is wrong just because of that kind of fear? We like to believe we would be among those who would stand up for the person being abused regardless of what happens to us, but that isn't always the case. I'm not saying there are not exceptions to this, but the fact remains that 'the more cruel you are the more you will hate, the more you hate the more cruel you will become'. These are facts that we'd rather overlook if we can. We want to dispute them and cite all the contrary goings on, but in the end we know it's true.

Continuing on...

'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'

Compound interest, not there's something we really need to think about a bit.  We question how we are to become more like our Savior, more like how we know He wants us to be. He preached the sermon on the mount, He preached over and over giving us instructions in CHRISTIAN LOVE. His Apostles, His Disciples went on to be moved by the Holy Spirit and continue that instruction to us and we KNOW HOW our SAVIOR wants us to treat one another. We are NOT left in any doubt. We are not left floundering and wondering about how we should behave, there is really no question about it.

When we do NOT live as we are told we should live the consequence is a continued spiral further and further away from that mark. When we do live as we are told to live, the consequence is our growing ever closer towards the mark set before us.

The problem we face is that it's NOT easy to live as we are told to live, it does NOT come natural to us. If it did come natural to us we wouldn't have to be told to do these things, we would do them automatically. We are told to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, to LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS, to LOVE OTHERS- why are we being told to do this if it was something we do all the time? It's NOT automatic, it's NOT natural to us. We are told to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE.

Luk_13:24  Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

We do we have to strive if it's something we do without striving?

We are TOLD how to behave because we do NOT behave that way.

Do you tell a child to behave when he's already behaving?  Maybe as a way of warning you might, but you're doing it because you KNOW there is a very real possibility that the child will misbehave and you want to ward off that happening. If you know for a fact someone is always behaving, and hasn't misbehaved then the chances of your telling them to behave would be very slim, you'd have no reason. If you know someone has misbehaved in the past then you would instruct them to behave because you have good reason to believe they would misbehave.

We have misbehaved…terribly, and we are told to behave.
We are told to behave in certain ways.
We don't find it natural to behave in those ways.
We need help in order to behave.
We need to strive to behave.
We need our SAVIOR to forgive us when we misbehave and we MUST continue to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE, not the WIDE gate which is very easy to find and walk through.

Admonished, we must LISTEN.

We must strive to do good, NOT to gain salvation, but to do as our SAVIOR would have us do. He will save us, we must strive to live as He wants us to live!

C.S. Lewis--

'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'

The little decision you and I make EVERY DAY are of such INFINITE IMPORTANCE.

Do you believe that? We should believe it because it is TRUE.

How true it is that the smallest good today will have a ripple effect of good for later.

The opposite of course is true as well.

Any TRIVIAL INDULGENCE in lust or anger today IS the LOSS of something important later on.

Our spiritual enemies know our weaknesses and build upon them. They use us and our actions as building blocks getting them higher and higher in order to knock us down and the higher and higher they build upon our little evil acts the greater our fall will be later.

We MUST let GOD work IN US, only through HIS power can we live. He will give us the victories we need, every little victory that He gives us builds upon something that we can only imagine later, all to HIS GLORY!

May God bless us and keep us IN HIM. May we LIVE in HIM. May we make choices that will have us living the life that HE commands that we live. It WON'T come naturally so don't waste time hoping it will. I fear we spend way too much time wanting it all to be natural to us. CHRIST IN US is our HOPE our SALVATION.


All in HIS LOVE!

Treat EVERYONE Kindly

C.S. LEWIS Excerpt from Mere Christianity-

'Consequently, though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full of sentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The difference between a Christian and a worldly man is NOT that the worldly man has only affections or 'likings' and the Christian has only `charity'.

The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he 'likes' them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on -- including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.'


Christian Love- TREATING EVERYONE KINDLY.

Luk 6:27  But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Luk 6:28  Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Luk 6:29  And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
Luk 6:30  Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
Luk 6:31  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Luk 6:32  For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
Luk 6:33  And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
Luk 6:34  And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
Luk 6:35  But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.


We are not being told to love our friends.
We are not being told to love our family.
We are not being told to bless those who bless us.
We are not being told to do good to those who do good to us.
We are not being told to pray for those who are praying for us and treating us kindly.
We are not being told to give to those who are giving to us.
We are not being told to give to those who have lots.
We are not being told to love all those who love us.
We are not being told to only lend to those who can give back to us.

Why aren't we being told these things? Because a lot of them are what we call- 'a given'.  It's rather easy to love friends and to love - loving family members. We have no trouble at all wanting to bless those who are good to us. And giving to those who give to us, that's easy, right? Love those who love us, easy!

We are being told that Christian love is far more than what people want to be love is.

LOVE your ENEMIES.
Do good to those who HATE you.
Bless those who CURSE you.
PRAY for those who are despitefully using you.
To those who hit one side of your face, OFFER the other side.
To those who steal from you, OFFER them more!
Give to EVERYONE that asks!
Do NOT ask for others to return your things.

Did you just read what I wrote?

Read it again, please.

Do we grow up learning to respond in this way to others?

Does our society endorse this sort of behavior?

Where have we learned to Hate those who Hate us?
To do bad things to those who hate us?
To curse those who curse us?
To despise those who are using us despitefully?
To hit back when we are hit?
To be angry at someone who steals from us and demand they give our things back?
To NOT give, but rather keep your own possessions- hoarding them, they are YOURS, you bought them or were given them?
To be mad at anyone who borrows your things and does not return them?

Where have we learned that all that is proper behavior?
Where have we learned that we are justified in responding this way?

FROM THE WORLD and the PRINCE of THIS WORLD.

Satan has taught mankind well to think of self first and foremost and the world has learned so well his awful lessons.

We love believing we are JUSTIFIED when we act against others badly.  Our anger is justified, our hate is justified. We tell ourselves that we are only acting in a normal and acceptable manner, so it's fine to behave 'normally'.  Only normally means SATAN'S NORMAL, not GOD'S!

'The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he 'likes' them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on -- including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.'

C.S. LEWIS Excerpt from Mere Christianity

The CHRISTIAN tries to TREAT EVERYONE KINDLY.

EVERYONE meaning- EVERYONE, NO EXCEPTIONS!

We love our exceptions. We love to put a limit on our kindness.  We do!  When someone is evil to us, we love being able to tell ourselves it perfectly fine for us to return that same evil back a them- they started it!  Be kind to someone who was nasty to us? NEVER! They really can't expect us to be kind to them when they are not kind to us, right?

CHRISTIAN LOVE- TREATS EVERYONE KINDLY- NO EXCEPTIONS!

NO EXCEPTIONS!

When you try to make exceptions for reasons that you can justify perfectly to the world and all who will listen,  you have to realize that YOU CAN NEVER JUSTIFY THEM TO GOD! God tells us there are NO EXCEPTIONS to our treating EVERYONE KINDLY, NOT ONE!

Please LORD help us!

We've been conditioned by the world to behave as Satan would have us behave- telling us that is NORMAL behavior, acceptable behavior. YOUR TRUTH says otherwise! Please LORD bless us, TEACH us, work in  us! Let YOUR LOVE be OUR LOVE!  We would TREAT EVERYONE KINDLY, and it's only through YOUR GRACE and MERCY, YOUR POWER, YOUR AMAZING LOVE that this is at all possible!

Please LORD forgive us!

Help us to see under the skin and past all that would keep us from truly loving others

'But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.'  Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis

Doing good to another SELF.
Another self.
We truly are all cut from the same cloth. Or if you'd rather, we are all cookies cut out of the same dough. There are any number of analogies you could use and while some will be quick- very quick- to point out that we can't be from the same cloth or same dough because we are invariably very different- that is ONLY on the outside. Inside we are all the same. The STUFF that keeps us alive that is ALL the same stuff.  Strip off our outer shells and guess what? WE ARE THE SAME. Ask any medical examiner about how much alike we are on the inside. Sure there are variations of the same stuff but in minor ways. Your brain might weigh 3.5 lbs mine might weigh 3.4 lbs, but you can bet our brains look mostly the same. Maybe there is a slight discoloration difference but over all we look the same.  Put two, three, four, five brains on a table and try to tell which one of those came from what color people.  Put the same amount of hearts on the table and choose the one that came from Caucasian persuasion. You CAN'T DO IT! Take blood from two people and tell me which came from a Caucasian and which from an Latino.  YOU CAN'T DO IT!

We might be dressed up in different skin but we are all MADE BY GOD and a SELF unto itself.

The brain in your head might not think my same thoughts but the base needs will be the exact. You'll hunger and desire food, you'll thirst and desire drink, you'll be cold and desire warmth, you'll long for happiness, contentment and you'll strive for such things.  You won't want to be in pain, no one without emotional, mental defects wants to be in pain.  These are basic to all of us human beings.

C.S. Lewis says- 'Whenever we do good to another self- JUST because it is a self, made (like us) by God desiring its own happiness as we desire ours…'

Doing good to another self JUST BECAUSE IT IS A SELF.
Doing good to one another because we are part of one another.
Doing good to a fellow human being simply because they are fellow human being.

NOT doing good to others because we have some ulterior motive, some selfish desire, something to gain out of it, but doing that good because we recognize that WE would want that good done to us if we were in the same position as the other human being, this is good, this is CHRISTIAN LOVE.

'But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.'  Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis

We shall have learned to love others a little more every time we do for it as we would want done to us- or maybe if we aren't learning to LOVE them, we are at least (as he said) learning to dislike it less.

Do you suppose you could take someone you've a natural dislike for and vow to treat them good in some small way EVERYTIME you see them, and continue to dislike them?  Probably. But there again we are NOT supposed to be looking for ways to LIKE people, to have affection for them. We are supposed to be revealing CHRISTIAN LOVE.  A LOVE that genuinely cares for them because GOD cares for them.

We need to tell ourselves as we are out and about our daily lives interacting with others however briefly or lengthy that GOD LOVES THIS PERSON, THESE PEOPLE.  GOD LOVES them sooooo much He sent His Only Son to DIE for them!  God did that! He never asked us to judge a person's eternal life, never! He doesn't want us looking at others and writing them off as being lost to Him simply because they are committing atrocities we can't even comprehend. God wants us to LOVE them and leave all the eternal life judging to HIM.

So when we are experiencing first hand abuse at the hands of one God Loves, how are we to react?

Mat 5:39  ... whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Do we do this?!

How many of you just said, 'Heck no!'?

It's not natural to us. We haven't cultivated this reaction in ourselves. We haven't let God work in us in this way just yet. Satan wants us to never react this way and he will do all he can to make it so we never do. It's a striving, it's an ACT OF WILL, a deliberate choice we must make, not give in to knee jerk reactions.

God would have us love others because we are basically all the same in His eyes.  The ugliest person in the entire world is still offered salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. The most beautiful person is offered salvation as well. The nicest, the worst, the greediest, the most selfless, the shyest, the most outgoing- it doesn't matter to God, salvation is a GIFT offered to all.

 IF you are a follower of Christ then you have to believe that we are all offered salvation. If you believe we are all offered salvation then you have to realize that there isn't a single other person in existence who is different in matters of eternity. 

Under our skin the real truth exists.

Every Jew, every Protestant, every Catholic, every Moslem, every Hindu, every follower of the many, many different religions, every Pagan, every Atheist is ultimately the same under their skin.

We are the same flesh and blood.
We are the same bone and muscle.
We are the same.

My thoughts, my choices define who I am. My beliefs shape my views about life.  But laying ALL those thoughts, choices, beliefs aside and just lay me skinned on a slab of metal next to another skinned on a slab of metal and you would never know what I believe, you would never know what I looked like with flesh.  We are the same and GOD knows this!

God also knows that it is our choices, our beliefs, our views that enable us to choose to believe in HIM and HIS love, or not. We've been given this wonderful ability to make choices so we are not automatons acting under the control of another.  We have to allow everyone to make the choice to believe how they are convicted to believe. If we try and force anyone to believe the way we do, then we are taking away their ability to choose freely.

God would NEVER take away the choice we have to freely make.

God is love.

And love ONLY can come from GOD, without God there is NO real love, but rather a substitute love of a worldly kind that believes it is real when it is not.

God is love and all else, all false love is not of God but rather of the one who would put himself in God's place, setting up his own counterfeit love- very realistic so much so it will fool MANY, in fact MOST.

God is love and He would have us believe in HIM, but He will not force that belief.

He has outlined the entire conflict between good and evil in His Holy Word and people will make a choice either for Him and His love, or against Him and His love.

He would have all choose to love HIM, every single human being.

We can desire nothing less if we choose to be His.
In choosing to be God's we are choosing to desire the salvation of every single human being, letting NOTHING cloud that.

Please LORD, help us to LOVE as YOU love!

Help us to see under the skin, past all that makes it hard for us to truly love one another with Christian love, and to do as YOU command.

All through YOUR LOVE, YOUR amazing, wonderful LOVE.

In Christ Jesus Always! By His grace and mercy, in His righteousness, by YOUR WILL.